the fop &c

• Posted by mgr on May 3rd, 2008 filed in Dandy-Typen, Definitionen, KULTURELLES, Zeitdokumente
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fop n Fop, dandy, beau, coxcomb, exquisite, dude, buck are comparable when denoting a man who is conspicuously fashionable or elegant in dress or manners. Fop is applied to a man who is preposterously concerned with fashionableness, elegance and refinement not only in respect to dress and manners but in respect to such matters as literary or artistic taste (his tightened waist, his stiff stock…. denoted the military fop - Disraeli) (I might have taken him for a fop, for he wore white lace at throat and writsts - Kenneth Roberts) (his love of good clothes and good living gave Bennett a reputation as a fop - Time)

Dandy carries a weaker implication of affectation and overrefinement than fop and a stronger suggestion of concern for stylish or striking apparel and a spruce or dapper appearance (that he had the tastes of a dandy, we learn from a letter of the time describing his “smart white hat, kid gloves, brown frock coat, yellow cassimire waistcoat, gray duck trousers, and blue silk handkerchiefs carelessly secured in front by a silver pin” - Walsh) (this character, one of the most comical in Stendhal, should … figure very high, in the list of his dandies. He never smiles, never thinks, and belongs to the Jockey Club - Girard)

Beau suggests as much attention to details of personal appearance as does fop(a beau is one who, with the nicest care, in parted locks divides his curling hair; one who with balm and cinnamon smells sweet - Elton)

Coxcomb, like fop, is applicable to a beau as a term of contempt; it often stresses fatuousness and pretentiousness as much as or more than foppishness (of all the fools that pride can boast, a coxcomb claims distinction most - Gay) (the young coxcomb of the Life Guards - Emerson)

Exquisite is a somewhat old-fashioned designation of a dandy who manifests the extreme delicacy and refinement of taste characteristic of a fop (the particular styles… he affected had their marked influence on the young exquisites of the Mayfair balls and Pall Mall club windows - Wilde)

Dude applies chiefly to a man who makes himself conspicuously different in dress or manners from the ordinary man; it is therefore the rough man’s term for the carefully dressed and groomed man, the quiet gentleman’s term for the obvious dandy, or a Western American’s term for an Easterner or a city-bred man (her father told her he would not allow her to marry a dude) (the boys jeer at every young man wearing a high hat and call him a dude) (they were all mountain-wise, range-broken men, picked … for diplomacy in handling dudes - Scribner’s Mag.) (the dudes ogled the ladies, stroking their mustaches, adjusting their ties and scooting their shoe toes up their calves to restore the chine - Berrigun)

Buck applies usually to a dashing fellow, a dandy in dress, but not conspicuously, or necessarily, a gentleman in manners (the dashing young buck, driving his own equipage - Irving) (I remember you a buck of bucks when that coat first came out to Calcutta - Thackeray)

Quoted from: Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Synonyms. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1984: 349.

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A man who is preoccupied with and often vain about his clothes and manners; a dandy.

Quelle: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, 2000.

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The Tatler writes about the fop:

FOPS AND CITS

White’s Chocolate-house,

July 27, 1709.

MY friend Sir Thomas has communicated to me his letters from Epsom of the 25th instant, which give, in general, a very good account of the present posture of affairs in that place, but that the tranquillity and correspondence of the company begins to be interrupted by, the arrival of Sir Taffety Trippet, a fortune-hunter, whose follies are too gross to give diversion, and whose vanity is too stupid to let him be sensible that he is a public offence.

If people will indulge a splenetic humour it is impossible to be at ease when such creatures as are the scandal of our species set up for gallantry and adventures. It will be much more easy therefore to laugh Sir Taffety into reason than convert him from his foppery by any serious contempt. I knew a gentleman that made it a maxim to open his doors and ever run into the way of bullies, to avoid their insolence. The rule will hold as well with Coxcombs: they are never mortified but when they see you receive and despise them; otherwise they rest assured that it is your ignorance makes them out of your good graces ; or that it is only want of admittance prevents their being amiable where they are shunned and avoided.

But Sir Taffety is a fop of so sanguine a complexion that I fear it will be very hard for the fair one he at present pursues to get rid of the chase without being so tired as, for her own ease, to fall into the mouth of the mongrel she runs from. But the history of Sir Taffety is as pleasant as his character.

It happened that when he first set up for a fortune-hunter he chose Tunbridge for the scene of action; where were at that time two sisters upon the same design.

The knight believed of course the elder must be the better prize ; and consequently makes all his sail that way. People that want sense do always in an egregious manner want modesty, which made our hero triumph in making his amour as public as was possible.

The adored lady was no less vain of his public addresses. An attorney with one cause is not half so restless as a woman with one lover. Wherever they met they talked to each other aloud, chose each other partner at balls, saluted at the most conspicuous parts of the service at church, and practised, in honour of each other, all the remarkable particularities which are usual for persons who admire one another and are contemptible to the rest of the world.

These two lovers seemed as much made for each other as Adam and Eve, and all pronounced it a match of Nature’s own making. But the night before the nuptials (so universally approved) the younger sister, envious of the good fortune even of her sister, who had been present at most of their interviews and had an equal taste for the charms of a fop (as there are a set of women made for that order of men) the younger, I say, unable to see so rich a prize pass by her, discovered to Sir Taffety that a coquet air, much tongue, and three suits was all the portion of his mistress. His love vanished that moment, himself and equipage the next morning.

It is uncertain where the lover has been ever since engaged ; but certain it is he has not appeared in his character as a follower of love and fortune till he arrived at Epsom, where there is at present a young lady of youth, beauty, and fortune, who has alarmed all the vain and the impertinent who infest that quarter. At the head of this assembly Sir Taffety shines in the brightest manner, with all the accomplishments which usually ensnare the heart of a woman; with this particular merit (which often is of great service) that he is laughed at for her sake.

The friends of the fair one are in much pain for the sufferings she goes through from the perseverance of this hero; but they may be much more so from the danger of his succeeding, towards which they give a helping hand if they dissuade her with bitterness; for there is a fantastical generosity in the sex to approve creatures of the least merit imaginable, when they see the imperfections of their admirers are become marks of derision for their sakes ; and there is nothing so frequent as that he who was contemptible to a woman in her own judgment has won her by being too violently opposed by others.

From my own Apartment,

October 5, 1709.

AS bad as the world is I find by very strict observation upon virtue and vice that if men appeared no worse than they really are I should have less work than at present I am obliged to undertake for their reformation. They have generally taken up a kind of inverted ambition, and affect even faults and imperfections of which they are innocent.

The other day in a coffee-house I stood by a young heir with a fresh, sanguine, and healthy look, who entertained us with an account of his claps and his diet-drink ; though, to my knowledge, he is as sound as any of his tenants.

This worthy youth put me into reflections upon that subject; and I observed the fantastical humour to be so general that there is hardly a man who is not more or less tainted with it.

The first of this order of men are the Valetudinarians, who are never in health but complain of want of stomach or rest every day till noon, and then devour all which comes before them. Lady Dainty is convinced that it is necessary for a gentlewoman to be out of order; and to preserve that character she dines every day in her closet at twelve, that she may become her table at two and be unable to eat in public.

About five years ago I remember it was the fashion to be short-sighted : a man would not own an acquaintance till he had first examined him with his glass. At a lady’s entrance into the playhouse you might see tubes immediately levelled at her from every quarter of the pit and side- boxes. However, that mode of infirmity is out, and the age has recovered its sight ; but the blind seem to be succeeded by the lame, and a jaunty limp is the present beauty.

I think I have formerly observed a cane is part of the dress of a Prig, and always worn upon a, button, for fear he should be thought to have an occasion for it or be esteemed really, and not genteely, a cripple. I have considered but could never find out the bottom of this vanity. I indeed have heard of a Gascon general who, by the lucky grazing of a bullet on the roll of his stocking, took occasion to halt all his life after. But as for our peaceable cripples I know no foundation for their behaviour, without it may be supposed that in this warlike age some think a cane the next honour to a wooden leg. This sort of affectation I have known run from one limb or member to another.

Before the Limpers came in I remember a race of Lispers, fine persons who took an aversion to particular letters in our language : some never uttered the letter H ; and others had as mortal an aversion to S. Others have had their fashionable defect in their ears, and would make you repeat all you said twice over. I know an ancient friend of mine, whose table is every day surrounded with flatterers, that makes use of this, sometimes as a piece of grandeur and at others as an art, to make them repeat their commendations.

Such affectations have been indeed in the world in ancient times; but they fell into them out of politic ends. Alexander the Great had a wry neck, which made it the fashion in his Court to carry their heads on one side when they came into the presence. One who thought to outshine the whole Court carried his head so over-complaisantly that this martial prince gave him so great a box on the ear as set all the heads of the Court upright.

This humour takes place in our minds as well as bodies. I know at this time a young gentleman who talks Atheistically all day in coffee-houses, and in his degrees of understanding sets up for a Free Thinker ; though it can be proved upon him he says his prayers every morning and evening. But this class of modern wits I shall reserve for a chapter by itself.

Of the like turn are all your Marriage-Jiaters, who rail at the noose at the words for ever and aye, and at the same time are secretly pining for some young thing or other that makes their hearts ache by her refusal. The next to these are such as pretend to govern their wives, and boast how ill they use them ; when, at the same time, go to their houses and you shall see them step as if they feared making a noise, and are as fond as an alderman.

I don’t know but sometimes these pretences may arise from a desire to conceal a contrary defect than that they set up for. I remember when I was a young fellow we had a companion of a very fearful complexion, who, when we sate in to drink, would desire us to take his sword from him when he grew fuddled, for ’twas his misfortune to be quarrelsome.

There are many, many, of these evils which demand my observation ; but because I have of late been thought somewhat too satirical I shall give them warning and declare to the whole world that they are not true, but false hypocrites; and make it out that they are good men in their hearts.

The motive of this monstrous affectation in the above-mentioned and the like particulars I take to proceed from that noble thirst of fame and reputation which is planted in the hearts of all men. As this produces elegant writings and gallant actions in men of great abilities, it also brings forth spurious productions in men who are not capable of distinguishing themselves by things which are really praiseworthy. As the desire of fame in men of true wit and gallantry shows itself in proper instances, the same desire in men who have the ambition without proper faculties runs wild and discovers itself in a thousand extravagances, by which they would signalise themselves from others and gain a set of admirers.

When I was a middle-aged man there were many societies of ambitious young men in England, who, in their pursuits after fame, were every night employed in roasting porters, smoking coblers, knocking down watchmen, overturning constables, breaking windows, blackening sign-posts, and the like immortal enterprises, that dispersed their reputation throughout the whole kingdom. One could hardly find a knocker at a door in a whole street after a midnight expedition of these beaux esprits. I was lately very much surprised by an account of my maid, who entered my bed-chamber this morning in a very great fright and told me she was afraid my parlour was haunted ; for that she had found several panes of my windows broken and the floor strewed with halfpence. I have not yet a full light into this new way, but am apt to think that it is a generous piece of wit that some of my contemporaries make use of, to break windows and leave money to pay for them.

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