Department of Quotation: The Talking Starling

Susan reports:

Modern world leaders worry endlessly about their public image. Not so 17th c. English King Charles II (1630-1685), who was about as carefree and casual among his subjects as any king in history.

Here's a short example, widely circulated (and widely enjoyed) in the 1670s. Imagine the kind of outraged indignation a 21st c. cable news station would get from a king who:

1) is on most familiar terms with an actress/party girl/orange wench named Betty Mackerell;

2) accepts from her a pet bird who talks dirty;

3) receives the leader of the national church in his bed room, with predictable results;

4) laughs heartily at said bird's dirty-talking;

5) then tells everyone at court about it himself.

"Bett Mackarell ye orange wench taught a starling to speak baudy & gave ye bird to ye King. One day ye Bishop of Canterbury came into ye bed chamber & ye bird hop on his shoulder & sade 'Wilt thou have a whore, thou lecherous dog?'"

from Sir Francis Fane, c. 1675 (MS Commonplace Book)