If He Is
Detected In These Efforts Of Treachery, And Reproached With His
Ingratitude, He Impudently Declares That What He Had Done Was No
More Than Simple Gallantry, Considered In France As An
Indispensable Duty On Every Man Who Pretended To Good Breeding.
Nay, he will even affirm that his endeavours to corrupt your
wife, or deflower your daughter, were the most genuine proofs he
could give of his particular regard for your family.
"If there were five hundred dishes at table, a Frenchman will eat
of all of them, and then complain he has no appetite - this I have
several times remarked. A friend of mine gained a considerable
wager upon an experiment of this kind; the petit-maitre ate of
fourteen different plates, besides the dessert, then disparaged
the cook, declaring he was no better than a marmiton, or
turnspit."
The gross unfairness, no less than the consummate cleverness, of
this caricature compels us to remember that this was written in
the most insular period of our manners, and during a brief lull
in a century of almost incessant mutual hostility between the two
nations. Aristocrats like Walpole, Gibbon, and Chesterfield could
regard France from a cosmopolitan point of view, as leading the
comite of nations. But to sturdy and true-born patriots, such as
Hogarth and Smollett, reciprocal politeness appeared as grotesque
as an exchange of amenities would be between a cormorant and an
ape. Consequently, it was no doubt with a sense of positive
relief to his feelings that Smollett could bring himself to sum
up the whole matter thus.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 31 of 535
Words from 8167 to 8430
of 143308
