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 lady, who, by virtue of an immense fortune, acquired by her father
in the profession of a pawnbroker, had married a poor nobleman, was
shewing her new and elegantly furnished house to George Selwyn. Having
led him from room to room, and displayed the whole of her rhetoric and
taste, she at last threw open a pair of large folding doors that led
into the grand saloon, which was superbly furnished, but contained no
pictures. “Here, Mr. Selwyn,” said she, “I intend to hang up all my
family.” “I thought,” replied George, “your ladyship might have spared
yourself that trouble; for I always understood they were _hung up_ long
ago.”
LORD KENYON.
A friend having pointed out to Sheridan, that Lord Kenyon had fallen
asleep at the first representation of Pizarro, and that, too, in the
midst of Rollo’s fine speech to the Peruvian soldiers, the dramatist
felt rather mortified; but, instantly recovering his usual good
humour, he said, “Ah poor man! let him sleep! he thinks he is on the
_bench_.”
A MATCH FOR SHERIDAN.
Sheridan sometimes met with his match, and that in quarters where it
might have been least expected. He was one day endeavouring to _cut_ a
suit of new clothes out of a tailor’s shop in the city. Flattery was
the weapon he employed. “Upon my word,” said he, “you are an excellent
finisher; you beat our snips in the West End hollow. Why don’t you
push your thimble amongst us? I’ll recommend you every where. Upon my
honour your work does you infinite credit.” “Yes,” replied the artist,
“I always take care that my work gives _long credit_, but the wearers
_ready money_.”
BENEFIT OF STAMMERING.
A stammering Lord Deloraine, being in a cock-pit, and offering several
bets, which he would have lost if he could have replied in time, at
length offered ten pounds to a crown. A gambler who stood by, said,
“Done;” but, his lordship’s fit of stuttering happening to seize him
at that moment, he could not repeat the word “done” till the favourite
cock was beat. “Confound your stuttering tongue!” cried the _leg_, “if
you could speak like other folk, you would be ruined.”
GOOD MANNERS.
Dunning the celebrated barrister, was addicted to the low and
unpardonable vice of turning witnesses into ridicule at their
examinations. One morning, he was telling Mr. Solicitor-General Lee
that he had bought a few _good manors_ in Devonshire, near his native
village of Ashburton. “I wish,” said Lee, “you would bring some of
them into Westminster Hall; for upon my honour, you have most need of
them there.”
HANDEL AND THE SERPENT.
The first time the musical instrument called _The Serpent_ was used
in a concert where Handel presided, he was so much surprised with the
coarseness of its tones, that he called out hastily, “Vat de devil is
dat?” On being informed it was the serpent, he replied, “It never can
be de serpent vat seduced Eve.”
A MONARCH IN FAULT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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