Note 710 — Chapter XVII

A more correct opinion of this trait in her character than that expressed by Hume, Froude and some others, is given by a writer in the Dictionary of National Biography on John Heywood, the wit and epigrammatist, who says that his fortunes were at their highest under Mary, “who had a highly cultivated intelligence, and was fond of innocent fun ... and it is said that his pleasantries, often acceptable in her privy chamber, helped to amuse her even on her death-bed.”