LOL! I feel like "ruffian" is something you could see in, IDK, Westerns or something -- like, circa early 20th C -- whereas I don't think I have ever seen "poltroon" used in any fiction that was set more recently than... maybe possibly the 1800's, but in my head it's way more associated with Middle Ages - ish historical fiction.

Ahahaha, now that you've read us Leineweber, I have to assume this is another instance of praeteritio: the rhetorical device of calling attention to something negative by seeming to deny it.

Ah! I knew the device of course, but not the name for it.