A Serving Man

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Title:     A Serving Man
Author: John Earle [More Titles by Earle]

Is one of the makings up of a gentleman as well as his clothes, and somewhat in the same nature, for he is cast behind his master as fashionably as his sword and cloak are, and he is but in querpo[1] without him. His properness[2] qualifies him, and of that a good leg; for his head he has little use but to keep it bare. A good dull wit best suits with him to comprehend common sense and a trencher; for any greater store of brain it makes him but tumultuous, and seldom thrives with him. He follows his master's steps, as well in conditions as the street; if he wench or drink, he comes him in an under kind, and thinks it a part of his duty to be like him. He is indeed wholly his master's; of his faction,--of his cut,--of his pleasures:--he is handsome for his credit, and drunk for his credit, and if he have power in the cellar, commands the parish. He is one that keeps the best company, and is none of it; for he knows all the gentlemen his master knows, and picks from thence some hawking and horse-race terms,[3] which he swaggers with in the ale-house, where he is only called master. His mirth is bawdy jests with the wenches, and, behind the door, bawdy earnest. The best work he does is his marrying, for it makes an honest woman, and if he follows in it his master's direction, it is commonly the best service he does him.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] In querpo is a corruption from the Spanish word cuerpo. "En cuerpo, a man without a cloak." Pineda's Dictionary, 1740. The present signification evidently is, that a gentleman without his serving-man, or attendant, is but half dressed:--he possesses only in part the appearance of a man of fashion. "To walk in cuerpo, is to go without a cloak." Glossographia Anglicana Nova, 8vo. 1719.

[2] Proper was frequently used by old writers for comely, or handsome. Shakspeare has several instances of it:

"I do mistake my person all this while:
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marvellous proper man."

K. Richard III. Act I. Sc. 2. &c.

[3] "Why you know an'a man have not skill in the hawking and hunting languages now-a-days, I'll not give a rush for him." Master Stephen. Every Man in his Humour.

[The end]
John Earle's essay: Serving Man

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