Lovable rogues …

… Pirates! by Michael Dirda | The Gallery | The New York Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Many of these proud buccaneers exhibit a dandy’s taste for elegant finery. The standard garb—earrings and sashes, as well as lace at the wrists and feathers in often elaborate hats—actually lends a distinctly femininizing air to their appearance, while the widespread practice of swinging on sail-lines or capering on crossbeams suggests the circus or the ballet. Pirate captains are obviously the Baryshnikovs of the sea lanes.