Gents Mag 1833 part 1 p.26
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Gentleman's Magazine 1833 part 1 p.26
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Archibald Armstrong
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Archibald
Armstrong
[In]quirie for the veriest foole in England, 1604. Wit and Mirth, chargeably collected out of Tavernes, Bowling Greenes, Allyes, Alehouses, Water-passages, &c. made up into Clinches, Bulls, Quirkes, Yerkes, &c. b. l. 1629. There have always been persons who have made it their business to note down whatever witticisms they hear, for the purpose of retailing them elsewhere as their own. A living punster, who can afford to honour drafts on his talent at sight, happening to detect a purloiner of this kind, in repeating old stories with new applications, told him that he trusted to his memory for his wit, and to his invention for his facts. ... ... ... Additions to Anecdotal Literature. Vol.XCI. part i. p.23. Archibald Armstrong, commonly called Archy, is said to have been born in Cumberland, but a tradition is preserved in the south of Scotland of his having resided in Wauchopedale, and stealing sheep there.[14] It appears that he was at Madrid with Prince Charles in 1623; for Howell, in his Familiar Letters, says, "our cousin Archy hath more privilege than any, for he often goes with his fool's coat where the Infanta is with her meninas and maids of honour, and keeps a blowing and blustering among them, and blurts out what he lists."[15] (He may have gone as a sort of spy). King James seems to have been partial to Archy, and to have diverted himself with him frequently; at his supper-time, says Sir A. Weldon, "Goring was master of the game for fooleries: sometimes presenting David Droman, and Archer Armstrong, the king's fools, on the back of other fools, to tilt one at another, till they fell together by the ears."[16] Ben Jonson, in his Discoveries, tells us a Heare-say newes, "That an Elephant, 1630, came hither Ambassadour from the great Mogull (who could both write and reade) and was every day allowed twelve cast of bread, twenty quarts of Canary sacke, [14] Irving's Scottish Poets, i. 200. [15] P.136. [16] Memoirs, p.91, edit. 1689. |
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