Do not get their living by polling and bribes.

If it were not for shame

Scrivener

Merrygreek

Nay, hold thy hands still.

Why, did ye not promise that ye would not him spill? Scrivener

Let him not spare me.

Ralph-
Scrivener

Why, wilt thou strike me again?

Ye shall have as good as ye bring of me, that is plain.
Merrygreek-

I cannot blame him, sir, though your blows would him grieve.
For he knoweth present death to ensue of all ye give.

Ralph

Well, this man for once hath purchased thy pardon. Scrivener

And what say ye to me? or else I shall be gone. Ralph

I say the letter thou madest me was not good. Scrivener

Then did ye wrong copy it, of likelihood. Ralph

Yes, out of thy copy word for word I wrote. Scrivener

Then was it as ye prayed to have it, I wote,

But in reading and pointing there was made some fault. Ralph

I wote not, but it made all my matter to halt. Scrivener

How say you, is this mine original or no? Ralph

The selfsame that I wrote out of, so mote I go.
Scrivener

Look you on your own fist, and I will look on this,
And let this man be judge whether I read amiss.
"To mine own dear coney bird, sweetheart, and pigsny,
Good mistress Custance, present these by and by."
How now? doth not this superscription agree?
Ralph-

Read that is within, and there ye shall the fault see.
Scrivener

"Sweet mistress, whereas I love you, nothing at all
Regarding your richesse and substance: chief of all
For your personage, beauty, demeanor, and wit

I commend me unto you: Never a whit

VOL. XI. -22

Sorry to hear report of your good welfare.
For (as I hear say) such your conditions are,
That ye be worthy favor: Of no living man
To be abhorred: of every honest man

To be taken for a woman inclined to vice
Nothing at all: to virtue giving her due price.
Wherefore concerning marriage, ye are thought
Such a fine Paragon, as ne'er honest man bought.
And now by these presents I do you advertise
That I am minded to marry you: In no wise
For your goods and substance: I could be content
To take you as ye are: if ye mind to be my wife,
Ye shall be assured for the time of my life,

I will keep ye right well: from good raiment and fare
Ye shall not be kept: but in sorrow and care

Ye shall in no wise live: at your own liberty,

Do and say what ye lust: ye shall never please me
But when ye are merry: I will be all sad

When ye are sorry: I will be very glad

When ye seek your heart's ease: I will be unkind

At no time: in me shall ye much gentleness find.
But all things contrary to your will and mind

Shall be done otherwise: I will not be behind

To speak: And as for all them that would do you wrong,

I will so help and maintain ye, shall not live long.

Nor any foolish dolt shall cumber you; but I,

I, whoe'er say nay, will stick by you till I die.

Thus, good mistress Custance, the Lord you save and keep.
From me, Roister Doister, whether I wake or sleep,

Who favoreth you no less (ye may be bold)

Than this letter purporteth, which ye have unfold." Now sir, what default can ye find in this letter? Ralph

Of truth in my mind there cannot be a better.
Scrivener-

Then was the fault in reading, and not in writing;
No, nor I dare say in the form of inditing.

But who read this letter, that it sounded so naught?
Merrygreek-

I read it, indeed.

Scrivener

Ralph

Ye read it not as ye ought.

Why, thou wretched villain, was all this same fault in thee? Merrygreek

I knock

your costard if ye offer to strike me,

Ralph

Strikest thou indeed? and I offer but in jest? Merrygreek

Yea, and rap you again except ye can sit in rest. And I will no longer tarry here, me believe. Ralph

What, wilt thou be angry, and I do thee forgive? Fare thou well, scribbler, I cry thee mercy indeed. Scrivener

Fare ye well, bibbler, and worthily may ye speed.

ENGLAND IN HENRY VIII.'S TIME.

BY JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE.

[JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, the English historian, was born at Dartington, Devon, April 23, 1818, the youngest son of the Archdeacon of Totnes. He was educated at Westminster and Oriel College, Oxford, where he came under the influence of the Tractarian movement. He was elected a Fellow of Exeter and received deacon's orders, but his views underwent a change, as revealed in "The Nemesis of Faith" (1848), in consequence of which he lost his fellowship. He then turned to literature and for many years was a contributor to Fraser's Magazine and the Westminster Review. He became rector of St. Andrews (1869); visited America, South Africa, and the Australasian colonies; and in 1892 succeeded E. A. Freeman as professor of modern history at Oxford. He died at Salcombe, Devon, October 20, 1894. His monumental work is a "History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada" (12 vols., 1856-1870). Also noteworthy are: "Short Studies on Great Subjects," "The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century," "Cæsar," "The English in the West Indies." As literary executor of Carlyle he edited a "Life of Carlyle," "Carlyle's Reminiscences," and Mrs. Carlyle's "Letters."]

IN periods like the present, when knowledge is every day extending, and the habits and thoughts of mankind are perpetually changing under the influence of new discoveries, it is no easy matter to throw ourselves back into a time in which for centuries the European world grew upon a single type, in which the forms of the father's thoughts were the forms of the son's, and the late descendant was occupied in treading into. paths the footprints of his distant ancestors. So absolutely has change become the law of our present condition, that it is identified with energy and moral health; to cease to change is to lose place in the great race; and to pass away from off the earth with the same convictions which we found when we entered it is to have missed the best object for which we now seem to exist.