' Poor
Ordinary! If he was modest, he was also... ' Poor
Ordinary! If he was modest, he was also untruthful, and you are certain
that it was not thus the hero met his death
Even had Fielding never written his masterpiece, Jonathan Wild would
still have been surnamed `The Great' For scarce a chap- book appeared
in the year of Jonathan's death that did not expose the only right and true
view of his character `His business,' says one hack of prison literature,
`at all times was to put a false gloss upon things, and to make fools of
mankind' Another precisely formulates the theory of greatness insisted
upon by Fielding with so lavish an irony and so masterly a wit While it
is certain that The History of the Late MrJonathan Wild is as noble a
piece of irony as literature can show, while for the qualities of wit and
candour it is equal to its motive, it is likewise true that therein you meet
the indubitable Jonathan Wild It is an entertainment to compare the
chap-books of the time with the reasoned, finished work of art: not in any
spirit of pedantry--since accuracy in these matters is of small account, but
with intent to show how doubly fortunate Fielding was in his genius and in
his material Of course the writer rejoiced in the aid of imagination and
eloquence; of course he embellished his picture with such inspirations as
Miss Laetitia and the Count; of course he preserves from the first page to
the last the highest level of unrivalled irony But the sketch was there
before him, and a lawyer's clerk had treated Jonathan in a vein of heroism
within a few weeks of his death And since a plain
silver handbags statement is never so
true as fiction, Fielding's romance is still more credible, still convinces
with an easier effort, than the serious and pedestrian records of
contemporaries Nor can you return to its pages without realising that, so
far from being `the evolution of a purely intellectual conception,' Jonathan
Wild is a magnificently idealised and ironical portrait of a great man
III A PARALLEL
(MOLL CUTPURSE AND JONATHAN WILD)
THEY plied the same trade, each with incomparable success By her,
as by him, the art of the fence was carried to its ultimate perfection In
A BOOK OF SCOUNDRELS
their hands the high policy of theft wanted nor dignity nor assurance
Neither harboured a single scheme which was not straightway translated
into action, and they were masters at once of Newgate and the Highway
As none might rob without the encouragement of his emperor, so none
was hanged at Tyburn while intrigue or bribery might avail to drag a half-
doomed neck from the halter; and not even Moll herself was more bitterly
tyrannical in the control of a reckless gang than the thin-jawed, hatchet-
faced Jonathan Wild
They were statesmen rather than warriors--happy if they might direct
the enterprises of others, and determined to punish the lightest
disobedience by death The mind of each was readier than his right arm,
and neither would risk an easy advantage by a misunderstood or
chanel earrings unwonted
sleight of hand But when you leave the exercise of their craft to
contemplate their character with a larger eye, it is the woman who at every
point has the advantage Not only was she the peerless inventor of a new
cunning; she was at home (and abroad) the better fellow The
suppression of sex was in itself an unparalleled triumph, and the most
envious detractor could not but marvel at the domination of her
womanhood Moreover, she shone in a gayer, more splendid epoch
The worthy contemporary of Shakespeare, she had small difficulty in
performing feats of prowess and resource which daunted the intrepid
ruffians of the eighteenth century Her period, in brief, gave her an
eternal superiority; and it were as hopeless for Otway to surpass the master
whom he disgraced, as for Wild to o'ershadow the brilliant example of
Moll Cutpurse
Tyrants both, they exercised their sovereignty in accordance with their
varying temperament Hers was a fine, fat, Falstaffian humour, which,
while it inspired Middleton, might have suggested to Shakespeare an equal
companion of the drunken knight His was but a narrow, cynic wit, not
edged like the knife, which wellnigh cut his throat, but blunt and
scratching like a worn-toothed saw
She laughed with a laugh that echoed from Ludgate to Charing Cross,
and her voice drowned all the City He grinned rarely and with malice;
he piped in a voice shrill and acid as the tricks of his mischievous
chanel jumbo flap A BOOK OF SCOUNDRELS
imagination She knew no cruelty beyond the necessities of her life, and
none regretted more than she the inevitable death of a traitor He lusted
after destruction with a fiendish temper, which was a grim anticipation of
De Sade; he would even smile as he saw the noose tighten round the necks
of the poor innocents he had beguiled to Tyburn It was his boast that he
had contrived robberies for the mere glory of dragging his silly victims to
the gallows But Moll, though she stood half-way between the robber
and his prey, would have sacrificed a hundred well-earned commissions
rather than see her friends and comrades strangled Her temperament
compelled her to the loyal support of her own order, and she would have
shrunk in horror from her rival, who, for all his assumed friendship with
the thief, was a staunch and subtle ally of justice
Before all things she had the genius of success Her public offences
were trivial and condoned She died in her bed, full of years and of
honours, beloved by the light-fingered gentry, reverenced by all the judges
on the bench He, for all the sacrifices he made to a squint-eyed law,
died execrated alike by populace and police Already Blueskin had done
his worst with a pen-knife; already Jack Sheppard and his comrades had
warned Drury Lane against the infamous thief-catcher And so anxious,
on the other hand, was the law to be quit of their too zealous servant, that
an Act of Parliament was passed with the sole object of placing Jonathan's
head within the noose His method, meagre though masterly, lulled him
too
bag chloe paddington soon to an impotent security She, with her larger view of life, her
plumper sense of style, was content with nothing less than an ultimate
sovereignty, and manifestly did she prove her superiority
Though born for the wimple, she was more of a man than the breeched
and stockinged Jonathan, whose only deed of valiance was to hang, terrier-
like, by his teeth to an evasive enemy While he cheated at cards and
cogged the dice, she trained dogs and never missed a bear-baiting He
shrank, like the coward that he was, from the exercise of manly sports; she
cared not what were the weapons--quarterstaff or broadsword--so long as
she vanquished her opponent She scoured the town in search of insult;
he did but exert his cunning when a quarrel was put upon him Who,
then, shall deny her manhood? Who shall whisper that his style was the
A BOOK OF SCOUNDRELS
braver or the better suited to his sex?
As became a hero, she kept the best of loose company: her parlour was
ever packed with the friends of loyalty and adventure Are not Hind and
Mull Sack worth a thousand Blueskins? Moreover, plunder and wealth
were not the only objects of her pursuit: she was not merely a fence but a
patriot, and she would have accounted a thousand pounds well lost, if she
did but compass the discomfiture of a Parliament-man Indeed, if
Jonathan, the thief-catcher, limped painfully after his magnificent example,
Jonathan the man and the sportsman confessed a pitiful inferiority to the
valiant
omega replica watches