yeres of age; ye Countesse of Granby, twenty-six; her doter, ye Lady Helen,
fifteen; as also these two maides of honor, to-wit, ye Lady Margery Boothy,
sixty-five, and ye Lady Alice Dilberry, turned seventy, she being two yeres
ye queenes graces elder.
I being her maites cup-bearer, had no choice but to remaine and beholde rank
forgot, and ye high holde converse wh ye low as uppon equal termes, a grete
scandal did ye world heare thereof.
In ye heat of ye talk it befel yt one did breake wind, yielding an exceding
mightie and distresfull stink, whereat all did laugh full sore, and then--
Ye Queene.--Verily in mine eight and sixty yeres have I not heard the fellow
to this fart. Meseemeth, by ye grete sound and clamour of it, it was male; yet
ye belly it did lurk behinde shoulde now fall lean and flat against ye spine
of him yt hath bene delivered of so stately and so waste a bulk, where as ye
guts of them yt doe quiff-splitters bear, stand comely still and rounde. Prithee
let ye author confess ye offspring. Will my Lady Alice testify?
