The World's Greatest Books — Volume 20 — Miscellaneous Literature and Index — John Shaqi
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 20 — Miscellaneous Literature and Index
General
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 20 — Miscellaneous Literature and Index
Literature -- Collections
And then, that the club may not seem to be unacquainted with "the
gallantries and pleasures of the age," there is Will Honeycomb, the
elderly man of fashion, who is "very ready at that sort of discourse
with which men usually entertain women." Will "knows the history of
every mode, and can inform you from which of the French king's wenches
our wives and daughters had this manner of curling their hair, that
way of placing their hoods; whose frailty was covered by such a sort
of petticoat; and whose vanity to show her foot made that part of the
dress so short in such a year. In a word, all his conversation and
knowledge have been in the female world. As other men of his age will
take notice to you what such a minister said upon such and such an
occasion, he will tell you when the Duke of Monmouth danced at court,
such a woman was then smitten, another was taken with him at the head
of his troop in the park. This way of talking of his very much enlivens
the conversation among us of a more sedate turn; and I find there is
not one of the company, but myself, who rarely speak at all, but speaks
of him as that sort of man who is usually called a well-bred fine
gentleman. To conclude his character, where women are not concerned, he
is an honest, worthy man."
Nor must we forget Will Wimble, though he is really an outsider. Will
is the younger son of a baronet: a man of no profession, looking after
his father's game, training his dogs, shooting, fishing, hunting,
making whiplashes for his neighbors, knitting garters for the ladies,
and afterwards slyly inquiring how they wear: a welcome guest at every
house in the county; beloved by all the lads and the children.
Besides these, and others, there is a fine little gallery of portraits
in Sir Roger's country neighbours and tenants. We have, for instance,
the yeoman who "knocks down a dinner with his gun twice or thrice a
week, and by that means lives much cheaper than those who have not
so good an estate as himself"; and we have Moll White, the reputed
witch, who, if she made a mistake at church and cried "Amen!" in a
wrong place, "they never failed to conclude that she was saying her
prayers backwards." We have the diverting captain, "young, sound,
and impudent"; we have a demure Quaker; we have Tom Touchy, a fellow
famous for "taking the law" of everybody; and we have the inn-keeper,
who, out of compliment to Sir Roger, "put him up in a sign-post before
the door," and then, when Sir Roger objected, changed the figure into
the Saracen's Head by "a little aggravation of the features" and the
addition of a pair of whiskers!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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