First ask, if e’er your hearers lost an ass!
Life a mingled yarn.
The web of our life is a mingled yarn. Our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if not redeemed by our nature.
Henry VIII. and Francis I.
At the interview between Henry VIII. and Francis I. which took place at Guisnes, Henry and his English cavaliers wore on their crests the Hawthorn, a cherished though humble badge, from the circumstance of Henry VII. having placed on his head, in Bosworth Field, the crown of England, which had been discovered in a hawthorn bush. It was on this occasion, that when Henry was about to read the articles of the treaty the monarchs had met to execute, that instead of designating himself King of France, he stopped abruptly after “I Henry, King of England,” and exclaimed, “No, not the King of France: I should be an impostor if I claimed that title, for the King of France is here!”
Anecdote of Torregiano.
Torregiano, a native of Florence, who came to Seville in 1520, was employed by the Duke of Arcos in making an exact copy of a statue in clay, which had been executed by himself, and which was greatly valued by all connoisseurs. When it was finished, the Duke paid him in maravedes, and the quantity was so great that two men were required to carry it to his lodging.