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'''CHAP. VI.'''

How the Cobler became a Courtier.

Now the king considering the pleasant humour of the cobler, how innocently merry he was, and free from any de- sign; that he was a person that labour- ed very hard, and took a great deal of                       pains for a small livelihood, was pleased out of his princely grace and favour, to                       allow him a liberal annuity of forty merks a year, for the better support of                       his jolly humour, and the maintenance of his wife Joan, and that he should be                       admitted one of his courtiers, and that he might have the freedom of his cel. lar whenever he pleased.

Which being so much beyond ex- pectation, did highly exalt the cobler's                       humour, much to the satisfaction of the king.

So after a great many legs and