MARGARET ROPER, ambitious life ; but she would reiterate in his ear, " Tillie vallie, tillie vallie, will you sit and make goslings in the ashes ? My mother hath often said unto me, it is better to rule than be ruled." " Now, in truth, that is truly said, good wife," he would reply, laughingly, " for I never found you yet willing to be ruled." She proved a kind step- mother to his children, nevertheless, and was rather affectionate to him ; and Erasmus, who lived a good deal with them, says that, " No husband ever gained so much obedience from a wife by authority and severity, as More by gentleness and pleasantness. Though verging on old age, and not of a yielding temper, he prevailed on her to take lessons on the lute, the cithara, the viol, the monchord, and the flute, which she daily practised to him." A more united family would be difficult to dis- cover ; and the only interruption to their happiness . was the engrossing fancy the King took to Sir Thomas, whose keen, pungent wit, and never-failing good humour, made his majesty wish to have him continually at his side. To aman who grew home- sick if despatched on an embassy of a fewmonths' duration, and who dreaded the deceitful glitter of a state life, this was intolerable; and, at length, he was fain to assume a certain amount of con- venient dulness, in order to escape the troublesome invitations of Henry. The days flew over quietly enough, andpleasantly; the little circle attaining meanwhile so great a pro- io
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