[Date, 1601.]
CONVERSATION, AS IT WAS BY THE SOCIAL FIRESIDE, IN THE TIME OF THE
TUDORS.
[Mem.--The following is supposed to be an extract from the
diary of the Pepys of that day, the same being Queen
Elizabeth's cup-bearer. He is supposed to be of ancient and
noble lineage; that he despises these literary canaille;
that his soul consumes with wrath, to see the queen stooping
to talk with such; and that the old man feels that his
nobility is defiled by contact with Shakespeare, etc., and
yet he has got to stay there till her Majesty chooses to
dismiss him.]
YESTERNIGHT toke her maiste ye queene a fantasie such as she sometimes
hath, and had to her closet certain that doe write playes, bokes, and
such like, these being my lord Bacon, his worship Sir Walter Ralegh,
Mr. Ben Jonson, and ye child Francis Beaumonte, which being but sixteen,
hath yet turned his hand to ye doing of ye Lattin masters into our
Englishe tong, with grete discretion and much applaus. Also came with
these ye famous Shaxpur. A righte straunge mixing truly of mighty blode
with mean, ye more in especial since ye queenes grace was present, as
likewise these following, to wit: Ye Duchess of Bilgewater, twenty-six
yeres of age; ye Countesse of Granby, thirty; her doter, ye Lady
Helen, fifteen; as also these two maides of honor, to-wit, ye Lady
Margery Boothy, sixty-five, and ye Lady Alice Dilberry, turned seventy,
she being two yeres ye queenes graces elder.
I being her maites cup-bearer, had no choice but to remaine and beholde
rank forgot, and ye high holde converse wh ye low as uppon equal termes,
a grete scandal did ye world heare thereof.
In ye heat of ye talk it befel yt one did breake wind, yielding an
exceding mightie and distresfull stink, whereat all did laugh full sore,
and then--
Ye Queene.--Verily in mine eight and sixty yeres have I not heard the
fellow to this fart. Meseemeth, by ye grete sound and clamour of it,
it was male; yet ye belly it did lurk behinde shoulde now fall lean and
flat against ye spine of him yt hath bene delivered of so stately and
so waste a bulk, where as ye guts of them yt doe quiff-splitters
bear, stand comely still and rounde. Prithee let ye author confess ye
offspring. Will my Lady Alice testify?
Lady Alice.--Good your grace, an' I had room for such a thunderbust
within mine ancient bowels, 'tis not in reason I coulde discharge ye
same and live to thank God for yt He did choose handmaid so humble
whereby to shew his power. Nay, 'tis not I yt have broughte forth
this rich o'ermastering fog, this fragrant gloom, so pray you seeke ye
further.
Ye Queene.--Mayhap ye Lady Margery hath done ye companie this favor?
Lady Margery.--So please you madam, my limbs are feeble wh ye weighte
and drouth of five and sixty winters, and it behoveth yt I be tender
unto them. In ye good providence of God, an' I had contained this
wonder, forsoothe wolde I have gi'en 'ye whole evening of my sinking
life to ye dribbling of it forth, with trembling and uneasy soul, not
launched it sudden in its matchless might, taking mine own life with
violence, rending my weak frame like rotten rags. It was not I, your
maisty.
Ye Queene.--O' God's name, who hath favored us? Hath it come to pass yt
a fart shall fart itself? Not such a one as this, I trow. Young Master
Beaumont--but no; 'twould have wafted him to heaven like down of goose's
boddy. 'Twas not ye little Lady Helen--nay, ne'er blush, my child;
thoul't tickle thy tender maidenhedde with many a mousie-squeak before
thou learnest to blow a harricane like this. Wasn't you, my learned and
ingenious Jonson?
Jonson.--So fell a blast hath ne'er mine ears saluted, nor yet a stench
so all-pervading and immortal. 'Twas not a novice did it, good
your maisty, but one of veteran experience--else hadde he failed of
confidence. In sooth it was not I.
Ye Queene.--My lord Bacon?
Lord Bacon.-Not from my leane entrailes hath this prodigy burst
forth, so please your grace. Naught doth so befit ye grete as grete
performance; and haply shall ye finde yt 'tis not from mediocrity this
miracle hath issued.
[Tho' ye subjct be but a fart, yet will this tedious sink of learning
pondrously phillosophize. Meantime did the foul and deadly stink pervade
all places to that degree, yt never smelt I ye like, yet dare I not to
leave ye presence, albeit I was like to suffocate.]
Ye Queene.--What saith ye worshipful Master Shaxpur?
Shaxpur.--In the great hand of God I stand and so proclaim mine
innocence. Though ye sinless hosts of heaven had foretold ye coming of
this most desolating breath, proclaiming it a work of uninspired
man, its quaking thunders, its firmament-clogging rottenness his own
achievement in due course of nature, yet had not I believed it; but
had said the pit itself hath furnished forth the stink, and heaven's
artillery hath shook the globe in admiration of it.
[Then was there a silence, and each did turn him toward the worshipful
Sr Walter Ralegh, that browned, embattled, bloody swashbuckler, who
rising up did smile, and simpering say,]
Sr W.--Most gracious maisty, 'twas I that did it, but indeed it was so
poor and frail a note, compared with such as I am wont to furnish, yt in
sooth I was ashamed to call the weakling mine in so august a presence.
It was nothing--less than nothing, madam--I did it but to clear my
nether throat; but had I come prepared, then had I delivered something
worthy. Bear with me, please your grace, till I can make amends.
[Then delivered he himself of such a godless and rock-shivering blast
that all were fain to stop their ears, and following it did come so
dense and foul a stink that that which went before did seem a poor and
trifling thing beside it. Then saith he, feigning that he blushed and
was confused, I perceive that I am weak to-day, and cannot justice do
unto my powers; and sat him down as who should say, There, it is not
much yet he that hath an arse to spare, let him fellow that, an' he
think he can. By God, an' I were ye queene, I would e'en tip this
swaggering braggart out o' the court, and let him air his grandeurs
and break his intolerable wind before ye deaf and such as suffocation
pleaseth.]
Then fell they to talk about ye manners and customs of many peoples, and
Master Shaxpur spake of ye boke of ye sieur Michael de Montaine,
wherein was mention of ye custom of widows of Perigord to wear uppon
ye headdress, in sign of widowhood, a jewel in ye similitude of a man's
member wilted and limber, whereat ye queene did laugh and say widows
in England doe wear prickes too, but betwixt the thighs, and not wilted
neither, till coition hath done that office for them. Master Shaxpur
did likewise observe how yt ye sieur de Montaine hath also spoken of a
certain emperor of such mighty prowess that he did take ten maidenheddes
in ye compass of a single night, ye while his empress did entertain two
and twenty lusty knights between her sheetes, yet was not satisfied;
whereat ye merrie Countess Granby saith a ram is yet ye emperor's
superior, sith he wil tup above a hundred yewes 'twixt sun and sun; and
after, if he can have none more to shag, will masturbate until he hath
enrich'd whole acres with his seed.
Then spake ye damned windmill, Sr Walter, of a people in ye uttermost
parts of America, yt capulate not until they be five and thirty yeres of
age, ye women being eight and twenty, and do it then but once in seven
yeres.
Ye Queene.--How doth that like my little Lady Helen? Shall we send thee
thither and preserve thy belly?
Lady Helen.--Please your highnesses grace, mine old nurse hath told me
there are more ways of serving God than by locking the thighs together;
yet am I willing to serve him yt way too, sith your highnesses grace
hath set ye ensample.
Ye Queene.--God' wowndes a good answer, childe.
Lady Alice.--Mayhap 'twill weaken when ye hair sprouts below ye navel.
Lady Helen.--Nay, it sprouted two yeres syne; I can scarce more than
cover it with my hand now.
Ye Queene.--Hear Ye that, my little Beaumonte? Have ye not a little
birde about ye that stirs at hearing tell of so sweete a neste?
Beaumonte.--'Tis not insensible, illustrious madam; but mousing owls and
bats of low degree may not aspire to bliss so whelming and ecstatic as
is found in ye downy nests of birdes of Paradise.
Ye Queene.--By ye gullet of God, 'tis a neat-turned compliment. With
such a tongue as thine, lad, thou'lt spread the ivory thighs of many
a willing maide in thy good time, an' thy cod-piece be as handy as thy
speeche.
Then spake ye queene of how she met old Rabelais when she was turned of
fifteen, and he did tell her of a man his father knew that had a double
pair of bollocks, whereon a controversy followed as concerning the
most just way to spell the word, ye contention running high betwixt
ye learned Bacon and ye ingenious Jonson, until at last ye old Lady
Margery, wearying of it all, saith, 'Gentles, what mattereth it how ye
shall spell the word? I warrant Ye when ye use your bollocks ye shall
not think of it; and my Lady Granby, be ye content; let the spelling
be, ye shall enjoy the beating of them on your buttocks just the same, I
trow. Before I had gained my fourteenth year I had learnt that them that
would explore a cunt stop'd not to consider the spelling o't.'
Sr W.--In sooth, when a shift's turned up, delay is meet for naught but
dalliance. Boccaccio hath a story of a priest that did beguile a maid
into his cell, then knelt him in a corner to pray for grace to be
rightly thankful for this tender maidenhead ye Lord had sent him; but ye
abbot, spying through ye key-hole, did see a tuft of brownish hair with
fair white flesh about it, wherefore when ye priest's prayer was done,
his chance was gone, forasmuch as ye little maid had but ye one cunt,
and that was already occupied to her content.
Then conversed they of religion, and ye mightie work ye old dead Luther
did doe by ye grace of God. Then next about poetry, and Master Shaxpur
did rede a part of his King Henry IV., ye which, it seemeth unto me, is
not of ye value of an arsefull of ashes, yet they praised it bravely,
one and all.
Ye same did rede a portion of his “Venus and Adonis,” to their
prodigious admiration, whereas I, being sleepy and fatigued withal, did
deme it but paltry stuff, and was the more discomforted in that ye blody
bucanier had got his wind again, and did turn his mind to farting with
such villain zeal that presently I was like to choke once more. God damn
this windy ruffian and all his breed. I wolde that hell mighte get him.
They talked about ye wonderful defense which old Sr. Nicholas
Throgmorton did make for himself before ye judges in ye time of Mary;
which was unlucky matter to broach, sith it fetched out ye quene with a
'Pity yt he, having so much wit, had yet not enough to save his doter's
maidenhedde sound for her marriage-bed.' And ye quene did give ye damn'd
Sr. Walter a look yt made hym wince--for she hath not forgot he was her
own lover it yt olde day. There was silent uncomfortableness now; 'twas
not a good turn for talk to take, sith if ye queene must find offense
in a little harmless debauching, when pricks were stiff and cunts
not loathe to take ye stiffness out of them, who of this company was
sinless; behold, was not ye wife of Master Shaxpur four months gone
with child when she stood uppe before ye altar? Was not her Grace of
Bilgewater roger'd by four lords before she had a husband? Was not ye
little Lady Helen born on her mother's wedding-day? And, beholde, were
not ye Lady Alice and ye Lady Margery there, mouthing religion, whores
from ye cradle?
In time came they to discourse of Cervantes, and of the new painter,
Rubens, that is beginning to be heard of. Fine words and dainty-wrought
phrases from the ladies now, one or two of them being, in other days,
pupils of that poor ass, Lille, himself; and I marked how that Jonson
and Shaxpur did fidget to discharge some venom of sarcasm, yet dared
they not in the presence, the queene's grace being ye very flower of ye
Euphuists herself. But behold, these be they yt, having a specialty, and
admiring it in themselves, be jealous when a neighbor doth essaye it,
nor can abide it in them long. Wherefore 'twas observable yt ye quene
waxed uncontent; and in time labor'd grandiose speeche out of ye mouth
of Lady Alice, who manifestly did mightily pride herself thereon, did
quite exhauste ye quene's endurance, who listened till ye gaudy speeche
was done, then lifted up her brows, and with vaste irony, mincing saith
'O shit!' Whereat they alle did laffe, but not ye Lady Alice, yt olde
foolish bitche.
Now was Sr. Walter minded of a tale he once did hear ye ingenious
Margrette of Navarre relate, about a maid, which being like to suffer
rape by an olde archbishoppe, did smartly contrive a device to save her
maidenhedde, and said to him, First, my lord, I prithee, take out thy
holy tool and piss before me; which doing, lo his member felle, and
would not rise again.