English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various SourcesVarious
General
English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various Sources
Various
Anecdotes -- England; English wit and humor
A hasty passionate fellow was supping with a friend who never
contradicted him, not wishing to provoke his wrath. Unable to endure
this acquiescence, he at last burst out, “Zounds, deny something, that
I may know there are two of us.”
TRANSPOSITION OF SYLLABLES.
One of our most celebrated poets, occasionally a little absent of mind,
was invited by a friend whom he met in the street, to dine with him
next Tuesday at a country lodging he had taken for the summer months.
The address was, “Near the Green Man at Dulwich,” which, not to put his
inviter to the trouble of pencilling down, our bard promised faithfully
to remember. But when Tuesday came, he, fully late enough, made his way
to _Greenwich_, and began inquiring for the sign of the _Dull Man_! No
such sign was to be found; and, after losing an hour, a person guessed
that though there was no _Dull Man_ at _Greenwich_, there was a _Green
Man_ at _Dulwich_, which the gentleman might possibly mean! This remark
connected the broken chain, and our poet took his chop by himself.
QUIN.
Quin used to complain much of the system of giving vails to servants,
which, to a man of his uncertain resources, was a very severe tax.
Having been invited to the house of a gentleman who had the reputation
of giving good dinners, he found himself entertained in a style much
below his expectations; wherefore, on leaving the house, and finding
the servants all as usual ranked up in the hall, he inquired for the
cook and the butler. These officials speedily presented themselves,
when he said to the first, “There’s half-a-crown for my eating,” and
to the other, “There’s five shillings for my drinking; but really,
gentlemen, I never made so bad a dinner at the money in my life before.”
A gentleman at whose house Quin had often experienced the same
annoyance, one day gave him a pressing invitation; but Quin would not
promise to come unless the servants were taught to expect no vails. He
paid dearly for this limitation; for, on going to pay his visit, he had
a dirty plate given him for a clean one, bread for beer, and frequently
neither one nor other, after repeated applications. When dinner was
finished, he addressed himself to the company, pushing round a plate
with a half crown on it; “Gentlemen,” said he, “I think we had better
pay for our dinner now, before we begin upon the wine; for I have a
notion they imagine we intend to bilk them to-day.”
JAMES II.
James II. having appointed a nobleman to be lord-treasurer when the
exchequer was in a very exhausted state, he complained to the king of
the irksomeness of the office, as the treasury was so empty. “Be of
good cheer, my lord,” replied his majesty, “for you will now see the
bottom of your business at once.”
REPROOF.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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