Henry the Eighth, as everybody knows, was the husband of seven wives, and
gave to Mr. Almar (the Sadler's Wells Stephens) the idea of his beautiful
dramatic poem of the Wife of Seven Husbands.

Elizabeth's reign is remarkable for having produced a mantle which is worn
at the present day, it having been originally made for one Shakspeare; but
it is now worn by Mr. George Stephens, for whom, however, it is a palpable
misfit, and it sits upon him most awkwardly.

Charles the First had his head cut off, and Mr. Cathcart acted him so
naturally in Miss Mitford's play that one would have thought the monarch
was entirely without a head all through the tragedy.

Cromwell next obtained the chief authority. This man was a brewer, who did
not think "small beer" of himself, and inundated his country with "heavy
wet," in the shape of tears, for a long period.

Charles the Second, well known as the merry monarch, is remarkable only
for his profligacy, and for the number of very bad farces in which he has
been the principal character. His brother James had a short reign, but not
a merry one. He is the only English sovereign who may be said to have
_amputated his bludgeon_; which, if we were speaking of an ordinary man
and not a monarch, we should have rendered by the familiar phrase of "cut
his stick," a process which was soon performed by his majesty.

The crown now devolved upon William and Mary, upon whom half-a crown
a-piece was thus settled by the liberality of Parliament. William was
_Prince of Orange_, a descendant probably of the great King _Pippin_.

Anne of Denmark comes next on our list, but of her we shall say nothing;