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JAMES NOGGLE. The Temporality of Taste in Eighteenth-Century British Writing

2012; Oxford University Press; Volume: 64; Issue: 266 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/res/hgs130

1471-6968

José Luís Schifino Ferraro,

Culinary Culture and Tourism

‘Taste’ exercised a particular fascination for the cultural commentators of the 18th century. In issue CXX of their magazine The Connoisseur (1756), George Colman and Bonnell Thornton set out with comic hyperbole both the ubiquity of the concept within (and beyond) the moneyed classes and its slippery nebulousness: TASTE is at present the darling idol of the polite world, and the world of letters; and, indeed, seems to be considered as the quintessence of almost all the arts and sciences. The fine ladies and gentlemen dress with Taste; the architects, whether Gothic or Chinese, build with Taste; the painters paint with Taste; the poets write with Taste; critics read with Taste; and in short, fiddlers, players, singers, dancers, and mechanics themselves, are all the sons and daughters of Taste. Yet in this amazing super-abundancy of Taste, few can say what it really is, or what the word itself signifies.