Sir John Galliard, the hero of the ironically titled The Accomplish’d Rake, or Modern Fine Gentleman by Mary Davys, has all the characteristics of an eighteenth-century rake: he is handsome, rich, independent, clever, and misogynist. Davys carefully prepares the background for his character: his father dies when he is young, leaving him in the hands of an attractive but inattentive mother who is a female rake. When he discovers her in bed with a footman, he declares his detestation of all women, whom he sets out to punish for her sake: “I am now so far let into Women’s Frailty, that the whole Race of Mankind should cease e’er I would endeavour to increase my own Species.”
Teachwell, his tutor, wishes him to go to Cambridge, his father’s alma mater (and the location of Mary Davys’s coffee house), but...
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Citation: Bowden, Martha F.. "The Accomplish'd Rake, Or Modern Fine Gentleman". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 August 2005; last revised 26 May 2025. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16841, accessed 05 December 2025.]
