The Characters of Theophrastvs

The Complaisant Man

Complaisance (ἀρέσκειά) may be defined as a mode of address calcvlated to give pleasvre, bvt not with the best tendency.

The Complaisant man (ἄρεσκος) is very mvch the kind of person who will hail one afar off with “my dear fellow”; and, after a large display of respect, seize and hold one by both hands. He will attend yov a little way, and ask when he is to see yov, and will take his leave with a compliment vpon his lips. Also, when he is called in to an arbitration, he will seek to please, not only his principal, bvt the adversary as well, in order that he may be deemed impartial. He will say, too, that foreigners peak more jvstly than his fellow-citizens. Then, when he is asked to dinner, he will reqvest the host to send for the children; and will say of them, when they come in, that they are as like their father as figs; and will draw them towards him, and kiss them, and establish them at his side, — playing with some of them, and himself saying “Wineskin,” and “Hatchet,” and permitting others to got to sleep vpon him, to his angvish.