Running head: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN Ladies and Gentlemen Anonymous HUM 111 December 17th, 2014 1 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN 2 Ladies and Gentlemen The “Book of the Courtier” was published in 1528. However, it was started in 1507 and mostly from 1513 to 1516 (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2010). In the “Book of the Courtier” Baldassare Castiglione not only included a perfect courtier, but he also describes his female counterpart, a Court Lady. The proper behavior of ladies of the court stems from Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier since it details the gentleman’s expectations of his lady. The supreme goal is to be an entirely well-rounded person, l’uomo universal (Sayre, 2012, p.481). I have created a survey that asked different people if they thought some of these traits were still relevant today. Comparing his ideas to the ideas of culture today is what will be discussed in this paper. Main Characteristics The foremost characteristics and qualities that a lady must have, are to be well-born and to have good grace in everything she does (Wilson, 1997). Ultimately it was important to be the perfect court lady. Some other important qualities mentioned are being a consummate hostess, charming, witty, graceful, physically attractive, and utterly feminine. Survey Given that I am a woman, I have chosen to find out what society today thinks is still relevant regarding being a lady. I compiled a survey that ask the participants several questions regarding “Being a Lady”. Then the participants are asked to circle “R” for relevant or “O” for obsolete (see Appendix A for a copy of the survey that I made and that I had each participant complete. The Results I polled 20 people, 10 women, and 10 men, ranging from teenage through the ’60s. The traits Castiglione listed which most respondents (90%) agreed with is that a woman should be witty. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN 3 In parenthesis on the survey, I included synonyms of the word witty such as amusing, captivating, charismatic, and pleasant. 100% of men polled believed a lady should be witty but only 80% of women thought so. Surprisingly 100% of people over 30 thought this to be true as well. Next, the more relevant characteristics people agreed on were charming (enticing, captivating, charismatic, and pleasant) at 85%. After that, at 80%, was not being inferior to her male counterparts. Then there is a tie at 75% which people thought that a lady should be graceful (elegant, poised, polished, refined) and utterly feminine (womanly, ladylike, girlish). At 70% was with these attributes, a woman can bring out the best in a man. Finally, only 60% thought that being well educated was relevant. The trait least relevant or most obsolete that respondents (45%) answered was a tie between being an excellent hostess and being physically attractive. 60% of women thought being an excellent hostess was obsolete. However, only 30% of men thought this to be the case. Interestingly, the majority of people 40 and up said that being a good hostess was relevant. It then took a steep jump down to 50% of people surveyed who were in their 30s. Now about half of the women thought that being physically attractive was obsolete and only 40% of the men thought so. Age did not seem to play a factor in this case. Finally, I presented the participants with 3 questions. First, do these traits seem oldfashioned or outdated? 65% of people said no, of which whom 80% of them were men. The second question was, do you consider the overall concept of “being a lady” to be outdated? 60% of people said yes. However, only 10% of men thought so. Lastly, I asked if they answered no to the previous question, to list some characteristics of a lady that they may have felt had been left out. Four times honesty is mentioned. Four times loving and kind are mentioned. Twice good vocabulary and language skills were stated. Twice being LADIES AND GENTLEMEN 4 respectful is referred to. Other listed traits were, courteous, sincere, dignified, patient, forgiving, loyal, reliable, responsible, sophisticated, well mannered, confident, good hygiene, unselfishness, being considerate and tolerant of others. Agree or Disagree I agree with the characteristics expressed by Castiglione in The Courtier. I’m a woman in my thirties and sadly I’ve seen a lot of these traits becoming a lost art. I was very curious to see what others thought too, and it came as no surprise to me that the younger people were the less relevant these traits became. Now I’m not sure if that’s because as we get older, we come to appreciate these qualities more or that “being a lady” is indeed a lost art. Conclusion To conclude, in the “Book of the Courtier” Baldassare Castiglione not only included a perfect courtier, but he also describes his female counterpart, a Court Lady. I created a survey that asked different people if they thought some of these traits were still relevant today. In the end, it did seem as if most people agree that these traits still hold today. I agreed that these traits are still relevant and was not surprised by the fact that the younger people were the less relevant these traits became. Comparing his ideas to the ideas of culture today is what was discussed in this paper. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN 5 References Encyclopedia of World Biography. (2010). Baldassare Castiglione Facts. Retrieved from http://biography.yourdictionary.com/baldassare-castiglione Sayre, H. M. (2012). Florence and the Early Renaissance. In The humanities: culture, continuity & change (2nd ed., p. 481). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Wilson, W. E. (1997). The Book of the Courtier. Retrieved from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~wew/fencing/papers/courtier-desc.html LADIES AND GENTLEMEN 6 Appendix A The Idea of “Being a Lady” Questionnaire
