The best of men That e'er wore earth about Him was a Sufferer, A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit; The first true gentleman that ever breathed.

Dekker’s lines come from an early‑seventeenth‑century play in which he turns to explicitly Christian moral language to define “true gentility.” In a culture where “gentleman” could mean lineage, wealth, or courtly polish, Dekker instead grounds the term in the model of Christ: suffering, meekness, patience, humility, and inner calm. The passage reflects a common Jacobean dramatic move—using a character’s speech to reframe social status as a matter of virtue rather than birth—while also echoing sermon rhetoric familiar to London audiences. The praise is thus both devotional (a portrait of Christ) and social critique (a rebuke to merely fashionable gentility).

The speaker defines “true gentleman” not by birth, wealth, or martial prowess but by moral and spiritual qualities: meekness, patience, humility, and tranquility. By identifying the supreme model as a “Sufferer,” the lines invert worldly hierarchies and make endurance and compassion the highest form of greatness. The phrase “wore earth about Him” stresses incarnation—divinity clothed in human flesh—so that gentleness is presented as both humanly attainable and divinely endorsed. In a culture where “gentleman” was a contested social label, the passage functions as a pointed ethical redefinition: the first and best gentleman is Christ, and gentility is proved through character, not status.