SC - Chivalry-OT-OOP

[Laura C. Minnick]

"James F. Johnson" wrote:
> 
> LrdRas at aol.com wrote:

<snip>
> > The current definition of chivalrous as
> > 'nice' is at the most a Victorian concept based on the 19th century Arthurian
> > cycle.
> 
> I would venture to guess that the confusion of chivalry with polite
> behaviour came about when 'courtly' or courteous behaviour was
> considered to be one of the non-martial qualities of chevaliers and
> other gently born.

Er, uh, yes and no.

Item- the SCA vision of 'chivalry' and the attendant behaviors come from
OOP Arthurian stuff- largely true, no thanks to Sir Walter Scott. 

But where else does it come from? Much of our ideals about how knight
should treat ladies, for instance, can be traced back to our friendly
neighborhood Troubadours. However, that view has some limitations. The
excessive courtesy seems to be directed only at to high ladies, and most
specifically the object of desire- not females in general. If one reads
the Arthurian cycle attributed to Chretien de Troyes (I just finished
re-reading it), you can see that the courtly behaviours are specifically
directed to your betters (the Kings, Counts, various noble holders of
castles, etc.), to ladies at and above your station, to clerics, and to
ladies walking around holding mysterious glowing objects. The rest of
the world? Hah- who cares?

The idea that a knight should be very polite, courteous, etc., sees to
have enjoyed some favor during the reign of Edward III, during the time
that he was running his own re-creation society and holding tournaments
based on accounts of tournaments in Arthur's court (And guess who played
Arthur?) And the formal flowery courtesy also enjoyed a resurgence
during Elizabeth's reign. But it had little to do with chivalry- it was
all about being a 'gentleman', which is a different ball of wax
entirely.

However- there is little evidence that being courteous to one's lessers
was anything but a joke at best. Courtesy was not part of any
'chivalric' code- making sure you won was. Riding over a field a week
before harvest was standard, and only frowned on if it belonged to the
Church. WAR IS NOT POLITE. And Chivalry is a code of warriors. 

What we call 'chivalry' in the SCA is a carefully codified dance of
manners and mannerisms that have little to do with the Middle Ages, and
much to do with our discomfort with play-acting that we are all
nobility, even when we obviously are not. I think that our modern
egalitarian sensibilities (especially for those of us in the US) make it
difficult to truly behave as nobles (especially in the absence of an
overt underclass), so by creating a set of rules to control our
interaction, we control our comfort levels.

In all, an interesting thing to talk about around the firepit- but not
much to do with cooking. I saw something interesting last night in
Cretien's _Perceval_, having to do with apples, I think. If I remember
I'll look for it.

politely yours,
'Lainie