Wikipedia
A noble savage is a literary stock character who embodies the concept of an idealized indigene, outsider, or " other" who has not been "corrupted" by civilization, and therefore symbolizes humanity's innate goodness. In English, the phrase first appeared in the 17th century in John Dryden's heroic play The Conquest of Granada (1672), wherein it was used in reference to newly created man. "Savage" at that time could mean "wild beast" as well as "wild man". The phrase later became identified with the idealized picture of "nature's gentleman", which was an aspect of 18th-century sentimentalism. The noble savage achieved prominence as an oxymoronic rhetorical device after 1851, when used sarcastically as the title for a satirical essay by English novelist Charles Dickens, whom some believe may have wished to disassociate himself from what he viewed as the "feminine" sentimentality of 18th and early 19th-century romantic primitivism.
The idea that humans are essentially good is often attributed to the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, a Whig supporter of constitutional monarchy. In his Inquiry Concerning Virtue (1699), Shaftesbury had postulated that the moral sense in humans is natural and innate and based on feelings, rather than resulting from the indoctrination of a particular religion. Shaftesbury was reacting to Thomas Hobbes's justification of an absolutist central state in his Leviathan, "Chapter XIII", in which Hobbes famously holds that the state of nature is a "war of all against all" in which men's lives are "solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short". Hobbes further calls the American Indians an example of a contemporary people living in such a state. Although writers since antiquity had described people living in pre-civilized conditions, Hobbes is credited with inventing the term "State of Nature". Ross Harrison writes that "Hobbes seems to have invented this useful term."
Contrary to what is sometimes believed, Jean-Jacques Rousseau never used the phrase noble savage (French bon sauvage). However, the character of the noble savage appeared in French literature at least as early as Jacques Cartier (coloniser of Québec, speaking of the Iroquois) and Michel de Montaigne (philosopher, speaking of the Tupinamba) in the 16th century.
Noble Savage is the third studio album of the American heavy metal band Virgin Steele, released in 1985 by Cobra Records. The album was reissued in 1997 on CD by Noise Records with six bonus tracks. The remastered edition of 2008 by Dockyard 1 added two other extra tracks. In May 2011, the album was reissued once more by Steamhammer Records, a subsidiary of SPV with the same track list as the 1997 release, but with an added bonus CD containing 13 additional tracks.
Before the recording of Noble Savage, original guitarist Jack Starr resigned from the band and was replaced by Edward Pursino, an old friend of DeFeis, whose guitar playing immediately fit very well with Virgin Steele's music and style. Pursino's contribution came also in the form of new musical ideas and compositions, and he is still a mainstay in Virgin Steele's line-up. The band's frontman David DeFeis considers this album one of the most important in the history of the band.
Noble Savage was the first album where the band was completely satisfied with its music and sound. It is also the first album on which the current musical style of the band is fully manifested, containing grandiose compositions with multi-layered keyboard sound and more sophisticated arrangements. Noble Savage has become one of the most popular Virgin Steele albums and it includes the songs "We Rule the Night" and "Noble Savage", which the band still plays in concert.
Usage examples of "noble savage".
But, doubtless, this noble savage fed strong and drank deep of the abounding element of air.
He explained away this unfortunate beginning as a result of regrettable behavior on the part of white Americans, who did not understand the Comanche, but when his party reached the Apache and found them even more murderous, he decided that the noble savage of his dreams lived not in the south but in the freer, colder north.
This noble savage had not resided among the Pawnee, for the ones he saw were beggars living in low, mean huts, but he felt that this was not their fault.
With my knowledge of languages, literature, and medicine, had I been indio, Don Julio could have held me out as an example of what the indigenous peoples were capable of, sort of a tamed and erudite noble savage.
The young bastard (and I use the term with feeling) had had me on toast, sitting there solemnly playing his noble savage, keeping the old man agog, enjoying watching me squirm while he scared the hell out of me, turning the knife of fear and bewilderment in my innards, and keeping the really juicy surprise to the end.
There is the ultimate Lost Paradise: prior even to the invention of the wheel, the pristine and pure state is to be found in an updated version of the noble savage in small foraging tribeswhich, if nothing else, is certainly the ecomasculinist's idea of heaven: where all real men could hunt and all real women picked berries.
Rousseau and the philosophers of the eighteenth century created the ``noble savage'' who was supposed to have dwelt in a state of perfect happiness during the beginning of time.
Our modern scientists have discarded the ``noble savage,'' so dearly beloved by our grandfathers, and they have replaced him by the ``splendid savage'' of the French Valleys who 35,000 years ago made an end to the universal rule of the low-browed and low-living brutes of the Neanderthal and other Germanic neighbourhoods.