When did chivalry die? Tricia McGill

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Was there really an “Age of Chivalry” and if so when did it die, for die it certainly did. It never occurs to most men to open a door for a woman nowadays. A smile and a thank you go a long way to making someone’s day more pleasant.

The following is one of Edmund Burke’s quotes in his “Reflections on the Revolution in France” written many years ago.

“The Age of Chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever. Never, never more, shall we behold the generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprize is gone!”

More of his amazing quotes can be found here:

https://www.goalcast.com/2019/05/29/edmund-burke-quotes/

I learnt about Sir Walter Raleigh at the primary school I went to in London many years ago, but mainly I remember that he was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth the first and was well-known to have laid his cloak down over a puddle so she would not get her dainty feet muddy. I didn’t know in fact that he was beheaded for treason. To me, as a child, I thought what he did for his Queen was very polite and chivalrous. You can learn more of him here:

https://www.history.com/news/sir-walter-raleigh-execution-reasons

I am of an age when I am entitled to grumble about the poor manners of the young people of today. In fact, to meet someone under 30 with perfect manners is such a rarity that it is a pleasure when you come up against one. We were taught as children that we did not interrupt adults when they were talking, but every day I come upon a child who thinks nothing of tapping his mother on the arm constantly while she is in conversation, and she does not reprimand him/her.

My list of bad manners in today’s society is very long, and shared by all my contemporaries.

I love my mobile phone and would not be without it in case of emergencies, but one thing I would never do is answer it while waiting in a queue, while sitting in my Doctor’s waiting room, while on transport—the list goes on. Why do some people have the notion we wish to be a part of their conversation? Why do you need to tell your boy/girlfriend, husband/wife that you have just arrived in the supermarket or just got onto the train home, or worse still tell them all about your problems that should be discussed in the privacy of your home.

In the process of relocating last year, I had to sit in the waiting room of a Government office where out of work people go to sign on to collect dole money, etc. In my instance the government needed me to go in person, as for some reason it proved too difficult to change certain details over the phone (Insert big sigh here). Anyway, for the entire hour I had to wait for the interviewer, I was forced to listen to a young girl’s endless chatter on her phone to first one friend then another about her problems with her car. Unfortunately, if I had complained to the person about her bad manners I would doubtlessly have been confronted with a bad-mouthed response about minding my own business.

I am tired of hearing about people being booked by the police for using their phones while driving, this is not only against the law, it is downright dangerous and another case of senseless rudeness and inconsideration for others—in fact bad manners. Turn your phones off or to mute while driving why don’t you?

Don’t get me started on drivers these days. One day while in my hairdressers a young girl was bragging about the thousands of dollars in speeding fines that she had accumulated. When someone told her she could end up doing jail time she thought that hilarious. Let’s hope she is now sitting in a cell somewhere meditating on her stupidity.

Tricia McGill web page