A
butler is a
servant in a large
household. In the
great
houses of the past, the household was sometimes divided into
departments with the butler in charge of the dining room,
wine cellar, and pantries. Some also have charge
of the entire parlour floor, and
housekeepers caring for the entire
house and its appearance. A butler is usually a man, and in charge
of male servants, while a housekeeper is usually a woman, and in
charge of female servants. Male servants (such as footmen) were
better paid and therefore rarer and of higher status than female
servants. The butler, as the senior male servant, therefore had the
highest status of all.
Background
In modern houses where the butler is the most senior worker, titles
such as
majordomo,
butler
administrator,
house manager,
manservant,
staff manager,
estate manager and
head of
household staff are sometimes given. The precise duties of the
employee will vary to some extent in line with the title given, but
perhaps more importantly in line with the requirements of the
individual employer.
The earliest literary mention of a butler is probably that of the
man whose release from prison was predicted by
Joseph in the
biblical account of Joseph's interpretation of the
dreams of the
Pharaoh's servants. The word
"butler" derives from the
Old French
bouteillier (cup bearer), from
bouteille,
(bottle), and ultimately from Latin. The role of the butler, for
centuries, has been that of the chief steward of a household, the
attendant entrusted with the care and serving of wine and other
bottled beverages which in ancient times might have represented a
considerable portion of the household's assets.
In Britain, the butler was originally a middle ranking member of
the staff of a grand household. In the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, the butler gradually became the usually senior male
member of a household's staff in the very grandest households,
though there was sometimes a steward who ran the outside estate,
rather than just the household, and who was senior to the butler in
social status into the nineteenth century. Butlers used to always
be attired in a special uniform, distinct from the
livery of junior servants, but today a butler is more
likely to wear a
business suit or
business casual clothing and appear in uniform only on special
occasions.
A Silverman or Silver Butler has expertise and professional
knowledge of the management, secure storage, use and cleaning of
all silverware, associated tableware and other paraphernalia for
use at military and other special functions. See also
Silver .
Training
Butlers used to work their way up from the bottom and belong to
clubs in larger cities such as London, but today tend to go to
butler schools and belong to guilds such as the
International Institute of Modern Butlers and the
Guild of Professional English Butlers, Or the [The
International Guild of Butlers & Household Managers] [78296] .
Butlers are also found in hotels, corporate settings, yachts, and
embassies, and are available as temporary service providers.
Surname
As a surname, “Butler” was originated by
Theobald le Botiller
FitzWalter (Lord of Preston).
Lord FitzWalter accompanied Henry II into Ireland
, and was
appointed hereditary Chief
Butler of Ireland in 1177. As such, he had the right to
pour the King's wine. This title can be defined as Governor by
today's standards.
He was granted land holdings of Baggotrath,
County
Dublin
, and the Stein River
lands around what is now Trinity College
Dublin. His son, Theobalde Butler, was the first to hold the
name and pass it to his descendants.
Kilkenny Castle
was the main seat of the Butler
family.
In literature
Fiction
The real-life butler is supposed to be discreet and unobtrusive.
The butler of fiction, by contrast, often tends to be
larger-than-life and has become a
plot
device in
literature and a
traditional
role in the
performing arts. Butlers may provide comic
relief with wry comments, clues as to the perpetrators of various
crimes and are represented as at least as intelligent and moral, or
even more so, than their “betters”. They are often portrayed as
being serious and expressionless and in the case that the wealthy
hero be an orphan—such as
Batman,
Chrono Crusade's Satella Harvenheit, or
Tomb Raider's
Lara
Croft—be a father figure to said hero. The fictional butler
tends to be given a typical Anglo-Celtic surname and have a British
accent.
Today, butlers are usually portrayed as being refined and
well-spoken. However, in nineteenth century fiction such as
Dracula, butlers generally spoke
with a strong
Cockney or other regional
accent.
"The butler" is integral to the plot of countless
potboilers and
melodramas, whether or not the character has been
given a name. Butlers figure so prominently in
period pieces and
whodunits that they can be considered
stock characters in
film
and
theatre where a
catch phrase is "
the butler did it!"
See
valet for a list of characters who are
often mistaken for butlers, but strictly speaking are valets.
Jeeves is one example, though, as Jeeves'
employer Wooster has noted, when the occasion demands Jeeves "can
buttle with the best of them".
- Examples of fictional butlers
- Stevens, the protagonist of Kazuo
Ishiguro's Booker Prize winning
novel, the Remains of the
Day.
- Angus Hudson, from television's Upstairs, Downstairs.
- Rowan Atkinson as Edmund Blackadder, butler to Prince
George the Prince Regent, in the TV Series
Blackadder the Third.
- Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler from Batman is a well known fictional
butler.
- Robert Guillaume, as Benson DuBois, the Tate butler in the hit 70's
sitcom, Soap
- Joseph Marcell, as
Geoffrey Butler, the butler for the
Banks Family on The
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
- Nestor, the butler of
Marlinspike Hall appearing in
The Adventures of
Tintin.
- Daniel Davis, as Niles the butler in the TV Series The Nanny.
- Sebastian Michaelis, a demon
bound by contract to his young master, Ciel Phantomhive, in the
Kuroshitsuji Manga and Anime series.
- Rihito Shibata, an S rank Butler
who chose to serve Mei Shinonome as his only Lady, in the Mei-chan no Shitsuji J-drama and
Manga.
- Sebastian Beach in the Blandings
Castle stories by P.G. Wodehouse, of intimidating majesty but
nonetheless a good soul who frequently co-conspires with the clever
Gally Threepwood.
- Butler, the butler for Prince Salde Canarl
Shellbrick III off of the puzzle game Puyo Puyo Fever 2.
- Smithers, Veronica Lodge's fictional butler.
- Domovoi Butler, butler (and
bodyguard) in the Artemis Fowl
series novels by Eoin Colfer.
- Spencer, butler in Power Rangers Operation
Overdrive
- Pickering, a bullying, slave-driving
butler who was the regular villain of the piece in No Tears for Molly from Tammy, a British comic which ran from 1971 to
1984.
- Hugh Edgar, butler, The Edwardian Country
House, 2002 British historical recreation TV series
- Cadbury, Butler to Richie Rich
Non-fiction
- Notable non-fictional butlers
- Clive McGonigal, founder of The Butler Bureau
- Paul Burrell, butler to the late
Diana, Princess of
Wales
- Wayne Fitzharris, Household Manager and Head Butler, King
Hussein of Jordan [78297]
- Arthur Richard Inch, long-time real-life butler, Butler
Technical Consultant for the film Gosford Park
- Charles MacPherson, Majordomo and etiquette
specialist, head of the Charles MacPherson Academy for Butlers and
Household Managers
- Ivor Spencer, Toastmaster and etiquette specialist, head of the Ivor Spencer
International School for Butler Administrators/Personal Assistants
and Estate Managers
- Alonzo Fields,
White
House
butler under Herbert
Hoover, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, and Harry S.
Truman.
See also
External links