A CHAPTER ON LOVERS. 245 



Finally, you raay greet him on the canvass of Etty, impassioned and 

 beautiful as when he bent before Psyche and sued for her smiles ; or as 

 a revelation of sublime loveliness, starting from the marble of Behnes or 

 Bailey. Elsewhere he is non-existent. 



The Cupid of the 1 9th century is, indeed, ** a little man,'' and a modish 

 little man too ! a dandy — an exquisite of the first water, instinct with 

 affectation and heartlessness — a Beau Brummel — a complete Chesterfield 

 in miniature. His frock of pea-green " Saxony,'' fashioned by some 

 illustrious artiste, vest of rose-colour satin, jeans of the most irreproach- 

 able cut, and finished ** cavalry" shining with the aristocratical ** varnish" 

 (for which De Castro deserves immortality) ; his eye-glass encrusted 

 with brilliants, and pendant from a chain of platina and gold, the cameo 

 glittering in his inimitably-plaited cambric, and the gem conspicuous on 

 his fourth finger, as he, foppishly, withdraws his cigar from his mouth — 

 these, and all these sufficiently indicate his bon-ton. But stay — his hat 

 is a ** mole-skin," the glory of Cater, and presses, daintily, upon the 

 auburn curls which, redolent of roses, have been, evidently, adjusted 

 by one of '*the first artists in the world;"* his gloves are the triumph 

 of Worcester, and of the most enviable texture and tint ; his spurs, of 

 unsullied brilliancy, and his riding-whip a master-piece of art. So 

 studiously arrayed for conquest, the modern Cupid takes his morning 

 promenade, or cargcols with finished elegance in the Park, lifting his 

 glass, smiling and ogling as the fair daughters of nobility roll by ; or 

 kissing his glove and insinuating the same and contents through the 

 window of some gilded equipage, enriched with antiquity and the wealth 

 of the Indies, or the grace and sensibility of blushing sixteen, with a 

 title as old as the Conquest. 



At the concert, the dinner-party, the conversazione, the soiree, the 

 rout, the ball, the modest " at-home" — at Almacks — the opera — in a 

 word, possessed of ubiquity, he is every where, every where asserting 

 his empire, and every where chaining new captives to his imaginary car. 

 In a hundred places at once, he is polymorphean in faculty, — putting on 

 a hundred appearances, and varying the mode of his operations as a 

 skilful general shapes his manoeuvres according to the encounter expected. 

 All ages and stations in society acknowledge his influence. One devotee 

 lacks gold to replenish his coffers, and offers a coronet shorn of its gems ; 

 another longing for a passport to nobility, mounts to the privilege on the 

 money-bags of his ancestors ; a third, some venerable Adonis of three- 

 score-and-ten, looks into his glass, fills up his wrinkles, and dreams of 

 a wife as the necessary crown to his triumphs ; while the whiskerless 

 minor, transported with the artless and ingenuous tenderness of mere 

 *' thirty-five," gives the slip to his guardians and posts off to Gretna with 

 ** the flirt of ten seasons." We pardon the boy for his folly, and our 

 pity goes linked with forgiveness ; but what can we say to those stout, 

 elderly gentlemen, with hearts dead as the leaves in October, — those 

 faded knights-errant of forty who patronise ** riding-belts," squeeze 

 into stays, paint, patch, and perfume, and after a desperate contest with 

 crows-feet and corpulence, actually aspire to youth, loveliness, and an 

 heiress ! Some, indeed, we must admit, are moderate enough to require 

 nothing but beauty, accomplishments, and sixteen. The reverse of the 

 medal 1 The pennyless minor — the promising cadet — whose sword and 

 epaulettes are the amount of his fortune : tall, slender, and, as he 

 diffidently infers, seducingly elegant ; an Achilles in valour, and a very 

 Paris in accomplishment. This spruce cavalier, armed to the teeth, and 



* Vide the affiche of a celebrated hair-dresser near Temple -bar. 



