John Trapp on Esther 1:4

Verſe 4. When he ſhewed the riches of his glorious Kingdome] Or, that he might ſhew, &c. There were other ends of this feaſt, as was before noted; but this is inſtanced by the Holy Ghoſt, to ſet forth the pride and vanity of this great monarch,O curas hominum! ò quantum eſt in rebus inanc! abuſing Gods gifts to his own ambition, and priding himſelf in that wealth which had been gotten by the hard labour of his poor ſubjects; from whom haply his Exactours had received no leſſe ſummes of curſes then of coyne.

And the honour of his excellent majeſty] Atqui virtute, non vanitate acquirenda eſt gloria, Cic de Orat. & de offic. ſaith the Oratour, glory is to be gotten by vertue, and not by theſe, like vanities. Hezekiah ſmarted for his folly in this kinde; Nebuchadnezzar much more. This great Potentate was ſhortly after brought low enough.

Deſinat elatis quiſquam confidere rebus;Claudian. Magna repentè ruunt, ſumma cadunt ſubitò.

Many dayes, even an hundred and fourſcore dayes] An hundred fourſcore and five dayes, ſaith Joſeph Ben Gorion. So long laſted the firſt feaſt: though Lyra will have it, that ſo long they were in preparing, but the feaſting was not till after theſe dayes expired; and that then both Prince and people were feaſted together ſeven dayes. Of the Sybarites indeed we read, that when they made great feaſts, they invited their women a twelve month before, that they might come the more richly and luxuriouſly attired, and might be the more ſumptuouſly entertained. But the text plainly ſhewes, that Lyra here did delirare, miſſe the meaning: for after that, the Princes, from ſundry parts had been half a year in feaſting.