Note 282 — APPENDIX. (continued 2)

In a curious catch-penny imitation of the Seven Wise Masters, compiled by one Thomas Howard, about the end of the 17th century, or early in the 18th, entitled the Seven Wise Mistresses (of which I possess a well-thumbed copy printed in black letter), the story is told of a lady, and a lion who became attached to her in gratitude for her having pulled a thorn out of his foot—Androcles in petticoats! The lion kills a bear that would have slain the lady’s father, and the steward coming up and finding the old gentleman lying prone on the earth, apparently dead, but, as it turns out, only in a swoon from sheer fright, forthwith kills the lion.