The Expedition of Humphry ClinkerSmollett, T. (Tobias)
General
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Epistolary fiction; Great Britain -- Fiction; Travelers -- Fiction
Nevertheless, though Humphry had this double hank upon her inclinations,
and exerted all his power to maintain the conquest he had made, he found
it impossible to guard it on the side of vanity, where poor Win was as
frail as any female in the kingdom. In short, my rascal Dutton professed
himself her admirer, and, by dint of his outlandish qualifications,
threw his rival Clinker out of the saddle of her heart. Humphry may be
compared to an English pudding, composed of good wholesome flour and
suet, and Dutton to a syllabub or iced froth, which, though agreeable
to the taste, has nothing solid or substantial. The traitor not only
dazzled her, with his second-hand finery, but he fawned, and flattered,
and cringed--he taught her to take rappee, and presented her with
a snuff-box of papier mache--he supplied her with a powder for her
teeth--he mended her complexion, and he dressed her hair in the Paris
fashion--he undertook to be her French master and her dancing-master,
as well as friseur, and thus imperceptibly wound himself into her good
graces. Clinker perceived the progress he had made, and repined in
secret.--He attempted to open her eyes in the way of exhortation, and
finding it produced no effect had recourse to prayer. At Newcastle,
while he attended Mrs Tabby to the methodist meeting his rival
accompanied Mrs Jenkins to the play. He was dressed in a silk coat, made
at Paris for his former master, with a tawdry waistcoat of tarnished
brocade; he wore his hair in a great bag with a huge solitaire, and a
long sword dangled from his thigh. The lady was all of a flutter with
faded lutestring, washed gauze, and ribbons three times refreshed; but
she was most remarkable for the frisure of her head, which rose, like
a pyramid, seven inches above the scalp, and her face was primed and
patched from the chin up to the eyes; nay, the gallant himself had
spared neither red nor white in improving the nature of his own
complexion. In this attire, they walked together through the high street
to the theatre, and as they passed for players ready dressed for
acting, they reached it unmolested; but as it was still light when they
returned, and by that time the people had got information of their real
character and condition, they hissed and hooted all the way, and Mrs
Jenkins was all bespattered with dirt, as well as insulted with
the opprobrious name of painted Jezabel, so that her fright and
mortification threw her into an hysteric fit the moment she came home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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