A degree of coarseness and indelicacy is connected with rough manners. The manners of the Greeks, as copied by Plautus and Terence, from Menander and other Greek writers, were extremely coarfe; fuch as may be expected in a people living among their flaves, without any fociety with virtuous women. The behaviour of Demofthenes and Efchines to each other, in their public harangues, is woefully coarfe. But Athens was a democracy; and a democracy, above all other governments is rough and licentious. In the Athenian comedy, neither gods nor men are fpared. The most refpectable perfons of the republic are ridiculed by name, in the comedies of Ariftophanes, which wallow in loofenefs and detraction. In the third act of Andromache, a tragedy of Euripides, Peleus and Menelaus, Kings of Theffaly and Sparta, fall into downright ribaldry; Menelaus fwearing that he would not give up his victim, and Peleus threatening to knock him down with his staff. The manners of Jafon, in the tragedy of Medea by Euripides, are woefully indelicate. With unparalleled ingratitude to his wife Medea, he, in her presence, makes love to the King of Corinth's daughter, and obtains her in marriage. Inftead of fhunning a perfon he had fo deeply injured, he endeavours to excufe himself to her in a very fneaking manner, "that he was an exile like her"felf, without fupport; and that his marriage would acquire powerful friends to them and to their chil "dren." Could he imagine, that fuch frigid reafons would touch a woman of any spirit? But the most striking picture of indelicate manners is exhibited in the tragedy of Alceftes. Admetus prevails upon Alceftes, his loving and beloved wife, to die in his ftead. What a barbarian muft the man be, who grafps at life upon fuch a condition? How ridiculous is the bombaft flourish of Admetus, that, if he were Orpheus, he would pierce to hell, brave the three headed Cerberus, and reftore his wife to earth again! And how indecently does he fcold his father, for refusing to die for him! What pretext could the monfter have to complain of his father, when he himfelf was fo difgracefully fond of life, as ever to folicit his beloved wife to die in his ftead! What ftronger inftance, after all, would one require of indelicacy in the manners of the Greeks, than that they held all the world, except themselves, to be barbarians? In that particular, however, they are not altogether fingular. Though the Tartars, as mentioned above, were foulfeeders, and hoggishly nafty, yet they were extremely proud, defpifing, like the Greeks, every other nation. The people of Congo think the world to be the work of angels; except their own country, which they hold to be the handy work of the fupreme architect. The Greenlanders have a high conceit of themselves; and, in private, make a mock of the Europeans, or Kablunets, as they call them. Defpifing arts and fciences, they value themselves on their skill in catching feals, conceiving it to be the only useful art. They hold themselves to be the only civilized and well bred people; and when they fee a modeft ftranger, they fay," he begins to be a "man;" that is, to be like one of themfelves. So coarfe and indelicate were Roman manners, that whipping was a punishment inflicted on the officers of the army, not even excepting centurions (6). Doth it not fhow extreme groffness of manners, to exprefs in plain words, the parts that modefty bids us conceal? and yet this is common in Greek and Roman writers. In the Cyclops of Euripides, there is reprefented a scene of the vice against nature, grofsly obfcene, without the leaft difguife. How woefully indelicate mut the man have been, who could fit down gravely to compofe fuch a piece! and how diffolute muft the fpectators have been, who could behold such a scene without hifling! Next to the indecency of expofing one's nudities in good company, is the talking of them without referve. Horace is extremely obfcene, and Martial no lefs. But I cenfure neither of them, and, as little, the Queen of Navarre for her Tales; for they wrote according to the manners of the times. It is the manners I cenfure, not the writers. A woman taken in adultery was proftituted in the pub (b) Julius Capitolinus, in the Life of Albinus. lic ftreet to all comers, a bell ringing the whole time. This abominable practice was abolifhed by the Emperor Theodofius (c). The manners of Europe, before the revival of letters, were no lefs coarfe than cruel. In the Cartularies of Charlemagne, judges are forbid to hold courts but in the morning, with an empty ftomach. It would appear, that men in thofe days were not ashamed to be feen drunk, even in a court of juice. It was cuftomary, both in France and Italy, to collect for fport all the ftrumpets in the neighbourhood, and to make them run races. Several feudal tenures give evidence of manners both low and coarfe. Struvius mentions a tenure, binding the vaffal, on the birth-day of his lord, to dance and fart before him. The cod-piece, which, a few centuries ago, made part of a man's drefs, and which fwelled, by degrees, to a monstrous size, teflifies fhamefully coarse manners; and yet it was a modeft ornament, compared with one ufed in France, during the reign of Lewis XI. which was the figure of a man's privy parts worn upon the coat or breeches. In thè fame period, the Judgment of Paris was a favourite theatrical entertainment: three women, ftark naked, reprefented the three goddeffes, Juno, Ve. nus, and Minerva. Nicknames, fo common, not long ago, are an inftance of the fame coarseness of manners; for to fix a nickname on a man, is to use him with contemptuous familiarity. In the thirteenth century, many clergymen refefed to adminifter the facrament of the Lord's fupper, unless they were paid for it Swearing, as an expletive of fpeech, is a violent fymp. tom of rough and coarfe manners. Such fwearing prevails among all barbarous nations. Even women in Plau tus fwear fluently. Swearing prevailed in Spain and in France, till it was banifhed by polite manners. Our Queen Elizabeth was a bold fwearer; and the English (c) Socrates, Hift. Eccl. lib. 5. cap. 18. Corpus Chrifti tenentes in manibus, (fays the canon), ac fi dicerent, Quid mihi vultis dare, et ego eum vobis tradim?---[ I n English thus: Holding the body of Chrift in their hands, as if they faid, What will you give me for this?"] populace, who are rough beyond their neighbours, are noted by ftrangers for that vice. Though fwearing, in order to enforce an expreffion, is not in itself immoral, it is, however, hurtful in its confequences, rendering facred names too familiar. God's-beard, the common oath of William Rufus, fuggefts an image of our Maker as an old man with a long beard. In vain have acts of parliament been made against swearing: it is eafy to evade the penalty, by coining new oaths; and as that vice proceeds from an overflow of fpirits, people in that condition brave penalties. Polished manners are the only effectual cure for that malady. When a people begin to emerge out of barbarity, loud mirth and rough jokes come in place of rancour and refentment. About a century ago, it was ufual for the fervants and retainers of the court of feffion in Scotland, to break out into riotous mirth and uproar the last day of every term, throwing bags, duft, fand, or ftones, all around. We have undoubted evidence of that disorderly practice from an act of the court, prohibiting it under a fevere penalty, as difhonourable to the court, and unbe coming the civility requifite in fuch a place (d). And this leads to the lownefs of ancient manners; plainly diftinguishable from fimplicity of manners: the latter is agreeable, not the former. Among the ancient Egyptians, to cram a man was an act of high refpect. Jo feph, the King's firft minifter, in order to honour Benjamin above his brethren, gave him a five-fold mefs (e). The Greeks, in their feafts, diftinguished their heroes by a double portion (f). Ulyffes cut a fat piece out of the chine of a wild boar for Demodocus the bard (g). The fame refpectful politenefs is practifed at prefent among the American favages; fo much are all men alike in fimilar circumftances. Telemachus (6) complains bitterly of Penelope's fuitors, that they were gluttons, and con (d) Act of Sederunt, 21ft February, 1663. (f) Odyffey, b. 8. v. 513. b. 15. V. 156a (b) Odyffey, b.z. Book I. fumed his beef and mutton. The whole fourteenth book of the Odyffey, containing the reception of Ulyffes by Eumæus the fwine-herd, is miferably low. Manners muft be both grofs and low where common beggars are admitted to the feasts of princes, and receive fcraps from their hands (i). In Rome every guest brought his own napkin to a feaft. A flave carried it home, filled with what was. left from the entertainment. Sophocles, in his tragedy of Iphigenia in Aulis, reprefents Clytemnestra stepping down from her car, and exhorting her fervants to look after her baggage, with the anxiety and minutenefs of lady's waiting woman. Homer paints, in lively colours, the riches of the Phœacians, their skill in navigation, the magnificence of the king's court, of his palace, and of the public buildings. But, with the fame breath, he defcribes Nauficaa, the king's daughter, travelling to the river on a waggon of greafy cloaths, to be washed there by her and her maids. Poffibly it will be urged, that fuch circumftances, however low in our opinion, might, appear otherwife to the Greeks. If they had appeared low to the Greeks, they would not have been introduced by their greatest poet. But what does this prove, other than that the Greeks were low in their manners? Their manners did not correfpond to the delicacy of their taste in the fine arts. Nor can it be expected that they should correfpond, when the Greeks were ftrangers to that po lite fociety with women, which refines, behaviour, and elevates manners. The firft kings in Greece, as Thucy: dides obferves, were elective, having no power but to command their armies in time of war; which resembles. the government that obtains at prefent in the Ifthmus. of Darien. They had no written laws, being governed by custom merely. To live by plunder was held honourable; for it was their opinion, that the rules of juftice are not intended for reftraining the powerful. All ftrangers were accounted enemies, as among the Romans; and inns were unknown, becaufe people lived at home, having very little intercourfe even with thofe of their (i) See 17th and 18th books of the Odyffey. |