ABSTRACT
Eighteenth century British society, or at least the middle and upper sections of it, was obsessed by the idea of politeness. There were references in countless publications to ‘polite behaviour’, ‘polite language’, ‘polite education’, ‘polite literature’, even to ‘polite philosophy’. The historian Paul Langford, in a book with the intriguing title A Polite and Commercial People: England 1727-1783, says of politeness that it was in a sense ‘a logical consequence of commerce’ (Langford 1989: 4). In theory, politeness was a question of morals, but this didn’t always correspond to its practical significance in acquiring ‘material acquisitions and urbane manners’ (ibid.: 5). What it conveyed to those who were seeking to acquire it were the trappings of ‘upper-class gentility, enlightenment, and sociability’ (ibid.: 4). Contemporary commentators on eighteenth century society were ‘as much intrigued by the impact of affluence on manners, as by its material consequences. In a word, they charted the progress of politeness’ (ibid.: 71).
