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Sir ANTHONY
'Gad! sir, I like your spirit; and at night we single lads will drink a
health to the young couples, and a husband to Mrs. Malaprop.

FAULKLAND
Our partners are stolen from us, Jack--I hope to be congratulated by
each other--yours for having checked in time the errors of an
ill-directed imagination, which might have betrayed an innocent heart;
and mine, for having, by her gentleness and candour, reformed the
unhappy temper of one, who by it made wretched whom he loved most, and
tortured the heart he ought to have adored.

ABSOLUTE
Well, Jack, we have both tasted the bitters, as well as the sweets of
love; with this difference only, that you always prepared the bitter
cup for yourself, while I----

LYDIA
Was always obliged to me for it, hey! Mr. Modesty?--But come, no more
of that--our happiness is now as unalloyed as general.

JULIA
Then let us study to preserve it so: and while Hope pictures to us a
flattering scene of future bliss, let us deny its pencil those colours
which are too bright to be lasting.--When hearts deserving happiness
would unite their fortunes, Virtue would crown them with an unfading
garland of modest hurtless flowers; but ill-judging Passion will force
the gaudier rose into the wreath, whose thorn offends them when its
leaves are dropped!

[Exeunt omnes.]




Thus communed these; while to their lowly dome,
The full-fed swine return'd with evening home;
Compell'd, reluctant, to the several sties,
With din obstreperous, and ungrateful cries.
Pope's Odyssey


In that pleasant district of merry England which is watered by the
river Don, there extended in ancient times a large forest, covering
the greater part of the beautiful hills and valleys which lie between
Sheffield and the pleasant town of Doncaster. The remains of this
extensive wood are still to be seen at the noble seats of Wentworth, of
Warncliffe Park, and around Rotherham. Here haunted of yore the fabulous
Dragon of Wantley; here were fought many of the most desperate battles
during the Civil Wars of the Roses; and here also flourished in ancient
times those bands of gallant outlaws, whose deeds have been rendered so
popular in English song.

Such being our chief scene, the date of our story refers to a period
towards the end of the reign of Richard I., when his return from his
long captivity had become an event rather wished than hoped for by his
despairing subjects, who were in the meantime subjected to every species
of subordinate oppression. The nobles, whose power had become exorbitant
during the reign of Stephen, and whom the prudence of Henry the Second
had scarce reduced to some degree of subjection to the crown, had now
resumed their ancient license in its utmost extent; despising the feeble
interference of the English Council of State, fortifying their castles,
increasing the number of their dependants, reducing all around them to a
state of vassalage, and striving by every means in their power, to place
themselves each at the head of such forces as might enable him to make a
figure in the national convulsions which appeared to be impending.

The situation of the inferior gentry, or Franklins, as they were called,
who, by the law and spirit of the English constitution, were entitled
to hold themselves independent of feudal tyranny, became now unusually
precarious. If, as was most generally the case, they placed themselves
under the protection of any of the petty kings in their vicinity,
accepted of feudal offices in his household, or bound themselves by
mutual treaties of alliance and protection, to support him in his
enterprises, they might indeed purchase temporary repose; but it must
be with the sacrifice of that independence which was so dear to every
English bosom, and at the certain hazard of being involved as a party in
whatever rash expedition the ambition of their protector might lead him
to undertake. On the other hand, such and so multiplied were the means
of vexation and oppression possessed by the great Barons, that they
never wanted the pretext, and seldom the will, to harass and pursue,
even to the very edge of destruction, any of their less powerful
neighbours, who attempted to separate themselves from their authority,
and to trust for their protection, during the dangers of the times, to
their own inoffensive conduct, and to the laws of the land.

A circumstance which greatly tended to enhance the tyranny of the
nobility, and the sufferings of the inferior classes, arose from
the consequences of the Conquest by Duke William of Normandy. Four
generations had not sufficed to blend the hostile blood of the Normans
and Anglo-Saxons, or to unite, by common language and mutual interests,
two hostile races, one of which still felt the elation of triumph, while
the other groaned under all the consequences of defeat. The power had
been completely placed in the hands of the Norman nobility, by the event
of the battle of Hastings, and it had been used, as our histories assure
us, with no moderate hand. The whole race of Saxon princes and nobles
had been extirpated or disinherited, with few or no exceptions; nor were
the numbers great who possessed land in the country of their fathers,
even as proprietors of the second, or of yet inferior classes. The royal
policy had long been to weaken, by every means, legal or illegal, the

Sir ANTHONY

'Gad! sir, I like your spirit; and at night we single lads will drink a

health to the young couples, and a husband to Mrs. Malaprop.

FAULKLAND

Our partners are stolen from us, Jack--I hope to be congratulated by

each other--yours for having checked in time the errors of an

ill-directed imagination, which might have betrayed an innocent heart;

and mine, for having, by her gentleness and candour, reformed the

unhappy temper of one, who by it made wretched whom he loved most, and

tortured the heart he ought to have adored.

ABSOLUTE

Well, Jack, we have both tasted the bitters, as well as the sweets of

love; with this difference only, that you always prepared the bitter

cup for yourself, while I----

LYDIA

Was always obliged to me for it, hey! Mr. Modesty?--But come, no more

of that--our happiness is now as unalloyed as general.

JULIA

Then let us study to preserve it so: and while Hope pictures to us a

flattering scene of future bliss, let us deny its pencil those colours

which are too bright to be lasting.--When hearts deserving happiness

would unite their fortunes, Virtue would crown them with an unfading

garland of modest hurtless flowers; but ill-judging Passion will force

the gaudier rose into the wreath, whose thorn offends them when its

leaves are dropped!

[Exeunt omnes.]

Thus communed these; while to their lowly dome,

The full-fed swine return'd with evening home;

Compell'd, reluctant, to the several sties,

With din obstreperous, and ungrateful cries.

Pope's Odyssey

In that pleasant district of merry England which is watered by the

river Don, there extended in ancient times a large forest, covering

the greater part of the beautiful hills and valleys which lie between

Sheffield and the pleasant town of Doncaster. The remains of this

extensive wood are still to be seen at the noble seats of Wentworth, of

Warncliffe Park, and around Rotherham. Here haunted of yore the fabulous

Dragon of Wantley; here were fought many of the most desperate battles

during the Civil Wars of the Roses; and here also flourished in ancient

times those bands of gallant outlaws, whose deeds have been rendered so

popular in English song.

Such being our chief scene, the date of our story refers to a period

towards the end of the reign of Richard I., when his return from his

long captivity had become an event rather wished than hoped for by his

despairing subjects, who were in the meantime subjected to every species

of subordinate oppression. The nobles, whose power had become exorbitant

during the reign of Stephen, and whom the prudence of Henry the Second

had scarce reduced to some degree of subjection to the crown, had now

resumed their ancient license in its utmost extent; despising the feeble

interference of the English Council of State, fortifying their castles,

increasing the number of their dependants, reducing all around them to a

state of vassalage, and striving by every means in their power, to place

themselves each at the head of such forces as might enable him to make a

figure in the national convulsions which appeared to be impending.

The situation of the inferior gentry, or Franklins, as they were called,

who, by the law and spirit of the English constitution, were entitled

to hold themselves independent of feudal tyranny, became now unusually

precarious. If, as was most generally the case, they placed themselves

under the protection of any of the petty kings in their vicinity,

accepted of feudal offices in his household, or bound themselves by

mutual treaties of alliance and protection, to support him in his

enterprises, they might indeed purchase temporary repose; but it must

be with the sacrifice of that independence which was so dear to every

English bosom, and at the certain hazard of being involved as a party in

whatever rash expedition the ambition of their protector might lead him

to undertake. On the other hand, such and so multiplied were the means

of vexation and oppression possessed by the great Barons, that they

never wanted the pretext, and seldom the will, to harass and pursue,

even to the very edge of destruction, any of their less powerful

neighbours, who attempted to separate themselves from their authority,

and to trust for their protection, during the dangers of the times, to

their own inoffensive conduct, and to the laws of the land.

A circumstance which greatly tended to enhance the tyranny of the

nobility, and the sufferings of the inferior classes, arose from

the consequences of the Conquest by Duke William of Normandy. Four

generations had not sufficed to blend the hostile blood of the Normans

and Anglo-Saxons, or to unite, by common language and mutual interests,

two hostile races, one of which still felt the elation of triumph, while

the other groaned under all the consequences of defeat. The power had

been completely placed in the hands of the Norman nobility, by the event

of the battle of Hastings, and it had been used, as our histories assure

us, with no moderate hand. The whole race of Saxon princes and nobles

had been extirpated or disinherited, with few or no exceptions; nor were

the numbers great who possessed land in the country of their fathers,

even as proprietors of the second, or of yet inferior classes. The royal

policy had long been to weaken, by every means, legal or illegal, the