No. 7. November, 1541.
No man is so cruell that is hable to styrre hym up. *Who is able to stande before me? Or ‡who hath gyuen me any thyng afore hande, that I maye rewarde hym agayne? All
I believe the foregoing to be an exact copy of Mr. Wilson's catalogue, but, of course, I cannot be responsible for the accuracy of his transcripts. Perhaps none but those who were admitted to his library ever had an opportunity of comparing together all those editions; and nobody would have done it with more care and fidelity than himself.
S. R. M.
SOVEREIGNS DINING AND SUPPING IN PUBLIC.
In some observations which I made upon two or three pictures in Hampton Court Palace, in Vol. viii., p. 538., I specified two worthy of notice on the above subject, and which are the first instances of such ceremony I have met with. It has been supposed to have been a foreign custom but I do not find any traces of it upon record.[[1]]
One can easily imagine that the fastueux Louis XIV. would have no objection to such display, and that his mistresses, as well as queen, would be of the party, when we read, that in the royal progresses two of the former were scandalously paraded in the same carriage with his queen. To this immoral exhibition, indeed, public opinion seemed to give no check, as we read, that "les peuples accouraient 'pour voir,' disaient-ils, 'les trois reines,'" wherever they appeared together. Of these three queens, the true one was Marie-Thérèse: the two others were La Marquise de Montespan and Mme. de la Vallière. But to return to my subject. I find by the London Gazette, No. 6091. of Sept. 4, 1722, that Geo. I., in his progress to the west of England, supped in public at the Bishop's (Dr. Richard Willis) palace at Salisbury on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 1722; and slept there that night.
The papers of the period of George II. say:
"There was such a resort to Hampton Court on Sunday, July 14, 1728, to see their Majesties dine, that the rail surrounding the table broke; and causing some to fall, made a terrible scramble for hats, &c., at which their Majesties laughed heartily."