“Nature, you know, intended me for an idle fellow, and gave me passions and qualities fit for that blessed calling, but fortune has made a changeling of me, and necessity now forces me to set up for a fop of business.”

Wry complaint about being driven from idleness into official duties · Letterbook

• Idleness
• Necessity
• Work

“I must confess I am a fop in my heart; ill customs influence my very senses, and I have been so used to affectation that without the help of the air of the court what is natural cannot touch me.”

Self-portrait of a courtier shaped by fashion and artifice · Letter to Mr Poley (1688)

• Artifice
• Fashion
• Self