In any case, such of the English books as were not taken immediately from Latin, came from French sources. To be sure, there is a Saxon poem, based it would seem on Cato, though by no means a translation, called _A Father’s Instructions to his Son_; but this, although it is greatly exercised about the child’s soul, takes no thought for his finger-nails or his nose.
It is not, therefore, surprising to find that nearly all English words denoting manners are of French origin—_courtesy_, _villainy_, _nurture_, _dignity_, _etiquette_, _debonaire_, _gracious_, _polite_, _gentilesse_, &c., while to balance them I can, at this moment, recall only three of Saxon origin—_thew_ (which belongs rather to the list of moral words in which Old English abounds), _churlish_ and _wanton_ (without breeding), both of which, significantly enough, are negative of good manners.
The reason for the predominance of the French terms is simply that “French use these gentlemen,” as one old writer puts it; that is, from the Conquest until the latter part of the fourteenth century the language of the invaders prevailed almost entirely among the upper classes, who, accordingly, learned their politeness out of French or Latin books; and it was only with the growth of citizenship and English together, that these matters came to be discussed in this latter tongue for the profit of middle-class children, as well as of the “bele babees” at Court.
We must suppose, from numerous hints and descriptions, that an elaborate system of manners and customs prevailed long before it was codified. The Bayeux tapestry (eleventh century) shows a feast, with a server kneeling to serve, his napkin about his neck, as John Russell prescribes some four hundred years later.
The romances again, alike in French and in English, describe elaborate ceremonies, and allude constantly to definite laws of courtesy. Now and again we find a passage that sets forth the ideal gentleman. Young Horn, for example, was taught “skill of wood and river” (hunting and hawking), carving, cup-bearing, and harping “with his nails sharp.” Child Florent showed his high birth by his love of horse, hawk, and armour, and by his contempt of gold; but he was not thought ill-mannered to laugh when his foster-father and mother fell down in their attempt to draw a rusty sword from its scabbard! Chaucer’s _Squire_ might well have been brought up on a treatise similar to those included in this volume: