[Hellsgate] "My lord", "my lady"

[Joe Simmons]

Not to dispute your kind words m'lord. However being a long time member and 
understanding that within the SCA I was taught that all are worthy of the 
m'lord / m'lady not as a title but rather as a courtesy. Also I was taught 
that all members of the Society are considered to be of noble birth and 
therefore worthy of the courtesy accorded one of noble birth. Lord or Lady 
Capital L is a title and should be used as one.  For myself, I feel that to 
recreate the period manners of address and titles are important and should 
be used on every occasion. To use them does not detract from the SCA and not 
using them does, for me. That is the way it was when I joined and I will 
continue to use and teach it as such. It is part of the beauty and 
atmosphere of the Society for me.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim McDaniel" <tmcd at panix.com>
To: <hellsgate at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2012 2:57 PM
Subject: [Hellsgate] "My lord", "my lady"


> If I may intrude with a bit on titles?
>
> As a Star Principal Herald noted years ago, "How do you refer to
> people without awards of arms?  By their names."  "Milord" and
> "milady" [1] were not titles in period.  So it's not really correct to
> word it like "Dear, would you go get my mug back from m'lord
> Billy-Bob?"  He's just "Billy-Bob".
>
> "Milady" and "milord" [1] CAN properly be used in direct address if
> you don't know their rank, or if you know there's no armigerous award.
> So if you're talking TO Billy-Bob yourself, it's fine to ask "M'lord,
> may I have my mug back?"
>
> One of the ways in which the SCA is an improvement on period is that
> we do NOT generally have the insanely proud insistence on recognition
> of rank, title, and precedence that they had in period.  More: in my
> experience, the higher-ranking the SCA person, the less they care.
> So don't worry about messing up titles for people with rank.
> For example, if you mladied our lovely Baroness Myfanwy, or mlorded
> Master Tivar or Duke Kein, I would be surprised were they to even
> mention it and utterly astonished were they to take offense.
>
> In short: don't sweat titles, but I'd like to ask that people not use
> "milady" and "milord" as if they were titles.
>
> Daniel de Lincoln (Just plain Daniel is fine by me.  Lord Daniel is
> OK: I have an AoA.)
>
> [1] In all of its variants: "milord", "milady", "m'lady", "m'lord",
> "my lady", "my lord", et cetera.
>
> -- 
> Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com
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