English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various Sources — John Shaqi
English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various SourcesVarious
General
English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various Sources
Various
Anecdotes -- England; English wit and humor
Mr. Carbonel, the wine-merchant, who served George the Third, was a
great favourite with the good old king, and was admitted to the honours
of the Royal Hunt. Returning from the chase one day, his majesty
entered, in his usual affable manner, into conversation with him,
riding side by side with him, for some distance. Lord Walsingham was
in attendance, and watching an opportunity, whispered to Mr. Carbonel,
that he had not once taken off his hat before his majesty. “What’s
that, what’s that, Walsingham!” inquired the good-humoured monarch.
Mr. Carbonel at once said, “I find I have been guilty of unintentional
disrespect to your majesty, in not taking off my hat; but your majesty
will please to observe that whenever I hunt, my hat is fastened to my
wig, and my wig to my head, and I am on the back of a high-spirited
horse; so that if anything goes off, we must all go off together.” The
king laughed heartily at this whimsical apology.
SHERIDAN’S GREEK.
Lord Belgrave having clenched a speech in the House of Commons with
a long Greek quotation, Sheridan, in reply, admitted the force of
the quotation so far as it went; “But,” said he, “had the noble lord
proceeded a little farther, and completed the passage, he would have
seen that it applied the other way.” Sheridan then spouted something,
_ore rotundo_, which had all the _ais_, _ois_, _kous_, and _koes_, that
gave the world assurance of a Greek quotation; upon which Lord Belgrave
very promptly and handsomely complimented the honourable member on his
readiness of recollection, and frankly admitted that the continuation
of the passage had the tendency ascribed to it by Mr. Sheridan, and
that he had overlooked it at the moment when he gave his quotation. On
the breaking up of the House, Fox, who piqued himself on having some
Greek, went up to Sheridan, and asked him, “Sheridan, how came you to
be so ready with that passage? It certainly is as you say, but I was
not aware of it before you quoted it.” It is almost unnecessary to
observe that there was no Greek at all in Sheridan’s impromptu.
SHERIDAN AND CUMBERLAND.
When the “School for Scandal” came out, Cumberland’s children prevailed
upon their father to take them to see it: they had the stage-box;
their father was seated behind them; and, as the story was told by a
gentleman, a friend of Sheridan’s, who was close by, every time the
children laughed at what was going on on the stage, he pinched them,
and said, “What are you laughing at, my dear little folks? you should
not laugh, my angels; there is nothing to laugh at;” and then, in an
under tone, “Keep still, you little dunces.” Sheridan having been told
of this long afterwards, said, “It was very ungrateful in Cumberland
to have been displeased with his poor children for laughing at _my
comedy_; for I went the other night to see _his tragedy_, and laughed
at it from beginning to end.”
WHIMSICAL PUN.
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