Je Suis Churlish
Jan. 14th, 2015 04:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
"Please don't think me churlish," said Robert Graves, on turning down an honour from the Queen. But I'm sure they did. Indeed, "it would be churlish to refuse" is the standard assertion used by people who are a little shamefaced about accepting a gong, at least to the extent of feeling the need to offer some kind of justification: viz. (on a very cursory googling) William Nicholson, Allan Massie and Ian Anderson. I seem to remember a similar phrase being used by either Philip Pullman or Tony Robinson or both, before these prominent republicans prostrated themselves before the royal foot and received their Companion of the British Empire medal and knighthood, respectively. Horror of churlishness is a mighty powerful emotion.
I wonder, though, how many of the people who use that excuse think about the fact that it's a class-based insult? Churl (or ceorl) was originally a rank in Anglo-Saxon society, a churl being one notch up from a slave. A little later it became associated with boorish behaviour, following much the same semantic trajectory as "vulgar". To call someone churlish was a bit like calling them a chav.
Actually, thinking about modern knights who wouldn't want to be thought churlish reminds me that knights in mediaeval romance often had to do battle with churls, or carls (their linguistically cognate cousins). The churl was usually a big bloke, half naked but armed perhaps with an axe. Against this, the knight had to take him on with nothing more than a sword, a shield, a mace, an axe, a dagger, a full set of armour, a warhorse, the assistance of a squire, and several years' elite military training. Despite these odds the knight usually emerged victorious - hoorah!
These days, such fights don't need to take place by a ford or in a forest clearing. They are confined to the crania of left-leaning liberals. The Establishment still usually has the best of it, though.
I wonder, though, how many of the people who use that excuse think about the fact that it's a class-based insult? Churl (or ceorl) was originally a rank in Anglo-Saxon society, a churl being one notch up from a slave. A little later it became associated with boorish behaviour, following much the same semantic trajectory as "vulgar". To call someone churlish was a bit like calling them a chav.
Actually, thinking about modern knights who wouldn't want to be thought churlish reminds me that knights in mediaeval romance often had to do battle with churls, or carls (their linguistically cognate cousins). The churl was usually a big bloke, half naked but armed perhaps with an axe. Against this, the knight had to take him on with nothing more than a sword, a shield, a mace, an axe, a dagger, a full set of armour, a warhorse, the assistance of a squire, and several years' elite military training. Despite these odds the knight usually emerged victorious - hoorah!
These days, such fights don't need to take place by a ford or in a forest clearing. They are confined to the crania of left-leaning liberals. The Establishment still usually has the best of it, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-14 04:41 pm (UTC)RVW turned down all honours which puts him up even further in my considerable respect for the man
(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-14 06:45 pm (UTC)I have a little 'alternative honours list' of such people.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-15 05:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-15 05:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-15 05:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-14 07:26 pm (UTC)I remember this primarily because of Phyllis Ann Karr's The Idylls of the Queen (1982), where the insult is frequently applied to the narrator Sir Kay.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-17 06:53 pm (UTC)Soap Contents Explained (Engrish ProNunCiathon)
I was going to post this already when I first saw your entry but then I got afraid the satire might not transport well. As I was also going to write about satire but it seems so much like people putting up dating ads saying how bjutiful they are as in the Smack the Pony sketch I Have No Humour "I Am A Very Beautiful Lady" that I can't find just now amongst all the archaeologickal artefacks I dig out at this crucial moment in the space-time-continuum (unless I took the wrong turn in the wormhole and this is in fact Brazil; one never knows for sure.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-17 07:19 pm (UTC)