Complete Works Author:Henry Fielding Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: daughters, Grace was married to a merchant of Yorkshire, who dealt in horses. Charity took to husband an eminent gentleman, whose name I cannot learn, but who wa... more »s famous for so friendly a disposition that he was bail for above a hundred persons in one year. He had likewise the remarkable humor of walking in Westminster Hall with a straw in his shoe. Honor, the youngest, died unmarried; she lived many years in this town, was a great frequenter of plays, and used to be remarkable for distributing oranges to all who would accept of them. Jonathan married Elizabeth, daughter of Scragg Hollow, of.Hockley-in-the-Hole, Esq., and by her had Jonathan, who is the illustrious subject of these memoirs. CHAPTER III. The birth, parentage, and education of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great. It is observable that Nature seldom produces any one who is afterwards to act a notable part on the stage of life, but she gives some warning of her intention; and, as the dramatic poet generally prepares the entry of every considerable character with a solemn narrative, or at least a great flourish of drums and trumpets, so doth this our Alma. Mater by some shrewd hints pre-admonish us of her intention, giving us warning, as it were, and crying— Venienti occurite morbo. Thus Astyages, who was the grandfather of Cyrus, dreamt that his daughter was brought to bed of a vine, whose branches overspread all Asia; and Hecuba, while big with Paris, dreamt that she was delivered of a firebrand that set all Troy in flames; so did the mother of our great man, while she was of child with him, dream that she was enjoyed in the night by the gods Mercuryand Priapus. This dream puzzled all the learned astrologers of her time, seeming to imply in it a contradiction ; Mercury being the god of ingenuity, and Pri...« less