Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/27

Paas PAAS, SIMON (1595?–1647), engraver. [See ]

 PABO (fl. 520?), North British king, was, according to the oldest Welsh genealogies (Harl. MS. 3859), the son of Cenau ap Coel Odebog (Cymmrodor, ix. 174, 179). Later documents make him the son of Arthwys ap Mor ap Cenau (Hengwrt MS. No. 536; Iolo MSS. p. 126), but he appears to have belonged to the beginning rather than to the end of the sixth century. In mediæval Welsh literature Pabo is styled ‘post Prydain;’ this title appears in the early genealogy as ‘p. priten,’ and is thus shown to be really ‘post Prydyn,’ i.e. the pillar of Pictland or the north, ‘Prydein’ for ‘Prydyn’ being a common mediæval mistake (, Celtic Britain, p. 296). Though a northern warrior, Pabo is alleged by tradition to have been buried at Llanbabo in Anglesey; the tombstone, bearing a representation of him in royal array, with a (now partially defaced) inscription, was discovered in the seventeenth century (Cambrian Register, ii. 486–7), and is ascribed by Longueville Jones (Archæol. Cambr. 1861, p. 300), Westwood (Lapidarium Walliæ, p. 193), and Bloxam (Archæol. Cambr. 1874, p. 110) to the reign of Edward III. Llanbabo (‘the church of Pabo’) is a chapel of Llanddeusant, and therefore is probably later than Pabo's time; it may, however, have been built to mark a spot already hallowed by his grave. Pabo is assigned a place among the Welsh saints in two of the printed lists (Iolo MSS. 105, 126), and the second gives some particulars of his history, but both, as Phillimore has shown (Byegones, 1890, pp. 482, 533–4), are quite untrustworthy. Rhys believes a misreading of ‘Pabo priden’ to be the source of the Palomydes of Malory (Arthurian Legend, p. 298). Pabo's festival was 9 Nov. (Iolo MS. 152).

[Harl. MS. 3859; Iolo MSS.; Rees's Welsh Saints.]  PACE, JOHN (1523?–1590?), professional fool, born about 1523, was probably son of John Pace, a brother of Richard Pace [q. v.] (cf. Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vol. iv. pt. iii. pp. 1472–3). The elder John Pace was appointed custumer of Lynn, Norfolk, in 1522 (13 Hen. VIII), and was afterwards settled in London (ib. p. 2344, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 889). Educated at Eton, John the younger was elected a scholar of King's College, Cambridge, in 1539. He apparently left the university without a degree, although he was popularly credited with being a master of arts. That he was soon attached in the capacity of jester to the court of Henry VIII is often stated, but the statement rests on no contemporary authority, and it is possible that those who credit Pace with the distinction confuse him with another professional fool, Robert Saxton, ordinarily called Patch, who, after attending Cardinal Wolsey with great fidelity until his death, entered the royal service (, Life of Wolsey). There seems, however, little doubt that Pace became jester in the household of the Duke of Norfolk before Henry VIII's death, and that, in Elizabeth's reign, he was transferred to the court. That a man of education like Pace should have voluntarily assumed ‘the fool's coat’ often excited hostile comment. To such criticism Pace's friend, John Heywood [q. v.] the epigrammatist, once answered that it was better for the common weal for wise men to ‘go in fools' coats’ than for fools to ‘go in wise men's gowns’ (, Remaines, ed. 1857, p. 314). Two examples of Pace's wit are extant, but neither reaches a high level of excellence. Cardinal Allen relates in his ‘Apology’ (p. 58) that when the English government interdicted the circulation of catholic books in England, ‘madde J. Pace, meeting one day with M. Juel [i.e. John Jewel, bishop of Salisbury], saluted his lordship courtly, and said, “Now, my Lord, you may be at rest with these felowes, for you are quit by proclamation.”’ Bacon relates in his ‘Apophthegms’ (Works, ed. Spedding, Ellis, and Heath, vii. 125) that ‘Pace the bitter fool was not suffered to come at the Queen because of his bitter humour. Yet at one time some persuaded the Queen that he should come to her; undertaking for him that he should keep compass. So he was brought to her, and the Queen said: “Come on, Pace; now we shall hear of our faults.” Saith Pace: “I do not use to talk of that that all the town talks of.”’ Pace was dead before 1592.

Nash, in the ‘Address to the Printer’ of his, ‘Pierce Pennilesse’ (1592), complains that the printer's haste in sending the book through the press had prevented him from appending ‘certayne epistles’ which he had written ‘to the Ghost of Pace, the Duke of