Ere six in the morning was toll'd by the chimes-- O the days of Queen Bess they were merry old times! From hawking and hunting she rode back to town, In time just to knock an ambassador down; Toy'd, trifled, coquetted, then lopp'd off a head; And at threescore and ten danced a hornpipe to bed. With Nicholas Bacon,1 her councillor chief, One day she was dining on English roast beef; That very same day when her Majesty's Grace * Had given Lord Essex a slap on the face. * When Queen Elizabeth came to visit Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, at his new house at Redgrave, she observed, alluding to his corpulency, that he had built his house too little for him. “Not so, madam,” answered he; “but your Highness has made me too big for my house!” The term “your Grace' was addressed to the English Sovereign during the earlier Tudor reigns. In her latter years Elizabeth assumed the appellation of “Majesty” The following anecdote comprehends both titles. “As Queen Elizabeth passed the streets in state, one in the crowde cried first, 'God blesse your Royall Majestie!' and then, 'God blesse your Noble Grace!' 'Why, how now,' sayes the Queene, 'am I tenne groates worse than I was e'en now?'” The value of the old “Ryal,” or “Royall,” was 10s., that of the “Noble” 6s. Sd. The Emperor Charles the Fifth was the first crowned head that assumed the title of “Majesty.” My Lord Keeper stared, as the wine-cup she kiss'd, At his sovereign lady's superlative twist, And thought, thinking truly his larder would squeak, He'd much rather keep her a day than a week. “What call you this dainty, my very good lord?”-- “The Loin,”--bowing low till his nose touch'd the board-- “And--breath of our nostrils, and light of our eyes! * Saving your presence., the ox was a prize.”