This decadent usurper in Thackeray's Rose and the Ring reminds me of Robert Baratheon --once a great warrior who quenched his thirst in pure springs, and now, after attaining the crown... well, a lush weighed down by the cares of state. The Shakespeare (Henry IV) quote can be applied to both Valoroso and Robert Baratheon post-rebellion, right?
He rushed to the cupboard, seizing from the table one of the many egg-cups with which his princely board was served for the matin meal, drew out a bottle of right Cognac, filled and emptied the cup several times, and laid it down with a hoarse ‘Ha, ha, ha! now Valoroso is a man again!’
‘But oh!’ he went on (still sipping, I am sorry to say), ‘ere I was a king, I needed not this intoxicating draught; once I detested the hot brandy wine, and quaffed no other fount but nature’s rill. It dashes not more quickly o’er the rocks than I did, as, with blunderbuss in hand, I brushed away the early morning dew! Ah! well may England’s dramatist remark, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown!”
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