Oddly enough, in this fascinating but disquieting book about the history of English civility, the words "barbarian" and
"barbarous" crop up just as many times as the words 'civil' and 'civilised'.
The English, it seems, have for centuries liked to pride ourselves on our marvellous manners, and we've done so by
boasting (rather uncivilly) about how much more civil we are than the cruel Turks, the slothful Irish, the barbarous
Scythians, the boorish Chinese, the savage Native American and the wild Welsh.
Since the end of the Middle Ages, the English have been writing and devouring guides about how to stand correctly,
never give the impression of being in a hurry, sign off letters with the correct words, address our servants, control
our bodily emissions and laugh with our mouths shut in order to avoid what Lord Chesterfield called ' the shocking
distortion of the face' caused by laughter with the mouth open.
The honey-tongued English have also been experts at dressing up our cruelty in the language of Christianity and good
intentions.
The Elizabethans, as they tortured people for heresy, claimed they 'used the rack in as charitable a manner as could
be'.
Elizabeth I was shocked when she heard that Catholic plotters had been castrated and disembodied while still alive
she ordered the next batch should simply be hanged.
How very considerate.
That's the thing for all civilised countries to beware of.mif we put too much on being outwardly civil,we find ourselves
trapped in a society where every polite exchange is camouflage for cynical self-advancement.
Daily Mail Fri, 20 July 2018
By Ysenda Maxtone Graham