John Trapp on Esther 1:11

Verſe 11. To bring Vaſthi the Queen before the King] This was their errand, and they went readily about it, (though it beſeemed not their ſtate, as being chief about the King) whether they envyed the Queen, and ſo ſought occaſion againſt her (as the Biſhops did againſt Queen Katharine Parr) or were in the Kings predicament, and therefore deſired fuel to their fire.

With the crown royal] In all her beſt, that neſt of pride, as one calleth it, and incentive of luſt.

To ſhew the Princes and the people her beauty] And thereby to ſhew them all his own imprudence, and impudence: this he would not have done, if ſober, for any good.Herodot. Juſtin. Quid non ebriet as deſignat? Wine is a mocker, and ſtrong drink is raging. Could he not conſider what he had oft read befel Candaules King of the Sardians for ſhewing his fair wife to Gyges in a vain-glorious humour? Knew he not that thoſe wellwhittled Courtiers would eaſily be enflamed with the ſight of ſuch a peerleſſe beauty, and that her gay attire would not make her more comely, then common?

For ſhe was fair to look on] Xenophon teſtifieth of the Perſian and Median women, that they are proper and beautiful beyond all other Nations. Vaſthi, we muſt needs think then, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Aelian. was a choyce beauty: and if ſhe were (as Aſpaſia Mileſia wife to King Cyrus) fair and wiſe, it was no ſmall commendation. But if (as Aurelia Oreſtilla in Salluſt) ſhe had nothing in her praiſeworthy but her beauty; it was ill beſtowed on her. The Jews give a very ill character of her. They ſay ſhe was daughter to Belſhazzar (that notable quaffer, who might therefore call her Vaſthi, that is, a drinker) that ſhe hated the Jews extremely, and abuſed divers of their daughters (her ſlaves) making them work on the Sabbath day, and putting them every day to the baſeſt offices, not affording them rags to hide their nakedneſſe, &c. This perhap[illegible: 1 letter] is but a Jewiſh fable.