the kinnel where the Count shut up called out for help No quoth a stander by let him lye there ther 's a Proclamation we must not meddle with State matters Sir Thomas Moor. HAD only Daughters at the first one of whom at the last was of a very remarkable piety towards him and his wife did ever pray for a boy At last she obtained her wish the boy coming to mans estate proved but simple Sir Thomas thereupon said to his wife thou prayest so long for a boy that he will be a boy as long as he lives Another SIR Thomas Moor on the day he was beheaded had a Barber sent to him because his Beard and hear of his head was grown very long which was thought at Court would tender him the greater object of pity to the people The Barber accordingly came and asked him whether he would be pleased to be trim'd In good faith honest fellow said Sir Thomas the King and I have a Suit for my head and till the Title be cleared I will be at no cost about it Again THE same Sir Thomas when Lord Chancellor of England had sent him by a suiter in Chancery two silver Flagons When they were presented by the Gentlemans servant he said to one of his Men have him to the Celler and let him have of my best Wine and turning to the servant said Tell thy Master if he like it let him not spare it Courtiers IT is an old Adage that Princes Privados and Favourites of Kings were like casting Counters which are used in the Exchequer as in play to count by That sometimes they stand for one sometimes for ten sometimes for a hundred K. Hen. 8. IT is reported of Henry the eight that disguising himselfe in a mean habit he associated himselfe among some good fellowes in purpose to know what the people thought and said of him One of the company spoke something freely of him giving him a character which the King knew was not much out of the way Whome the King as a wary Concellour advised not to make discourses of Princes For if he should prayse them he should lye and if he dispraysed them he brought himselfe into danger Lord Chancellor Hatton IN his time when the Councellours of two Parties set forth the Limits and Boundaries of the Land in question by the Plat And the Councell of one part said we lye on this side my Lord and the Councell of the other part said and we lye on this side The Lord Chancellor arose and said If you lye on both sides whom will you have me to beleive Lord Chief Justice Richardson A Dilatory suit had been some time depending in the Kings Bench before him which the Plaintiffe could not bring to tryall at last he obtained a peremptory day the Desendant moved again for some reasons shewed desired a longer day 'T was in Trinity Terme quoth Judge Richardson you shall have the longest the Court can grant take the 11th of June Saint Barnabies day Philip the Second WHen Philip the second conquered Portugall he gave speciall charge to his Leiutenant that the Souldiers should not spoile lest thereby the hearts of the people should be alienated it came by this meanes to passe that the Army suffered much want of victuall Whereupon the Spanish Souldiers thereafter used to say That they had won the King a kingdome on Earth as the Kingdome of Heaven useth to be won by fasting and abstaining from that which is another Mans. A Courtier in Debt THere was a Courtier that dyed greatly in debt when the report of his death came to some company where divers of his Creditors usually met that he was dead one began to say Well if he be gone then he hath carried 500 l. of mine with him into the other World and another said 200 l. of mine and a third spake of great sums of his Whereupon one that was amongst them said I perceive now that though a man cannot carry any of his own with him into the other World yet he may carry away that which is another mans Another A Gentleman who had a debt due from a Lord lately returned into England by Bond came to him and acquainted his Lordship with it who referred him to his Steward or Solliciter at his Addresse to him he looks upon the Bond and seeing it to be of an old standing ever since 40. quoth he sir I have nothing to say to this this is an old debt replyed the other in a little heat hath your Lord contracted any new ones I thought there had been no more mad Men in England to have trusted them In the Land of Hispaniola UPon the landing of the English Army upon that place Proclamation was made that no man should plunder or take any Plate Bullion or Jewels upon pain of death the thirst and heat of travell did not more afflict and diminish their strength then the Proclamation abated their courage so that one merrier then the rest after their defeat said the General had done well to have prohibited their stripping the naked Molattos of their Breeches and Doublets also when they should fall into their hands Parliament Coyne A Country honest fellow upon the first coming out of that money taking it in his hand and turning it backward and forward when he had read the circumscription of it said Here are crosses enough I trow me but how long they shall last I know not for I see here the Common-wealth of England and God with Vs are not of one side Lord Treasurer WHen my Lord came first to be Lord Treasurer he complained to the Lord Chancellor Bacon of the troublesomnesse of the place for that the Exchequer was so empty The Lord Chancellor answered my Lord be of good cheer for now you shall see the Bottom of your businesse at the first A Present WHen peace was renewed with the French in England divers of the great Counsellors were presented from the French with Jewels The Earle of Northampton being then a Privy Counsellor was omitted whereupon the King said to him my Lord how happens it that you have not a Jewell as the rest my Lord answered according to the Fable in Aesop non sum Gallus ideoque non reperi Gemmam Lord Bacon WHen Sir Francis Bacon was made the Kings Attorney Sir Edward Coke was put from being Lord Chiefe Justice of the common Pleas to that of the Kings Bench which was observed before as a place above it in dignity below it in profit My Lord Coke meeting with Sir Francis Master Atturney saith he this change is all your doing it is you that have made this stir My Lord replyed he your Lordship hath all this while grown in bredth you must needs now grow in height or else you would be a Monster Judge Popham MAster Sarjeant Popham afterwards Lord Chiefe Justice Popham who said he would make the Road so safe that a man might travell with a white Wand in his hand and performed
peice of Arras presenting the Sea-sight in 88. which at severall audiences of Ambassadors hath been used for magnificence in the banqueting House as in Cromwels usurpation and wherein were wrought the living portractures of the cheifest Commanders in that service on a time a Captain who highly prized himselfe and his valour in that naval fight coming to Court and missing his picture therein complained of the injury to his friend professing of himselfe that he merited a place there as well as some therein remembred for that he was engaged in the middle of the fight Be content said his friend thou hast been an old Pyrate and art reserved for another hanging A Shoomaker no Gentleman SIr Philip Calthrop a very merry Gentleman of the County of Norfolk being newly come from Court where he had observed the fashion to be upon great dayes in those times of Henry the seaventh to wear gownes of light coloured cloath sent to his Taylor in Norwich as much cloth of fine French Tawney as would make him such a vesture It happened one John Drakes a Shoomaker of some wealth coming into the shop liked it so well that he went bought of the same as much for himself enjoyning the Tailor to make it exactly after the fashion he made the Knights who sending for his Gowne by his servant he espied another of the same in the shop and enquiring whose it was the Master told him and the order he had for the making it up This being told sir Philip he sent a new command that the Taylor should cut in his as many holes and slashes as his knife and sheares could find place for and so send it him which he did and accordingly cut the Shoomakers in the very same manner and carried it home where Prince Crispin began to be wroth but understanding it was the mode that the Knights was made his combe fell saying he would be a Gentleman no more Sir William Clark SIR William Clark a Gentleman much conversant in Court a great Masquer and acceptable to the Ladies being a man of excellent shape and goodly feature and proportion was one night at a Masque in Whitball where were present King JAMES and Queen Anne after a scene or two he having some Office or charge for that night while the stage was free passed over to the other side about some businesse and with such a stately and strutting pace befitting his present employment that a Lady knowne unto him thinking to put a jeere upon him said Sir pray have a care you hurt not your selfe by stradling so wide I wonder what ayles you to whom he he presently and openly retorted In troth Madam if you had that betwixt your legs which I have it would make you straddle a great deal wider Lord Spencer RObert Lord Spencer Baron of Wormleighton being a Man of a quick and clear spirit speaking one day in Parliament of the valour of their English Ancestors in defending the Liberties of the Nation the Earle of Arundel stood up and replyed your Ancestors were keeping of sheep that Lord and his Predecessors being known for the greatest Sheep-masters in England when those Liberties were defended If they were a keeping of sheep returned the other yours were then in plotting of Treason This animosity for the present cost both of them a confinement yet so that afterwards the upper House ordered reparations to this Lord Spencer as first and causelessely provoked Doctor Preston DOctor Preston was the greatest Pupil-monger in England in Mans memory having sixteen fellow Commoners most Heires to faire estates admitted in one year in Queens Colledge and provided convenient accomodations for them As William the popular Earle of Nassaw Prince of Aurange was said to have won a subject from the King of Spain to his own party every time he put off his Hat so it was commonly said in the Colledge that every time Mr. Preston plucked off his Hat to Dr. Davenant the Master he gained a Chamber or Study for one of his Pupils among whom one Chambers a Londoner was eminent for his learning Being afterwards chosen himselfe Master of Emanuel Colledge he removed thither with most of his Pupils and when it was much admired where all these should find lodging in that Colledge which was so full already one replyed Mr. Preston will carry Chambers along with him Sir Thomas More SIR Thomas More being committed to the Tower for refusing the Oath of Supremacy being as in his time it was the custome and also to our memory observed that the Prisoners there were not dieted at their own but the Kings charges the Lieutenant of the Tower providing their food for them when the said Lieutenant one day said unto him by way of complement that he was sorry his Commons were no better I like said Sir Thomas the dyet very well and if I dislike it turn me out of Doores A Courtier coming to him while in restraint with proffer of mercy from the King if he would comply with his Majesties will and take the said Oath he replyed that His minde was now changed whereupon the Courtier departed and told the King that Sir Thomas would submit himself to his grace in that matter which the King willing to accept gave him order to repaire to the Tower again and receive it in a forme under his hand At his return challening Sir Thomas with his promise he wondring told him that he meant only by changing his minde that whereas he had resolved to shave himselfe before his Execution he would now let his beard suffer with his head to the abashment of the man who so confidently had informed the King of Sir Thomas his conversion The same Sir Thomas during his Chancellorship had his Lady well attended by a handsome retinue especially at going to Church living then in Chelsey where her Gentleman-usher alwayes after my Lord was out of his seat after Sermon used to wait upon his Lady telling her Madam my Lord is gone It hapned that upon this score of the supremacy sir Thomas was put from that dignity whereupon the next Sunday after as soon as Church was done having the week before dismist most of his servants intending to live privately he came to his Ladies Pew himselfe and said unto her alone in passing Madam my Lord is gone meaning the Chancellor and so walkt home before her Sir Pallavicin Horatio ONe Seignior Pallavicin a Genoese who lived in England a kin to Sir Horatio boasting of his Nobility and high extraction as descended from an illustrious House was thus answered by a blunt Citizen who from mean Parentage had risen to great wealth reputation and honor and so I saith he also am come of an illustrious House where the Sun constantly shone through the rotten walls and roofes thereof My Lord Bacon IT is storied of my Lord Bacon to his advantage that when he was Lord Chancellor he had two servants one in all causes Patron to the Plaintiffe whom charity presumed always
to dissemble himselfe a stranger to that Ceremony demanded of a stander-by what that Knight said to whom the party returned He challengeth any man to fight with him who dares deny your Highnesse to be the lawfull King of England If he will not fight with such a one said the King I will Sir Thomas Gresham OSterley House was built by Sir Thomas Gresham now it is Sir William Wallers where Sir Thomas entertained Queen Elizabeth Being there Her Majesty found fault with the Court of the House as too great affirming that it would appear more handsome if divided with a wall in the midle What doth Sir Thomas but in the night time sends for workmen from London who so silently and speedily followed their work that the next morning discovered that Court double which the night had left single before the Queen was very well pleased while a Courtier disported her with this quibble that it was no wonder he could so soon change a building who could build a Change Disputation AT an extraordinary Act of Divinity kept at Cambridge before King James when Dr. John Davenant was Answerer and Dr. Richardson amongst others the Oposer the Question was maintained in the Negative concerning the excommunication of Kings Dr. Richardson vigorously pressed the practice of St. Ambrose excommunicating the Emperour Theodosius insomuch that the King in some passion returned Truly it was most insolently done by St. Ambrose to whome Dr. Richardson replied This is a Majestick answer and befitting Alexander this is not to untie but cut the argument Sir John Cuts SIR John Cuts of Cambridg-shire was a most bountifull house-keeper as any of his estate insomuch that Queen Elizabeth in the beginning of her Reign whilest yet she had peace with Spain the sicknesse being at London ordered the Spanish Embassadour to this Knights house the Embassadour coming thither and understanding his name to be John Cuts conceived himselfe disparaged to be sent to one of so short a name the Spanish Gentlemen generally having voluminous names helpt and stuft out with Titles usually adding the place of their habitation for the elongation thereof But soon after that the Don found that what the Knight lacked in length of name he made up in the largnesse of his entertainment The Countesse of Shrewsbury MAry Queen of Scots Mother of King James being committed to the keeping of George Earle of Shrewsbury who had married a Lady of a notable pregnant and undaunted spirit the custody of so great a Princesse on the Earles cost was quickly by her found to be chargeable and which was worse dangerous the Papists of the kingdome daily practising her enlargement it hapned this Countesse coming to the Court Queen Elizabeth demanded of her how the Queen of Scots did Madam said she she cannot doe ill while she is with my Husband and I begin to grow jealous they are so great together Whereupon the Queen who liked not any familiarity of that royal Prisoner with so great and potent a Peer ordered her removall thence into the custody of others Sir Arthur Chichester SIR Arthur Chichester once Lord Deputy of Ireland being recalled thence was sent Ambassador to the Emperor by King James about that labour in vain of the Palatinate returning thence the place where he was the City of Maynchin was besieged by Count Tilly the Emperor's Generall to whom my Lord Chichester sent word that it was against the Law of Nations to besiege an Ambassador Tilly replyed That he took no notice he was an Ambassador the other rejoyned by the Messenger Had my Master sent me with as many hundred men as he hath sent me on fruitlesse messages hither your Generall should have known that I had been as well a Souldier as an Ambassador Thomas Stukely THomas Stukely the famous Glorioso was a younger Brother of an ancient wealthy and worshipfull Family neer Ilfracombe in the County of Devon having prodigally mispent his Patrimony he entred on severall projects which centred in a designe and perswasion of his being a Prince In this he was so confident that be blushed not to tell Queen Elizabeth that he preferred rather to he Soveraign of a Mole-hill then to be the highest Subject to the greatest King in Christendome adding moreover that he was assured he should be a Prince before his death I hope said Queen Elizabeth I shall hear from you when you are stated in your principality I will write unto you quoth Stukely In what language said the Queen He returned in the stile of Princes To our dear Sister Earle of Oxford HEnry Vere the seventeenth of that name Earle of Oxford and the last Lord Chamberlain of England of his Family whose sturdy nature would not bow to Court Complements but maintain what he spake came one day to the Court with a great milk white Feather about his Hat which was then somewhat unusuall save that a person of his merit might make a fashion a Lord an Enemy to his Family and one whose ancestors were blemished said in a way of jeer to him My Lord you wear a very fair Feather It is true said the Earl and if you mark it there 's ne're a Taint in it Indeed that Noble Family deserve their Motto Vero nil verius A Bite TWO Gentlemens Servants falling out one belonging to a Courtier of great place another to a Countrey Esquire fell at last to vye the noblenesse of their Masters and their superiority saith the one My master spends more in Mustard then thine in Beef whereunto the other returned The more sawcy men his Followers Mr. Richard Hackluit Mr. Richard Hackluit a very memorable person who writ that book of the English Voyages so usefull for all Sea-Men for which he deserves well of this Nation dying left a very fair Estate to an unthrift Son who embezilled it all away in a shamlesse manner vanting that be had cheated the covetous Usurer who had given him spick and span new money for the old land of his great great Grandfather Beggars Bush THere is a place called Beggars Bush in Huntingtonshire grown into a Proverb This is the way to Beggars Bush it happened that King James being in progresse in those parts with Sir Francis Bacon the Lord Chancellour having heard that morning that my Lord had prodigiously rewarded a mean man for a small present Sir Francis said he You will quickly come to Beggars Bush and I may even go along with you if both be so bountifull Name ONE immoderately boasted that there was not any of his name in all England and yet he was a Gentleman to whome one in the company returned I am sorry Sir you have never a good man of your name Sir Walter Rawleigh SIR Walter Rawleighs first admittance to Queen Elizabeths favour was from this occasion he was one day at Court after his coming out of Ireland in a very good habit his cloaths were then a considerable part of his Estate and there found the Queen walking till meeting
pound when Mr Secretary told Him two Hundred was better then one which betwixt Feare and Charity Wiemark was fain to subscribe A Learned Maide A Certain learned Maid being presented to King James as a mirrour of her Sexe for her skill in Languages Hebrew Greek and Latin besides the French c. which she could perfectly write and speak The King without any wonderment askt of her introducers if she could spin and some waggish Courtiers answer'd If it please your Majesty she is at age to chuse what occupation she pleaseth Bishopricks JOHN WATSON Deane of Winchester being informed that the Bishoprick thereof being vacant would be confered on him came to the Earle of Leicester the great Favourite and privately promised him two hundred pounds that he might not be made Bishop of Winchester but remain in his present Condition The Bishoprick being void and the Queen expressing her intention to confer it on Watson the said Earle requested the Contrary and would have used arguments against his Nomination but that not serving he was forced to tell the Queen that he had promised two hundred pounds to him to keep him from that dignitie and it would be so much out of his way Nay then said the Queen Watson shall have it he being more worthy to have it who will give two hundred pounds to decline it then he that will give 2000 P. to attain it Marston Moor. ON that fatal day to the Royal cause the Lord Goring in the begining of the Battel which was about 3. a Clock in the afternoon July 2. 1644 having with great valour and courage routed the left wing of the Parliament Army wherein the Scots were placed under Lashley their Generall who upon the rout fled a Yorkeshire mile and weabit the lord Diddup a Scotch Baron lately made therein happened to be killed when the account of the battel was given to the king he came to be mentioned as a ballance to my Lord Cary eldest son of the Earle of Monmouth slain on the Kings side At the naming of which Scotch Lord his Majesty said That he hardly remembred that he had such a Lord in Scotland to which one returned That the Lord had wholly forgotten that he had such a King in England Wales A Right worshipfull Knight in Wales who had a fair Estate therein his rents arising from much barren ground heard an Englishman perhaps out of much opposition to brag that he had in England so much ground worth fourty shillings an Acre you said he have ten yardes of Velvet and I have tenscore yardes of Freize I will not Exchange with you A Welch Gentleman KING James riding late home from Theobalds to Whitehall it happened that in the mid way it fell a raining very hard whereupon the King who before kept a due pace befitting his Majesty commanded his retinue and the Gentlemen neer Him to put on and make what speed they could Among the rest there was present a Welchman a retainer to the Earle of Pembroke but newly admitted to some Office and attendance on him who by the trick or slighting of the Groome had a very ill Horse put upon him Assoon as the word was given from the King the Traine flew with swiftnesse and the King with them The Welchman he spurred and fluttered with his legs to keep pace with him and with much busle headed the party neer the Kings Person where he fell a belabouring his Horse as if he were mad the King hearing the stir he made demanded who it was and what was the matter who replyed an 't please Her Majesty Her is as good a Shentleman as the best of them but Her Cattel cannot travell so fast Lord Bacon A Parliament being called in the year 1621. Francis Bacon Lord Chancellor was outed his office for bribery the frequent receiving whereof by him or his was plainly proved yet for all this his taking just and unjust he was exceeding poor and much indebted wherefore when motion was made in the House of Commons of fineing him some thousand of pounds Sir F. S. a noble Member standing up desired that for two reasons his Fine might be mitigated into fourty shillings First because that would be paid whereas a greater summe would only make a noise and never be payed secondly the shame would be the greater when such his prodigality that he who had been so large a taker in offices was reduced to such penury that fourty shillings should be conceived a sufficient Fine for his Estate So that what he got by the tryals at Barre as Attorney he lost by the tryals at Barre as Chancellour Another THE same Sir Francis having once invited Queen Elizabeth to his Mannour of Gorhambury a pleasant seat now in the possession of the Honourable Sir Harbotle Grimston Master of the Rolles the Queen was much taken with the scituation contrivance and beauty of the Fabrick but as her constant custome was to be a Critick in Architecture told Sir Francis that the House had but one fault it was too little to which Sir Francis replyed Madam that is not the Houses fault but yours who have made me the Master too great for it K. Hen. 8. KING Henry being a hunting came to the Abbot of Readings House to dinner to whom soon after he had little or rather a big stomack and found a Surloine of Beefe then so named by the King ready for dinner the Abbot not knowing who he was not guessing it by his small retinue bid him welcome and set the Beefe before him On which the King fed heartily while the Abbot no niggard or unhospitable Preist merryly smild to see him lay no so saying in a jest Sir I would give a hundred pounds I had as good a stomack and could feed so but my appetite is quite lost say you so thought the King having thankt the Abbot departed A weeke after he sends a Pursivant to bring the Abbot up to the Councell Table by whom without further examination he was committed to the Tower where the King had given expresse order that he should be kept with a very spare dyet and no releife admitted besides this dyet soon brought up the Gentlemans stomack so that he could be glad to have had a suffolke cheese and a twelfpeny loafe set before him being in this way to his cure the King appointed a Surloine to be made ready and came and dined with him where the Abbot taking him for a friendly visitant upon the mending of his commons fed lustily Loe saith the King am not I a good Doctor your Physick shall cost you but 50. pounds for your Fees the other halfe you shall keepe and if ever you fall into the same disease pray send for me And so gave him his liberty Evesham Bridge DUring our late unnatural Warre this Evesham was made a Garrison by the King and Collonel William Leg Governour thereof storm'd afterwards by Collonel Massey with much bravery and as well maintained It happened in
Henry Wotton UPon consideration of those many panegyricks and laudatory speeches letters and exhortations to great men he once said that though the manner of Painters be to mend the picture by the life yet with generous minded men it should be inverted viz. to mend the life by the picture to become such as those encomiums expresse a man to be Businesse IT was usuall saying of my Lord Bacon that it was in businesse as it is frequently in wayes that the next and neerest way is commonly the foulest and that if a man will go the fairest way he must go somewhat about Robert Earle of Leicester THis Earle was the greatest Hypocrite and subtle enemy in England much voyced up by the non conformists for his patronage of them whereby he drew that faction clearly to his side he was alwayes very distrustfull and jealous and sad examples there were of his treachery and it was his usuall saying that we read that we ought to forgive our enemies but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends Earle of Essex IT was usually said of Robert Earle of Essex the Father of the last deceased and who was altogether as military and popular and I remember an observation made that when the Son departed from London to Barnet and so onward against the King it was bruited that with the same Pomp his father began his expedition the same road to Ireland and soon after lost his Head which fate was suspected to attend his Son though a potion its thought did the same effect that he was the the greatest usurer in England for that he had turned all his Estate having wasted a great part thereof in his severall voyages and expeditions by caressing the the souldiers into obligations Caesar Borgia THe supposed Nephew but son of Pope Alexander the sixth one of the worst of that see yet so great a Benefactor to the family of this present Pope that he hath assumed his name by the name of Alexander the seventh after long division betwixt him and the Estates of Romania came to an agreement with them in the Treaty there was an article that he should not call them at any time altogether in person Their intention was that knowing his treacherous and cruel nature if he meant them any danger or treason he might not have the opportunity or advantage to oppresse them altogether at once Notwithstanding he brought it so about by his finesses and artifices that he won upon their confidence to assemble together at Cinigalia where he murthered them all The newes hereof was related to the Pope as a thing perfidious but happy who upon hearing of it said It was they that had broke their Covenant first in coming altogether A Court Maxim IT is fathered on the Emperour Trajan who used in speaking of the jealousy of Princes that seek to make away those that aspire to the succcession that there was never King that did put to death his successor this was very rife in the businesse of Mary Queen of Scots beheaded by Queen Elizabeth Sir Nicholas Bacon THis Knight was Sir William Cecils second in the service of the State being Father also to my Lord Verulam and Lord Chancellour in the raign of Queen Elizabeth upon bills exhibited in that Court to discover where Lands lay upon proofe that they had a certain quantity of Land but could not set it forth was wont to say and if you cannot finde your Land in the Country how will you have me find it in the Chancery Conbury Park THe Earle of Leicester Favorrite to Queen Elizabeth was making a large chace about Cornbury Parke intending to enclose it with posts and Rayles and one day was casting up his charge what it would come to a Gentleman standing by that was a free spoken man said to my Lord upon the sudden methinkes your Lordship goeth not the cheapest way to worke why Sir said my Lord Introth my Lord said he count you but upon the posts for the Country will find you Rayling Knights MY Lord of Essex when he commanded at the Seige of Rhoan an Army of English in ayd of Henry the 4. of France against the league made 24. Knights after a battel against the Duke de Main which at that time was a great number divers of those Gentlemen were of weake and small means which when Queen Elizabeth heard she said my Lord might have done well to have built his Almes house before he made his Knights French Massacre AFter the Massacre of the French Protestants in Paris on St. Bartholomews day an overture was made of a new agreement to that purpose the Deputies of the reformed Religion met there to treat of a Pacification after some debate they agreed on articles nothing remaining but the security for the performance of them to this the Queen mother returned by way of question whether they would not accept the Kings security no by St BARTHOLOMEW Madam answered the Deputies Treasure A Spanish Ambassadour coming to Venice was there Complemented by the State and as a particular Honour to himselfe and his Master had St. Markes Treasure reckoned then to be the greatest magazine of wealth in Europe shewed him At the opening of the same he pointed towards the great Chests and asked some of the senators whether those Iron-coffers had any bottome they answered yea this is nothing then saith he to my Masters wealth that hath a perpetuall spring in his Mines Retinue A Nobleman who kept a very large retinue was acquainted by his Steward that great part of that expence was very burdensome and uselesse for that his Lordship needed not so many servants wherupon he ordered his Steward to bring him a list and Catalogue of all his servants and to mark their names which the frugall steward did putting out by his note above halfe his retainers When this scroll was presented the Nobleman asked what he marked so many out for because Sir saith he they are of no use to you why then saith the Lord if the other must stay because I have need of them these shall stay because they have need of me Henry the fourth HEnry the fourth of France after he had marryed Mary de Medicis was for a little while childlesse upon newes of the Queens conception the Count of Soissons who was heir apparent to the Crown gave out that it was with a pillow these words came to the Kings ear who the Queen growing very big tooke the said Count to her lodgings and laid his hand upon her Apron what think you now Cosen quoth the King of this pillow marry said the Count I think it to be a Pillow for all France to rest its head upon Proud Prelate A Proud Prelate of England in imitation of his great example the Pope would admit no suitors in any other posture but prostration a man reputed for his wisedome petitioning of him was forced to comply with the custome being taxed by some for this servile