English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various SourcesVarious
General
English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various Sources
Various
Anecdotes -- England; English wit and humor
When the Marquis of Tullibardin was at Cambridge, he was made the
subject of a pun, by the young waggish Cantabs, in the following
manner: they took their opportunity and locked the young nobleman up in
his apartments, and then calling to their fellows with much clamour,
shouted, “See Cicero in prison!” The Marquis was then expostulating
through the open window, and begging to be released. “Cicero in
prison!” said the puzzled Cantabs, not comprehending the joke. “Yes,”
said the joker, “it is _Tully-barr’d-in_.”
ANECDOTE OF PARSON PATEN.
Parson Paten was so much averse to the Athanasian Creed that he would
never read it. Archbishop Secker having been informed of his recusancy,
sent the archdeacon to ask him his reason:--“I do not believe it,”
said the priest. “But your metropolitan does,” replied the archdeacon.
“It may be so,” rejoined Mr. Paten, “and he can well afford it; he
believes at the rate of seven thousand a year, and I only at that of
fifty pounds.”
SCRIPTURE AUTHORITY.
A quaker married a woman of the Church of England. After the ceremony,
the vicar asked for his fees, which he said were a crown. The quaker,
astonished at the demand, said, if he would show him any text in the
Scripture which proved his fees were a crown, he would give it unto
him: upon which the vicar directly turned to the twelfth chapter
of Proverbs, verse 4th, where it is said, “A virtuous woman is a
_crown_ to her husband.” “Thou art right,” replied the quaker, “in
thy assertion; Solomon was a wise man; here are the five twelvepenny
pieces, and something beside to buy thee a pair of gloves.”
MEANING OF THE VERB “TO DOCTOR.”
A physician being out a-shooting one whole morning without killing any
thing, his servant begged leave to go over into the next field, for he
was sure there was some birds there; “and,” adds the man, “if there
are, I’ll _doctor_ them.” “Doctor them,” says the master, “what do you
mean by that?” “Why, _kill_ them, sir.”
CHARLES II. AND DR. BUSBY.
King Charles II., on a certain time, paying a visit to Dr. Busby, the
doctor strutted through his school with his hat on his head, while his
majesty walked complacently behind him, with his own hat under his arm;
but when he was taking his leave at the door, the doctor, with great
humility, thus addressed the king: “I hope your majesty will excuse my
want of respect hitherto; but if my boys were to imagine there was a
greater man in the kingdom than myself, I should never be able to rule
them.”
MOUNTAIN ANECDOTE.
A party had once climbed a considerable way up the usual track on the
side of the Skiddaw, when a gentleman (a stranger to the rest of the
company) who had given frequent broad hints of his being a man of
superior knowledge, said to the guide, “Pray, what is the highest part
of this mountain?” “The top, sir,” replied the guide.
LONG BIT.
“Your horse has a tremendous long bit,” said a friend to Theodore Hook.
“Yes,” said he, “it is a _bit_ too long.”
SADDLEWISE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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