Early Modern Notes

I’ve spent a goodly portion of my research life working on insults, one way or another. My MA dissertation was on sexual defamation and slander. A significant part of my PhD thesis looked at men’s violent confrontations, and how verbal insults and affronts could spark physical violence. In both those projects, I found a lot of material to play with. But today I came across two of the most striking insults I’ve seen.

The date is August 1682. Richard Downes calls Richard Davenport a “courtly rogue", and a “circumventing knave” (there was also “barking coward", but that was pretty, well, ordinary after the other two…). They fought; Downes was badly hurt and died a couple of weeks later (possibly of some kind of infection).

Now, “rogue” and “knave” were pretty commonplace insults for men (though both could spark violent responses). But “courtly” and “circumventing"? I have never seen either of those as insults before. I could make reasonable guesses at what both meant in this context, and why they had the effect they did, but decided to go to the OED online (using my university Athens password; why pay for a subscription if you don’t need to?) for a closer look.

Seventeenth-century British historians will be aware of the proto-party-political groupings of “Court” and “Country". “Courtly", as I expected, is a word with both positive and negative meanings. Elegant, refined, polished, having good “breeding", etc ("befitting a court"); or simply “of or pertaining to the Court". On the other hand, “characterized by the fair words or flattery of courtiers” ("To Promise, is most Courtly and fashionable": Shakespeare); “disposed to favour or be subservient to the Court". The pejorative associations, then, are of fawning obsequiousness. But there’s also more that doesn’t seem to be in the OED, but could hardly be avoided in the Restoration period, surely, not least luxury and excess, effeminacy and softness. I wish I had a copy of John Spurr’s book on the 1670s with me in London. That has plenty to say on the subject, as I recall, not least in its subtitle: “This masquerading age” (the quote is from William Wycherley’s The gentleman dancing master [1672]).

“Circumventing", I was pretty sure, would be related to that idea of falsity, dishonesty, lack of directness and openness. There’s a bit more too, perhaps: explicit trickery and deceit to gain advantage. “Circumvent” includes meanings such as “to encompass with evils, with malice, or enmity; to try to entrap in conduct or speech"; “to get the better of by craft or fraud; to overreach, outwit, cheat, ‘get round’, ‘take in’.” And so this early seventeenth-century usage: “The circumuenting hollow-hearted friend” (Samuel Rowlands). So there you have it: a nice potent mix to strike at a man’s honour.

(If you want more background, read this at EMR.)