Then Speech was mannerly, an Art, Like learning not to belch or fart: I cannot settle which is worse, The Anti-Novel or Free Verse.
A polite nod, perhaps, to mannerly indignation but one that carries hints of populism.
Despite Test cricket's reputation among those who disdain cricket as a languid and mannerly sport, the Ashes is a relentlessly brutal struggle between borderline psychotics, and deserves the poisonous verbals to match.
It is seldom easy choosing between contradictory accounts of the same conversation, but can anyone doubt Andrew Mitchell, the mannerly Chief Whip, when he denies calling a policeman a "pleb"?
Godard is always most mannerly toward his topic.
"You know, there's this old joke about the economist who's taking his mannerly granddaughter for a walk," he told me.
The respectables joined in, too, in their mannerly way.
A superb gardener I know welcomes the sceptered majesty of common mullein (distinct from the mannerly hybrid varieties) wherever it opts to sprout.
And just try to resist the achingly committed self-presentations of Gilbert & George as icons of gentlemanly aestheticism, posing stiffly in their slightly too small tweed suits, and issuing mannerly obiter dicta.
Mitchell seems to me the best argument for redressing the long-standing bias against contemporary expressionist painting that was mandated by Clement Greenberg in his promotion of mannerly colorfield abstraction.
Here's another formula: savvy, mannerly servers, fussy cocktails with vaguely British names and lots of citrus peel, a room quiet enough for conversation.
