[B]oth the one and the other were nothing more than a re-affirmance of the still more antient standing law of the kingdom.

The king was in his counting-house Counting out his money; The queen was in the parlour Eating bread and honey; The maid was in the garden Hanging out the clothes, There came a little blackbird, And snapt off her nose.

Ours is a generation of aromantics, jaded about matters of the heart — often before gaining firsthand experience.

But attempts to relate either of them to trends in urbanisation or increases in machinofacturing or the rise of the middle classes seem less plausible.