[THE GENTLEMAN.]
(A FRAGMENT.)
The date of this fragment, which Nichols named The Gentleman, is uncertain; it was first printed in 1809, together with The School for Scandal. The autograph MS. is in the British Museum (Add. MS. 5145c). Steele had written of high life below stairs in the Spectator (No. 88), where he says that menservants "are but in a lower degree what their masters themselves are; and usually affect an imitation of their manners: And you have in liveries, beaux, fops, and coxcombs, in as high perfection as among people that keep equipages. It is a common humour among the retinue of people of quality when they are in their revels, that is when they are out of their master's sight, to assume in a humorous way the names and titles of those whose liveries they wear." He then describes their behaviour at an ordinary at Westminster, where he "heard the maid come down and tell the landlady at the bar that my Lord Bishop swore he would throw her out at window if she did not bring up more mild beer, and that my Lord Dick would have a double mug of purl." When news arrived that the House of Lords was rising, "down came all the company together, and away!" Servants were wont to congregate at the entrance to Hyde Park, while the gentry were at the Ring. "There are men of wit in all conditions of life; and mixing with those people at their diversions, I have heard coquets and prudes as well rallied, and insolence and pride exposed (allowing for their want of education), with as much humour and good sense as in the politest companies." (See page [281].)