Civility throughout the years
Posted by Lou on May 23, 1998 at 15:16:31:
Yesterday I went to the local library and found two small books on period etiquette that may be of interest to those who read this board and also those who write fiction here. They are compilations of rules taught to young people in the 18th and 19th centuries. I learned some new things from them and some of them made me laugh hysterically, but for short reads of about an hour each, it was well worth it!
The first is George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior In Company and Conversation
This was taken from his schoolboy transcripts, which were rules taught in schools in America and England in the 18th and 19th centuries.
excerpt: "Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the disparagement of any"
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The second is Eric Sloane's DON'T, a little book of American Gentility
Also a compilation of rules and things not to do, translations from English and American etiquette of the 18th and 19th centuries.
excerpt: "Don't talk about maladies, or about your afflictions or other troubles. A complaining person is at once a pronounced bore."
Obviously Mrs. Bennet never learned these rules! ;-)
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