Re: boring court? (was re: escorting ladies) (fwd)

[clevin@rci.ripco.com (Craig Levin)]

Poster: clevin@rci.ripco.com (Craig Levin)

Ciaran:

> Ya know, I was going to ignore this whole thread but it just gets at my 
> very being so I can hold back no longer...
> 
> 	Since when did common courtesy become something that was disposable?

Courtesy is like time. As St. Augustine put it: "When I am
unasked, time and its nature are clear to me; but once I am
asked-then I am completely confused." There are some more or less
basic elements of courtesy which, at least for people of the
20th century West, seem constant, but other than that, forget it.
Tastes and customs vary.

> 	It just completely tweaks me to hear things I've ALWAYS thought of as a 
> given being debated. Yeah, people are different and people like 
> different things, but I never in my entire existance thought escorting a 
> lady into court would be up for debate!! I find it disheartining to hear 
> anyone talk about not benig able to escort a lady or not bowing to 
> thrones. These are ideas that have been instilled in most people that I 
> know since day 1 in the SCA. Such things I never thought were 
> debateable... I'm finding common courtesy is not so common.

Not that I wish to sound like a total iconoclast, but some
"givens" need to be debated. I come from the Midrealm, where the
apparently Eastern custom of bowing at thrones has slowly been
filtering in, and women have, AFAIK, always entered court
unescorted-and I think I'd take it quite amiss if you would call
my former countrymen unchivalrous or lacking in courtesy. 

I'm beginning to get tired of the question of escorted vs.
unescorted, as it is presently discussed. I'm off to the stacks
to get some primary sources on how people ran courts in period.
As for bowing to thrones-need I point you to the 2nd
Commandment? My guess is that our ancestors wouldn't have bowed
at an object that _wasn't_ an icon, reliquary, or pyx holding the
Host.

Petrus, Curator Librii in Scola Basilicae de Conceptione
Immaculativa
-- 
http://pages.ripco.com:8080/~clevin/index.html 
clevin@ripco.com
Craig Levin
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