Mary Davys, The Fugitive

Martha F. Bowden (Kennesaw State University)
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The Fugitive

and its revised version,

The Merry Wanderer,

by Mary Davys (1674 [?] -1732) are difficult to pin down generically. They follow a picaresque heroine around the English countryside where she sees human nature displayed in all its amusing diversity. Because each episode encapsulates a moral lesson about greed, hypocrisy, parsimony, extravagance and so on, they bear a strong resemblance to the fables that were popular in England in the period; a resemblance that is emphasized in the earlier version by its use of poetic tags to point the tales. This resemblance is not accidental; there is a reference in both versions to Aesop's fable of the Dog and his Shadow. The stories possess a universal quality and would not be out of place in Chaucer or Boccacio. Indeed, one episode, in…

2353 words

Citation: Bowden, Martha F.. "The Fugitive". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 October 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20618, accessed 19 March 2024.]

20618 The Fugitive 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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