Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, CompleteVarious
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
As these Foreign Affairs have long been the leaders of fashion, and
continue still to give the tone to the manners and sentiments of the
politer circles, where also their language is, perhaps, more frequently
spoken than the vernacular tongue; and as there is something about
themno matter whatwhich renders them great favourites with a portion
of the softer sex, we shall endeavour to point out, for the edification
of those who may be disposed to copy them, those peculiarities of
person, deportment, and dress, by which their tribe is distinguished.
We address ourselves more particularly to those whose animal partevery
man is said to resemble, in some respect, one of the lower animalsis
made up of the marmozet and the puppy.
Be it known, then, to all those whom it may concern, that there are, to
speak in a general way, two great classes of Foreign Affairsthe shining
and the dingy.
The characteristic appearance of the former might, perhaps, be obtained
by treating the apparel with a preparation of plumbago or black lead;
that of the latter by the use of some fuliginous substance, as a dye,
or, perhaps, by direct fumigation. The gloss upon the cheeks might be
produced by perseverance in the process of dry-rubbing; the more humid
style of visage, by the application of emollient cataplasms. General
sallowness would result, as a matter of course, from assiduous
dissipation. Young gentlemen thus glazed and varnished, French-polished,
in fact, from top to toe, might glitter in the sun like beetles; or
adopt, if they preferred it, as being better adapted for lady-catching,
the more sombre guise of the spider.
Foreign Affairs have two opposite modes of wearing the hair; we can
recommend both to those studious of elegance. The locks may be suffered
to flow about the shoulders in ringlets, resembling the tendrils of the
vine, by which means much will be done towards softening down the
asperities of sex; or they may be cropped close to the scalp in such a
manner as to impart a becoming prominence to the ears. When the
development of those appendages is more than usually ample, and when
nature has given the head a particularly stiff and erect covering,
descending in two lateral semicircles, and a central point on the
forehead, the last mentioned style is the more appropriate By its
adoption, the most will be made of certain personal, we might almost say
generic, advantages;we shall call it, in the language of the Foreign
Affairs themselves, the coiffure à-la-singe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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