John Trapp on Esther 1:5

Verſe 5. The King made a feaſt unto all the people] This was not amiſſe, ſo that care were taken that no irregulares gulares were found amongſt them; for Kings ſhould carry themſelves toward their people as kindly as parents do toward their children,Ariſt. 8. Eth. Plin. Panegyr. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Pſal. 78.70. and ſhepherds toward their ſheep. Are they not therefore called patres patriae, Fathers of their Countrey, and Shepherds of their people? David and Cyrus were taken from the ſheepfolds to feed men.

Both unto great and ſmall] Pell-mell, one with another, to ſhew his liberality; which yet he might better have beſtowed in another way, then in belly-chear, and ſuch openhouſe-keeping to all comers without difference: ſith this is rather prodigality then bounty.

Seven dayes] Too long together to be a feaſting; ſith at ſuch times men are ſo apt to exceed and out-laſt; eating that on earth that they muſt digeſt in hell; and drowning both bodies and ſouls in wine and ſtrong drink, as Richard the third did his brother Clarence in a Butt of Malmſey.

In the court of the garden] In the banquetting-houſe. or ſub dio, in the open aire in the garden, where they had elbow-roome, and all manner of delights, fit to have beene ſeaſoned and allayed with the ſight of a ſepulcher (the Jewes built their Tombs a forehand in their gardens) or elſe of a deaths-head (as was the manner of the Egyptians at their great feaſts) to keep them from ſurfetting.