Riassunto esame Letteratura Inglese, prof. Villa, libro consigliato The Silver Fork Novel, Copeland

ALWAYS MAN THAT WERE VERY KEEN ON THEIR LOOKS — SOMETIMES A TARGET OF

ADMIRATION; MORE OFTEN A TARGET OF LAUGH]… But dandyism as a social, even

political phenomenon…was the invention of the Regency, when aristocracy and

monarchy were more widely despised (hence more nastily exclusive) than ever before

or since in English history [THE DANDY WAS A PRODUCT OF REGENCY, AND REGENCY

WAS A PERIOD WHEN THE STATUS OF ARISTOCRACY AND THE MONARCHY WERE

DEBATED, CRITICISED THAN NEVER BEFORE]. What the utilitarian middle class most

hated in the nobility was what the court most worshipped in the dandy [THE DANDY

HAD THOSE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NOBILITY WHICH WERE HATED BY MIDDLE-

CLASSES AND WHICH WERE LOVED ESPECIALLY BY THE PRINCE REGENT] -- a

creature perfect in externals and careless of anything below the surface, a man

dedicated solely to his own perfection through a ritual of taste [A MAN DEDICATES

ONLY TO HIS OWN PERFECTION Through A RITUAL OF TASTE]. The epitome of selfish

irresponsibility, he was ideally free of all human commitments that conflict with taste:

passions, moralities, ambitions, politics or occupations [THE ONLY THING THAT

COUNTS FOR HIM WAS HIMSELF, HIS LOOK, HIS WELL-BEING: Extremely

CARELESS] ...a Hero so evidently at the centre of the stage that he need do nothing

to prove his heroism — never need, in fact, do anything at all [THE DANDY IS THE

EXACT OPPOSITE OF THE MIDDLE-CLASSES, HE TAKE CARE OF HIS OWN LOOK].

The 18th century fop…or “macaroni”

The 18th fop (negative term) was called also macaroni, a fashionable young man,

who dressed and often even spoke in a usual, effected way. He was very fastidious in

terms of clothes and also in terms of eating (he ate a lot of pasta that at the time was

so elite). He spoke using many French terms and wrote poems also with sort

of macaronic Latin and English. So he was a target of regency satire.

The macaroni is the precursor of the dandy, but they aren't to be confused. The

macaroni is a feminine while the quintessential regency dandy was a sort of virile,

masculine reaction to this effimenincy.

The first “real” dandy: George Brummell(“Beau” Brummell)

Brummell wasn't an aristocrat: he didn't belong to any of the grand aristocratic family,

he had no land, no coat of arms (“stemma di famiglia”) or such other things. And yet

he dictated the fashion, he was the ultimate arbiter of fashion in his time. He was a

friend of the Prince Regent, and he was apparently a charismatic man.

SLIDE 5_BRUMMELL

Brummell was quite different from previous versions of the fop, of the very elegant,

fine young man, particularly the 18th century manifestation of this typology of human

being — the fop, the macaroni. They are contemporaries because they used the collar.

Their clothes are coloured while our men are very severe nowadays.

George Brian Brummell (1778-1840)

“There are three great men of our age: myself, Napoleon and Brummell. But of we

three, the greatest of all is Brummell.” (Byron) — Bryon had a large ego. Having to

choose between Napoleon and Brummell, he chooses Brummell who is the greatest of

the mall, because he didn't do anything, and he still manages to have an impact on

his generation. Napoleon had done so much, but Brummell showed had just showed

himself to the world.

“[he was] a nobody, who made himself somebody, and gave the law to everybody”

(Mrs Gore) — She was more critical of the regency period. He was nobody because he

had no blood, but he decided what people should look like to be accepted in society.

Brummell was much talked and written about.

There are lots of characters inspired by Brummell by the literature of the time. Many

avatars of Brummell. In “The Young Duke”, there is one character at least,

called Anslie, who is reminiscent of Brummell. He is the superfine in society.

In “Pelham”, there is Mr. R... who was actually modelled very closely on the elderly

Brummell. Pelham goes to France, and when he comes back to England he stops

in Caley? To meet Brummell, who was in exile there.

As soon as he left England, Brummell had inspired lots of written comments on

himself. Collections of witticism, written by someone imitating his style, circulated

very soon. He became popular also in France (Balzac, Boudlaire they all wrote and

mentioned him). Interest in this charismatic figure carried on to the later time; even

Virginia Woolf wrote one essay about Brummell.

Life

He was a commoner, that means he wasn't an aristocrat and didn't belong to the

great aristocratic families of the Nation. He came from a family of the middling ranks

(middle-class comes a bit later that the late 18th century. Was a varied social group

— included people who worked in trade: merchant, shopkeepers...). His father was

employed by the State, so he was a civil servant.

His parents decided to sent him to Eton and Oxford. If they had been merchant they

wouldn't have choose this type of school, because they wouldn't been aware that he

might have been corrupted by the aristocrats who attending Eaton and Oxford.

He was, even at school, he acquired a reputation for fashion, for being very sensitive

of fashion and a very young man of taste.

(Vivian Gray: the very first part. He was very precursory interested in his look, which

suggest that he was fashioning himself in a way on drawing inspiration from this

myths of Brummell).

People went to university much earlier than nowadays, in fact he left Oxford when he

was 16 (he didn't complete his studies).

Brummell was a friend of the Prince of Wales (before he became the Prince Regent),

who was interested in art, fashion and beauty. The young Brummell joined the

fashionable regiment.

The military career was especially popular (as commissioner officer) among the

aristocrats. The firstborn would become the Lord, the Peer, and the other children

would often enter the army. The particular regiment he entered was the Prince own

Command (the prince was the main officer in that regiment).

These particular regiment, accompanied the Prince of Wales all over the place (they

were all fashionable, all very elegant young men that didn't fight).

He stayed in the Regiment for a while, and he resigns from his post in the army in

1798 and took a house in London. Here he ha d already made the name as a very

fashionable young man, so he was immediately admitted to all the

most exclusive clubs of London. Clubs were men institutions; certain clubs were

very exclusive.

As a very fashionable well-connected young man he was quite rich, belong to a

wealthy family (not so rich as he would have liked). He spent more money than he

had actually at his disposal and as many young belonging to aristocracy did in those

days, he lived on credit (shopkeepers, servant, tailors...would be quite willing to sell

him things or services imagining that sooner or later he would have paid them back).

In the early years of the 19th century (actually before the actual Regent 1811), he

became an arbiter of fashion: not only he was very elegant, but he was enough to be

criticised or ?praised? by him to be disqualified or qualified to join certain elite circle.

He even manage for a while to change the style of cloths of the Prince of Wales

himself. The Prince used to dress in a very ?flashy?, vulgar and too colourful way.

1811 he quarrelled with the Prince Regent. There are lot of different stories circulating

about this, perhaps he was too arrogant or perhaps when the Prince became the

Prince Regent he felt he had to turn a new page in his life, not to have so many

contacts with his previous friends.

Brummell kept on living in London for some years, and he changed a bit his lifestyle;

he couldn't be at court so often, but he was still very much liked and feared? He

attend the clubs, gambled heavily and run into debt. Now that he was no longer a

special friend of the Prince of Wales shopkeepers maybe were no so willing to sell

things on credits: so life started to be difficult for him.

In 1816, he run away, escaped from his creditors and when to France. At the time

there was special prison for people who were in debts (debtors prison). The peers of

the realm (the great aristocrats) were extent from this: they could run huge debts,

without being imprisoned. One of the privileges of the aristocracy — applied only to

the peers not to all the relatives.

He lived in France till 1840: the death after his gradual long decline. At the beginning

he was still famous and popular and elegant...and so people like Pelham in the novel

used to goes and visiting. Gradually there was a change, and he became poor, he

couldn't keep up his elegance and everything was connecting with the edging and

poverty.

The paradox of the dandy

The dandy was a very paradoxical creation of these times.

On the one hand his own figure and the idea of the superfine man, is an emphatic

affirmation of the aristocratic principles of the idea of exclusiveness (even more

exclusive because not the all aristocrats would rate as up to standard in Brummell

eyes) and leisure (crucial in these aristocrats lifestyles. They have nothing to do, they

didn't have an occupation: spent money and plan your time. Also, Brummell started

with the army but as soon as possible he decided to give it up because he didn't like

to have an occupation).

On the other hand is a very subversive character if you think about it, because he

wasn't at all recognised as a member of the elite: he made his way into the elite.

He was the living proof, the evidence that gentile birth wasn't enough to qualify as a

real gentleman. He had no title (not an Earl, Marques...not even a Baronet), no coat

of arms, no courage, no big house in the country (no ancetral-hall; in fact he had no

noble ancestral at all): he was completely different. What's made for his charm and

charisma was something very difficult to define and describe, what the France would

say a certain je-ne-sais-quoi (his taste basically, that is inborn in the human being).

Elegance for him was what matter. He was very critical of country baronet, people

who spend lot of time hunting or even on horse back, because they used to be not so

tidy, clean, dirty boots...he had a very particular idea of what gentleman should be,

very much focused on the surface, on the appearance.

Brummell was a product of the Romantic age, but wasn't a “romantic” character.

Stendhal was influenced by the dandy, Brummell, especially in “Le rouge et le noir”.

He thought “To seem sorrowful is not in good taste: You’re supposed to seem bored.”

— the dandy isn't passionate, he is never the victim of his own emotion, he is cool,

deliberate, non-introspective: he is artifical, and he prides in being artificial. He also

hides, because its aim at appearing natural, but in fact he would the product of much

self-training. It comes a very