acquainted, and used his help, she should not have needed to sitten so pensive
at home, and fearfull of her husband's former returne out of the same country
... Neither must you marvaile though all these died in divers manners of outward
diseases, for this is the excellency of the Italian art, for which this
chyrurgeon and Dr. Julio were entertained so carefully, who can make a man dye
in what manner or show of sickness you will - by whose instructions, no doubt;
but his lordship is now cunning, especially adding also to these the counsell of
his Doctor Bayly, a man also not a little studied (as he seemeth) in his art;
for I heard him once myselfe, in a publique act in Oxford, and that in presence
of my Lord of Leicester (if I be not deceived), maintain that poyson might be so
tempered and given as it should not appear presently, and yet should kill the
party afterward, at what time should be appointed; which argument belike pleased
well his lordship, and therefore was chosen to be discussed in his audience, if
I be not deceived of his being that day present. So, though one dye of a flux,
and another of a catarre, yet this importeth little to the matter, but showeth
rather the great cunning and skill of the artificer.« - PARSONS' Leicester's
Commonwealth, p. 23.
It is unnecessary to state the numerous reasons why the Earl is stated in the
tale to be rather the dupe of villains than the unprincipled author of their
atrocities. In the latter capacity, which a part at least of his contemporaries
imputed to him, he would have made a character too disgustingly wicked, to be
useful for the purposes of fiction.
I have only to add, that the union of the poisoner, the quack-salver, the
alchymist, and the astrologer, in the same person, was familiar to the
pretenders to the mystic sciences.
18 Nugæ Antiquæ, vol. i. pp. 356-362.
 
19 This is an imitation of Gascoigne's verses spoken by the Herculean porter, as
mentioned in the text. The original may be found in the republication of the
Princely Pleasures of Kenilworth, by the same author in the History of
Kenilworth. Chiswick, 1821
 
20 See Laneham's Account of the Queen's Entertainment at Kenilworth Castle, in
1575, a very diverting tract written by as great a coxcomb as ever blotted
paper. (See Note F.) The original is extremely rare, but it has been twice
reprinted; once in Mr