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ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 159
The Spectators
N the theatre of human life it is only for God and angels to be
spectators. Francis Bacon
The Four Prisoners
SIB. JOHN RAINSFOED besought Queen Eizabeth that four prisoners
might have their liberty. The Queen asked who they were
and he said, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who had long been im-
prisoned in the Latin tongue, and now he desired that they might go
abroad among the people in English. Recorded by Francis Bacon
Madam Bubble
STANDFAST : As I was musing there was one in very pleasant
0 attire, but old, who presented herself to me, and offered me her
purse and her bed.
Now the truth is I was both weary and sleepy ; I am also as poor
as an owlet, and that perhaps the witch knew. Well, I repulsed her
once and again, but she put by my repulses and smiled. Then I
began to be angry, but she mattered that nothing at all. Then she
made offers again, and said if I would be ruled by her she would make
me great and happy, for, said she, " I am the mistress of the world,
and men are made happy by me." Then I asked her name and she
told me it was Madam Bubble.
Honest: Madam Bubble ! Is she not a tall, comely dame, some-
thing of a swarthy complexion ?
Standfast: Right, you hit it; she is just such a one*
Honest: Doth she not wear a great purse by her side, and is
not her hand often in it, fingering her money, as if that was her
heart's delight ?
Standfast; It is just so.
Greatheart: This woman is a witch, and it is by virtue of her
sorceries that this ground is enchanted. This is she that maintaineth
in their splendour all the enemies of pilgrims ; she hath brought off
many a man from a pilgrim's life. She is a great gossiper. She is
always, both she and her daughters, at one pilgrim's heels or another,
now commending and then preferring the excellences of this life.
She is a bold and impudent slut: she will talk with any man. She
laugheth poor pilgrims to scorn, but highly commends the rich. If
there be one cunning to get money in a place she will speak well of
him from house to house. She loveth banqueting and feasting
mainly well; she is always at one full table or another.
She has given it out in some places that she is a goddess, and
therefore some do worship her. She has her time and open places for
cheating; and she will say, and avow it, that none can show a good