Mrs Durbeyfield was only too delighted at this tractability.
"Tess of the d'Urbervilles A Pure Woman"
Thomas Hardy
The tumultuous day of the barricades, when Henry the second, after having in vain called in the assistance of his guards, was obliged to abandon his capital to the Duke of Guise and his faction, and assemble the states of his kingdom at Blois, was not entirely without a parallel in the annals of 1681. The violence of the parliament at London had led to its dissolution; and, in order to insure the tractability of their successors, they were assembled, by the king, at Oxford, where a concurrence of circumstances rendered the royal authority more paramount than in any other city of the kingdom.
"The Works Of John Dryden, Vol. 7 (of 18) The Duke of Guise; Albion and Albanius; Don Sebastian"
John Dryden
The idea prevailed in ancient times, and obtains even at the present day, that the Indian elephant surpasses that of Africa in sagacity and tractability, and consequently in capacity for training, so as to render its services more available to man.
"Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon"
J. Emerson Tennent