It happened that the archbishop of Tuum (anciently called Meum by
the Roman catholic clergy) the great wit of those times, was in the
queen-mother's closet, who had the young queen in her lap. [5] His
grace was suddenly seized with a violent fit of the cholic, which
made him make such wry faces, that the queen-mother thought he was
going to die, and ran out of the room to send for a physician, for
she was a pattern of goodness, and void of pride. While she was
stepped into the servant's hall to call somebody, according to the
simplicity of those times, the archbishop's pains encreased, when
perceiving something on the mantle-piece, which he took for a peach
in brandy, he gulped it all down at once without saying grace, God
forgive him, and found great comfort from it. He had not done
licking his lips before the queen-mother returned, when queen Grata
cried out, "Mama, mama, the gentleman has eat my little brother!"
This fortunate event put an end to the contest, the male line
entirely failing in the person of the devoured prince. The
archbishop, however, who became pope by the name of Innocent the
3d. having afterwards a son by his sister, named the child
Fitzpatrick, as having some of the royal blood in its veins; and
from him are descended all the younger branches of the Fitzpatricks
of our time. Now the rest of the acts of Grata and all that she
did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the
kings of Kilkenny?
NOTES ON TALE IV.
_This tale was written for Anne Liddel countess of Offory, wife of John
Fitzpatrick earl of Offory. They had a daughter Anne, the subject of
this story._
[Footnote 1: _Vide Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, in the family of
Fitzpatrick._]
[Footnote 2: _Queen Anne in her first speech to the parliament said, her
heart was entirely English._]
[Footnote 3: _Lady Offory had miscarried just then of two sons._]
[Footnote 4: _The housekeeper, as soon as lord Offory came home, wished
him joy of a son and heir, though both the children were born dead._]
[Footnote 5: _Some commentators have ignorantly supposed that the Irish
author is guilty of a great anachronism in this passage; for having said
that the contested succession occasioned long wars, he yet speaks of
queen Grata at the conclusion of them, as still sitting in her mother's
lap as a child. Now I can confute them from their own state of the
question_. Like a child _does not import that she actually was a child:
she only sat_ like a child; _and so she might though thirty years old.
Civilians have declared at what period of his life a king may be of age
before he is: but neither Grotius nor Puffendorffe, nor any of the
tribe, have determined how long a king or queen may remain infants after
they are past their infancy._]
TALE V.
Mi Li. _A Chinese Fairy Tale_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account