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 preacher, whose sermons were beyond human understanding, was wont on
Saturday to keep unseen by any one, in order to compose his sublime
discourses for next day; on which a wit observed, that the doctor was
invisible on Saturday in order that he might be incomprehensible on
Sunday.
ERSKINE AND JEKYLL.
Mr. Erskine one morning complained to Mr. Jekyll of a pain in his
bowels. “I could recommend one remedy,” said the latter; “but I am
afraid you will not find it easy to get at it.” “What is it?” eagerly
rejoined Mr. Erskine. “Get made Attorney-General, and then you will
have no bowels at all.”
GOOD REASON.
A certain secretary of state, being asked by an intimate friend, why he
did not promote merit, aptly replied, “Because merit did not promote
me.”
FOOTE.
Foote, having been invited to dine with the Duke of Leinster, at
Dublin, gave the following account of his entertainment:--“As to
the splendour, so far as it went, I admit it, there was a very fine
sideboard of plate; and if a man could have swallowed a silversmith’s
shop, there was enough to satisfy him; but as to all the rest, his
mutton was white, his veal was red, the fish was kept too long, the
venison not kept long enough: to sum up all, every thing was cold,
except his ice; every thing sour, except his vinegar.”
PATIENCE.
A quaker, driving in a single-horse chaise up a green lane that leads
from Newington Green to Hornsey, happened to meet with a young blood,
who was also in a single-horse chaise. There was not room enough for
them to pass each other, unless one of them would back his carriage,
which they both refused. “I’ll not make way for you,” says the blood;
“damn my eyes if I will.” “I think I am older than thou art,” said the
quaker, “and therefore have a right to expect thee to make way for me.”
“I won’t, dam’me,” resumed the first. He then pulled out a newspaper,
and began to read, as he sat still in his chaise. The quaker, observing
him, pulled a pipe and some tobacco from his pocket, and, with a
convenience which he carried about with him, lighted his pipe, and sat
and puffed away very comfortably. “Friend,” said he, “when thou hast
read that paper, I should be glad if thou wouldst lend it me.”
JOHNSON AND BOSWELL.
Dr. Johnson and Boswell, being at Bristol, were by no means pleased
with their inn. “Let us now see,” said Boswell, “how we should
describe it.” Johnson was ready with his raillery. “Describe it,
sir! why, it was so bad--so very bad, that Boswell wished to be in
Scotland.”
SIR CHARLES WAGER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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