Dandysme | Historisches, Kulturelles und Literarisches zum Dandy

Mai 15, 2012
von Melanie Grundmann
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Die Cravate

Zu den lächerlichsten und abgeschmacktesten Auswüchsen unserer Modethorheiten und — Zierbengeleien gehören die zur Ungebühr gepflegten Halsbinden und Cravaten unserer Männer und Männlein nach der Mode. Denn wir sind keinesweges gesonnen, allen Halsbinden und Halstüchern, die, durch Klima und Lebensweise bedingt, ein notwendiges Kleidungstück wurden, den Krieg zu erklären. Aber mit Wülsten ausgestopft, mit gesteiften und zugespitzten Oberkrägelchen (Vatermörder genannt) etagirt, in die zierlichsten Halsschleifen verschlungen, in alle Dreiecke der Geometrie vorn gelegt und mit Halsnadeln geheftet, machen sie das Hauptstudium der männlichen Eleganz aus und kosten oft mehr Zeit vor dem Spiegel als eine complete Frauentoilette. Am schlimmsten, wenn dies nun gar auf die Porträtdarstellung übergeht. So liegt eben ein recht sauber lithographirtes Abbild des einst vielgelesenen Verfasser der Dya-na-sore, des k. k. Hauptmanns und Ritters Meyer, der kürzlich in Frankfurt gestorben ist, vor mir, aus der Hand einer trefflichen nnd geschmackvollen Kunstfreundin. Wir bedauern sie aber aufrichtig, dass sie, um die volle Aehnlichkeit zu erhalten, den von einem Steifkragen über der Binde entstehenden Einschnitt in den Hals beibehalten musste. Doch an was gewöhnt sich das Auge nicht, ist einmal die Linie überschritten worden !* Wie weit aber der Ernst in dieser Lächerlichkeit getrieben werden kann, beweist der Umstand, dass dieser Hauptpunkt im echten Dandyism (Dandy heisst jetzt jeder Stutzer im Regentpark) sogar ein wichtiger Artikel für den Londoner Buchhandel geworden ist. In drei Buchhandlungen in London wird jetzt die siebente Auflage der Kunst, die Cravate zu binden, mit einem Porträt des echten Cravatenträgers, als ein niedliches Taschenbuch verkauft. Die Theorie ist in eigenen Lectionen vorgetragen und zu jeder ein Vorbild in Kupferstich gegeben**. Uebrigens ist, wie jeder weiss, der à la hauteur steht, nach einem harten Kampf der Sieg der schwarzen Binden über die weissen und bunten Halstücher diesmal in den böhmischen und rheinischen Bädern entschieden gewesen!

Dem Alterthumsfreunde, der besonders in Allem, was Bildnerei und Draperie betrifft, gern in die alte Welt hinüber blickt, mag es nachgesehen werden, dass er auch hier fragt: trugen denn die Griechen und Römer auch Halstücher und Cravaten? Antwort: ei, bewahre! Das einfache Untergewand des Mannes war um den Hals herum weit ausgeschnitten. Der Hals blieb durchaus frei und trat in seiner zwanglosen, durch Gymnastik und Bäder gekräftigten Form männlich hervor, und so ist es noch bei allen Orientalen. Kein Gesunder hätte sich’s je beigehen lassen, mit einem wollenen Tuch oder irgend einer Binde diesen Theil zu verhüllen, und geschah es doch, so wurde es eben so wie ein wollenes Käppchen auf dem Kopf (palliolum) für ein Zeichen weibischer Weichlichkeit gehalten. Es ist eine oft wiederholte Bemerkung, dass die Alten eben wegen dieser freien Enthüllung des Halses und Kopfes weniger an Kopf- und Halsübeln litten und nur bei wirklichen Halsentzündungen sich mit wollenen Halsbinden schützten. Man kennt die Anekdoten von des bestochenen Demosthenes erdichtetem Halsweh, um nicht sprechen zu dürfen, und wie er deshalb mit einem mit Wolle und Tüchern umschlungenen Hals in die Volksversammlung trat***. Daher das Wort des Qnintilian, wo er die Kleidung des Redners mustert: Halsbinden und Ohrenverhüllungen kann nur das Halsweh entschuldigen****. Daher dergleichen Binden (focalia) auch als Abzeichen eines verweichlichten Lüstlings beim Horaz*****. Wir tragen nun freilich diese Abzeichen der Krankheit (insignia morbi, wie sie Horaz nennt) täglich an uns, würden uns aber auch höchlich wundern, wenn uns bei grossen Bankets und Gastgeboten Blumenkränze dargereicht würden, um sie zum Nasenschmaus bei Tische um den Hals geschlungen zu tragen, eine Sitte, die wir nicht selten bei den Alten angeführt und selbst auf antiken Denkmälern abgebildet finden ******. Man hatte eine eigene Benennung für diese Halskränze und nannte sie Räucherkerzchen von unten herauf.

Die Sitte, Halsbinden zu tragen, schreibt sich aus der alten Ritterzeit und aus den bei damaliger Rüstung gewöhnlichen Ueberschlägen und Halskragen her. Denn man musste ja, damit der Panzer oben nicht einschnitt, ihn um den Hals herum füttern und seine Schärfe durch einen Ueberschlag unschädlich machen, woher die ganze Sitte der oft so kostbaren Spitzen- und Halskragen, aber auch der Kragen an unseren Röcken (der Collets) abstammt. Die Benennung Cravate aber kam während des 30jährigen Kriegs in Paris auf, wo die Franzosen die mit bunten Halstüchern sich auszeichnenden Croaten, gemeinhin Crawaten genannt, kennen lernten und nachahmten *******. Beherzigenswerth bleibt He?der’s Bemerkung, da, wo er v?? der geschmacklosen Unkleidsamkeit unserer modernen Frauen- und Männertracht im Gegensatz v?? der Draperie des Alterthnms ein starkes, doch wahres Wort spricht: „Die männliche Kleidung der Europäer hat einen barbarischen Ursprung. Zum Reiten sind wir da, das zeigt die Bekleidung unserer Beine. Die übrigen Fetzen haben wir uns für die Tasche zugelegt, und als ob wir uns des Stranges unaufhörlich bewusst sein sollten, insonderheit unseren Hals jämmerlich zugeschnürt, eine Kleidung, in der wir allen Nationen der Erde lächerlich werden”*******.

* Man vergleiche die genau porträtirten Statuen der Kriegshelden auf einem der schönsten Plätze in Berlin oder die meisterhaft ausgeführte Büste des Marschalls von Sachsen, von Delvaux, in unserem Antikenmuseum im zweiten Saale No. 66. Wie entstellt hier die galant-geknüpfte Halsschleife vorn diesen schönen Kopf.
** The art of tying the Cravat, demonstrated by Lessons, with explanatory plates — preceded by a history of the Cravat, from its origin to the present time, with the latest Parisian improvements and amplifications. London bei Wilson 88, 1829. Es versteht sich, dass auch hier das Zauberwort improvement, das Signal aller Industrie in England, nicht fehlen durfte!
*** Die Geschichte wird verschieden erzählt vom Plutarch in vita Demosth, T. I. p, 857. C. und aus Critolaus beim Gelline Noct. XI. 8. Man bezweifelt sie ganz, S. Siebeiis zu Pausan. II, 33. p.252, Für unseren Zweck ist es gleichgültig, ob wahr oder unwahr.
**** Focalia et aurium ligamenta (sie umschlossen zugleich das Ohr, s. Martial XIV.) sola excusare potest valetudo. Quintil. XI, 3.144. Daher Bezeichnung der Schwächlichen pallentes palliolo, focalique circumdati bei Seneca, Quaest, Nat. IV., 13. 9.
***** Satir. II., 3. 255. mit Heindorfs Anmerkung S. 324.
****** S. Visconti zum Pio-Clementine T. IV. p. 44. und die Sabina Th. I. S. 240 f. Das griechische Wort dafür heisst —. Aber freilich gab es damals noch keinen Schnupftabak und keine Tabatieren. Davon in einer anderen Vergleichung!
******* S. Menage, Dictionnaire Etymologique s. v. Cravate p. 233.
******* Herder’s Briefe zur Beförderung der Humanität. 6te Sammlung. S. 87.

Aus: Julius Sillig (Hg.): C. A. Böttiger’s Kleine Schriften archäologischen und antiquarischen Inhalts, Band 3. 1838.

Mai 10, 2012
von Melanie Grundmann
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Degrading dandyism

It is said that Mr. Bentham’s writings are uncouth in their composition, and even unintelligible. To dandies they must appear so — and this appears to be an age of dandyism. The House of Commons abounds in and is ruled by dandies — and the country is so dandified into subserviency and meanness as to be pleased with mere dandy ameliorations in the law: for reform is too strong English — too coarse for the parliamentary dandies. But the most lamentable and universal symptom of dandyism and degradation of intellect and spirit throughout the nation, especially the higher classes, is the dandyism of our literature, and the overwhelming demand for that useless and effeminate reading — novels — of the best of which, I regret to say, that they pervert poetry into history, — degrade history into unprofitable fiction, — give people the pleasure of feeling without making them pay the price for it which honest nature intended, — and relieve them from the ennui of idleness, which else might have driven them to useful thought and action. No wonder that such persons, who would think without reflection, or whose reflections are but listless dreams, cannot understand Mr. Bentham. One Euclid in the world may be submitted to, but another cannot be tolerated. One subject for deep study is enough: “Let us have no more books that require thinking,” they exclaim.

From: John James Park: Juridical letters addressed to … R. Peel. (1830)

Mai 9, 2012
von Melanie Grundmann
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Lady Morgan on dandyism

“A few days after this exhibition of dandyism, I met with another of the tribe in the hotel of the Baron Denou. He was a young diplomatist, and added the weight of official solemnity to the usual foppery of a merveilleux. Associating only with his own spy-glass, he passed with languid indifference from one object to another, in the splendid collection he had been brought to see; but without once noticing, by word or look, the eminent and celebrated person, who was so much more worthy of attention, than even the treasures he possessed. M. Denou, too much amused to be hurt by this want of good manners in his guest, followed him, with a look of pleased attention. I could almost trace in his eye a desire to place this modern curiosity among his Chinese josses, and bamboo pagodas. When this rare specimen of ‘quaint fashims of the times’ took his leave, Mons. D— exclaimed with a smile, and a shrug of the shoulders: ‘ Quel drôle ce corps qu’un dandi !’ I was surprised to find that the Egyptian traveller had so far extended his study of the human character as to discover at once an English dandy, by its generic character.”

From: “Review of new publications. France. By Lady Morgan. London, 1817″ In: The Edinburgh Magazine, and Literary Miscellany; A new series of the Scots Magazine. Vol. 1. September 1817.

Mai 6, 2012
von Melanie Grundmann
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Theater Review: “Married and Single” (1824)

LONDON THEATRES.
July 17th 1824.

Haymarket Theatre.—A new comedy in three acts, was produced last night, under the attractive title of “Married and Single.” The following is a hasty sketch of this production, which is from the pen of Mr. Poole:—Beau Shatterly is a dandy, of sixty years of age, who, having a wife, is too fashionable to live with her, it being contrary to the etiquette of dandyism. The great object of his life is to obtain the reputation of a rake, to realize the character of a man of gallantry, as far as his capabilities will permit, to persuade himself that he is young, to persuade others to be of the same opinion, and to do all this without incurring the lash of ridicule to which he happens to be extremely sensitive. But poor Shatterly is hampered with a nephew, an extravagant young artist, named Melford, who, having run himself into debt, is anxious to conceal his extravagance from his uncle, on whose bounty he is dependent. His only remaining creditor, however, feels no such delicacy on the subject, and he dispatches Ferret, an attorney, accompanied by two subalterns of the law, vulgarly called hailiffs, to possess themselves of the person of Mr. Melford, in default of payment. The plan upon which these worthy associates determine, is, that Ferret shall enter the house, and inform the young artist that two ladies are waiting for him in a carriage. Ferret accordingly gains admittance, but mistaking the uncle for the nephew he delivers the message to him. Nothing could be more to the taste of the old fop than the adventure thus thrown in his way – to supplant his nephew with the ladies was too strong a temptation to be resisted; he therefore answers to the name, and is conducted to the scene of action, and from thence to a lockup-house, in spite of all resistance. In the meanwhile the company assemble, and are indignant at the absence of the host. The next place in which we see Shatterly is in “durance vile,” from which he is soon liberated by a Mrs. Waddy, who owed him the amount of the debt on which he is detained. But though done with the prison, he has not yet done with the lawyer, for having no money in his pocket, he is obliged to take Ferret to his house, in order to satisfy his demand. They enter the house in the very height of the revel, and a scene occurs there between Melford and the Attorney, who states his name to the, to the great horror of the artist, who makes his escape on the discovery. A scene, containing some very laughable equivoque, ensues between Melford and his uncle, who, though enraged at his adventure in the lock-up house, is desirous to conceal it from the world. The plot now thickens in perplexity: Mrs. Bickerton, and her sister Fanny, who is admired by Melford, send a messenger to the latter to acquaint him that two ladies are waiting for him in a carriage ; but he, conceiving it to be a trick of the bailiff, dispatches a very unceremonious note, declining the honour. In addition to this misfortune, poor Shatterly is visited by his wife; but all misunderstandings are eventually cleared up, the young people are married, the old ones are brought together, and Mr. and Mrs. Bickerton begin at length to agree.

Nothing could be more favourable than the reception which the piece experienced. It was not the mere applause of hands, administered as we have sometimes witnessed in a Theatre, which presented nothing but doleful faces and sleepy eyes. There was laughter, abundant laughter – at once the test and acknowledgment of merit. Though the office of a prophet is not one that we are fond of assuming, there seems to be but little hazard in predicting a popular career to this whimsical effusion of the Dramatic Muse. It needs not the tongue nor the pen of inspiration to pronounce that that will succeed hereafter which has succeeded so well already.

From: The Minerva. No. 25 (N.S.), New York, September 25, 1824, Vol. 1.

Mai 5, 2012
von Melanie Grundmann
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Robespierre

Robespierre, instead of being a sansculotte, or sloven, was a dandy in his dress, and when he came to cut off heads, still continued to wear powder. His refinements in theory, his cruelties in practice, might come under the denomination of political dandyism, or were the height of the fashion, the opinion of the day carried to excess and outrage, because he had no feelings of his own to oppose to a cant-phrase or party-Shibboleth, or to qualify a verbal dogma.

From: William Hazlitt: The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte. Vol. 1. London, 1803.

: Porträt des Maximilien de Robespierre (1758-1794)

: Portrait de Maximilien Robespierre en habit de député du Tiers Etat

: Portrait of Maximilien de Robespierre

Mai 3, 2012
von Melanie Grundmann
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The vice of dandyism

But though the French are justly chargeable with this fault, they are exempt from another of an opposite character, but equally offensive to good taste, which now seems fairly to have become the vice of English society, and is finding its way into our American cities. I mean the vice of Dandyism. I do not mean to say there is no foppery in French manners. The character of their petits maitres, has been too long famous to justify the assertion. But a French petit maitre is a very different, and I think, a much more tolerable being, than an English dandy. The former, with his flowered waistcoat and chapeau bras, is the essence of politeness, and is disposed to please every body,— the latter stiffened with corsets, and dressed in the tip of the mode, stalks through a company, as if he were the only object in it worthy of being noticed. If he condescends to look at the world around, it is only through the glass, which, suspended from his neck, by a delicate ribbon, is ever and anon, applied to one eye.

From: John Griscom: A year in Europe. Comprising a journal of observations in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, the North of Italy, and Holland. In 1818 and 1819 Vol. 2. New York, 1823.

Mai 1, 2012
von Melanie Grundmann
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On imitation

THERE can scarcely be imagined a more difficult and unpleasant task, or one upon which writers are constrained to use so much delicacy, as that of censuring their neighhours for any inaccuracy in their conduct, or for exhibiting any weakness in their behaviour: yet true it is, that this consideration should by no means allure each censor of the press from exercising his prerogative, provided its end be for good. It has been said “Usus quem penes arbitrium est, et jus, et noruca”; and, indeed, I must here admit it to be a fact. That fashion and custom lead men and women into all the extravagancies of conduct, is so palpably delineated before our eyes daily, that I think very few will deny the truth. Men imbibe all their characteristics, whims, and vagaries, from ohserving them in others; and let their habits or foibles be what they will, full of absurdity perhaps, and grossly fantastical, yet such is our proneness to imitation, that we seize with avidity the first opportunity that may occur for assuming the same mien as our neighhour. This desire for novel practices, and ready inclination to their forms, produces in men a disgusting effeminancy, and exhibit in women all the levity of a romantic and thoughtless mind. The dandy must wear stays, in order to produce a waist whose periphery is equal to that of a woman’s—terse, tight, and slender-as a stick of wax. The female must spoil her form, throw herself into agony, and daub and dabble with rouge and cosmetics, ere she can carry the distinction of a dandizette.

After attaining a fullness of dress, and being plumed out in the “trappings and the suits” of gaiety, the man and woman of fashion must step forth into the world, and, like the conceited peacock, there stretch forth their glaring habiliments to catch the eye of a wondering crowd, ere they can be enrolled in the list of the haut ton. But of all things in which they preeminently display their fickleness and changeableness, there is nothing which bears so great a power over them, as dress. The fop of Bond-street exercises his whole thoughts upon what costume or habit he must next appear in; and it is the tailor’s business to comply with the wishes of his customer, and produce a surtout according to directions, in spite of all decency or respectability. This uncommon and attractive garb, from its singularity, quickly becomes the adopted dress for the season; and such is the alacrity with which this seeming trilling occurrence is handed to and fro amid the fashionable and gay, that one fool can scarcely make his debut in his new-cut, than a whole troop of contemporaries follow his behaviour, and may be seen exhibiting their levity and foppery in the most public and frequented haunts of the metropolis.

It is not only in the purlieus and favourite resorts of the gay in London, that we must look for a display of that itching after dress of which I speak: the country, from one extremity to the other, labours under the mania; and, if we were to survey the conduct of every large town in the kingdom, I have no hesitation in saying, that we should find them all as full of vanity, and as prone to shew and dress, as the great mart of our empire. This love of dress has heen the bane and destruction of many a hapless person: to the young, in particular, this remark will apply. They are naturally partial to any thing that bears with it the semblance of grandeur or superiority, and consequently are ready to gratify their inclinations and to pamper their passions whenever they hold up for their allurement some palpable and seeming object which tends to produce a glare and display. The young are susceptible of vanity, and to enhance the appearance of their natural qualities they will eagerly snatch at, when in their power, the most fantastical and glossy baubles, if from them they can hope to aggrandize the fascinations of their conceited persons. For a while, perhaps, these mistaken and unthinking beings are enabled, from fortune, to follow the desires of their hearts. For a little period they may flaunt ahout in the complete zenith of gaiety, and lard themselves with the finery of the haberdasher’s shop. Some brief years may pass away ere a stop is put to the career of empty pageantry, and, during that space, no art may have heen left untried, no fascinating garb may have slipped into oblivion without being used, no false blandishment, no brilliant costume, but what are these in the eye of philosophy, in the respect of time? The one holds them as futile and despicable, and the other despoils them and tarnishes their lustre. The race of folly must find a gaol, and we are certain that glory and pleasure can only exist, as it were, for a day, when they and their votary, in their full plenitude of blazonry, will tumble headlong from the prominence to which they had climhed, and be for ever hurled into oblivion.

The love of dress leads on to extravagance. To hold and be on a par with the fashionahle portion of our country, we must put on their mien — exhibit all their wild and mad-cap vagaries — obtrude ourselves into company of the first order — and follow it through all the various sinuosities which its fickleness adverts to, as being adapted to the purposes of yielding the pleasure desired. To accomplish these material objects, money will be found a requisite concomitant; and unless fortune showers down her favours pretty profusely, no one can pursue these shifting delights with the rapidity in which they make their peregrinations. High life is full of changes; nor does the vane on the steeple-top display more unsteadiness and perform more revolutions. We know very well, that men do not always act with prudence, and consider before they engage themselves in debt; whether or not they have a sufficiency to extricate themselves when called upon for their just owings: it consequently adds to the necessity of guarding against the indulgence of young and unexperienced inclinations. The world has so much of snare and danger in its pleasures, and at the same time all its appearances are so palpable and engaging, that it requires an ahundance of thought, and more mature reflection than youth may he expected generally to possess, to he able to weigh judiciously the consequences attending on a too prolix and open intercourse with the numerous amusements with which we are encompassed. Hence the services of the press and the offices of moral writers: it is their united efforts that must place the unwary on their guard, and it is to them the misled and hapless dupe must look for a panacea for the wounds to which, from his delusion, he has fallen a victim. If ever a young person indulges in a wish to mingle with the crowd of the fashionahle and gay, it will be a difficult task to unroot the thought; and it may justly be dreaded, that if opportunity should ever occur, it will be hastily seized to put in practice what imagination has long held up as being so charming.

I have said much of dress, and of the bearings it has upon the mind : I have done so, because I imagine that to satisfy the passion for show and gaiety, is to warp every virtuous principle, and will eventually lead on to ruin and poverty. To waste our precious moments in the embroidery of the person, and to neglect the cultivation of the mind, is to foster pride, selfishness, and conceit, and to smother the existence of those acquirements which alone make us truly estimable and exalt the mind in excellence and virtue.

The tide of fashion in this country has hecome almost overwhelming! and its impetuosity seems as if it would sweep the whole body of society into its course. The good old customs of our progenitors have fallen into disuse, and new and singular systems of habits have been built upon their shattered remains. Year after year, and season after season, throw in their mite to produce novelty and to excite wonder. The empty-minded snatch at every thing that boasts of not being vulgar and common; and those who have little else to do than to think of such changes in the atmosphere of high life, set the example by adopting whatsoever is new, and their conduct is as a watchword for the middling classes, and even for plebeians, to countenance the ruling usages of the day.

Our newspapers teem with the effusions of empyrics, and such as feign to add a lustre to the naked beauties of nature. Some one daily steps forth as the advocate of a rouge for the face, or an oil for the air; and as a recommendation of their article, and in order to obtain a sale for it, we usually see an observation attached to their puffs, that it is used by all the nobility, &c. and occasionally we have mentioned half a dozen names of the leading members of the fashionable world, as persons who patronize their traffic, and upon whose judgments implicit reliance maybe had. Immediately these articles are brought into repute, and the reason alleged for the same is that they are used by the first orders. You have nothing else to do than to observe on any thing however unlikely and absurd, that it is now the fashion to do so, and immediately the fastidious cease their squeamishness and reconcile themselves to the novelty. We run with the crowd : and whatsoever it deems as being best, the few who lag hehind seem compelled to accord with the assertion, and for the sake of not being accounted singular, they, without demurring, follow the example set by their neighhours.

Fashion reconciles us to eat venison at the great man’s table, when it stinks and tastes rancid: to say that it is liked better for having such a flavour, is to blur reason altogether. The fact is, one must be fashionable, let the custom of the day be ever so absurd; and this necessity obliges us to conform to practices which our feelings condemn. We become resolute on conquering our various distastes, and time brings us at last to put up with the inconvenience, and even to like it. In company now, when asked out to tea, we must burn and scald our mouths for the lack of the old habit (which is nearly become obsolete) of pouring the boiling tea into a saucer to cool. These are two out of the thousands of new and fashionable customs of our country; and what with them and dress, I often think how foolish men and women are, and how easily they can he brought to adopt any thing if the generality of the people say it is good, and more genteel than the vulgar and old indulgences of our ancestors.

From: The Babbler; or, Weekly Literary and Scientific Intelligencer. Jan 1, 1821; Nr. 10, Vol. 1.

April 30, 2012
von Melanie Grundmann
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Dandy (definition)

DANDY, a fop, or fashionable nondescript. This word, in the sense of a fop, is of modern origin. Egan says it was first used in 1820, and Bee in 1816. Johnson does not mention it, although it is to be found in all late dictionaries. Dandies wore stays, studied feminity, and tried to undo their manhood. Lord Petersham headed them. At the present day dandies of this stamp are fast disappearing. The feminine of Dandy was Dandizette, but the term only lived for a short season.

From: The slang dictionary, or, The Vulgar Words, Street Phrases, and “Fast” Expressions of High and Low Society. London, 1864.

April 29, 2012
von Melanie Grundmann
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The slavery of fashion

The enormous power of custom and fashion has perhaps never yet been duly estimated by the bulk of temperance reformers. It is not only that which induces many to begin to drink, and to continue drinking,— many who have no faith in the virtue, and many who even strongly suspect the evil, of the drink, — it is that which surely antagonizes, by silently undermining, the reformation. Dr Beddoes puts the case strongly, but truly, when he says that “crimes of moderate magnitude do not excite so much repugnance as an oversight in any of the minutias of fashion.” Who, indeed, can bear to be stigmatized as “ungenteel” or “vulgar”? To bear that for conscience’ sake — resolutely to ignore what Mrs. Grundy may say — is the very height of heroism, though it may not wear the “crown.” Fashion is a kind of slavery, wherein there is no slave-master; but all the men and women are the mutual slaves of their adopted notions. A dandy or dandizette, an idiot beau or belle, may set the fashion, which king, lords, and commons will servilely follow, till some new idol or fresh whim displaces the old one. Fortunately, one can see that fashion and custom are powers which can be turned against themselves. When bad customs conspire to tyrannize over men’s better knowledge and purer aspirations, it is the duty of good men to combine and establish Counter-customs, and to make them honored and respected by their own virtue. This custom, as Bacon says, must be “copulate and collegiate,” for “the great multiplication of virtues upon human nature Resteth Upon Societies Well Ordained.”

From: Dr. F. R. Lees: Textbook of Temperance. (1869)

April 28, 2012
von Melanie Grundmann
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The Dandizette

Mr. Wright’s volume concludes with the death of George the Third, in January, 1820, and its final pages are occupied with some of the fashionable oddities, in the way of male and female dress, of the concluding years of that long reign. The dandies and dandizettes of 1819-20 must have been a strange race. “Dandizette” was a term applied to the feminine devotees to dress, and their absurdities were fully equal to those of the dandies.

From: “Caricature History.” Every Saturday. A Journal of Choice Reading. Selected from Foreign Current Literature. February 13, 1869. No. 163, Vol. 7.