Note 50 — TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JAMES EARL OF SALISBURY, &c.[49],
Reading edition
It was an ancient custom derived from the days of chivalry, but which long survived them, that, as formerly the future knight had to go through a preliminary course of education, as page and squire to some person of rank and valour; so the pages of the quality, so late as the Revolution, were the sons of gentlemen, and in no way derogated from their birth by accepting that menial situation. This is often alluded to in the old plays. In the "New Inn" for example, when Lovel asks of the Host his son for a page, we have an account of the decay of the institution from its original purposes and respectability.
Lovel. Call you that desperate, which by a line Of institution from our ancestors Hath been derived down to us, and received In a succession, for the noblest way Of breeding up our youth in letters, arms, Fair mien, discourses, civil exercise, And all the blazon of a gentleman? Where can he learn to vault, to ride, to fence, To move his body gracefuller? to speak His language purer? or tune his mind And manners more to the harmony of nature, Than in these nurseries of nobility?—— Host. Aye, that was when the nurseries self was noble, And only virtue made it, not the market, That titles were not vented at the drum Or common outcry: Goodness gave the greatness, And greatness worship: Every house became An academy of honour, and those parts We see departed in the practice now Quite from the institution. Lovel. Why do you say so, Or think so enviously? do they not still Learn there the centaur's skill, the art of Thrace, To ride? or Pollux' mystery, to fence? The Pyrrhick gesture, both to dance and spring In armour? to be active for the wars? To study figures, numbers, and proportions, May yield them great in counsel? and the arts, Grave Nestor and the wise Ulysses practised, To make their English sweet upon their tongue, As reverend Chaucer says? Host. Sir, you mistake.— To play Sir Pandarus my copy hath it, And carry messages to Madam Cresside; Instead of backing the brave steed o' mornings, To mount the chamber-maid, and, for a leap O' the vaulting horse, to ply the vaulting house; For exercise of arms, a bale of dice, Or two or three packs of cards, to shew the cheat, And nimbleness of hand; mistake a cloak From my lord's back, and pawn it; ease his pockets Of a superfluous watch; or geld a jewel Of an odd stone or so; twinge two or three buttons From off my lady's gown. These are the arts, Or seven liberal deadly sciences Of pagery, or rather paganism, As the tides run; to which if he apply him, He may perhaps take a degree at Tyburn A year the earlier; come to read a lecture Upon Aquinas at St Thomas a watering's, And so go forth a laureat in hemp circle. New Inn. Act I. Scene 3d.