The fop of the day is thus ridiculed by Diana in the play of "Lionel and Clarissa," by Isaac Bickerstaff, 1768:—
"Ladies, pray admire a figure,
Fait selon le dernier gout.
First, his hat, in size no bigger
Than a Chinese woman's shoe;
Six yards of ribbon bind
His hair en baton behind;
While his foretop's so high,
That in the crown he may vie
With the tufted cockatoo.
Then his waist so long and taper
'Tis an absolute thread-paper:
Maids, resist him, you that can.
Odd's life, if this is all th' affair,
I'll clap a hat on, club my hair,
And call myself a man."
The short hair and large bishop's sleeves of the clergy are satirised in the same play:—
"Lauk! Madam, do you think, when Mr. Lionel's a clergyman, he'll be obliged to cut off his hair? I'm sure it will be a thousand pities, for it is the sweetest colour! and your great pudding-sleeves, Lord! they'll quite spoil his shape, and the fall of his shoulders. Well, Madam, if I was a lady of large fortune, I'll be hanged if Mr. Lionel should be a parson, if I could help it."
[V]
THE
KIRTLE
OR PETTICOAT
"Falstaff. What trade art thou, Feeble?