Galerie de Modes, 49e Cahier, 4e Figure
The young Elvire conversing in the evening of the pleasures that she must taste with Lindor in a tête-à-tête: she has a hat à la prétention; her gown is à l'Anglaise, kerchief with two gathered collars and mantelet of black taffeta. (1786)
"The most beautiful garden is deserted at such a time, at such a day, because it is the practice of today to crowd elsewhere. The reason for this exclusive preference is not seen; but this tacit convention is observed exactly.
"In the chosen walkway where the multitude ebbs, you are bothered, bumped, elbowed, and the waves are not less agitated than these performances ...
"No feminine face which is studied decreases its age. That of secret cares to conceal emerging wrinkles! But the lisp of weak pronunciation doesn't serve to disguise one's years.
"The kept girls are very decently set up, and if they continue, it would be necessary to know them in order not to be misled, and to distinguish them from honest bourgeouises.
"One notes from all these promenades that women have great need of seeing and being seen ..."
Sebastien MERCIER, Tableau de Paris, 1782
"The kept girls are very decently set up, particularly with frosted cakes and tankards of warm chocolate. This has resulted in a most delightful effusion of buttock, which emerges in beguiling fashion from all possible directions of a ladder-back chair. While alluring in the extreme, their bulges of beauty also act as convenient buffers in the event of unexpected falls. This is most helpful, as kept women are regrettably inclined to sit at the edges of cliffs while contemplating their lack of honesty and weak pronunciation."
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't know about you, but my preference is always to sit in my incredibly narrow ladder-back chairs at the very edge of a local ravine.
DeleteRavine? That's a bold choice. I usually drag my chair to the uneven edge of a nearby gully, and wait for the trains to pass. But, you know, to each her own.
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