]
CAT. Indeed! that is one way of making an audience feel the beauties of
any work; things are only prized when they are well set off.
MASC. What do you think of my top-knot, sword-knot, and rosettes? Do you
find them harmonize with my coat?
[Footnote: In the original _petite oie_; this was first, the name given
to the giblets of a goose, _oie_; next it came to mean all the
accessories of dress, ribbons, laces, feathers, and other small
ornaments. In one of the old translations of Moliere _petite oie_ is
rendered by "muff," and _Perdrigeon_ (see next note), I suppose, with a
faint idea of _perdrix_, a partridge, by "bird of paradise feathers!!"]
CAT. Perfectly.
MASC. Do you think the ribbon well chosen?
MAD. Furiously well. It is real Perdrigeon.
[Footnote: Perdrigeon was the name of a fashionable linen-draper in
Paris at that time.]
MASC. What do you say of my rolls?
[Footnote: According to Ash's Dictionary, 1775, _canons_, are "cannions,
a kind of boot hose, an ancient dress for the legs."]
MAD. They look very fashionable.
MASC, I may at least boast that they are a quarter of a yard wider than
any that have been made.
MAD. I must own I never saw the elegance of dress carried farther.
MASC. Please to fasten the reflection of your smelling faculty upon
these gloves.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51