ned them
all, she answered, "Nay, where is 'Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton.'"

Among the sayings, good for the period, which have been attributed to
her, we read that when the Archduke raised the siege of Grave, the Queen
who heard of it before her secretary, said to him, "Wot you that the
Archduke is risen from the Grave." When at Lord Burleigh's she promised
to make seven knights, and the gentlemen to be so honoured were placed
in a line as the Queen was going out. The least worthy of them, however,
were through interest with Lord Burleigh placed first, so that they
might have precedence of creation. But the Queen passed down the row and
took no notice of them; but when she had reached the screen, turned, and
observing, "I had almost forgotten my promise," proceeded to knight from
the lower end. On one of her Privy Council saying "Your Majesty was too
politic for my Lord Burleigh," she replied, "I have but followed the
scripture--'the first shall be last and the last first.'"

The cares of sovereignty, and the opposition of her Roman Catholic
subjects led Elizabeth's humour to assume a somewhat severe complexion.
Her thoughts gradually became more earnest, and her jests cynical.
Moreover, as seen in Shakespeare, the age in which she lived was
reflective, and the budding activity of mind was directed towards great
interests. There was not that impression of the vanity of all things,
which grows up with the extension and maturity of society, and attracts
the mind to more fanciful and less grave considerations. A good contrast
between Elizabeth's position, and that of James I. may be seen in the
following occurrences. When Henry IV. had given the order of St. Michael
to Nicolas Clifford and Anthony Shirley, she commanded them to return
it. "I will not," she said, "have my sheep follow the pipe of a strange
shepherd;"[56] but when James I. was told that several noblemen of his
court and council, received pensions from Spain, the King replied that
he knew it well, and only wished the King of Spain would give them ten
times as much, as it would render him less able to make war upon him.

James was a man of a very eccentric and grotesque fancy, combined with a
considerable amount of intelligence and learning. He was particularly
fond of religious controversy, and wrote what he considered to be an
important work on "Demonologie." From one passage we might suppose that
he thought it sinful to laugh, as he says that man can only