The Wheel is feeling frisky tonight, depositing us at The Plays of Thomas Love Peacock (1910), edited by A.B. Young. This short excerpt is from Scene I of The Three Doctors (1810-1815?). O'Fir is upset after being called an "impudent rascal," and removes a pair of pistols from his travelling trunk, saying it is "the shortest way of settling differences among friends."

O'Fir.

This trigger if I pull it,

Will emancipate a bullet

That shall set our quarrels right.

Narcotic.

When I see a loaded pistol,

My diastole and systole

Forget their functions quite.