Persliflage - a puzzling word! Orwell, Lawrence and Byron

Persiflage has never been a word in my vocabulary. I only started to think about its meaning when I read this passage (about O'Brien) in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four:

"However much in earnest he might be, he had nothing of the single-mindedness that belongs to a fanatic. When he spoke of murder, suicide, venereal disease, amputated limbs, and altered faces, it was with a faint air of persiflage. 'This is unavoidable,' his voice seemed to say; 'this is what we have got to do, unflinchingly. But this is not what we shall be doing when life is worth living again".

I explored its usage a little further, and found that others had commented on it and quoted examples, such as this extract from D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love:

Some critics and commentators have called it a 'grandiloquent', 'twee' or 'over-literary word', and defined it in various ways, although the consensus seems to suggest it means flippant small talk, mocking banter (or writing).

I'm surprised that I hadn't thought about it before, as it's often used with reference to the satirical poems and some of the letters of Lord Byron. 

Some screen shots from the internet:

On Byron's Letters

Is it a particularly English kind of supercilious mocking, frivolous banter (although the word has a French derivation)?

It doesn't seem to go down well with people from other countries, especially with those who don't appreciate being gently baited or 'put down', even in jest or in an apparently friendly manner. 

The speaker, when challenged, may claim "I didn't mean it, it was only a joke". 

I've learnt from experience that if I'm ever tempted to mock, tease or make fun of someone at his or her expense (kοροϊδεύω is the Greek word), Ι shall quickly be put in my place and told, Θα φας ξύλο!

But who can resist some good, well-intentioned English satire?

See also, Loraine Saunders on Orwell's Burmese Days