English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various SourcesVarious
General
English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various Sources
Various
Anecdotes -- England; English wit and humor
“Stand up, and hold up your right hand,” said a judge to a sailor, who
had been summoned as a witness in a case of murder, and who had been
instructed by some person to repeat what his lordship said to him, and
precisely in the same tone in which it was delivered. “Stand up, and
hold up your right hand,” replied the other. “What does the fellow
mean?” said his lordship amazed. “What does the fellow mean?” answered
the other. “This will never do,” said his lordship in a peremptory
tone, “you must say the following words after me.” “This will never do;
you must say the following words after me, and be d----d!” repeated the
sailor.
CASTING REFLECTIONS ON A PROFESSOR.
In the late professor H----’s class, a gentleman’s gilded buttons
happened to reflect the sun’s rays upon the professor’s face. The
professor, as it may be supposed, ordered the gentleman to desist; the
other, ignorant of the matter, with the utmost simplicity, affirmed,
“that he would be the last in the class who would cast reflections on
the professor.”
A SMART ANSWER.
An aged grey-haired beggar came to the door of a country ale-house
in England, where the three greatest wits of the parish were sitting
over a jug of the best. When he preferred his usual petition, one of
the jocular companions ridiculed his appearance, calling him _Father
Abraham_; the second called him _Father Isaac_; the third _Father
Jacob_; asserting that he must be one of those reverend personages. But
finding he answered to neither of those appellations, they exclaimed,
“then who the devil are you?” The old man cast on them a look of
contempt as he replied, “I am neither Abraham, Isaac, nor Jacob: but I
am Saul the son of Kish; I was sent to seek my father’s three asses;
here I have found them, and here I shall leave them.”
MR. MOORE.
Mr. Moore, the author of many ingenious pieces, being a long time under
an expensive prosecution in Doctors’ Commons for marrying two sisters,
was called upon one morning by his proctor, as he was writing his
excellent tragedy of the _Gamester_: the proctor having a leisure hour,
Mr. Moore read him four acts of his piece, which were all at that time
finished. The proctor was so affected by it, that he exclaimed, “Good
God! how can you possibly add to this couple’s distress in the last
act?” “Oh, very easily,” says the poet; “there I intend to put them
both into the _spiritual court_.”
THE ITALIANS AND THE WAITER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account