… of good society (Jesse I: 99; Kelly 181-182). For contemporaries, Brummell’s verbal style was a central element of this performance. In Regency London, a few hundred families belonged to good society, following its often very elaborate …
… then, for Johnson was not simply a matter of being in company, but of being centre stage in that company, relishing the performance as much as the genuine exchange of ideas.‘ In a period known for its ‘clubbability’ (and the word itself is …