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Literary notes about constable (AI summary)

The term "constable" in literature appears as a multi-faceted symbol of authority, duty, and sometimes comic absurdity. In the canonical works of Dickens, Eliot, and Joyce, the constable is portrayed as an emblem of the legal order—whether it is the apprehensive presence in "Adam Bede" ([1], [2], [3]) or the routine interrogator in "Dubliners" ([4], [5], [6]). Shakespearean comedies such as "Much Ado About Nothing" present characters like Master Constable Dogberry with a humorous twist ([7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12]), underlining how the role can be both authoritative and buffoonish. Meanwhile, authors like Conrad, Wells, and Doyle employ the figure of the constable to build tension and underscore social dysfunction ([13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18]). Whether represented as a practical, everyday officer in administrative lists ([19], [20], [21]) or as a symbol of larger governmental authority ([22], [23], [24]), the word “constable” is versatile, embodying varying degrees of respect, irony, and narrative function across literary genres, periods, and contexts ([25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30]).
  1. But now she began to feel very much as if the constable had come to take her up and carry her before the justice for some undefined offence.
    — from Adam Bede by George Eliot
  2. She said it was dead, and I'd better take it to the parish and tell the constable.
    — from Adam Bede by George Eliot
  3. “Here is a letter from the magistrate before whom she was taken, and the constable who arrested her is in the dining-room.
    — from Adam Bede by George Eliot
  4. “Where do you live?” repeated the constable.
    — from Dubliners by James Joyce
  5. The constable repeated the order in an authoritative voice until a curate came running with the glass.
    — from Dubliners by James Joyce
  6. The constable asked: “Where do you live?”
    — from Dubliners by James Joyce
  7. Master Constable,— DOGBERRY.
    — from Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare
  8. DOGBERRY, a Constable.
    — from Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare
  9. Master Constable, you go not the way to examine: you must call forth the watch that are their accusers.
    — from Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare
  10. You are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch; therefore bear you the lanthorn.
    — from Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare
  11. Both which, Master Constable,— DOGBERRY.
    — from Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare
  12. let them come before Master Constable.
    — from Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare
  13. The constable paused; the least flicker of an innocent self-laudatory smile invested his round face with an infantile expression.
    — from The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad
  14. He held it up to his eyes; and the police constable spoke.
    — from The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad
  15. The constable’s features broadened into a grin.
    — from A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
  16. Holmes laughed and threw his card across the table to the constable.
    — from A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
  17. On enquiry we found that the constable was in bed, and we were shown into a little front parlour to await his coming.
    — from A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
  18. "Constable," he said, "do your duty."
    — from The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance by H. G. Wells
  19. Constable & Co. , 10, Orange Street, Leicester Square, W.C., London.
    — from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston
  20. Constable , sb.
    — from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
  21. Edinburgh University Press: T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY.
    — from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri
  22. The work was commenced by the Mayor, who sent the High Constable with an order that our flag should be removed from the street.
    — from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I
  23. A report now obtained that her grace was to be taken away by the new constable and his soldiers, which in the sequel proved to be true.
    — from Fox's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe
  24. Upon which the constable informed Jones that he must go before a justice.
    — from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
  25. I wonder Edgar did not send for a constable, and give him into custody!
    — from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
  26. I should think anybody could set the constable on you for it."
    — from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
  27. Come, villain, to the constable.
    — from The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
  28. “And what the errand is even a county constable could guess.
    — from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
  29. let the civil war last but one year and I will have a constable’s sword gilt for me.”
    — from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet
  30. And meanwhile the old village constable, Ilya Loshadin, stood by, holding a little tin lamp.
    — from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

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