{"product_id":"2940016069791","title":"A Set of Rogues","description":"CHAPTER I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e_Of my companions and our adversities, and in particular from our\u003cbr\u003egetting into the stocks at Tottenham Cross to our being robbed at\u003cbr\u003eEdmonton._\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere being no plays to be acted at the \"Red Bull,\" because of the\u003cbr\u003ePlague, and the players all cast adrift for want of employment, certain\u003cbr\u003eof us, to wit, Jack Dawson and his daughter Moll, Ned Herring, and\u003cbr\u003emyself, clubbed our monies together to buy a store of dresses, painted\u003cbr\u003ecloths, and the like, with a cart and horse to carry them, and thus\u003cbr\u003eprovided set forth to travel the country and turn an honest penny, in\u003cbr\u003ethose parts where the terror of pestilence had not yet turned men's\u003cbr\u003estomachs against the pleasures of life. And here, at our setting out,\u003cbr\u003elet me show what kind of company we were. First, then, for our master,\u003cbr\u003eJack Dawson, who on no occasion was to be given a second place; he was a\u003cbr\u003ehale, jolly fellow, who would eat a pound of beef for his breakfast\u003cbr\u003e(when he could get it), and make nothing of half a gallon of ale\u003cbr\u003etherewith,--a very masterful man, but kindly withal, and pleasant to\u003cbr\u003elook at when not contraried, with never a line of care in his face,\u003cbr\u003ethough turned of fifty. He played our humorous parts, but he had a sweet\u003cbr\u003evoice for singing of ditties, and could fetch a tear as readily as a\u003cbr\u003elaugh, and he was also exceeding nimble at a dance, which was the\u003cbr\u003estrangest thing in the world, considering his great girth. Wife he had\u003cbr\u003enone, but Moll Dawson was his daughter, who was a most sprightly, merry\u003cbr\u003elittle wench, but no miracle for beauty, being neither child nor woman\u003cbr\u003eat this time; surprisingly thin, as if her frame had grown out of\u003cbr\u003eproportion with her flesh, so that her body looked all arms and legs,\u003cbr\u003eand her head all mouth and eyes, with a great towzled mass of chestnut\u003cbr\u003ehair, which (off the stage) was as often as not half tumbled over her\u003cbr\u003eshoulder. But a quicker little baggage at mimicry (she would play any\u003cbr\u003epart, from an urchin of ten to a crone of fourscore), or a livelier at\u003cbr\u003edancing of Brantles or the single Coranto never was, I do think, and as\u003cbr\u003emerry as a grig. Of Ned Herring I need only here say that he was the\u003cbr\u003emost tearing villain imaginable on the stage, and off it the most\u003cbr\u003ecivil-spoken, honest-seeming young gentleman. Nor need I trouble to give\u003cbr\u003ea very lengthy description of myself; what my character was will appear\u003cbr\u003ehereafter, and as for my looks, the less I say about them, the better.\u003cbr\u003eBeing something of a scholar and a poet, I had nearly died of\u003cbr\u003estarvation, when Jack Dawson gave me a footing on the stage, where I\u003cbr\u003ewould play the part of a hero in one act, a lacquey in the second, and a\u003cbr\u003emerry Andrew in the third, scraping a tune on my fiddle to fill up the\u003cbr\u003eintermedios.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe had designed to return to London as soon as the Plague abated, unless\u003cbr\u003ewe were favoured with extraordinary good fortune, and so, when we heard\u003cbr\u003ethat the sickness was certainly past, and the citizens recovering of\u003cbr\u003etheir panic, we (being by this time heartily sick of our venture, which\u003cbr\u003eat the best gave us but beggarly recompense) set about to retrace our\u003cbr\u003esteps with cheerful expectations of better times. But coming to Oxford,\u003cbr\u003ewe there learned that a prodigious fire had burnt all London down, from\u003cbr\u003ethe Tower to Ludgate, so that if we were there, we should find no house\u003cbr\u003eto play in. This lay us flat in our hopes, and set us again to our\u003cbr\u003evagabond enterprise; and so for six months more we scoured the country\u003cbr\u003ein a most miserable plight, the roads being exceedingly foul, and folks\u003cbr\u003emore humoured of nights to drowse in their chimnies than to sit in a\u003cbr\u003edraughty barn and witness our performances; and then, about the middle\u003cbr\u003eof February we, in a kind of desperation, got back again to London, only\u003cbr\u003eto find that we must go forth again, the town still lying in ruins, and\u003cbr\u003eno one disposed to any kind of amusement, except in high places, where\u003cbr\u003esuch actors as we were held in contempt. So we, with our hearts in our\u003cbr\u003eboots, as one may say, set out again to seek our fortunes on the\u003cbr\u003eCambridge road, and here, with no better luck than elsewhere, for at\u003cbr\u003eTottenham Cross we had the mischance to set fire to the barn wherein we\u003cbr\u003ewere playing, by a candle falling in some loose straw, whereby we did\u003cbr\u003einjury to the extent of some shilling or two, for which the farmer would\u003cbr\u003ehave us pay a pound, and Jack Dawson stoutly refusing to satisfy his\u003cbr\u003edemand he sends for the constable, who locks us all up in the cage that\u003cbr\u003enight, to take us before the magistrate in the morning.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47101166977264,"sku":"2940016069791","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940016069791","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}