Portraits

Men men men men, manly men men men!
Men men men men, manly men men men!
Men men men men, manly men, oo hoo hoo, hoo hoo, oo!
~ lyrics to the theme song from the television show Two and a Half Men

Just to clarify, this week’s post is about men.

Swell

A gentleman. A well-dressed man. Sometimes, in alluding to a particular gentleman, whose name is not requisite, he is styled the swell, meaning the person who is the object of your discourse, or attention.

Based on caricatures and portraits of royalty, some might say the Regency period is an odd era in which to set romances featuring dashing heroes, but there are plenty of handsome gents upon which to base a swoon or two. And Sir Thomas Lawrence painted nearly all of them, the lucky devil. Whether it was Sir Thomas’s flattering brush or the good genes of his subject, we may never know.

Portrait of an Artist, Michael Martin Drolling, 1819, Wikimedia Commons.

Portrait of Hart Davis Jr by Sir Thomas Lawrence, date unknown, Private Collection.

The 4th Earl of Aberdeen by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1829, Private Collection.

Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868) by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1825, National Portrait Gallery.

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, date unknown, Wikimedia Commons.

Frederick John Robinson, 1st Earl of Ripon, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, before 1830, Wikimedia Commons.

Sir Humphry Davy by Sir Thomas Lawrence, before 1830, National Portrait Gallery.

Thomas Campbell by Sir Thomas Lawrence, before 1830, National Portrait Gallery.

And finally, while scouring the web for devilishly handsome Regency era men, I came across this anachronistic beauty. It’s description reads “The Earl of Merton by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1815 after the Battle of Waterloo,” according to Wikimedia Commons. But if I can’t spot my favorite JJ Feild at twenty paces, I’m no judge of “artwork.” Well played, Wikimedia Commons prankster.

The Earl of Merton by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1815 after the Battle of Waterloo, according to Wikimedia Commons…but sharp and wiser eyes know this is JJ Feild portraying Major John Andre in the AMC television series Turn: Washington’s Spies.

Slang term taken from the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue and Cant: A Gentleman’s Guide.
For those who need them, click here for the rest of the lyrics to the Two and a Half Men television show theme song.
If you’d like to see the original post from 2015, head over here.

Today is Dear Husband’s birthday, so he gets a WOW post with a slang term in his honor. Because I loves him. And because he does this (in a manly way, of course).

Sheep’s Eyes (noun)

Loving looks, attested from the 1520s. From the word sheepish (bashful). To cast sheep’s eyes at any thing means to look wishfully at it.

Interestingly enough, I found more portraits of men casting sheep’s eyes than women. Perhaps, as Lady Catherine accused Elizabeth Bennet, women’s:

“. . . arts and allurements may, in a moment of infatuation, have made him forget what he owes to himself and to all his family. You may have drawn him in.”
Pride and Prejudice, Volume 3, Chapter 14 (Chapter 56)

Cast those loving looks our way, gentlemen.