of one he did not like, he observed facetiously, "It is very strange that every one of my friends should keep a tame knave."[1]
One day while the King was being shaved, his impudent barber observed to him that "he thought none of his Majesty's officers had a greater trust than he." "Oy," said the King," "how so, friend?" "Why," said the barber, "I could cut your Majesty's throat when I would." The King started up and said, "Odds fish! that very thought is treason; thou shalt shave me no more."[2] The barber of Dionysius, who had made the same remark, was crucified for his garrulity; but honest Rowley was not cruel. His loquacious barber was only dismissed. "Falsehood and cruelty," he said to Burnet, "he looked on as the greatest crimes in the sight of God."[3]
Of Woolley, afterwards Bishop of Clonfert, he observed wittily and with great knowledge of character, that "He was a very honest man, but a very great blockhead—that he had given him a living in Suffolk, swarming with Nonconformists—that he had gone from house to house and brought them all to Church—that he had made him a Bishop for his
