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    IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 115

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    . Mam ^ The Roll Which The Muse Of Histo...

    tory an unjust of Queen judge Esther , flayed with alive Hainan by order and of his Canib gallows yses ; for or the the drop

    his-, scene . A _few ladies followed the chase with as much eagerness as their lordsand rivalled them in establishing menageries , peopled

    with wild , horses , buffaloes , stags , and elks , from the woods of Prussia and Austria . Above all , they delighted to see their

    eastlewalls ornamented with representations of these animals as large as life ; on these figures , which were of generall the real y stiff animal and unnatural fastened in the

    extreme One lad , the writes horns that and she amuses hoofs herself daily with a were spaniel which . has been y sent her from Copenhagen ; another is teaching a gay

    parrot to talk , but the creature is so perverse , its mistress complains that she often loses all patience . The grand plaything at a German

    court , the one possession through which ennui might fairly be set at defiance , was a fool . Happy the queen or duchess who could find

    a well-trained she-fool : this was a prize most eagerly coveted , and earnestlht . Duke Albert spares no pains to procure Ms wife

    this innocent y soug gratification , and we find him engaged in active correspondence with a nobleman in Bohemia on this matter . A certain

    noble a good lad she y -fool of that country the duke named ; this Christina fool 6 ( the Kurzbachin high-born , possessed princess ,

    , says before our friendl from y her and mistress well-beloved and received consort / ' for had answer begged to her some request years ,

    that Christina Kurzbachin , could not possibly part with such a favorite during her life-timebut she would promise the duchess the

    , reversion of her fool , to be claimed on her ( Christina ' s ) decease . Duke Albert has received certain intelligence of the old lady ' s death ,

    and that the Bohemian is her heir , and entreats with much earnestness that he will behave honorably , by sending off the fool to Prussia

    with as little delay as possible ; at the same time both he and the duchess write to beg the intervention of a friend , beseeching that he

    will use his utmost endeavor to persuade Christina ' s heir to part with such a treasure . _, Dwarfs were also articles of luxury , a pair ,

    dwarf and dwarfess , was considered a great prize . The Landgravine , Barbara of Leuchtenberg possessed a she-dwarf , and to find a mate for

    her , she addresses herself to different princes , with the assurance that any dwarf they may bestow shall be treated as if he were one

    of her own children . Not every princess and duchess of this period could write her own

    name , but among those who did possess this accomplishment an active correspondence was evidently maintained . Very-little , it must

    be confessed , of anything like _VEloquence du billet is to be found in these letterswhich are dull in the extreme , and full of the

    , had most the formal ill fortune phrases to and be titles present . In at short the , reading any person of a who particularl has ever y

    long will ,-r-always supposing him not a legatee , —can form a pretty accurate idea of the style and tediousness in which these fair letter _^ _,

    writers indulge . Unlike the correspondence of contemporary princes ,

    In The Sixteenth Century. 115

    IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY . 115

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1860, page 115, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041860/page/43/