No. They’re just as good as ever, but there is, sir, an aerie of children – little nestlings, that declaim louder than the subject warrants, in their shrill treble voices, and are most vehemently clapped for it. These are now the fashion and they are abusing all the stages so much that the gallants with their rapiers are afraid of attending for fear of being wounded by the writers’ goose quill pens!

My lord, you loved me once… My dear lord, why are you so unhappy? You’re only closing the door to help if you don’t tell your friend.

It’s one thing to keep your own mind from annoyance with all the strength and armour you have, but quite another, and more important, to preserve the one on whom the wellbeing of the many depend. When a king dies, he doesn’t die alone, but like a void, he pulls whatever’s near him in. He is a great wheel on top of the summit of the highest mountain. And ten thousand lesser things are attached to its huge spokes. When it falls, every small attachment, every tiny matter, is ruined too. A king never sighs without a general groan.