Note 455 — Chapter IX · (continued 2)

If his opinions had been insufficient for his destruction, there was an influence at court which left no hope to him: the influence of one whose ways and doings were better known then than they have been known to her modern admirers. "On a time," writes his grandson, "when he had questioned my aunt Roper of his wife and children, and the state of his house in his absence, he asked her at last how Queen Anne did. 'In faith, father,' said she, 'never better. There is nothing else at the court but dancing and sporting.' 'Never better?' said he; 'alas, Meg, alas, it pitieth me to remember unto what misery she will shortly come. These dances of hers will prove such dances that she will spurn our heads off like footballs, but it will not be long ere her head will dance the like dance.'"—More's Life of More, p. 244.