beau-ideal

plural beau-ideals

1. alternativeAlternative form of beau idéal.

   To this same level of the beau-ideal the imagination in absence descends as well as rises—and it is by this theory alone I can account for having done injustice to Mrs. Norton's beauty in my remembrance of her.

   1840, The American Miscellany - Volumes 1-2, page 77

   2 more examples

   It seems but proper, every way, therefore, for us to know, that this king of poets and philosophers was also among the best of men ; that, in his character, modesty and humility kept pace with greatness ; and that he was as much better than the beau-ideals of our intellectual popinjays and dandiprats, as those beau-ideals were prouder than he.

   1848, Henry Norman Hudson, Lectures on Shakespeare - Volume 1, page 41

   The latter says—“I felt the future ; I foretold that they would prove themselves the finest things on earth, that they would overturn the false beau-ideal, where nature was nothing, and establish the true beau-ideal of which nature alone is the basis."

   2011, Henry Benjamin Wheatley, Round about Piccadilly and Pall Mall, →ISBN, page 14