What is a Dandy?

Readers are encouraged to consult their nearest dictionary for a description of a dandy.  There they will find a description of an exceptionally vain and conceited person.  One is invariably left with the impression that a dandy is a creature of artificiality and naive pretense (in other words a man without substance and character).  I find this to be wildly inaccurate.  This is because my own understanding of a dandy has been inspired and informed by literary portraitures and vignettes.  The dandy was the character of wit, wisdom, and philosophy.  He possessed perfect locution, tremendous insight, and fascinating views.  The characters of Max Beerbohm's stories, for example, are particularly instructive.  They are men finely dressed, well-mannererd, subtly devious, and always cynical.  They were filled with life because their lives revolved around the enjoyment of life.  In the opening scene to his classic "Enoch Soames," Mr. Beerbohm writes of his introduction to this society.  He rather accidentally falls into the company of a group of dandies who frequent taverns to drink sweet vermouth (straight!) and smoke cigarettes.  Their excessive pre-occupation with dress was not, contra the modern dictionary, suggestive of a personal shortcoming or flaw.  It was instead an indication of their intellectual profundity.  Not just any man can go to a professional tavern to drink vermouth and engage in cynical conversation.  It requires a personality, a man of the world, and of books.  Their appearance was, I think, intended to facilitate the expression of this motif.  But the dictionary would have us identify these characters as neurotic, obsessive, and socially awkward.  This definition cannot stand.