What is a Man?: 3,000 Years of Wisdom on the Art of Manly Virtue

824 Pages·33.293 MB·English

by  Waller Randy Newell

3,000 YEARS OF WISDOM
ON THE ART OF MANLY VIRTUE
*
EDITED WITH COMMENTARY BY
WALLER R. NEWELL
USA $30.00
CANADA $44.95
There is an unbroken pedigree in the
Western conception of what it means to
be a man. Honor tempered by prudence,
ambition tempered by compassion for
the suffering and the oppressed, love re¬
strained by delicacy and honor toward
the beloved—from Plato through today,
there is a common store of richly textured
observations, maxims, illustrations, and
confirmations of this enduringly noble
standard of conduct. . . .
We don't need to reinvent manliness.
We need only to reclaim it.
—Waller R. Newell
A
t a time when all of America is debating the
wayward course of contemporary manhood,
one thing has been missing from the conversa¬
tion: a source to which concerned readers might turn
for guidance and inspiration, a path back to the wisdom
of our shared tradition of manly virtues.
Missing, that is, until now. In What Is a Man? his¬
torian and commentator Waller R. Newell collects
three thousand years of the finest and most thought-
provoking writings on the subject of manhood.
Introduced and placed in context by Newell's incisive
and illuminating commentary, each of the eight sec¬
tions in this volume addresses one aspect of the shared
traditions of manliness—from wisdom to chivalry to
nobility. From Aristotle on courage to Sir Thomas
(continued on back flap)
0600

What Is
a Man?

WHAT'S
3,000 YEARS OF WISDOM
ON THE ART OF MANLY VIRTUE
a MAN?
EDITED WITH COMMENTARY BY
WALLER R . N EWELL
ReganBooks
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Frontispiece: Tristan und Isolde (1865) by Richard Wagner. From Fantastic Opera: The
Great Operas Illuminated by John Martinez, text by F. Paul Driscoll. Copyright © 1997 by
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, NY. Used by permission of the artist.
what is A man? Copyright © 2000 by Waller R. Newell. All rights reserved. Printed in
the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations
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FIRST EDITION
Printed on acid-free paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
What is a man? : 3,000 years of wisdom on the art of manly virtue / [edited by] Waller
R. Newell.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-06-039296-7
1. Men—Conduct of life Literary collections. 2. Nobility of character Literary col¬
lections. 3. Virtues Literary collections.
I. Newell, Waller Randy.
PN6071.M387B66 1999
808.8'0353—dc21 99-36304
00 01 02 03 04 ❖/RRDlO 987654321
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xv
IlNTRODUCTION XVII
i. The Chivalrous Man i
The Manly Lover 4
Orpheus and Eurydice Thomas Bulfinch 4
The Art of Courtly Love Andreas Capellanus 6
Love and Self-Perfection Baldesar Castiglione 8
Isis and Osiris Thomas Bulfinch 10
The Rules of Love Andreas Capellanus 12
Love and Valor Thomas Bulfinch 14
Why Lancelot Doesn’t Marry Sir Thomas Malory 14
Older Men Make Better Lovers Baldesar Castiglione
Love or Wisdom? Francis Bacon 21
Love or Duty? Xenophon 23
Lancelot and Guenever Thomas Bulfinch 26
Dido and Aeneas Thomas Bulfinch 32
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do Aristophanes (from Plato)
Unmanly Temptations 36
Diana and Actaeon Thomas Bulfinch 36
Seduction by the Devil Thomas Bulfinch
and Sir Thomas Malory 38
Love, Honor and Chastity Sir Thomas Malory 40
On Adultery Ovid 43
Tristram and Isoude Thomas Bulfinch 44
Sir Lancelot Disgraced Thomas Bulfinch 52
Apollo and Daphne Thomas Bulfinch 54
The Narcissist Thomas Bulfinch 56
The Temptation of Sir Gawain Anonymous 58
VI Contents
Manliness Toward Women 61
Ladies First Thomas Bulfmch 61
Never Use Force Against a Woman Sir Thomas Malory 64
Attraction to Beauty Is No Excuse Sir Thomas Malory 65
Every Man Thinketh His Own Lady Fairest
Sir Thomas Malory 68
How a Man Can Increase and Decrease a Lady’s Love
Andreas Capellanus 70
Stalkers Beware! Sir Thomas Malory 71
Advice to Husbands: Don’t Use Your Wife to Bait a Trap
Thomas Bulfinch 72
The Death of Robin Hood Thomas Bulfinch 74
Revenge Against Women Is Shameful
Sir Thomas Malory 75
What Women Really Want in a Man Thomas Bulfinch 77
Stick Your Neck Out and Close Your Eyes
Geoffrey Chaucer 80
Can a Businessman Make a Good Lover?
Andreas Capellanus 81
The Testimony of a Disappointed Wife
Geoffrey Chaucer 82
The Wife of Bath Has the Last Word Geoffrey Chaucer 83
Sigh No More, Ladies William Shakespeare 84
The Romantic Man 85
Pyramus and Thisbe Thomas Bulfinch 85
Emile and Sophy Jean-Jacques Rousseau 87
The Sorrows of Youth Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 93
The Spread of Wertherism Among Young Men
Karl Hillebrand 100
Lotte! Lotte, Farewell! Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 103
The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton 105
2. The Gentleman i 15
A Well-Bred Man 119
Austen on Gentlemanliness Jane Austen 119
A Gentleman Avoids Vulgarity Lord Chesterfield 128
The Sun King The Duke of Saint-Simon 131
The Importance of Good Grooming and Good
Company Lord Chesterfield 132
The Boor Theophrastus 135
The Art of Good Manners Jonathan Swift 136