mestic sports, or to see ladies dance, with some of his courtiers, he
would in the evening walk disguised all about the town. It so fortuned, as
he was walking late one night, he found a country fellow dead drunk,
snorting on a bulk; [3309]he caused his followers to bring him to his
palace, and there stripping him of his old clothes, and attiring him after
the court fashion, when he waked, he and they were all ready to attend upon
his excellency, persuading him he was some great duke. The poor fellow
admiring how he came there, was served in state all the day long; after
supper he saw them dance, heard music, and the rest of those court-like
pleasures: but late at night, when he was well tippled, and again fast
asleep, they put on his old robes, and so conveyed him to the place where
they first found him. Now the fellow had not made them so good sport the
day before as he did when he returned to himself; all the jest was, to see
how he [3310]looked upon it. In conclusion, after some little admiration,
the poor man told his friends he had seen a vision, constantly believed it,
would not otherwise be persuaded, and so the jest ended. [3311]Antiochus
Epiphanes would often disguise himself, steal from his court, and go into
merchants', goldsmiths', and other tradesmen's shops, sit and talk with
them, and sometimes ride or walk alone, and fall aboard with any tinker,
clown, serving man, carrier, or whomsoever he met first. Sometimes he did
_ex insperato_ give a poor fellow money, to see how he would look, or on
set purpose lose his purse as he went, to watch who found it, and withal
how he would be affected, and with such objects he was much delighted. Many
such tricks are ordinarily put in practice by great men, to exhilarate
themselves and others, all which are harmless jests, and have their good
uses.

But amongst those exercises, or recreations of the mind within doors, there
is none so general, so aptly to be applied to all sorts of men, so fit and
proper to expel idleness and melancholy, as that of study: _Studia,
senectutem oblectant, adolescentiam, alunt, secundas res ornant, adversis
perfugium et solatium praebent, domi delectant_, &c., find the rest in
Tully _pro Archia Poeta._ [3312]What so full of content, as to read, walk,
and see maps, pictures, statues, jewels, marbles, which some so much
magnify, as those that Phidias made of old so exquisite and pleasing to be
beheld, that as [3313]Chrysostom thinketh, "if any