put on him by Somersets Faction so all hands helped to the piecing up this new Favourite Then begun the King to eate abroad who formerly used to eate in his Bed-chamber or if by chance supped in his Bed-chamber after supper would come forth to see pastimes and fooleries in which Sir Ed. Zouch Sir George Goring and Sir Iohn Finit were the chiefe and Master Fools and surely this Fooling got them more then any others wisdome farre above them in desert Zouch his part it was to sing bawdy songs and tell bawdy tales Finits to compose these Songs then was a set of Fidlers brought to Court on purpose for this Fooling and Goring was Master of the game for Fooleries sometimes presenting David Droman and Archee Armstrong the Kings Foole on the back of the other fools to tilt one at another till they fell together by the eares sometimes the property was presented by them in Antick Dances But Sir John Millicent who was never known before was commended for notable fooling and so was he indeed the best extemporary foole of them all with this jollity was this Favourite ushered in This made the house of Suffolke fret and Somerset carried himselfe now more proudly and his Bravado's ever quarrelling with the others which by his Office of Lord Chamberlaine for a while carried it But Somerset using of Sir Ralph Wynwood whom himselfe brought in for a Secretary of State in so scornfull a manner he having but only the title the Earle himselfe keeping the Seales and doing the businesse made Wynwood endeavour to ruine him who soone got an opportunity thereto by frequenting the Countesse of Shrewsbury then Prisoner in the Tower who told Wynwood on a time that Overbury was poysoned which she had so understood from Sir Gervase Elwaies who did labour by her meanes to deale with her two sons in Law Arundell and Pembrooke Wynwood also being great-with that faction that when it came into question he might save his owne stake who truly was no otherwise guilty but that he did not discover it at Westons first disclosing it hee being Keeper of the prison so by inference his not disclosing it was Overburies death and had he revealed it then I dare say he had beene brought into the Star-chamber for it and undone for yet was not the time fit for discovery Wynwood it was thought acquainted the King with it knowing how willingly he would have been rid of Somerset yet the King durst not bring it in question nor any question ever would have been had not Somerset sought to crosse him in his passion of love to his new Favourite in which the King was more impatient then any woman to enjoy her love Not long after Thrumball Agent at Bruxels had by an Apothecaries boy one Reeve after an Apothecary himselfe in London and dyed very lately gotten hold of this poysoning businesse for Reeve having under his Master made some of those desperate Medicines either run away or else his Master sent him out of the way and fell in company of Thrumbals servants at Bruxels to whom he reveal'd it they to their Master who examining the boy discovered the truth Thrumball presently wrote to Secretary Wynwood he had businesse of consequence to discover but would not send it therefore desired licence to come over The King would not yeeld to his returne but willed him to send an Expresse That Thrumball utterly refused and very wisely for had any thing appeared under his hand the boy might have dyed or run away and then had he made himselfe the Author of that which the courtesie of another must have justified The King being of a longing disposition rather then he would not know admitted Thrumbals returne and now they had good testimony by the Apothecary who revealed Weston Mrs. Turner and Franklyn to be principall Agents yet this being neare the time of progresse was not stirred in till about Michaelmas following yet Wynwood did now carry himselfe in a braving way of contestation against Somerset struck in with the Faction of Villiers now on progresse The King he went westward where he was feasted at Cranborne by a Sonne in Law of that Family at Lulworth and Bindon by the Lord Walden at Charlton by Sir Thomas Howard and every where nothing but one Faction braving the other then was the King feasted at Purbeck by the Lord Hatton who was of the contrary Faction and at a Joynture house of Sir George Villiers mother called Gotly where he was magnificently entertained After all this feasting homeward came the King who desired by all meanes to reconcile this clashing between his declining and rising Favourite to which end at Lulworth the King imployed Sir Humphrey May a great servant to Somerset and a wise servant to Villiers but with such instructions as if it came from himselfe and Villiers had order presently after Sir Humphrey Mayes returne to present himselfe and service to Somerset My Lord said he Sir George Villers will come to you to offer his service and desire to be your creature and therefore refuse him not embrace him and your Lordship shall still stand a great man though not the sole Favourite My Lord seemed averse Sir Humphrey then told him in plaine tearmes that he was sent by the King to advise it and that Villiers would come to him to cast himself into his protection to take his rise under the shadow of his wings Sir Humphrey May was not parted from my Lord halfe an houre but in comes Sir George Villiers and used these very words My Lord I desire to be your servant and your creature and shall desire to take my Court-preferment under your favour and your Lordship shall finde me as faithfull a servant unto you as ever did serve you My Lord returned this quick and short answer I will none of your service nor shall you have any of my favour I will if I can break your necke and of that be confident This was but a harsh Complement and savoured more of spirit then wisdome and since that time breaking each others necks was their aimes and it s verily beleeved had Somerset complyed with Villiers Overburyes death had stil lain raked up in his own ashes but God who will never suffer murther to go unpunished will have what he will maugre all the wisdome of the World To Windsor doth the King return to end His Progresse from thence to hampton-Hampton-Court then to White-Hall and shortly after to Royston to begin His Winter-Iourney And now begins the game to bee plaid in which Somerset must be the loser the Cards being shuffled cut and dealt between the King and Sir Edward Cooke Cheife Iustice whose Daughter Turbeck Villers his Brother had married or was to marry and therefore a fit instrument to ruine Somerset and Secretary Winwood these all playd The stake Somersets life and his Ladyes and their Fortunes and the Family of Suffolke some of them played booty and in truth the Game was not plaid above-board
prodigality in which the Revenue of the Kingdom would not satisfie their vast expences if this had been spoken out of a Noble minde or out of that feeling he had of the Kingdomes misery as being Treasurer he ought to have done had he fallen it had been with honour and a generall compassion but being spoken out of the pride and insolency of his owne heart whose minde was ever so base as never to discerne what Honour was nor ever had he any other inherent Honour then what in his Apprentiship he raked out of the Kennel besides it was knowne to be out of hatred that he was not of councell in the undertaking he then looking at himselfe as the only States-man of all the Councell He fell without pitty and with much scorne as I formerly set downe yet left in a higher estate and better condition then so worthlesse a fellow and base Projector deserved yet afterwards hee was againe questioned upon his accounts But all this was nothing himselfe and his Posterity being left Peeres of the Realme In this case was the Prince a principall actour and did duly keep the earliest houres to sit in that Parliament where then he discerned so much juggling even to serve his owne ends on Cranfield that it was not much to be wondred at being come to be King he did not affect them And it was not well that a Prince should shew so much spleen though Cranfield deserved any ill could be cast on him and who knowes whether God doth now punish by Tallion Law to call his owne sin to remembrance and to repent In this place I hold it not unfit to shew the Reader how the King hath ever been abused and would be abused by over-much credulity in the treaty of Spaine for marriages as well as in all other Negotiations You shall now perceive how the King was abused in this treaty which was an error inexcusable in himselfe and whole Councell The Italians having a Proverbe He that deceives me once it s his fault but if twice it s my fault this second time therefore could not but be the only fault of the King and Councell In Prince Henry his life time the King had a little man but a very great and wise Counsellour his Secretary of State little Salisbury that great States-man who did inherit all his Fathers wisdome as well as his Offices and the sonne came little short of the father who was held the greatest States-man in the world of his time It is true that one State may abuse another but not to finde out the abuse is an unpardonable fault in any Statesman There was a treaty in the like case for Prince Henry Salisbury instantly discovered the juggling before any other did thinke of any for although it went forward currently yet did Salisbury so put the Duke of Lerma unto it that either it must be so or they must confesse their juggling The Duke of Lerma denyed that ever there had been any treaty or any intention from that State Salisbury sent for the Embassadour to a full Councell told him how hee had abused the King State about a treaty for Marriage which he had no Commission for that therefore he was lyable to the Lawes of our Kingdome for where any Embassadour doth abuse a State by their Mrs. Commission then the servant was freed but without Commission was culpable and lyable to be punished by the Lawes of that State as being disavowed to be servant to the King his Master The Embassadour answered gravely he did not understand the cause of his comming therefore was then unprepared to give any answer but on Monday he would againe come this being Saturday and give his answer On Monday he comes begins with these words My soule is my Gods my life my Masters my reputation my owne I will not forfeit the first and last to preserve the second Then layes downe his Commission and Letters of instruction under the Duke of Lerma's owne hand he acquitted himselfe honestly to this State yet lost his owne being instantly sent for home where he lived and dyed in disgrace Here was Legatus vir bonus peregrè missus sed non ad mentiendum reipublicae causa And had we had as honest and good Statesmen in after times as Salisbury was and so demonstrated himselfe in this weighty Affaire this State could not have been so abused in all Treaties By this you see the advantage and benefit of one wise Counsellour in a whole State and although Solomon say By the multitude of Counsellors doth a kingdome flourish yet surely he intended they should be wise men that are Counsellours for we had such a multitude of Counsellours that a longer table and a larger Counsell-chamber was provided yet our State was so far from flourishing that it had been almost utterly destroyed this was the last Statesman worthy of that name and now are the ancient stock of Statesmen decayed and with them all our honour and glory I shall now bring my Story to an end as I shall this Kings life although I have made some digressions yet all pertinent to the discourse of this Kings reigne He now goes to his last Hunting journey I meane the last of the yeare as wel as of his life which he ever ended in Lent and was seized on by an ordinary and moderate Tertian Ague which at that season according to the Proverb was Physick for a King but it proved not so to him and poore King what was but Physick to any other was made mortall to him yet not the Ague as himselfe confessed to a servant of his now living who cryed courage Sir this is but a small fit the next will be none at all at which he most earnestly looked and said Ah it is not the Ague afflicteth me but the black plaister and powder given me and laid to my stomack and in truth the plaister so tormented him that he was glad to have it pulled off with it the skin also nor was it faire dealing if he had faire play which himselfe suspected often saying to Montgomery whom he trusted above all men in his sicknesse for Gods sake looke I have faire play to bring in an Emprick to apply any Medicines whilst those Physitians appointed to attend him were at dinner nor could any but Buckingham answer it with lesse then his life at that present as he had the next Parliament had it not been dissolved upon the very questioning him for the Kings death and all those that prosecuted him utterly disgraced and banished the Court Buckingham comming into the Kings Chamber even when he was at the point of death and an honest servant of the Kings crying Ah my Lord you have undone us all his poore servants although you are so well provided you need not care At which Buckingham kickt at him who caught his foot and made his head first come to ground where Buckingham presently rising run to the dying Kings bed side and
cryed Justice Sir I am abused by your servant and wrongfully accused at which the poore King become by that time speechlesse mournfully fixed his eies on him as who would have said not wrongfully It were worth the knowledge what his confession was or what other expressions he made of himselfe or any other but that was only known to the dead Arch-Bishop Abbot and the Bishop Williams then also Lord Keeper and it was thought Williams had blabbed something which incensed the Kings anger and Buckinghams hatred so much against him that the losse of his place could not be expiatory sufficient but his utter ruine must be determined and that not upon any knowne crime but upon circumstances and examinations to pick out faults committed in his whole life time but his greatest crime for the present no question was lapsus linguae but quod defertur non aufertur for although he escaped by the calme of that Parliament yet is he more ruined by this Parliament and his owne folly and truly we may observe the just Judgement of God on him for flying from the Parliament his protector to give wicked counsell to the King his former prosecutor And now have I brought this great Kings Reigne to an end in a volant discourse and shall give you his Character in briefe and so leave him in peace after his life who was stiled the King of peace in his life THE CHARACTER OF KING JAMES THis Kings Character is much easier to take then hi Picture for he could never be brought to sit for the taking of that which is the reason of so few good peeces of him but his Character was obvious to every eye He was of a middle stature more corpulent through his cloathes then in his body yet fat enough his cloathes ever being made large and easie the Doublets quilted for steletto proofe his Breeches in great pleits and full stuffed Hee was naturally of a timorous disposition which was the reason of his quilted Doublets His eyes large ever rowling after any stranger came in his presence insomuch as many for shame have left the roome as being out of countenance His Beard was very thin His Tongue too large for his mouth which ever made him speak full in the mouth and made him drink very uncomely as if eating his drink which came out into the cup of each side of his mouth His skin was as soft as Taffeta Sarsnet which felt so because hee never washt his hands onely rubb'd his fingers ends slightly with the wet end of a Napkin His Legs were very weake having had as was thought some foul play in his youth or rather before he was born that he was not able to stand at seven years of age that weaknesse made him ever leaning on other mens shoulders his walke was ever circular his fingers ever in that walke sidling about his Codpiece He was very temperate in his exercises and in his dyet and not intemperate in his drinking however in his old age and Buckinghams joviall Suppers when he had any turne to doe with him made him sometimes overtaken which he would the very next day remember and repent with teares it is true he dranke very often which was rather out of a custom then any delight and his drinks were of that kind for strength as Frontiniack Canary High Country wine Tent Wine and Scottish Ale that had he not had a very strong brain might have daily been overtaken although he seldom drank at any one time above four spoonfulls many times not above one or two He was very constant in all things his Favourites excepted in which he loved change yet never cast down any he once raised from the height of greatnesse though from their wonted nearnesse and privacy unlesse by their own default by opposing his change as in Somersets case yet had he not been in that foul poysoning busines and so cast down himself I do verily beleeve not him neither for al his other Favorites he left great in Honour great in Fortune and did much love Mountgomery and trusted him more at the very last gaspe then at the first minute of his Favoriteship In his Dyet Apparrell and Journeys he was very constant in his Apparrell so constant as by his good wil he would never change his cloathes untill worn out to very ragges His Fashion never Insomuch as one bringing to him a Hat of a Spanish Block he cast it from him swearing he neither loved them nor their fashions Another time bringing him Roses on his Shooes he asked if they would make him a ruffefooted-Dove one yard of six penny Ribbond served that turn His Dyet and Journies was so constant that the best observing Courtier of our time was wont to say were he asleep seven yeares and then awakened he would tell where the King every day had been and every dish he had had at his Table Hee was not very uxorious though he had a very brave Queen that never crossed his designes nor intermedled with State affaires but ever complyed with him even against the nature of any but of a milde spirit in the change of Favourites for he was ever best when furthest from his Queene and that was thought to be the first grounds of his often removes which afterwards proved habituall He was unfortunate in the marriage of his Daughter and so was all Christendome besides but sure the Daughter was more unfortunate in a Father then he in a Daughter He naturally loved not the sight of a Souldier nor of any valiant man and it was an observation that Sir Robert Mansell was the only valiant man he ever loved and him he loved so intirely that for all Buckinghams greatnesse with the King and his hatred of Sir Robert Mansell yet could not that alienate the Kings affections from him insomuch as when by the instigation of Cottington then Embassadour in Spaine by Buckinghams procurement the Spanish Embassadour came with a great complaint against Sir Robert Mansell then at Argiers to suppresse the Pirats That he did support them having never a friend there though many that durst speake in his defence the King himselfe defended him in these words My Lord Embassadour I cannot beleeve this for I made choyce my selfe of him out of these reasons I know him to be valiant honest and Nobly descended as most in my Kingdome and will never beleeve a man thus qualified will doe so base an act He naturally loved honest men that were not over active yet never loved any man heartily untill he had bound him unto him by giving him some suite which he thought bound the others love to him again but that argued a poore disposition in him to beleeve that any thing but a Noble minde seasoned with vertue could make any firme love or union for mercinary mindes are carried away with a greater prize but Noble mindes alienated with nothing but publick disgraces He was very witty and had as many ready witty jests as any
Legion for they were all many Devills and like true Devills tooke pleasure in tormenting So that hereby may be perceived the Kingdome in generall had no benefit though some particular men as Weston Treasurer Coventry Lord Keeper and all such as paid his beggerly kindred Pensions which now were ceased by this mans death whose purpose 't was to have turn'd out of place both Coventry and Weston before his last intended voyage But now did Weston begin to be more cruell in Pride and Tyranny than Buckingham had been before him and had not the Arch-Bishop Laud ballanced him he would have been more insufferable He cheated the King in the sale of Timber and of Land and in the letting of his Customs the Arch-Bishop notwithstanding truly informing the King thereof Weston was so mad at the thought of it he would often say to his friends in private That little Priest would Monopolize the Kings eare for he was ever whispering to the King And now begin the Councel Table the Star-Chamber and High Commission to bee Scourges and Tortures of the Commonwealth by Imprisonments and Mutilations of Members and were made some of them by sinings the greatest incomes to the Exchequer and in truth did now put down the Common Laws deciding of Meum and Tuum And if any desiring to appeal from them refused to stand there to their censures they were committed untill they would submit thereunto If men sent unto by them for money refused it they would imprison them till they would give or lend and if any were summoned thither they had a mind to quarrell with in whom they could not find a fault they would make one by saying the Gentleman laughs at us Or the Gentleman saith thus and thus it may be that hee had not in his thought and yet there should not want a false witnesse for some Lords that sat with their backs towards them or so farre off that they could not heare yet would testifie either the words or actions or for want of this a Clerk of the Councell should bee called to witnesse who for his profit must swear what any Lord said If they hit not upon that trick then sometimes they would contrive to put a Gentleman into passion by calling him some disgracefull name or by scoffing at him so that indeed the Councell Table was growne more like a Pasquil then a grave Senate But if the spirit of the man wer such that he could not take those indignities without some regret it was well for him if he escaped with imprisonment and not called Ore tenus to the Star-Chamber and fined as many were to his undoing for to that point were now the Fines of that Court risen As for the High Commission-Court that was a very Spanish-like Inquisition in which all pollings and tyrannizings over our Estates and Consciences were practised as were in the other over our Estates and Bodyes Then were the Judges so much their Servants or rather Slaves that what ere they illegally put in execution they found Law to maintaine But that which is a wonder above all wonders is that Coventry who formerly had gained the opinion of a just and honest man was a principall in all these miscarriages yet dyed he unquestioned when had his actions been scanned by a Parliament in that they were not you may see what opinion is which in the multitude blindeth the understanding he had been found as foul a man as ever lived Finch a fellow of an excellent tongue but not of one dram of Law made for all that Cheife Justice of the common-Common-Pleas the onely Court most learned in the Law yet he brought all the learned Judges except two only Hutton and Crook to be of his illegall opinion for shipmony This surely must be a punishment from God on them and us for our sins otherwise it had been impossible so many grave Iudges should have been over-ruled by such a slight and triviall fellow Now also all Officers in all places took what Fees they pleased as if in a Iubilee Amongst the rest those of the Star-Chamber the Councell Table and the High Commission were very Grandees Yea the very Messengers to them were countenanced in their abuse and insultings over the Gentry when in their clutches and to such a strange passe were disorders come unto that every Lacquey of those great Lords might give a Check-Mate to any Gentleman yea to any Country Nobleman that was not in the Court favour And to fill full the measure of the times abounding iniquity the Court Chaplines and others elsewhere with the Reverend Bishops themselves did preach away our liberties and proprieties yet kept they Divinity enough for their owne interests for they concluded all was either Gods or the Kings their part belonged to God in which the King had no propriety Our part belonged wholly to the King in which we had propriety no longer when the King were disposed to call for them so that betwixt the Law and the Gospel we were ejected out of Lands Liberties and Lives at pleasure And now is Gods time come to visit with his Iustice and behold it For the pit they digged for others they themselves are fallen into for all their Honours Lands and Liberties are a gasping and the Iudges are but in very little better case for the Parliament will doe that to them by the Law which they would have done to us by wresting the Gospel But what needed all that joy for the death of Buckingham Sith the times succeeding him have been so infinitely beyond him in all oppression as they are like to bring all manner of miseries both upon King people So that in truth his Hydra's head being struck downe an hundred more instead thereof appeared which never durst in his life time And as he got much by Suites so did Weston much by cheating yet all came out of the Subjects purses and Coventry that so generally a reputed honest man got such an estate by Bribery and In-justice that he is said to have left a Family worth a Million Which may commend his Wisdome but in no wise his Honesty And now also dies Weston after he had first brought in as you may remember I told you himselfe was by Cranfield Sir Thomas Wentworth after Earle of Strafford the active manager of the State and sole Governour of the King This Strafford without doubt was the ablest Minister that this Kingdome had since Salisburies time and to speak uprightly there was not any but himselfe worthy of that name amongst all the Kings Councell yet I am confident by the weaknesse of that Boord his abilities in State affaires were judged more then they were and besides that very word of States-man was now grown a stranger to our Nation Nor was he as Salisbury or our ancient Heroes a generall States-man nor was it possible he should be he not having that breeding himselfe Nor kept he any upon his charge in forraigne parts for intelligence Nor had
The day the King went from White-Hall to Theobalds and so to Royston the King sent for all the Judges his Lords and Servants encircling him where kneeling down in the midst of them he used these very words My Lords the Judges It is lately come to my hearing that you have now in examination a businesse of poysoning Lord in what a most miserable condition shall this Kingdom be the onely famous Nation for hospitality in the World if our Tables should become such a snare as none could eate without danger of life and that Italian custom should be introduced amongst us Therefore my Lords I charge you as you will answer it at that great and dreadfull day of Judgement that you examin it strictly without favour affection or partiality and if you shall spare any guilty of this crime Gods curse light upon you and your posterity And if I spare any that are found guilty Gods curse light on me and my posterity for ever But how this dreadfull thunder-Curse or imprecation was performed shall be shewed hereafter and I pray God the effect be not felt amongst us even at this day as it hath been I fear on that vertuous Lady Elizabeth and her children for God treasures up such imprecations and deprecations and poures them out when a Nation least dreams even when they cry peace peace to their souls and it may wel be at this time our other sins concurring that he is pouring them out upon King Judges and the whole State It appeares how unwilling the King was to ruin Somerset a creature of his owne making But immedicabile vulnus Ense rescinâ—endum est Grace was offered by the King had he had grace to have apprehended it The King with this took his farewell for a time of London and was accompanyed with Somerset to Royston where no sooner he brought him but instantly tooke his leave little imagining what viper lay amongst the hearbs nor must I forget to let you know how perfect the King was in the art of dissimulation or to give it his own phrase King-craft The Earle of Somerset to his apprehension never parted from him with more seeming affection then at this time when intentionally the King had so exposed him to Cookes dressing that hee knew Somerset should never see him more and had you seen that seeming affection as the Author himself did you would rather have beleeved he was in his rising then setting The Earl when he kissed his hand the King hung about his neck slabboring his cheeks saying for Gods sake when shall I see thee againe On my soule I shall neither eate nor sleep untill you come again the Earl told him on Monday this being on the Friday for Gods sake let me said the King shall I shall I Then lolled about his neck then for Gods sake give thy Lady this kisse for me in the same manner at the stayres head at the midle of the staires and at the stayres foot the Earle was not in his Coach when the King used these very words in the hearing of four servants of whom one was Somersets great creature and of the Bed-chamber who reported it instantly to the Author of this History I shall never see his face more I appeale therefore to the Reader whether this Motto of Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare was not as well performed in this passage as his Beati pacifici in the whole course of his life and his love to the latter made him to bee beaten with his own weapon in the other by all Princes and States that had to doe with him But before Somersets approach to London his Countesse was apprehended at his arrivall himselfe and the King being that night at supper said to Sir Thomas Monson My Lord cheife Justice hath sent for you he asked the King when hee should waite on him again who replyed you may come when you can And as in the story of Byron and many others there have been many foolish observations as presage so was there in this Gentleman who was the Kings Mr. Faulconer and in truth such an one as no Prince in Christendom had for what Flights other Princes had he would excell them for his Master in which one was at the Kite The French sending over his Faulconers to shew that sport his Master Faulconer lay long here but could not kill one Kite ours being more magnanimous then the French Kite Sir Thomas Monson desired to have that flight in all exquisitnesse and to that end was at 1000l charge in Ger-Faulcons for that flight in all that charge he never had but one cast would performe it and those had killed nine Kites which were as many as they were put off unto not any one of them escaping Whereupon the Earle of Pembrooke with all the Lords desired the King but to walk out of Royston Townes end to see that Flight which was one of the most stateliest Flights of the world for the high mountee the King went unwillingly forth the Flight was shewed but the Kite went to such a mountee and the Hawke after her as all the field lost sight of Kite and Hawke and al and neither Kite nor Hawke were either seen or heard of to this present which made all the Court conjecture it a very ill omen So that you see the plot was so well laid as they could be all within the toyle at one instant not knowing of each other Now are in hold the Earle his Countesse Sir Thomas Monson Mris. Turner a very lewd and infamous woman of life Weston and Franklin with some others of lesse note of which one Simon a servant to Sir Thomas Monson who was imployed in carrying Ielly and Tart to the Tower who upon his examination for his pleasant answer was instantly dismissed My Lord told him Simon you have had a hand in this poysoning businesse He replyed no my good Lord I had but one finger in it which almost cost me my life and at the best cost me all my Hair and Nailes for the truth was Simon was somewhat liquorish and finding the syrrup swim from the top of a Tart as he carryed it he did with his finger scum it off and it was to be beleeved had he known what it had been hee would not have been his Taster at so deare a rate and that you may know Simons interest with that Family I shall tel you a story Sir Thomas Monson was a great lover of Musicke and had as good as England had especially for voyces and was at infinite charge in breeding some in Italy This Simon was an excellent Musician and did sing delicately but was a more generall Musician than ever the world had and in one kind he surpassed all He had a Catzo of an immense length and bignesse with this being his Tabor stick his palme of his hand his Tabor and his mouth his Pipe he would so imitate a Tabor and Pipe as if it had been so indeed To