What is all this
but spice of grandio? How tedious would this be if we were always
bound to it? I do believe there is no king who would not rather be
deposed than endure every day of his reign all the ceremonies of his
coronation. The mightiest princes are glad to fly often from these
majestic pleasures (which is, methinks, no small disparagement to
them), as it were for refuge, to the most contemptible
divertisements and meanest recreations of the vulgar, nay, even of
children. One of the most powerful and fortunate princes of the
world of late, could find out no delight so satisfactory as the
keeping of little singing birds, and hearing of them and whistling
to them. What did the emperors of the whole world? If ever any men
had the free and full enjoyment of all human greatness (nay, that
would not suffice, for they would be gods too) they certainly
possessed it; and yet one of them, who styled himself "Lord and God
of the Earth," could not tell how to pass his whole day pleasantly,
without spending constant two or three hours in catching of flies,
and killing them with a bodkin, as if his godship had been
Beelzebub.
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