Page:Account of the imprisonment and execution of Poor Dennis.pdf/16



The Emperor Severus being confined with gout at York, one of his courtiers told him that the world did admire how he could govern so many nations, separated so far from one another, and he so much troubled with that disease. To which the Emperor replied. Sir, I rule the empire with my head, and not with my feet; with my temples, and not with my toes.

An extravagant young nobleman having sold a manor which contained one hundred tenements, came ruffling into court in a new suit, saying, "Am not I a mighty man to bear an hundred houses on my back?" Cardinal Wolsey hearing this, said, "You might have employed the money better in paying your debts." "Indeed, my lord," said the other, "you say well, for my father owed your father three half-pence for a calf's head, here is two-pence for it."