| 496 | 497 | 498 | 499 | 500 |
| 1 | 236 | 472 | 708 | 944 |
|
The complaint of the merry-andrews was based on religion. They declared
it to be insulted. They described Gwynplaine as a sorcerer, and Ursus as
an atheist. The reverend gentlemen invoked social order. Setting
orthodoxy aside they took action on the fact that Acts of Parliament
were violated. It was clever. Because it was the period of Mr. Locke,
who had died but six months previously--28th October, 1704--and when
scepticism, which Bolingbroke had imbibed from Voltaire, was taking
root. Later on Wesley came and restored the Bible, as Loyola restored
the papacy.
Thus the Green Box was battered on both sides; by the merry-andrews, in
the name of the Pentateuch, and by chaplains in the name of the police.
In the name of Heaven and of the inspectors of nuisances. The Green Box
was denounced by the priests as an obstruction, and by the jugglers as
sacrilegious.
Had they any pretext? Was there any excuse? Yes. What was the crime?
This: there was the wolf. A dog was allowable; a wolf forbidden. In
England the wolf is an outlaw. England admits the dog which barks, but
not the dog which howls--a shade of difference between the yard and the
woods.
The rectors and vicars of the five parishes of Southwark called
attention in their petitions to numerous parliamentary and royal
statutes putting the wolf beyond the protection of the law. They moved
for something like the imprisonment of Gwynplaine and the execution of
498
Page
Quick Jump
|