“A vain man is a flower that expects to be watered by the dew of admiration. Such is the Dandy.”
(Beau Brummell: His Life and Times, Carlo Maria Franzero)
George Bryan Brummell. AKA Beau Brummell, has become known for two things: (1) introducing what has evolved into the modern man's tailored suit, and (2) making it cool to take a bath every day. At Eton and Oxford he became recognized for his impeccable dress and grooming. He was clever, but lazy; elegant, but not particularly athletic. Although he didn't come from the same aristocratic background as many of his classmates, he managed to distinguish himself. Though, as Franzero points out, "Oxford was a place for social training rather than a preparation for scholarship." It's easy to imagine how someone with Beau's aptitude for repartee would thrive in such an environment.
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| Pictorial guide, in case you want to British all the place |
As a teenager, his father died and much of his his hard earned money went straight into Beau's pocket once he came of age. (If breeches have pockets)
Several years earlier he met Prinny, the Prince of Wales (Princess Charlotte's father, if you're keeping track), and the course of his life was inevitably changed.
In 1794, in fulfillment of a promise extracted from the Prince upon their first meeting, Beau joined the Tenth Royal Hussars, the Prince's own regiment.
Beau and Prinny began to pass much of time in each other's company. If you are at all familiar with the hedonistic George IV, you may infer that little to no work was accomplished between the two. Beau tired of military life, however, and Prinny allowed him to sell out. Of course their bromance lived on into civilian life.
Beau's cutting witticisms and discerning tastes quickly ensured his place in London society, who craved even fleeting moments in his company. As Franzero writes:
“The ladies were anxious to have him at their balls and
parties ; more than one hostess spent anxious hours await-
ing the arrival of Brummell, who would at long last enter
the room : lingering for a short while on the threshold, he
would look round through his spy-glass, then exchange a
few compliments right and left, and depart for another
ball, in his sedan-chair.”
Although his fortune was small in comparison, Beau behaved as though he had the same means as the fashionable lot with whom he consorted. They spent, he spent. They gambled, he gambled. You see where this is going. The good times were coming to a close.
Perhaps if Beau had learned to restrain his sharp tongue, or at least learned to not unleash it upon the Prince of Wales, he could have maintained his place. Prinny was never known for his frugality. Alas, it was not to be. The rift began to grow, and the bosom buddies became bitter enemies.
For more on their relationship, check out This Charming Man. All the videos may be found on YouTube: This Charming Man
It's not what I would call a "good" movie, but it does the job of being informative, and having lots of British people doing British-y things. Plus Hugh Bonneville (AKA Lord Grantham of Downton Abbey fame) pulls it out as the Prince of Wales.
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| Look at my wig! Nailing it. |
By 1816, Beau was deeply in debt, so he did what any respectable man would do and ran away to France. He lived the rest of his life in exile, dying in March of 1840 of syphilis.
