To an Unidentified Correspondent in Edinburgh, late January 1763

Boswell, James; Hankins, David; Caudle, James J.

doi:10.1093/oseo/instance.00184017

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“…The writer remembered the time when 'no body dined or supped at our houses […] except the houses of men of high rank, or in public offices, who were therefore obliged, in point of decorum, and for the purposes of good policy, to give entertainments to large and general companies'. 28 The absence of a court was the principal reason for the decay of strict social distinctions which had so vital importance for developed civilization. Boswell quoted an anonymous French writer: "'In a monarchical state, are two orders, essentially separate and distinct, the nobles and the plebeians: the functions of the former are to defend it; those of the latter to feed and enrich it, without ever aspiring to useless honours, which are not made for them."'…”

Section: Luxury and Magnificencementioning

confidence: 99%

‘I felt a noble shock’: James Boswell in German Princely Courts

Kekäläinen

2013

1700

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The article deals with James Boswell’s (1740–1795) attitudes towards the courtly milieu in the context of eighteenth-century British court discourse. The central argument is that, strongly contrary to the anti-court ethos of his intellectual and social milieu, Boswell had an affirmative and enthusiastic attitude towards the court. Moreover, the fact that he was neither an Addisonian moralist ‘spectator’ nor a cynical court aristocrat like Lord Chesterfield, but in many senses a highly affective ‘man of feeling’ of the age, did not diminish the uniqueness of his positive view of court culture. On the one hand, Boswell’s appreciation of the court was connected with his firm monarchism and belief in hereditary rank; on the other hand, he was aesthetically fascinated by the splendour and magnificence of the courtly milieu. His appraisal of the court did not include the common-sense moralism of the moral weeklies or the cynical observations of the aristocratic court discourse; rather his attitude was immediate, emotional, and enthusiastic in the spirit of the cult of sensibility.

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Section: Luxury and Magnificencementioning

confidence: 99%

‘I felt a noble shock’: James Boswell in German Princely Courts

Kekäläinen

2013

1700

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

To an Unidentified Correspondent in Edinburgh, late January 1763

Cited by 1 publication

References 0 publications

‘I felt a noble shock’: James Boswell in German Princely Courts

‘I felt a noble shock’: James Boswell in German Princely Courts

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