English Theophrastus: 

OR, THE

Manners of the Age.

Being the

MODERN CHARACTERS

OF THE

COURT, the TOWN,

and the CITY.

* * * * *

Quicquid agunt Homines, Votum, Timor, Ira, Voluptas, Gaudia, Discursus, nostri est Farrago, Libelli.

Juven.

—­Quis enim Virtutem amplectitur ipsam?

Id.

* * * * *

LONDON,

Printed for W.  Turner, at Lincolns-Inn Back-Gate; R.  Basset in Fleetstreet; and J.  Chantry, without Temple Bar, 1702

INTRODUCTION

Abel Boyer, a Huguenot who settled in London in 1689, devoted himself to language, history, and literature.  As a linguist, he tutored Allen Bathurst and the Duke of Gloucester in French, prepared a textbook for English students of French, compiled a French and English dictionary, and endeavored to promote a better understanding between France and England by translating works of each nation into the language of the other.  As a historian, he recorded the principal events of English national life from 1688 to 1729.  As a literary figure, he wrote a play that was approved by Dryden and published two collections of characters.

Coming in on the great flood of character books which reached its crest in the seventeenth century, Boyer’s collections were part of the final surge before the character was taken over by Steele and handed on to the novelists.  The first was Characters of the Virtues and Vices of the Age; or, Moral reflections, maxima, and thoughts upon men and manners.  Translated from the most refined French wits ... and extracted from the most celebrated English writers....  Digested alphabetically under proper titles (1695).  The second, resembling the first in design but considerably enlarged, was published in 1702 under the title The English Theophrastus:  Or The Manners of the Age.  Being the Modern Characters Of The Court, the Town, and the City.  No author is given on the title page, but the work is usually ascribed to Boyer because his name appears beneath the dedication.

That Boyer’s purpose in preparing The English Theophrastus was moral is evident in the preface, where he describes the subject of his book as the “Grand-Lesson, deliver’d by the Delphian Oracle, Know thy Self:  Which certainly is the most important of a Man’s Life.”  Distempers of the mind, he continues, like those of the body, are half cured when well known.  Although philosophers of all ages have agreed in their aim to expose human imperfections in order to rectify them,