Occasional Politeness and Gentlemen's Laughter in 18 Th C England

This article considers the intersection between polite manners and company in eighteenth-century England. Through the laughter of gentlemen, it makes a case for a concept of occasional politeness, which is intended to emphasize that polite comportment was only necessary on certain occasions. In particular, it was the level of familiarity shared by a company that determined what was considered appropriate. There was unease with laughter in polite sociability, yet contemporaries understood that polite prudence could be waived when men met together in friendly homosocial encounters. In these circumstances, there existed a tacit acceptance of looser manners that might be called ‘intimate bawdiness’, which had its origins in a renaissance humanist train of thought that valorized wit as the centrepiece of male sociability. This argument tempers the importance of politeness by stressing the social contexts for which it was – and was not – a guiding principle. Ultimately, it suggests that the category of company might be one way of rethinking eighteenth-century sociability in a more pluralistic fashion, which allows for contradictory practices to co-exist. As such, it moves towards breaking down the binary oppositions of polite and impolite, elite and popular, and theory and practice that have been imposed on the period

Aesthetics · Argument (complex analysis · Art · Binary opposition · Elite · Epistemology · Humanism · Laughter · Linguistics · Literature · Politeness · Political science · Prudence · Sociology · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

• ‘Plainly of Considerable Moment in Human Society’

  Open Access•Kate Davison•Royal Institute of Philosophy…•2020

  Incluir item

• Tropical Hospitality, British Masculinity, and Drink in Late Eighteenth-Century Jamaica

  Open Access•Trevor Burnard•The Historical Journal•2021

  Incluir item

• A Polite and Enlightened London

  Open Access•Rosalind Carr•The Historical Journal•2016

  Incluir item

• Smoking Clubs in Graphic Satire and the Anglicizing of Tobacco in Eighteenth-Century Britain

  Open Access•Cynthia E Roman•The Historical Journal•2021

  Incluir item

• The Middling sort of people

  C W Brooks, Jonathan Barry•The Middling sort of people•1994

  Incluir item

• Family fortunes

  Catherine Hall, Leonore Davidoff•Family fortunes•1987

  Incluir item

• Satire

  Dustin Griffin•Satire•1995

  Incluir item

• The Correspondence of Alexander Pope, Vol. 5: Index

  Alexander Pope, George Wiley Sherburn et al.•Correspondence of Alexander Pope…•1956

  Incluir item

• Shaftesbury and the Culture of Politeness

  Open Access•Lawrence E Klein•Shaftesbury and the Culture of…•1994

  Incluir item

• From Courtesy to Civility

  Anna Bryson•From courtesy to civility•1998

  Incluir item

• Worrying about Emotions in History

  Barbara H Rosenwein•The American Historical Review•2002

  Incluir item

• The Varieties of British Political Thought, 1500–1800

  Open Access•J G A Pocock, Gordon J Schochet et al.•Varieties of British Political…•1994

  Incluir item

• English Masculinities, 1660-1800

  Tim Hitchcock, Michelle Cohen et al.•English Masculinities, 1660-1800•2014

  Incluir item

• The Making of the English Middle Class

  Sheldon Watts, Sheldon J Watts•Sixteenth Century Journal•1991

  Incluir item

• Golden age to separate spheres? A review of the categories and chronology of English women's history

  Open Access•Amanda Vickery•The Historical Journal•1993

  Incluir item

• Are You Getting Enough Culture? Moving from Social to Cultural History in Eighteenth‐Century Britain

  Open Access•Paul Monod•History Compass•2007

  Incluir item

• Is a history of popular culture possible

  Bob Scribner•History of European Ideas•1989

  Incluir item

• French Crossings

  Open Access•Colin Jones•Transactions of the Royal…•2011

  Incluir item

• The History of Masculinity, circa 1650–1800

  Open Access•K L Harvey•Journal of British Studies•2005

  Incluir item

• What Have Historians Done with Masculinity? Reflections on Five Centuries of British History, circa 1500–1950

  Open Access•K L Harvey, Amy Shepard et al.•Journal of British Studies•2005

  Incluir item

• The Augustan Defence of Satire

  Howard Weinbrot, P K Elkin•Eighteenth-Century Studies•1975

  Incluir item

• The English Wits

  John A Geck•Sixteenth Century Journal•2008

  Incluir item

• Popular Culture in England, c. 1500–1850

  Open Access•Tim Harris•Popular Culture in England, c.…•1995

  Incluir item

• Politeness and the Interpretation of the British Eighteenth Century

  Open Access•Lawrence E Klein•The Historical Journal•2002

  Incluir item

• Liberty, Manners, and Politeness in Early Eighteenth-Century England

  Open Access•Lawrence E Klein•The Historical Journal•1989

  Incluir item

• Beyond Discourse Theory

  Lyndal Roper•Women s History Review•2010

  Incluir item

• Virtues, Rights, and Manners

  Open Access•J G A Pocock•Political Theory•1981

  Incluir item

• Intoxicants and Society in Early Modern England

  Open Access•Phil Withington•The Historical Journal•2011

  Incluir item

• Company and sociability in early modern England

  Phil Withington•Social History•2007

  Incluir item

• Ritual Encounters

  K L Harvey, K Harvey•Past & Present•2012

  Incluir item