THE SCENE: Sir Walter Raleigh looms large in the social scene of Elizabethan England. But that doesn’t mean that he was a man of high manners. Rather, he often comes off as possessing no less subtlety than a high school bully.
THE TEXT: In his youthful time, was one Charles Chester, that often kept company with [Dr John Pell]; he was a bold impertinent fellow, and they could never be at quiet for him; a perpetual talker, and made a noise like a drum in a room. So one time at a tavern Sir Walter Raleigh beat him and sealed up his mouth (i.e. his upper and nether beard) with hard wax.
– Brief Lives, John Aubrey, 17th Century AD
