George P. Landow [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. ]George du Maurier. Scanned image and text by
Commentary: This cartoon, which makes use of a characteristic du Maurier misunderstanding leading to a play on words, comments on male dress of the period, the speaker claiming that on the footman and the clergyman, both of whom are wearing costume largely unchanged since the eighteenth century, are the only ones attractively dressed. Since the most important difference between those men and the others in the room consists in the fact that they wear tight breeches and long stockings whereas the other wear trousers, du Maurier may be making a commentary on conservatism in politics as well as dress: as Carlyle reminds us, many French revolutionaries wore the trousers of the working classes and were known therefore as "sans culottes" (without breeches) -- and now even members of the upper classes dress like the lower orders. What is implied about their social roles by the fact that (only) a servant and a clergyman wear this already archaic costume?
du Maurier, George. English Society. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1897.
Last modified 6 July 2001