'The Tatler.'--Beau Fielding, Justice of the Peace.--Adonis in
Search of a Wife.--The Sham Widow.--Ways and Means.--Barbara
Villiers, Lady Castlemaine.--Quarrels with the King.--The
Beau's Second Marriage.--The Last Days of Fops and Beaux.


Let us be wise, boys, here's a fool coming, said a sensible man, when
he saw Beau Nash's splendid carriage draw up to the door. Is a beau a
fool? Is a sharper a fool? Was Bonaparte a fool? If you reply 'no' to
the last two questions, you must give the same answer to the first. A
beau is a fox, but not a fool--a very clever fellow, who, knowing the
weakness of his brothers and sisters in the world, takes advantage of
it to make himself a fame and a fortune. Nash, the son of a
glass-merchant--Brummell, the hopeful of a small shopkeeper--became
the intimates of princes, dukes, and fashionables; were petty kings of
Vanity Fair, and were honoured by their subjects. In the kingdom of
the blind, the one-eyed man is king; in the realm of folly, the
sharper is a monarch. The only proviso is, that the cheat come not
within the jurisdiction of the law. Such a cheat is the beau or dandy,
or fine gentleman, who imposes on his public by his clothes and
appearance. _Bonâ-fide_ monarchs have done as much: Louis XIV. won
himself the title of Le Grand Monarque by his manners, his dress, and
his vanity. Fielding, Nash, and Brummell did nothing more. It is not a
question whether such roads to eminence be contemptible or not, but
whether their adoption in one station of life be more so than in
another. Was Brummell a whit more contemptible than 'Wales?' Or is
John Thomas, the pride and glory of the 'Domestics' Free-and-Easy,'
whose whiskers, figure, face, and manner are all superb, one atom more
ridiculous than your recognized beau? I trow not. What right, then,
has your beau to a place among wits? I fancy Chesterfield would be