Alike delighted with the matter, the manner, and the graceful form and animated countenance of the gallant young reciter, Elizabeth kept time to every cadence with look and with finger.

When the speaker had ceased, she murmured over the last lines as if scarce conscious that she was overheard, and as she uttered the words, "In maiden meditation, fancy free," she dropped into the Thames the supplication of Orson Pinnit, keeper of the royal bears, to find more favourable acceptance at Sheerness, or wherever the tide might waft it.
Leicester was spurred to emulation by the success of the young courtier's exhibition, as the veteran racer is roused when a high-mettled colt passes him on the way.

He turned the discourse on shows, banquets, pageants, and on the character of those by whom these gay scenes were then frequented.

He mixed acute observation with light satire, in that just proportion which was free alike from malignant slander and insipid praise.

He mimicked with ready accent the manners of the affected or the clownish, and made his own graceful tone and manner seem doubly such when he resumed it.