Chapter VII · DAILY LIFE. (Men.)
Reading edition
Out-of-door amusements — A holiday — Hatred of French fashions — Beaus' oaths — Kissing — Fops: their daily life.
THE MERRY FIDLER.
This stay-at-home lot naturally disliked all who differed from them; and their especial hatred, on whom all their vials of wrath was poured out, and who provoked their most pungent satire, was the travelled fop who had brought back with him Continental ideas and fashions. In this matter John Bull, until he began to move about a bit, has always been most conservative. Anything 'un-English' was certain of condemnation, and of course, during the war the French, and all belonging to them, were especially hated.
These affectations offended our insularity, and, probably, the following sketch was not at all ungenerous or uncalled for:—
And he who to his Fancy puts no Stop, Goes out a Fool, and may return a Fop; And after he Six Months in France has been, Comes home a most Accomplish'd Harlequin, Drest in a tawdry Suit at Paris made, For which he more than thrice the Value paid. French his Attendants, French alone his Mouth Can speak, his native Language is uncouth. If to the Ladies he does make Advance, His very Looks must have the Air of France, The English are so heavy and so dull, As if with Lead, not Brains, their Heads were full. But the brisk Frenchman, by his subtil Art, Soon finds Access to any Lady's Heart.
If these descriptions be true, and they are so numerous and widely scattered as to leave little doubt of it, the young fellow came back a fribble, an emasculated nothing, except as regards his periwig, his clothes, and his snuff-box.
MEN KISSING.