Comments | mariedeblois: Franchise.

mariedeblois

Franchise.

Mar 19, 2007 23:22

Tonight I and some folks were talking about various virtues and various kinds of offices in the SCA. Near the end, we were talking about franchise and trying to come to some kind of definition of it, particularly a medieval one (not the 'fast food franchise' kind). AElflaed suggested that it might be one of those words that fell out of favor, and ( Read more... )

Comments 9

dr_zrfq March 20 2007, 06:04:31 UTC

For the two Chaucer bits: In the Franklin's Tale, it is useful to start with the previous lines: "That fro his lust yet were him lever abyde / Than doon so heigh a cherlish wrecchednesse / Agayns franschyse and alle gentillesse" --> "That he would rather abide from (without) his lust than to do such a highly churlish wrethedness against generosity and all gentility." In the Merchant's Tale, "Here you may see how great the generosity of woman is when she takes careful thought (more literally, focused/narrow advice)."

My own Latin dictionary offers two Latin words for English "franchise": civitas and suffragium -- strong implication here being that the franchise is having a vote, or say, in one's own affairs or those of a geographic area. The American Heritage Dictionary traces the word back to Late Latin francus apparently meaning "free".

Hope this helps some.

mariedeblois March 20 2007, 06:58:28 UTC

Thanks! That does help!

So happy to gyder... ae_o_duckford March 20 2007, 16:37:47 UTC

to gyder is "together" (in an earlier form) and it would have been handwritten with the letter called an eth, a soft/voiced th sound, like a little round crossed d. There's another "th" letter in Middle English that's from a Germanic rune and it's a vertical with a v pointing to the right, and that's the letter that confused the Flemish printers (so the story goes) who took it as a "y" and put "ye old" whatever instead of "the old" whatever."

gyder by itself doesn't do anything, it's always following "to" and sometimes hyphenated "to-gyder."

SO... what the thing said was that chivalry and franchise should work together, should be in accord. (Chyualrye and Fraunchyse accorden to gyder)

-=-The verb definition for franchise seems to be 100% about making or setting free, "to invest with a franchise or privilege"-=-

If someone can enfranchise someone, he might need to have franchise in the first place with which to do so. That's what I'm going to look at now.

You found some great stuff, Marie. Thanks

Re: So happy to gyder... mariedeblois March 20 2007, 18:09:24 UTC

AH HA! I'm familiar with those characters, but I didn't connect them with this - thanks!

When I think about how it seems so very tied to the freedom and privilege ideas, franchise seems kind of like largesse in a way - it's top down. You've been given the franchise (the power, the stuff, the land, etc.), and now you can (and should) share with other people.

Re: So happy to gyder... ae_o_duckford March 24 2007, 18:14:14 UTC

-=- You've been given the franchise (the power, the stuff, the land, etc.), and now you can (and should) share with other people.-=-

And it's virtuous to do so.

That's what I'm thinking. "Noblesse Oblige" might be the term that eventually replaced "franchise," and maybe there was a time in there (several centuries?) when neither term was in use. Maybe. I'm guessing. I'm using this as a placeholder until other information changes my mind. It's not a conviction, it's a theory.

ashti25 March 20 2007, 21:32:01 UTC

Now I'm wondering about another old-fashioned idea(l): citizenship. Not just the right to vote, but the act of voting; participating in a constructive way in one's community. Which free persons are able to do, but slaves are not.

So maybe a person showing franchise is participating (freely) in civic life; voting, going to town meetings, even things as simple picking up trash from the commons, etc.

And that is a virtue in my mind; refusing to say "oh, the gummint can do whatever, i'm going to sit here and complain" but instead saying, "what can *I* do to improve civic life?"

Which would make franchise a virtue in and of itself, rather than a thing you're supposed to hand out to other people....

mariedeblois March 21 2007, 04:20:18 UTC

Yes and no? As far as I know (and I've admitted that history isn't my strong point, right?), some of these kinds of participation in civic life didn't exist during large parts of the SCA's period, like voting.

In democracy, we've all, collectively, enfranchised one another to have things like voting and town meetings. So, people who do these things are utilizing their franchise ... exhibiting franchise, and the people who don't are letting their franchise languish (like absentee landlords? Autonomous collectives? whose actions must be ratified by a special byweekly meeting?).

I do think you're right that citizenship is tied to franchise, tho.

History & Civics ashti25 March 21 2007, 05:23:30 UTC

(man, we know how to have fun, don't we ( ... )

Re: History & Civics ae_o_duckford March 24 2007, 23:45:35 UTC

If we see voting as a privilege rather than as an obligation, then maybe the feudal parallel is (as in your example) advising--having a voice in what happens. If a knight (to use the most knightly example I know ) had a castle and rights and duties, he could just do that all himself without delegating much, and be secretive, or he could take counsel, or let others have leeway to do things without micromanaging. That might be an aspect of franchise. He could let go of some power and credit ( ... )