Fop

Lore & Background

The word 'fop' is first recorded in 1440 and for several centuries just meant a fool of any kind; the Oxford English Dictionary notes first use with the meaning of 'one who is foolishly attentive to and vain of his appearance, dress, or manners; a dandy, an exquisite' in 1672. An early example of the usage is in the Restoration drama The Soldier's Fortune, in which a woman dismisses a potential suitor by saying 'Go, you are a fop.' The fop was a stock character in English literature and especially comic drama, as well as satirical prints. He is a 'man of fashion' who overdresses, aspires to wit, and generally puts on airs, which may include aspiring to a higher social station than others think he has. He may be somewhat effeminate, although this rarely affects his pursuit of an heiress. He may also overdo being fashionably French by wearing French clothes and using French vocabulary. An example of the so-called Frenchified fop is Sir Novelty Fashion in Colley Cibber's Love's Last Shift (1696). Fop characters appear in many Restoration comedies, including sir Fopling Flutter in George Etherege's The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter (1676), Aphra Behn's diatribe against politic marriages, The Town Fop (1676, published 1677), and Lord Foppington in The Relapse (1696) by John Vanbrugh. Vanbrugh planned The Relapse around particular actors at the Drury Lane Theatre, including Colley Cibber, who played Lord Foppington. A fop is also referred to as a 'beau', as in the Restoration comedies The Beaux' Stratagem (1707) by George Farquhar, The Beau Defeated (1700) by Mary Pix, or the real-life Beau Nash, master of ceremonies at Bath, or Regency celebrity Beau Brummell. The sexual recklessness of 'beau' may imply homosexuality. Shakespeare's King Lear contains the word, in the general sense of a fool, and before him Thomas Nashe, in Summer's Last Will and Testament (1592, printed 1600): 'the Idiot, our Playmaker. He, like a Fop & an Ass must be making himself a public laughing-stock.' Osric, in Hamlet has a great deal of the fop's affected manner, and much of the plot of Twelfth Night revolves around tricking the puritan Malvolio into dressing as a fop. 'Fop' was widely used as a derogatory epithet for a broad range of people by the early years of the 18th century; many of these might not have been considered showy lightweights at the time, and it is possible that its meaning had been blunted by this time.

Reader's Guide

The fop's significance extends beyond its origins as a Restoration comic figure. In pulp fiction of the early 20th century, the fop was subverted into a disguise for secretive action heroes, most notably Sir Percy in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1903), who poses as an overdressed and empty-headed socialite to conceal his identity as a rescuer of aristocrats from the French Revolution. This trope continued with Zorro (1919) and later influenced the original characterization of Bruce Wayne in the Batman series. In the 20th century, the fop appeared in various media, from Thomas Mann's Death in Venice (1912) to the 'bright young things' of the 1920s and the foppish male fashion of the late 1960s, captured in the Kinks' song 'Dedicated Follower of Fashion' (1966). The character persisted in television, such as the Saturday Night Live sketches 'The British Fops' (1995–1996), and in 21st-century film, with Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean described as 'grunge fop' and Ulysses Everett McGill in O Brother Where Art Thou (2000). A minor musical trend, 'fop rock,' emerged with performers donning 18th-century wigs and lace, pioneered by Paul Revere & the Raiders in the 1960s and continued by acts like Adam Ant, Falco, and Prince. The fop remains a recognizable archetype for vanity, affectation, and the performance of social status.

Did You Know?

• The word 'fop' originally meant a fool of any kind from 1440 until it gained its modern meaning in 1672.
• The first recorded use of 'fop' in its modern sense appears in the Restoration drama The Soldier's Fortune.
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1903) established the trope of the action hero who poses as a fop to conceal his identity.
• The term 'fop rock' describes a camp musical style where performers wear 18th-century wigs and lace.