THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN:; containing sundry excellent Rules or exquisite Observations, tending to Direction of every Gentleman, of selecter Ranke and Qualitie; how to demeane or accommodate himselfe in the manage of publike or private Affaires .. by BRATHWAITE, Richard - 1633

London: Printed by Felix Kynston, and are to be sold by Robert Bostocke, 1633. Second edition, revised, corrected and enlarged. Extra engraved title-page, small 4to, pp. [10] leaves, 456, [2] leaves. Bound in new quarter leather, spine gilt in raised bands, ex-library with two small stamps, some browning and minor staining, a very good tight copy. STC 3564; Newberry 208. Aresty p. 304; see Wither to Prior, 66. A classic courtesy book describing the attributes of an English Gentleman under eight heads: youth, disposition, education, vocation, recreation, acquaintance, moderation, and perfection. Aresty notes that Braithwaite (1588?-1673) was a Royalist born to the estate of a gentleman. He attended Oxford and Cambridge, indulged in some light poetry before settling into the life of a gentleman. As a justice of the peace, he was an influential figure in his small world. His influence in molding the lives of the typical gentleman was widespead, however, and his books were even found in libraries in the US. Susan Hull, in her "Chaste, Silent & Obedient" (p. 32 ff) notes that Brathwaite's "The English Gentlewoman" "is probably more representative of the genteel English middle-class. Here the ideal, modest woman is a wife and mother involved in the "Breeding and Education of Youth". The courtier, instead of being an ideal is rejected ... Religion and class [are] dominent infuences on behavior and the respectable middle-class English woman was depicted as a modest lover of home and hearth." "Braithwaite ... went at his subject like a serious schoolmaster and Puritan, though he was neither ... His philosophy of moderation in all things, and his preference for the contemplative life ...