[ Foote / The Cozeners ]


Foote (1721 - 1777) was a noted actor, a prolific playwright, and theater manager of the time who specialized in satire and comedy. His play The Cozeners was first performed July 15, 1774.

The quotation below comes from the 1788 collected editon of Foote's works, The Dramatic Works of Samuel Foote, Esq. (4 volumes), published in London by Vaillant, Lowndes, Nicoll, Bladon, Cadell, and Kearsley. There are textual differences between this version and the excerpt from Foote's play published in 1774 by The London Magazine.


And then he waves this way, and that way; and he curtsies, and he bows — and he bounces, that all the people are ready to — But then his wig, madam! I am sure you must admire his dear wig; not with the bushy, brown buckles, dangling and dropping, like a Newfoundland spaniel; but short, rounded off at the ear, to shew his plump cherry cheeks; white as a curd, feather-topped, and the curls as close as a cauliflower. (III: 24-25)



Newfoundlands of course are not considered spaniels today, though this was a common association in the late-18th and early-19th centuries, when breed standards did not exist and the relations between various canine groups was much less determined than is the case today. See, for example, here at The Cultured Newf, this late-18th Century painting or this discussion of the Newfoundland inThe Dog (1845) by William Youatt, a noted English veterinarian and writer.




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.the cozeners