Etiquette and Gallantry

Gallantry first appeared in France in the mid-17th century as a code of conduct between the sexes in high society and an art form. “Booker-opens row over whether French gallantry is a ‘poisonous myth’ or national treasure in France” opined a recent article in The Telegraph 

 Credit: Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera 1717, Jean-Antoine Watteau, in The Telegraph 2018

Real Test of True Gallantry

One may discipline himself to gallantry. The young exquisite, who sees to it that his fair  at a ball does not expose herself to cold during the intervals that lapse between the dances, performs a graceful act of gallantry to the standard of which he might never have been educated, had it not been for his experience in good society. As a rule, it is supposed of course, that he delights in the performance of such a duty, and yet, who can say whether or not the idea of looking out for another’s health would ever have suggested itself to him, if it had not been for the discipline of etiquette?

As it is, he has performed all of the duties in sight, and yet it were wiser not to confer the title of nobility upon him until the morrow, when it may be ascertained whether he has given out kindness in the same proportion to his mother, or even to the female domestic who is intrusted with the care of his apartment. True gallantry consists quite as largely in the doing of kindnesses to inferiors as to equals or superiors, but its strongest test lies undoubtedly in the manners usually affected in the home.—Jennie L. Leibold in Jenness-Miller Magazine, 1891

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia