Will Summers * was of low stature, pleasant countenance, nimble body and gesture; and had good mother-wit in him! A whimsical compound of fool and knave. He was a prodigious favourite with Henry the Eighth.
* Under a rare print of him by Delarem, are inscribed the
following lines:—
“What though thou think'st mee clad in strange attire,
Know I am suted to my owne deseire:
And yet the characters describ'd upon mee,
May shewe thee, that a king bestow'd them on mee.
This home I have, betokens Sommers' game;
Which sportive tyme will bid thee reade my name:
All with my nature well agreeing too,
As both the name, and tyme, and habit doe.”
That morose and cruel monarch tolerated his caustic satire and laughed at his gibes. When the king was at dinner, Will Summers 'would thrust his face through the arras, and make the royal gormandiser roar heartily with his odd humour and comical grimaces; and then he would approach the table “in such a rolling and antic posture, holding his hands and setting his eyes, that is past describing, unless one saw him.”
[Original]
But Will Summers possessed higher qualities than merely making the Defender of the Faith merry. He used his influence in a way that few court favourites—not being fools!—have done, before or since. He tamed the tyrant's ferocity, and urged him to good deeds; himself giving the example, by his kindness to those who came within the humble sphere of his bounty. Armin, in his Nest of Ninnies, 4to. 1608, thus describes this laughing philosopher. “A comely foole indeed passing more stately; who was this forsooth? Will Sommers, and not meanly esteemed by the king for his merriment; his melody was of a higher straine, and he lookt as the noone broad waking. His description was writ on his forehead, and yee might read it thus:
“Will Sommers borne in Shropshire, as some say,
Was brought to Greenwich on a holy day,
Presented to the king, which foole disdayn'd,