For they in heart can think ene thing,
and fain another in her speaking:
and what was sweet and apparent,
is smaterlich, and eke yshent.
and when of service you have nede,
pardie he will not rein nor rede.
but when the Symnel it is eten,
her curtesse is all foryetten.
This Adventure met with various Constructions from those at Table: Some Laugh’d; others Frown’d. But the King took the Joke by the right End, and Laugh’d outright.
The Verses, tho’ but scurvy ones in themselves, yet in those Days pass’d for tolerable: Nay, the King was mightily pleas’d with ’em, and play’d ’em off on his Courtiers as Occasion serv’d; he wou’d stop ’em short in the middle of a flattering Harangue, and cry, Not a Word of the Pudding. This wou’d daunt and mortify ’em to the last degree; they curs’d Sir John a thousand times over for the Proverb’s sake: but to