Queen Elizabeth had her jesters, and a notable personage was Clod, who occasionally exercised his wit at her expense. Thus, one day when she reproached him with neglecting his duties, he asked, “How so, in what have I failed?” “In this,” answered the Queen, “you are ready enough to point your sharp satire at the faults of other people, but you never say a word of mine.” “Ah,” exclaimed Clod, “why should I remind your Majesty of your faults, seeing that these are in everybody’s mouth, and you may hear of them hourly?” Then there was Tarleton, who, writes Fuller, “when Queen Elizabeth was serious, I dare not say sullen, and out of good humour, he could undumpish her at his pleasure.” Tarleton wore his fool’s attire when the Queen dined, and when she dined abroad he attended her “in his clown’s apparel; being all dinner-while in the presence with her, to make her merry.” And so great was his popularity, that “the year of Tarleton’s death” was as common a saying as “the year of the Armada.” At the Court of James I. both King and Queen maintained a fool; and we find the latter paying thirteen shillings a week “for the diet and lodging of Tom Derry,” who seems to have been held of some importance, since a gallery at Somerset House where he used to loiter and make jokes was named after him. We find Sir Thomas Jermyn, Sir Ralph Sheldon, and Thomas Badger mentioned as “fools or buffoons,” and on Sir Edward Zouch, Sir George Goring, and Sir John Finett was bestowed the honour of being “the chief and master fools.” Archie Armstrong was a special favourite of James, and seems to have been on familiar terms with him, and Howell thus writes of him: “Our cousin Archie hath more privilege than any; for he often goes with his fool’s coat when the Infanta is with her _meninas_ and ladies of honour, and keeps a blowing and a blustering among them, and flirts out what he lists.” After the death of James he passed into the service of Charles, but his fall came through his insulting Laud--whom he hated--by saying the following grace in his presence: “Great praise be to God, and little _laud_ to the devil.” For this offence Archie was taken before the King, and despite his pleading his privilege of jester, he was punished, as the following order, dated March 11, 1637. will show:-- “It is this day ordered by his Majesty that Archibald Armstrong, the King’s fool, for certain scandalous words of a high nature, spoken by him against the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, his Grace, and proved to be uttered by him by two witnesses, shall have his coat pulled over his head, and be discharged of the King’s service, and banished the Court, for which the Lord Chamberlain of the King’s household is prayed and required to give order to be executed.” And immediately the same was put into force, the King himself being present when Archie’s coat was stripped from him.