HOW DO YOU DO?

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 4871, 24 January 1903, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOW DO YOU DO?

MODES OF SALUTATION

It has often been pointed out, somewhat fancifully perhaps, that t.ie mod'..-, of greeting current in dhierout ceumuca are sometimes imtioSally or racia-L characteristic, says “J-ho, Lwdun Globe.” Tho Spaniard or too Italian “ays. “How do vou stand r’ whicu m.'.j bo referred cither to stateliness or laziness. The Frenchman, careful of acportment, asks, “How jon c..»r„. vc-ur-clfTho Hutch.vniui, loud of me cable, salutes you with “May yon cat a hearty dinner!" while the _it:;Jsli»n--ma.li tin; man of accion, say.;, Ho*, em you do;" More markedly characteristic are some equivalent phrases used anioi!" nmi-Enropcau peop.e;. i.. oP.sunt, ef Southern Ciiina, for instance, asks tenderly, "Have you eaten your rice?” and at Cairo they inquire symry?A helically, ‘‘flow cio you s-a cat. Our English “How do you do-”’ is a direct, translation of the medieval French form cf greeting, ''Comment 1c faitos-vc'us ?” and seems to have come into common uso toward tho end tn tho seventeenth century. Curiously enough, its general acceptance appeal.", to have coincided with the dying tho old rnodo of greeting lad ms, which was emphatically known as saiutiug, and which seems to modern ideas so extraordinarily familial* and intimate —that is, by kissing. Englishmen are sometimes inclined to regard twth rather a su|>crio-r air tho more effusive methods of salutation, especially between men, common on tho Continent, but for centuries England was tho land of kisses. When a man greeted a woman, whether it was for the first or tho hundredth time, ho kissed her. Chaucer alludes to the custom as existing in his day. In tho * t Sojnpru>ur’s Tale,’* tho Frerc, when the mistress of tho house fiitorn tho room where ho and her husband arc sitting together Ariseth up rul curtisly, And hire embrace th in Ins armes narwo, Ami kisseth hire swctc, and chirkeim

as; a sparwo With his iippos. Two hundred years later, Erasmus, vn ono of his grapliic letters from England, wrote very appreciatively of the custom. “If you go to any place,” ho tells his correspondent with reference to English ladies, “yon aro received with a kiss by all; if you depart on a journey you are dismissed with a kiss; you return, kisses are exchanged. 'i hey come i.o visit you, a kiss the first thing; they leave you. you kiss them all around. Do they meet you anywhere, kisses in abundance.” It was no wonder that Erasmus told his friend that if ho had onco had experience of the custom —-“on my honour you would wish not to reside hero for ton years only, but for life.”

This mode cf salutation continued in fashion more or less through tho seventeenth century and into tho eighteenth; bub occasionally there were protests. Bunyan condemned it severely in_ hi.-, “Grac-6 /..bounding,” and other serious writers followed Ids- lead. Like other fashions, it died out gradually, first among tho “quality,” as society people wero then called in town, and. later among country folk. In tho “Spectator” for December 5, 1711, there is an amusing letter from n. country gent-le-man greatly perturbed by the behaviour of a young exquisite from London. Tho worthy squire lived on his own estate, was hospitable, and according to bis own account was “ever reckoned among tho ladies tho best company in the world.” “I never came in public,” fie continued, “but I saluted them, though in great assemblies, all round, whore it was seen how gentoely I avoided _ hampering my spurs in their petticoats wliilo I moved among them ; and on the ether side how prettily they curtsied and received me. standing in proper rows, and advancing as fast as they saw their elders.'or their betters, dispatched by me.” The good man evidently kissed every lady in the room. But a change camo over his neighbours and friends, ha complains, by reason cf tho advent of “a courtier or town gentleman.” This beau, fresh from tho fashionables circles of London, instead of kissing tho ladies in the hearty old English way simply bowed profoundly to each in turn; and with such grace and assurance was this d6no that ho won all hearts, and kissing at onco went out of fashion. “There is no young gentlewoman,” laments the poor squire, “within several miles cf this place has been kissed over since his first appearance among us.” From all this it is clear that in tho days of Queen Anno the onco universal inode cf saluting a lady was no longer fashionable in town, and was nearing its end in tho country. The excessively familiar salutation was succeeded by bows and curtsies of great dignity and alarming profundity; and those again became less and loss ceremonious until tho whirling ot timo has brought back the reign gl familiarity in another way, in the somewhat casual and offhand “How do you do?” which, nine times out of ten, implies no interest whatever in tho health of tho person addressed, but is simply a meaningless formula of greeting. Tho still more meaningless “Good morning” is of later dato than “How do you do?”

The earlier forms, which long prcceclecl the latter phrase, were “Good morn” and “Good morrow,” which both dato from tho fourteenth century. I'ho latter is no longer in uso in actual conversation, though tho poets havo a. weakness for it.

Tho speckled thrush Good morrow gave from hrako and bush,

says Scott, in tho “Lady of the Lake; ’ and Longfellow, in ‘‘Evangeline,” describing tho gathering of tho villagers of Acadian Grand Pro, says:

Many a glad good-morning and jocund laugh from tho young folk Made tho light air lighter. Another old elliptical form cf greeting. now long obsolete, was “Good time of“day.” In “Richard III.” Hastings salutes tho Duke of Glostcr wuth “Good timo of day unto my gracious lord.” But this was too cumbrous a form of salutation to mako much headway. Our modern “How do you do?” is found too long by many hurried speakers, and gets abbreviated into “How da do,” and tho like absurdities. Other variants arc such phrases as “How are you?” and “How goes it?”. The latter is a. literal equivalent of tho German form of “How do you do?” and also of tho common French salutation “Comment. ca va-t’-il ?” In same rural parts c.f England “How goes it ?” is shortened into “How goa?” Another salutation phrase which is now regarded as colloquial, if not vulgar, hut was formerly in rosncctahlo literary use, is “"What cheer?” “Heere Master; what cheer?” cried the boatswain in the opening scene cf the “Tempest.” and the greeting was in uso a century and a half before Shakespeare’s day. . Colloquial phrases

aro continually undergoing change and modification; and so “How do you doF’ itself may some day be regarded as hopelessly vulgar, while, some other form of salutation is frequent in the mouths of those who respect both themselves and tho language.