Comments on Corpulency. ^ 



taken their places, in a chaise, as there was no room beside 

 this gentleman, \vho weighs about thirty-six stone ! 



In enumerating the little miseries of the corpulent, their 

 exposure to ridicule should not be forgotten. Even the austerity 

 of Queen Elizabeth could relax into a joke, on the fat Sir 

 Nicholas Bacon, whom she was classically pleased to define as 

 ** Vir praepinguis," observing ** right merrilie," ** Sir Nicholas's 

 soul lodged well." The good-humoured antiquary, Grose, 

 was earnestly entreated by a butcher to say " he bought his 

 meat of him!" *'God bless you, sir," said the paviours to 

 the enormous Cambridge professor, as he passed over their 

 work. Christopher Smart, the translator of Horace, celebrated 

 the three fat beadles of Oxford ; and the fat physician. Dr. 

 Stafford, was not allowed to rest in his grave without a witticism : 



" Take heed, O good trav'IIer, and do not tread hard, 

 " For here lies Dr. Stafford, in all this church-yard.^^ 



Our good King Edward IV. even made a practical joke with 

 the Corporators of London ; for when he invaded France, in 

 1475, he took care to be accompanied by some of the most 

 corpulent Aldermen of London, " Les bourgeois de Londres 

 les plus charges de ventre^^ that the fatigues of war might the 

 sooner incline them to call out for peace. 



Many illustrious cases might have been found in France 

 equal to the specimens Edward took with him, even among royal 

 and noble persons-*-of which Charles the Fat, Louis le Gros, 

 Sanctius Crassus, and " Corpus Poetarum," the fat poetic Elector 

 of Cologne, were notable instances. 



In the court of Louis XV. there were two very fat noblemen, 



the Duke de L , and the Duke de N . They were 



both at the levee one day, when the king began to rally the 

 former on his corpulency: '* You take no exercise, I suppose," 



said the king. " Pardon me, sire," said de L , '^ I walk 



twice a day round my cousin de N •." About the same time 



the French Queen, in a haughty tone, demanded of a fat French 

 wit, " Quand il accoucheroit ?" — " Quand j'aurais trouve une 

 sage femme," was the ready reply, which stopped further inter- 

 rogatories. Nor ought we to omit, among other minor personal 

 disadvantages of these great personages, the expense of cloth- 

 ing J and the inconvenience that has been known to arise from 



