Aping the French: Foppish Masculinities in the Eighteenth Century

The association of the fop with notions of aping in the eighteenth century traversed literary genres: periodicalists, moral essayists, playwrights, and novelists all utilised the simian analogy in order to discuss issues of class and gender identity. This chapter addresses how the character of the fop opened up discussions of class and gender through its association with simian identities. Authors played on the linguistic potential of “apeing” to depict the fop as possessing physical ape-like features. In bestialising the fop, authors presented him as less than human and, in doing so, the comic character found on the Restoration stage was replaced by a figure who needed to be ridiculed because he was something to be feared. Focusing on the fop’s transformation into an ape, this chapter explores the issue of character as signified through physiognomy and considers how specific social conditions could alter the presentation and perceptions of a character’s traits. The chapter considers how the trope of the ape was used to transform perceptions of the fop from a seemingly harmless and frivolous character into one who posed a danger to social norms.