Pantin

Last updated: Jan 5, 2024

The last lines of To the Author of the Receipt for Ladies Dreſs (1753) derides male fashion: “Thus dreſs’d and equipp’d, ’tis plain to be ſeen, / He’s not one jot better than monſieur Pantin.” But who was this Monsieur Pantin?

A better question: what was Pantin?

A pantin was a small puppet-like toy that enjoyed a surge of popularity among English adults in the 1740s and 1750s, especially at social events among the fashionable and well-to-do. Some pantins were constructed so that their joints would move when a string was pulled, like a modern jumping-jack toy; British Museum 2005,0429.31 is a figure that could be cut out and assembled to form this sort of pantin.

The Pantin, a new Song describes how it had come over from France and become a popular amusement in England:

When wiſdom was vaniſ’d, and folly brought over,
They ſent, in the cargo from Calais to Dover,
A pretty new play-thing for each belle and each beau,
To divert themſelves with when they’d nothing to do:
          And was not this now very kind?

The French are ſo gracious and good-humour’d grown,
That they act more like friends than like fows we muſt own;
For to try all their ſkill, and to ſtretch all their wit,
Thus to keep us from ſpeen in the indolent fit,
          Was complaiſant ſurely and kind.

          From all ſtate affairs,
          And troubleſome cares,
                To easſe us,
                And pleaſe us,
                With a Pantin,
          Was ſure very pretty,
          And very, very witty:
                It was kind,
                And they’ll find,
          It will all our hearts win.

What a charming thing is this pretty Pantin?
Now it’s in, now it’s out; now out and in again;
Pull, — it now moves the left leg, and now moves the right,
With its wonton tricks: what can give ſo much delight
          As this my little Scaramouche?

Your ſervant, ladies both, ſee Pantin makes his tah,
To you miſs, firſt, and now he bows to your mamma:
And he wou’d have ſhown you his ev’ry pretty trick,
But really poor Pantin has been very ſick.
          O! my poor little Scaramouche!

          To eaſe ev’ry care
          Of the idle fair,
                And the ring ſhow
                Of the delicate beau,
                And cure the ſpleen;
          To quiet the heart
          Smote with Cupid’s dart,
                And t’employ
                The girl and the boy,
          What but Pantin?

When we h’d nothing to think of, ſince nothing we knew;
When the fan was old faſhion’d, and knotting ſo too;
When the fops had forgotten the uſe of their canes,
And could find nothing new for they all wanted brains,
          King France theſe defects did ſupply.

And dear Paris moſt kindly in pity beſtow’d
A Pantin to pleaſe us, and bring up a new mode.
Old Saxe, they ſay, uſed it, and each wiſe plenipo,
Becauſe nothing better could they find to do.
          Thus the French all their wants did ſupply.

          Then pray maſter P—m,
          Off hat, and tell ’em,
                We’ll take peace,
                If they pleaſe,
                Nor fight again;
          For ’tis a great ſhame,
          And we’re much to blame,
                To uſe thoſe
                As our foes
          Who ſent over Pantin.

Lady Luxborough’s letters describe pantins and how one plays with them:

The Duke of Newcaſtle Pantin charms me, and I don’t doubt but it made the peace. I am in doubt, when I hear of this polite faſhion, whether it is a mark that the world is returned to its infancy, (as old people grow childiſh) or whether it be not ſome coquettiſh invention, that Mr. Pantin may ſay in dumb ſhow what the Lady who wears him cannot ſay for herſelf. If this ſuppoſition ſhould be thought ſevere upon their reputations, at leaſt it ſaves them from the imputation of folly and childiſhneſs. (May 28, 1748)

At laſt I am in the faſhion, and have got a Pantin. Miſs Patty Meredith writes me word, that ſhe ſends me a Pantin of the neweſt ſort, and that the woman who ſold it aſſured her it was juſt arrived in England, and is reckoned to make as genteel a curtſy as any Monſieur Pantin in Europe. (June 27, 1748)

Two or three days indeed I was kept awake by a viſit from Mr. Meredith, who entertained me with the many gay entertainments he had been a partaker of at London laſt Spring; but when he was gone, I was left alone with Monſieur Pantin, whom, I confeſs, I have not wit enough to amuſe myſelf with; ſo that I ſeldom let him make his appearance, but when Parſon Hall comes; for they ſhew each other to great advantage. (July 20, 1748)

Men and women play with these toys in Pantin a la Mode (1748), an illustration accompanied by a disparaging verse:

When lofty Rome th’imperial Seat of Fame,
Flourish’d in Arts and spread the sacred Flame
O’er distant Climes, Britannia caught the Fire,
And did lke them to Arts and Arms aspire,
Where long it glow’d till Gallic Influence
Bid Foppery rise, and turn’d the Scale of Sense:
Now View that ardour which in every Youth
Seraphic blaz’d, for Liberty and Truth,
Quench’d by the false Delights of Ease and Dreſs,
View it and mourn ye Brave, for who can leſs?
Than weep to see the Follies of the Age,
Nourish’d by Wealth, tho baffled on the Stage.

Pantins also appear in satirical illustrations, slyly commenting on women who manipulate men as if they were pantins. In A Dutch Toy (1814), Princess Charlotte plays with a pantin dressed to represent the Prince of Orange. The English Ladies Dandy Toy (1818) depicts a young woman playing with a pantin dressed as a dandy.

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