Henry the Sixth : $b a reprint of John Blacman's memoir, with translation and notesBlakman, John
History
Henry the Sixth : $b a reprint of John Blacman's memoir, with translation and notes
Blakman, John
Great Britain -- History -- Henry VI, 1422-1461; Henry VI, King of England, 1421-1471
Hence it happened once, that at Christmas time a certain great lord
brought before him a dance or show of young ladies with bared bosoms who
were to dance in that guise before the king, perhaps to prove him, or to
entice his youthful mind. But the king was not blind to it, nor unaware
of the devilish wile, and spurned the delusion, and very angrily averted
his eyes, turned his back upon them, and went out to his chamber,
saying:
Fy, fy, for shame, forsothe ye be to blame.
At another time, riding by Bath, where are warm baths in which they say
the men of that country customably refresh and wash themselves, the
king, looking into the baths, saw in them men wholly naked with every
garment cast off. At which he was displeased, and went away quickly,
abhorring such nudity as a great offence, and not unmindful of that
sentence of Francis Petrarch 'the nakedness of a beast is in men
unpleasing, but the decency of raiment makes for modesty.'
Besides, he took great precautions to secure not only his own chastity
but that of his servants. For before he was married, being as a youth a
pupil of chastity, he would keep careful watch through hidden windows of
his chamber, lest any foolish impertinence of women coming into the
house should grow to a head, and cause the fall of any of his household.
And like pains did he apply in the case of his two half-brothers, the
Lords Jasper and Edmund, in their boyhood and youth: providing for them
most strict and safe guardianship, putting them under the care of
virtuous and worthy priests, both for teaching and for right living and
conversation, lest the untamed practices of youth should grow rank if
they lacked any to prune them. Not less diligence did he use, I am told,
towards others dependent on him, advising them to eschew vice and avoid
the talk of the vicious and dissolute, and to lay hold on virtue.
_Against avarice._
_His liberality._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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