Jan 18, 2006 16:16
His gallantry, like his dress, was so extravagant that I could only suppose him to be some sort of a court jester, like my grandmother's dwarf. He was small too, though not as small as Hudson, and delicately made: a youth, but painted and patched and powdered to a degree I had only seen in old ladies, his mouth a cherry pout, shallow almond eyes fringed with sooty lashes. As for his costume - well, men's clothes are soberer now than they were then, when even plain fellows went in for quantities of lace, but I had never seen such a fantastical peacock as this. He was so covered in embroidery and diamonds that to look long at him was to court a megrim.
Meaoooow. From Jude Morgan's "The King's Touch," p. 105. Is it Liberace? Nope, it's child Monmouth's first impression of Philippe, Duke of Orleans, Louis XIV's younger brother (and that is scarily accurate according to some histories I've read).
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