⁂ This tale is a very old one, and appears in various languages; European and Oriental. It is one of those told by Gower in his Confessio Amantis, where Florent promises to marry a deformed old hag, who in reward for his complaisance helps him to the solution of a riddle.
Wigged Prince (The Best). The guardian, uncle-in-law and first cousin of the duke of Brunswick was called “The Best Wigged Prince in Christendom.”
Wild (Jonathan), a cool, calculating, heartless villain, with the voice of a Stentor. He was born at Wolverhampton, in Staffordshire, and, like Jack Sheppard, was the son of a carpenter.
He had ten maxims: (1) Never do more mischief than is absolutely necessary for success; (2) Know no distinction, but let self-interest be the one principle of action; (3) Let not your shirt know the thoughts of your heart; (4) Never forgive an enemy; (5) Shun poverty and distress; (6) Foment jealousies in your gang; (7) A good name, like money, must be risked in speculation; (8) Counterfeit virtues are as good as real ones, for few know paste from diamonds; (9) Be your own trumpeter, and don’t be afraid of blowing loud; (10) Keep hatred concealed in the heart, but wear the face of a friend.
Jonathan Wild married six wives. Being employed for a time as a detective, he brought to the gallows thirty-five highwaymen, twenty-two burglars and ten returned convicts. He was himself executed at last at Tyburn for house-breaking (1682-1725).
Daniel Defoe has made Jonathan Wild the hero of a romance (1725). Fielding did the same in 1743. The hero in these romances is a coward, traitor, hypocrite and tyrant, unrelieved by human feeling, and never betrayed into a kind or good action. The character is historic, but the adventures are in a measure fictitious.
Wild Boar of Ardennes, William de la Marck.--Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).
⁂ The Count de la Marck was third son of John, count de la Marck and Aremberg. He was arrested at Utrecht, and beheaded by order of Maximilian, emperor of Austria, in 1485.
Wild Boy of Hameln, a human being found in the forest of Hertswold, in Hanover. He walked on all fours, climbed trees like a monkey, fed on grass and leaves, and could never be taught to articulate a single word. He was discovered in 1725, was called “Peter, the Wild Boy,” and died at Broadway Farm, near Berkhampstead, in 1785.
⁂ Mdlle. Lablanc was a wild girl found by the villagers of Soigny, near Chalons, in 1731. She died in Paris in 1780.