errors, and it will not be easy to trace out, or dispose the life of a man of quality into a succession of employments which would better become him. Valour and military activity in youth; business of state in middle age; contemplation and labours for the information of posterity in the calmer scenes of closing life."* Such is the outline of Lord Herbert's character, as it is sketched for him by the pen of another. He has himself completed the picture by his own curious delineation of his private thoughts and secret motives for action; forming, if not the most perfect, at least one of the most remarkable characters in the gallery of human portraits. * Life of Lord Herbert of Cherbury; Introduction. ARCHEE, THE COURT FOOL. Use and Importance in former Days of the Office of Royal Fool. Character of Archibald Armstrong, King James's Jester -his witty Sayings-his Success at Madrid—his Feud with Archbishop Laud his Dismissal from Court his Retire ment after his Disgrace—his Gallantry. - IN days, when the blessings of literature were unknown, and when the Sovereign could scarcely read or write, the royal fool, or jester, was a person of no slight importance in dissipating the dulness of a barbarous court. In the long nights and rainy days he must have been invaluable. At the insipid banquets of royalty, formality and stateliness disappeared before him: he enlivened illiterate boorishness, and gave spirit to flagging conviviality. The guests made him their butt, and he repaid their ridicule with impunity and applause. To the Sovereign his society was almost indispensable. In the presence of his fool the Monarch could unbend and be perfectly at his ease. He could either amuse himself with his buffoonery, or he could vent on him his spleen. Sometimes this singular familiarity appears to have produced a real attachment on the part of the jester. We find him taking advantage of his peculiar li cence, and under the mask, and in the language of folly, communicating wholesome and important truths to which the most powerful noble would scarcely have ventured an allusion. The character of the Court Fool of former days is commonly somewhat undervalued. Generally speaking, he was a compound of humour, tact, and impudence; and obtained his title less from being, than from playing, the fool. In many instances, the man who wore a cap and bells, had quite as much sense as the man who was decorated with a coronet. Archibald Armstrong (for such was Archee's real name) was as shrewd, sensible, witty, and good-humoured an individual, as ever adorned the high station to which he had been called. In our times he would have probably been famous for conversational pleasantry, or as a writer of facetious fiction. Unfortunately his good sayings are now almost entirely lost to the world; the book of "Jests," which bears his name, is too wretched a production to be genuine. The man, who bearded and ridiculed the proudest prelate since the days of Wolsey, could never have uttered such indifferent nonsense. His conversation with King James, when the latter was weak enough to trust his heir in the Spanish dominions, is quite admirable:-"I must change caps with your Majesty," said Archee. "Why?" inquired the King." Why, who," replied Archee," sent the Prince into Spain ?"—" But, - supposing," returned James, "that the Prince should come safely back again?"—" Why, in that case," said Archee, "I will take my cap from my head, and send it to the King of Spain.' "* Archee, however tender of the Prince's safety, had no objection to trust his own person among the pleasures of the Spanish capital. Probably he followed in the train of some of the young courtiers, who hastened to join the Prince in his romantic expedition. His wit and his impudence made him as much at home at Madrid as he had formerly been in London. While the Prince could with difficulty interchange a syllable with his beloved Infanta, Archee was not only admitted into her presence, but became a familiar favourite with the Spanish ladies. "Our cousin, Archee," says Howell," in one of his curious letters from Madrid, "hath more privilege than any, for he often goes with his fool's coat, where the Infanta is with her meninas, and ladies of honour, and keeps a blowing and blustering amongst them, and flirts out what he lists." One day, the subject of conversation was the gallantry of the Duke of Bavaria, who, at the head of an inconsiderable force, had routed a large army of the Palsgrave. The latter being son-in-law to King James, rendered the topic a displeasing one to an Englishman. "I will tell you a stranger circumstance," said Archee; "is it not more singular that one hundred and forty ships * Coke, vol. i. p. 143; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, 499. 2 C VOL. I. should have sailed from Spain, to attack England, and that not ten of them should have returned to tell what became of the rest?"* Archee's famous feud with Archbishop Laud must have been productive of considerable amusement to the more mischievous courtiers. He once asked permission to say grace, at a dinner where that dignified prelate was present. On his request being granted: "Great praise," he said, "be to God; and little Laud to the Devil." Osborne says, in his Advice to a Son,-" He was not only able to continue the dispute for diverse years, but received such encouragements from the standers-by, as he hath oft, in my hearing, belched in his face such miscarriages as he was really guilty of, and might, but for this foul-mouthed Scot, have been forgotten." There is a pamphlet in the British Museum, curious from its scarcity, entitled Archee's Dream. Unfortunately it contains no particulars respecting the history of this remarkable humourist, and is, in fact, little more than a malicious tirade against Laud, during whose imprisonment it was published. There is a poetical postscript which concludes as follows: His fool's coat now is in far better case, Than he who yesterday had so much grace. *Howell's Letters, p. 139. + Archee's Dream. Sometimes Jester to his Majesty, 1641. |