The Highwayman: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:43 9941.jpg|frame|'''The Highwayman''': Taking your money and your heart at gunpoint.]]

{{quote|''He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,''

''His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.''|''[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Highwayman_(Noyes) The Highwayman]''}}

At times, highwaymen were seen as glamorous. For various reasons (including the fact that they often rode horses) they were considered a cut above common bandits. A proper highwayman, instead of being scruffy and furtive, was dashing and debonair - truly the [[Gentleman Thief]] of armed robbery. Some of them were built up as folk heroes ("...[[Just Like Robin Hood|just like Robin Hood!]]"), and they have also been stock [[Love Interests]] in romance novels (perhaps because [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]?). In certain types of story, it's also quite likely that [[Secret Identity|secret identities]] will be involved - voluminous cloaks and nocturnal tendencies make it relatively easy for a prominent [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]] to conceal who they are, or for a [[Sweet Polly Oliver|woman to avoid being known as such]]. Popular in [[The Cavalier Years]], where the English Civil War is often blamed for their being ''forced'' to take up the occupation.

Highwaymanning became less attractive as a career with the development of toll roads (which are [[Older Than They Think|older than some people realise]]), steam trains (which get robbed under [[Train Job|a different trope]]), and [[British Coppers|organised police forces]]. In works written recently, highwaymen tend to appear as [[Parody|parodies]] or [[deconstruction]]s more often than they are played straight.

{{examples}}

== Comic Books ==

* [[Hawkman]] foe the Gentleman Ghost was a highwayman before he was hanged (and became a ghost).

** In the third series, Blackadder himself becomes a highwayman due to financial difficulties. One of the people he robs has a daughter who'd happily entertain the idea of being seduced by a dashing highwayman, but Blackadder isn't interested. Also featured is The Shadow, who gets the [[Just Like Robin Hood]] treatment from the population at large. The Shadow turns out to be a) a highway''[[Samus Is a Girl|woman]]''; and b) the {{spoiler|same person who the prince regent is preparing to marry}}.

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' has the highwayman Dennis Moore. It goes without saying that he isn't very good at it. Most of his efforts involve breaking into fancy parties and stealing flowers; after he works out what he is doing wrong he redistributes wealth in such a way as to turn the poor downtrodden people into the new rich overlords, after which he tries to equally divide up the belongings of the people he robs.

* [[Dick Turpin]] (see Real Life) had a TV series in the 1970s starring the guy from ''[[Man About the House]]''.

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Visitation", Richard Mace. He declares he is really an actor forced to this.

But my past is far more gory,

I was no saint.

You think life is one big antic,

Hate to be pedantic,

But it ain't.

I'm a vicious highwayman,

I was no Prince Charming,

Nothing dandy about me. }}

== Music ==

[[Category:Criminals]]

[[Category:The Highwayman]]