st man alive; but his acquaintances give him a
very different character among women of another stamp" (act i. 1).
Having mistaken Hardcastle's house for an inn, and Miss Hardcastle for
the barmaid, he is quite at his ease, and makes love freely. When fairly
caught, he discovers that the supposed "inn" is a private house, and the
supposed barmaid is the squire's daughter; but the ice of his shyness
being broken, he has no longer any difficulty in loving according to
his station.--Goldsmith, _She Stoops to Conquer_ (1773).
When Goldsmith was between 16 and 17 he set out for Edgworthstown, and
finding night coming on, asked a man which was the "best house" in the
town--meaning the best inn. The man pointed to the house of Sir Ralph
Fetherstone (or _Mr. Fetherstone_), and Oliver, entering the parlor,
found the master of the mansion sitting at a good fire. Oliver told him
he desired to pass the night there, and ordered him to bring in supper.
"Sir Ralph" knowing his customer, humored the joke, which Oliver did not
discover till next day, when he called for his bill. (We are told in
_Notes and Queries_ that Ralph Fetherstone was only _Mr._, but his
grandson was _Sir Thomas_).
=Marmaduke Wharne.= Eccentric old Englishman long resident in America.
Benevolent and beneficent, but gruff in manner and speech.--A. D. T.
Whitney, _Leslie Goldthwaite's Summer_ (1866).
=Marmaduke= (_Sir_). A man who has lost all earth can give--wealth, love,
fame and friends, but thus comforts himself:
"I account it worth
All pangs of fair hopes crossed,--
All loves and honors lost,--
To gain the heavens, at cost
Of losing earth."
Theodore Tilton, _Sir Marmaduke's Musings_ (1867).
=Marmion.= Lord Marmion was betrothed to Constance de Beverley, but he
jilted her for Lady Clare, an heiress, who was in love with Ralph de
Wilton. The Lady Clare rejected Lord Marmion's suit, and took refuge
from him in the convent of St. Hilda, in Whitby. Constance took the veil
in the convent of St. Cuthbert, in Holy Isle, but after a time left the
convent clandestinely, was captured, taken back, and buried alive in the
walls of a deep cell. In the mean time, Lord Marmion, being sent by
Henry VIII. on an embassy to James IV. of Scotland, stopped at the hall
of Sir Hugh de Heron, who sent a palmer as his guide. On his return,
Lord Marmion commanded the abbess of St. Hilda to release the Lady
Clare, and place her under the charge of
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