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