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modern Persia; the drinking of* wine in public, and the sending 

 for the queen on such an occasion: her conduct in refusing to 

 obey the command implies how indecorous and indelicate she 

 considered it. For this mark of disobedience, the king said unto 

 the wise men which knew the times, " what shall we do unto the 

 queen, according to law, because she hath not performed the 

 commandment of the king by the chamberlains? Memucau, one 

 of the seven princes of Persia, who saw the king's face, and sat 

 the first in the kingdom, answered before the king and the princes, 

 Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also 

 to all the princes, and to all the people that are in all the pro- 

 vinces of the king Ahasuerus: for this deed of the queen shall 

 come abroad unto all women; so shall the ladies of Persia and 

 Media despise their husbands in their eyes, when it shall be 

 reported the king Ahasuerus commanded his queen to be brought 

 before him, but she came not: thus shall there arise too much 

 contempt and wrath. If it please the king, let there go forth 

 a royal decree, and let it be written among the laws of the Per- 

 sians and Medes, that it be not altered, that Vashti come no 

 more before king Ahasuerus, and let the king give her royal estate 

 unto another that is better than she. And when the king's decree 

 shall be published throughout all his great empire, all the wives 

 shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and small. And 

 the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did 

 according to the word of Memucan; for he sent letters into all 

 the king's provinces, to every people after their language, that 

 every man should bear rule in his own house; and that it should 

 be published according to the language of every people." 



