The "fribler"

[Joel S. Berson]

Not in the OED, and new to me.  My first encounter was in Thomas A.
Forster's _Sex and the Eighteenth-Century Man_ (2006), p. 115.
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1710.  [Charles Johnson.]  The Force of Friendship. A Tragedy. ... To
which is Added, A Farce call'd Love in a Chest.  London: Printed for
Egbert Sanger, 1710.  p. 49.  [The quotation is from "Love in a
Chest".]  [ECCO]

Seb.  What injury has this Lady done you Sir, to merit your impudent
Addresses, thou Impotent Fribler?

[Sebastian is the young man in love with Theresa, and vice versa; he
is speaking to Fascinetti, "an old [and superannuated] Fellow in Love
with Theresa".]
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1712 Jan. 30:  The Spectator, no. 288.  [GB snippet, no page; but
apparently II. 360 (see Gordon Williams book, below)]

They whom my Correspondent calls Male Coquets, shall hereafter be
called Friblers.[1] A Fribler is one who professes Rapture and
Admiration for the Woman to whom he addresses, and dreads nothing so
much as her Consent. His Heart can flutter by the Force of
Imagination, but cannot fix from the Force of Judgement.
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1742.  [? attributed to Thomas Carte.]  The Blatant-Beast. A
Poem.  London: Printed for J Robinson, 1742.  p. 9.  [ECCO.]

With Malice swoll'n, Pride, Envy, Avarice,
Ingratitude attends this Train to Vice.
Yet one remains untold; with Lust endu'd,
Behold the Fribler lab'ring to be lewd.
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1779 May:  The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, vol.
49, p. 227.  [GB full view]

Those, however, who are unacquainted with either persons or facts
will receive pleasure in reading Mr. Garrick's admirable satire
published on this occasion, intituled The Fribleriad,* a Poem, which
had the honour of being highly commended by Churchill, who has also
given a very server correction to the same person.

* This piece is printed, with other performances of wit and humor, in
The Repository, A Collection of Fugitive Pieces published by Dilly,
1777; vol. II. p. 27 ...

[Apparently also in 1779:  The Annual Register, or a View of the
History, Politics, and Literature for the Year 1779 [in "A New
Edition", 1796], vol. 22, p. 53.  [GB full view.]
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Gordon Williams, A dictionary of sexual language and imagery in
Shakespearean and (1994), claims:

Johnson, Love in a Chest (1710) Ii has the variant 'thou Impotent
Fribler', a word which Steele, Spectator 288 (30 Jan. 1712; II. 360)
professes to coin ...
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Joel

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