Page (servant)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A page or page boy is a traditionally young male servant, but may also have been used for a messenger at the service of a nobleman or an apprentice knight. The origin of the term is uncertain, but may either from the Latin pagius (servant), possibly linked to peasant or an earlier Greek word (pais = child).
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The medieval page
In medieval times, a page was an attendant to a knight; an apprentice squire. A young boy served as a page for about seven years, running messages, serving, cleaning, and even learning the basics of combat, and the lord he was working for would usually treat him fairly but they went through intensive training. A page could be genoursly rewarded if he or she did a great act of service.The lord sometimes gave the page private combat training from the age of seven until he was fourteen. At age fourteen, he could graduate to become a squire, and by age 21, perhaps a knight himself. Similar pages served in castles and great houses, fetching things and running messages for aristocrats and royalty. These boys were often the scions of other great families who were sent to learn the ways of the manorial system by observation. Their residence in the house served as a goodwill gesture between the two families involved and helped them gain political contacts for their adult lives. A reference to this kind of page is found in the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslaus: "Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know'st it, telling..."
This type of page is almost unheard of today outside of royal residences, although the functions and status of legislative pages are a clear continuation of the earlier role.
The modern household page
Boys of humble background might also gain a similar place in a great house. According to the International Butler Academy, these pages were apprentice footmen. Unlike the hall boys, who did heavy work, these pages performed light odd jobs and were liveried when the aristocrat was entertaining.
The decorative page
During and following the Renaissance it became fashionable for black boys and young men to be decorative pages, placed into fancy costumes and attending fashionable ladies and lords. This custom lasted for several centuries and the "African page" became a staple accoutrement of baroque and rococo style.
The character is frequently illustrated in literature and film, particularly periodwork:
- In the Grace Kelly film, To Catch a Thief, an undercover detective wears the costume of her "African page" to a costume ball.
- Valentine Nwanze played an "African page" attending James Graham, Marquess of Montrose in the film Rob Roy.
- "Koko", the fictional manservant of an opera diva, is cast as her African page in A Nut at the Opera by Maurice Vellekoop.
- Decorative pages feature in a drawing room scene in Persuasion.
- In the 2012 historical drama film A Royal Affair Christian VII has an african page boy named Moranti
See also
