Best Behaviour: Public Relationships

Abstract

The genteel code of etiquette was dedicated to the control of the self in society, a subset of manners for use in particular circumstances among particular people. A key dimension of the cultural capital of gentility was therefore knowledge of etiquette and the confidence to use it easily. Etiquette was a dynamic, evolving, yet prescriptive, discourse, manipulated by the fluent to identify their like and exclude outsiders. Its forms were acknowledged, but never conclusively explained, notwithstanding the claims of the extensive etiquette literature. In this way, knowledge of correct etiquette defined the shifting borders of gentility. The critic T. C. Morgan wrote in 1838: ‘Etiquette … in its modern acceptation, refers to some line of conduct which has been ticketed with the approbation of the great leaders of society’¹ The ticket analogy draws on the word’s French etymology, but its implication of a pass/fail approval process suggests more certainty than existed in practice, as does the common descriptor of etiquette as a code. Certainty was what those outside the magic circle of middle-class gentility craved. For those within, uncertainty blurred access to genteel exclusivity and protected their privileged knowledge; they could ascribe their own capacity to inherent good breeding.