Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century; Vol. 1 (of 2): Including the Charities, Depravities, Dresses, and Amusements etc.Malcolm, James Peller
History
Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century; Vol. 1 (of 2): Including the Charities, Depravities, Dresses, and Amusements etc.
Malcolm, James Peller
London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 18th century
"Would you a modern beau commence,
Shake off that foe to pleasure, sense;
Be trifling, talkative, and vain;
Of ev'ry absent friend complain.
Their worth contemn, their faults deride,
With all the insolence of pride.
Scorn real unaffected worth,
That claims no ancestry by birth:
Despise the virtuous, good, and brave,
To ev'ry passion be a slave.
Let not sincerity molest,
Or discompose your tranquil breast;
Barter discretion, wit, and ease,
As idle things, that seldom please
The young and gay, who laugh and wink
At senseless drones who read and think;
Who all the fleeting hours count o'er,
And wish the four-and-twenty more;
Furnish'd with volumes in their head,
Above all fire, below all lead.
Be it your passion, joy, and fame,
To play at ev'ry modish game,
Fondly to flatter and caress;
A critick styl'd in point of dress;
Harangue on fashions, point, and lace,
On this one's errors, t'other's face;
Talk much of Italy and France,
Of a new song and country-dance;
Be vers'd in politicks and news;
All Statesmen, Ministers, abuse;
Set public places in a blaze:
Loudly exclaim 'gainst Shakspeare's Plays;
Despise such low insipid strains,
Fitted for philosophic brains:
But modern Tragedies extol,
As kindling rapture in the soul.
Affect to know each reigning belle,
That throngs the Playhouse or the Mell,
Declare you're intimate with all
You once have met with at a ball;
At ev'ry female boldly stare,
And crowd the circles of the fair.
Tho' swearing you detest a fool,
Be vers'd in Folly's ample school:
Learn all her various schemes, her arts,
To shew your merit, wit, and parts.
These rules observ'd, each foppish elf
May view an emblem of himself."
_London Chronicle._
TERMS--VACATIONS.
The reader who has waded through my _Londinium_ will find that several
thousands of our vast community are of that profession which might
furnish matter for a very considerable number of pages--_Lawyers_; but
what can I say of their manners or customs, without incurring a charge
of fixing upon a _single class_, and of thus appearing particular in
praising or censuring? In this dilemma I have very fortunately met with
the "Long Vacation, by Jemmy Copywell, of Lincoln's-Inn;" which the
writer and the editor of the London Chronicle, _foreseeing_ the use I
should make of it, have kindly preserved for the present purpose.
"My Lord now quits his venerable seat,
The Six-clerk on his padlock turns the key,
From bus'ness hurries to his snug retreat,
And leaves vacation and the town to me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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