Blowing your nose in public is indecent, according to the treatise on manners written in the early 16th century by Giovanni della Casa, the archbishop of Benevento. Even worse, he wrote, was “when you have blown your nose, to draw aside and examine the contents of your handkerchief; as if you expected pearls and rubies to distil from your brain”. He didn’t like coughing or spitting, “expectorating, as it were”, and thought them equally unacceptable.
The archbishop was fighting an uphill battle: spitting in public remained acceptable in the United States and Europe for the next few centuries. Saloon bars in North America, frequented by tobacco-chewing customers, eventually began installing spittoons; vessels to spit into. “If you expect to rate as a gentleman,” went one slogan, “don’t expectorate on the floor.” Or into a fellow footballer’s face, as Manchester United’s Jonny Evans and Newcastle United’s Papiss Cissé are accused of doing during a Premier League match last night.
Related: Enfield's ban on spitting - the antisocial habit 'everyone' hates
I always check behind me before I clamp a nostril and let loose with the other
Continue reading...
No comments:
Post a Comment