Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Foppery
’Tis mean for empty praise of wit to write,
As fopplings grin to snow their teeth are white.
Brown—Essay on Satire. St. 2.
I marched the lobby, twirled my stick,
*****
The girls all cried, “He’s quite the kick.”
Geo. Colman (The Younger)—Broad Grins. Song. St. 1.
Of all the fools that pride can boast,
A Coxcomb claims distinction most.
Gay—Fables. Pt. II. Fable 5.
A beau is one who arranges his curled locks gracefully, who ever smells of balm, and cinnamon; who hums the songs of the Nile, and Cadiz; who throws his sleek arms into various attitudes; who idles away the whole day among the chairs of the ladies, and is ever whispering into some one’s ear; who reads little billets-doux from this quarter and that, and writes them in return; who avoids ruffling his dress by contact with his neighbour’s sleeve, who knows with whom everybody is in love; who flutters from feast to feast, who can recount exactly the pedigree of Hirpinus. What do you tell me? is this a beau, Cotilus? Then a beau, Cotilus, is a very trifling thing.
Martial—Epigrams. Bk. III. Ep. 6.
Nature made every fop to plague his brother,
Just as one beauty mortifies another.
Pope—Satire IV. L. 258.
A lofty cane, a sword with silver hilt,
A ring, two watches, and a snuff box gilt.
Recipe “To Make a Modern Fop.” (About 1770).
This is the excellent foppery of the world.
King Lear. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 128.
A fop? In this brave, licentious age
To bring his musty morals on the stage?
Rhime us to reason? and our lives redress
In metre, as Druids did the savages.
Tuke—The Adventures of Five Hours. Act V.
Has death his fopperies?
Young—Night Thoughts. Night II. L. 231.