HIS LORDSHIP'S PREFACE. JULIUS CESAR did write a collection of apophthegms, as appears in an epistle of Cicero; so did Macrobius, a consular man. I need say no more for the worth of a writing of that nature. It is pity Cæsar's book is lost: for I imagine they were collected with judgment and choice; whereas that of Plutarch and Stobæus, and much more the modern ones, draw much of the dregs. Certainly they are of excellent use. They are mucrones verborum, pointed speeches. The words of the wise are as goads,' saith Solomon. Cicero prettily calleth them salinas, salt pits, that you may extract salt out of, and sprinkle it where you will. They serve to be interlaced in continued speech. They serve to be recited upon occasion of themselves. They serve if you take out the kernel of them, and make them your own. I have, for my recreation amongst more serious studies, collected some few of them :* therein fanning the old; not omitting any, because they are vulgar, for many vulgar ones are excellent good; nor for the meanness of the person, but because they are dull and flat; and adding many new, that otherwise would have died. * This collection his lordship made out of his memory, without turning any book. Rawley. COLLECTION OF APOPHTHEGMS, NEW AND OLD. 1. QUEEN Elizabeth, the morrow of her coronation it being the custom to release prisoners at the inauguration of a prince, went to the chapel; and in the great chamber, one of her courtiers, who was well known to her, either out of his own motion, or by the instigation of a wiser man, presented her with a petition; and, before a great number of courtiers, besought her with a loud voice, "That now this good time, "there might be four or five principal prisoners more "released those were the four evangelists and the "apostle St. Paul, who had been long shut up in an "unknown tongue, as it were in prison; so as they "could not converse with the common people." The queen answered very gravely, "That it was best "first to inquire of them, Whether they would be "released or no." : 2. Queen Ann Bullen, at the time when she was led to be beheaded in the Tower, called one of the king's privy chamber to her, and said unto him, "Commend me to the king, and tell him, that he "hath been ever constant in his course of advancing "me; from a private gentlewoman he made me a "marchioness; and from a marchioness a queen; "and now, that he hath left no higher degree of "earthly honour, he intends to crown my innocency "with the glory of martyrdom." 3. His majesty James the First, king of Great Britain, having made unto his parliament an excellent and large declaration, concluded thus; "I have now "given you a clear mirrour of my mind; use it there "fore like a mirrour, and take heed how you let it fall, or how you soil it with your breath." 4. A great officer in France was in danger to have lost his place; but his wife, by her suit and means making, made his peace; whereupon a pleasant fellow said, "That he had been crushed, but that he "saved himself upon his horns." 5. His majesty said to his parliament at another time, finding there were some causeless jealousies sown amongst them, "That the king and his people, "whereof the parliament is the representative body, were as husband and wife; and therefore that of "all other things jealousy was between them most pernicious." 66 6. His majesty, when he thought his counsel might note in him some variety in businesses, though indeed he remained constant, would say, "That the sun many "times shineth watery; but it is not the sun which "causeth it, but some cloud rising betwixt us and "the sun and when that is scattered, the sun is as "it was, and comes to his former brightness." 7. His majesty, in his answer to the book of the cardinal of Evereux, who had in a grave argument of divinity sprinkled many witty ornaments of poesy and humanity, saith, "That these flowers were like "blue, and yellow, and red flowers in the corn, which "make a pleasant shew to those that look on, but they hurt the corn." 8. Sir Edward Coke being vehement against the two provincial councils of Wales, and the north, said to the king; "There was nothing there but a kind "of confusion and hotch-potch of justice: one while "they were a star chamber; another while a king's"bench; another, a common pleas; another, a com"mission of oyer and terminer." His majesty answered; "Why, Sir Edward Coke, they be like "houses in progress, where I have not, nor can have "such distinct rooms of state, as I have here at "Whitehall, or at Hampton Court." 9. The commissioners of the treasury moved the king, for the relief of his estate, to disafforest some |