1 year ago

Falsehood in him was not the useless lie
Of boasting pride or laughing vanity:
It was the gainful, the persuading art, etc.

CRABBE.

On with the horses-off to Canterbury,
Tramp, tramp o'er pebble, and splash, splash thro' puddle;
Hurrah! how swiftly speeds the post so merry!
...............
"Here laws are all inviolate: none lay
Traps for the traveller; every highway's clear;
Here—" he was interrupted by a knife,
With "D—-your eyes! your money or your life!"

Don Juan.

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Cadmus was the legendary Phoenician founder of Boeotian Thebes. He was the first Greek hero and, alongside Perseus and Bellerophon, the greatest hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles. His mythology is too extensive to summarize here, but worth looking up if you aren't already familiar with it.

Rinaldo Rinaldini: Title character from Christian August Vulpius's 1797 novel "Rinaldo Rinaldini, the Robber Captain", which was made into a film in 1927, and a German TV series in 1968.

catarrh: excessive discharge or buildup of mucus in the nose or throat

Salthill, if I have it correct, is part of the borough of Slough in Berkshire, and is very much on the way from Bath to London. Indeed, being rather close to modern day London (quite close to Heathrow!), although 200 years ago it still would have been about 20 miles.

alieni appetentes: greedy strangers

Holy cow but my attempt at Tomlinson's voice came out extra tinny for some reason. I have no explanation for that. So bizarre.

The picture used is "An Exact Representation of Maclaine the Highwayman Robbing Lord Eglington on Hounslow Heath on the 26th of June 1756". So instead of being a few decades after the setting of the story, we finally have a picture that is a few decades prior to the setting. Still, highwaymen robbing a nobleman in England, so it'll have to do.

To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7735/7735-h/7735-h.htm#link2HCH0025

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