"In those days, it was considered beneath a president's dignity to campaign," Mr. Morris said.
It first appeared at a time when genteel men of letters often published anonymously because newspapers were considered beneath them.
Some of New York's most experienced restaurant workers are taking work that might have been considered beneath their abilities a year ago.
The usual answer is that de Vere used a pseudonym because it was considered beneath the dignity of hereditary noblemen to ascribe their names to publicly performed plays.
Vauban had, however, never commanded an army in the field as was customary for marshals of France and was only really capable of "engineering," which was considered beneath a marshal's dignity.
Disciplines related to the public life of senators prospered notably oratory, law, and history; certain fields of study were judged fit for diversions in leisure hours, and still others were considered beneath the dignity of an honourable Roman.
"Off-screen he defied the studio system's control over his image, allowing his weight to fluctuate, choosing roles that were considered beneath him and turning down the Oscar for Best Actor in 1973.
In his early twenties, along with his wife, Savitribai, whom he had educated, he started a school for girls and untouchables at a time when both classes were considered beneath schooling.
As the play progresses, this stage-smitten Shakespeare -- or, Will Shakspere, as Ms. Freed dubs him, using a historically accurate variant spelling -- becomes a "beard," or front, for the dashing Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, who wishes to see his plays staged but dares not have them mounted as his own at a time when working in the theater was considered beneath his class.
Jamie Lloyd's production attends with too reverent a slowness to this grisly, anarchic play of 1614, in which the widowed heroine, secretly marrying someone who is considered beneath her, is spied on by her brothers: one of them is driven by incestuous lust (in this production you see the sibs having a bit of a bounce together); the other, a raunchy cardinal, by apparently motiveless malignancy.
