In the gap between what we feel ourselves to be and what we imagine we might in different circumstances become, lies civility. Keith Thomas’s marvellous new book addresses the subject of ideal behaviour. It shows the way that early modern England formed notions of civilisation and proper conduct, in contrast to what was termed ‘the Other’. These alternative people were labelled ‘barbarians’ or ‘savages’ when found abroad or on the Celtic fringe. If the unacceptable was found within England, rural or impoverished, they would be called ‘clowns’ or ‘clodhoppers’.
The fact that these barbarians or clodhoppers might have their own notions of proper behaviour, according to which the English ruling classes might in turn be considered utter brutes, only slowly dawned. In 1615 an English traveller in Turkey noticed with astonishment that Turks withdrew to urinate, rather than piss against the nearest wall, and always washed their hands afterwards. Civilisation can be a matter of assertion.
Although this is, clearly, a single subject, it has a number of different aspects. All relate to how the English thought of themselves, and the behaviour that they somehow both embodied and ought to aspire to. Manners come into it, and the rules of engagement in war. There are notions of class engagement, both upwards and downwards. In a God-fearing age, everybody could look upwards, and George III advised the Duke of Clarence, later William IV, to ‘obey your superiors, be polite to your equals, and show good nature to your inferiors’. There are theories of racial hierarchy and of the different standing of different cultures, forming a theoretical justification of the existence of the British Empire. There are, too, the clear implications that the British examined their practice and behaviour and decided that, by extraordinary coincidence, these were exactly the things which were indispensable to a culture hoping to attain supremacy, such as through trade.
One of the things that makes Thomas’s period of 1500–1800 a rich one for investigation is that in its course a good number of issues stopped being the target of legislation and official control and became a matter of personal responsibility.
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