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Fiction

Notes compel him to learn more than he liked”; at twenty he embarked on his grand tour of Europe,
which he treated less as an educational trip than as an opportunity to acquire French manners,
clothes, and servants. As an adult he has been distinguished by “a strange Delight which he
took in every thing which is ridiculous, odious, and absurd” in human beings, and he has
collected around him an entourage of misfits; visiting him now are “an old Half-pay Officer,
a Player, a dull Poet, a Quack-Doctor, a Scraping-Fiddler, and a lame German Dancing-Master.”
The Hunter’s odd guests perpetrate a number of cruel jests against Mr. Adams, until the
clergyman scolds the Hunter for violating the laws of hospitality in failing to protect his guest.
The Quack-Doctor is the last to take a shot at Adams, and he does so by giving pompous
speeches in mock-approbation of everything that Mr. Adams has said in defense of civility
and the clerical state. He then describes what he claims was “a favourite Diversion of Socrates,”
a ceremony in which Socrates would approach a throne that was flanked by a King and
Queen, deliver “a grave Speech, full of Virtue and Goodness, and Morality, and such like,”
and seat himself on the throne to enjoy a royal entertainment. The assembled company agrees
to duplicate the ceremony, with Mr. Adams playing the role of Socrates. The “throne” turns
out to be a tub of water covered by a blanket, and Adams gets soaked. Adams manages to
dunk the Hunter of Men several times by way of revenge before finding Joseph and Fanny and
exiting the house.

Chapter VIII
The Hunter of Men sends his entourage in pursuit of the three travelers, primarily because of
his plans for Fanny, which he has so far failed to enact. The travelers reach an inn, where they
meet a Catholic Priest who discourses on the vanity of riches, concluding, “I have Contempt
for nothing so much as for Gold.” The Priest then asks Mr. Adams for eighteen pence to pay
his reckoning; Adams is happy to oblige, but upon searching his pockets he finds that the
Hunter and his friends have stolen Wilson’s gold piece. The Priest, seeing that he will be
unable to pay his bill, decides not to stay the night; Adams and his companions, though no
more able than the Priest to pay their bill, decide to stay the night anyway.

Chapter IX

The next morning Joseph awakes to hear the servants of the Hunter of Men knocking on the
door of the inn and inquiring after “two Men and a young Woman.” Joseph suspects what is
going on and denies that anyone answering that description is in the building. The Host,
however, answers in the affirmative, prompting the three travelers to throw on their clothes
and prepare to flee. In the standoff between the travelers and the servants, Joseph empties the
chamber-pot in the face of the Half-pay Captain, and the battle seems to be turning in the
travelers’ favor; the Host intervenes, however, and distracts Joseph while one of the servants
strikes him unconscious. The servants take advantage of this development to abduct Fanny
and tie Joseph and Mr. Adams to the bedposts.

Chapter X

While conveying Fanny back to the Hunter of Men, the Poet and the Player each lavish
compliments on each other. The Poet says to the Player, among other things, “Every time I
have seen you lately, you have constantly acquired some new Excellence, like a Snowball.”
Each derogates his own profession, gallantly taking the blame for the mediocrity of the contemporary
theater, prompting the other to object that present company is a rare exception. The cooperative
flattery ends when the Player confesses that he cannot recite from memory one of his own

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