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Now, as to the vague word 'gentleman' that my mother employs word that means so differently on different lips I confess that I have a prejudice against young ladies brought up in the 'excellent foppery of the world, as the daughters of gentlemen of our rank mostly are.
He took a pinch of snuff and brushed his waistcoat before he spoke. "Egad," said he, with good nature, looking up at me, "Mohammed was a philosopher, and so am I, and come to the mountain. 'Tis worth crossing an inn in these times to see a young man whose strength has not been wasted upon foppery. May I ask your name, sir?" "Richard Carvel," I answered, much put aback.
He took a pinch of snuff and brushed his waistcoat before he spoke. "Egad," said he, with good nature, looking up at me, "Mohammed was a philosopher, and so am I, and come to the mountain. 'Tis worth crossing an inn in these times to see a young man whose strength has not been wasted upon foppery. May I ask your name, sir?" "Richard Carvel," I answered, much put aback.
Another well-vouched case is that of Cunningham of Boquhan. Henry Cunningham, Esq. of Boquhan, was a gentleman of Stirlingshire, who, like many exquisites of our own time, united a natural high spirit and daring character with an affectation of delicacy of address and manners amounting to foppery.*
Daniel Jones, at the sign of the hat and helmet, offers to supply officers with scarlet broadcloth, gold-lace for hats and waistcoats, cockades, and other military foppery, allowing credit until the payrolls shall be made up. This advertisement gives us quite a gorgeous idea of a provincial captain in full dress.
Are the other court ladies equally wise in the probation period they allot? Are all the men Costard included so much a prey to a sort of foppery of expression and love of animal spirits as to be properly subject to the satire the play provides for them? Are the women more sane in this respect, despite their wit, or not? Is Shakespeare apparently on the women's side?
But at the terrible moment when the brigade of Bourbonnais was flying before the onset of the allies, there was no time for foppery; and the finest gentlemen of the Court came spurring to the front of the line of battle with their rich cravats in disorder.
This "foppery" of Shakespeare's day had, then, its really delightful side, a quality in no sense "affected," by which it satisfies a real instinct in our minds the fancy so many of us have for an exquisite and curious skill in the use of words.
Another well-vouched case is that of Cunningham of Boquhan. Henry Cunningham, Esq. of Boquhan, was a gentleman of Stirlingshire, who, like many exquisites of our own time, united a natural high spirit and daring character with an affectation of delicacy of address and manners amounting to foppery.*
He admires good nature as only good to those who have it not, and laughs at friendship as a ridiculous foppery, which all wise men easily outgrow; for the more a man loves another the less he loves himself.
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