History of English Humour, Vol. 1: With an Introduction upon Ancient HumourL'Estrange, A. G. K. (Alfred Guy Kingan)
Philosophy
History of English Humour, Vol. 1: With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour
L'Estrange, A. G. K. (Alfred Guy Kingan)
English wit and humor -- History and criticism; Wit and humor -- History and criticism
_Club._ So you had need, master, for those that find a mistress are
generally out of their wits. (_Gives him a glass._)
_Mock._ Come, fill for yourself. (_They jingle and drink._) But
where's the wit now, Club? Have you found it?
_Club._ Egad! master, I think 'tis a very good jest.
_Mock._ What?
_Club._ What? why drinking--you'll find, master, that this same
gentleman in the straw doublet, this same will-i'-th'-wisp is a wit
at the bottom. (_Fills._) Here, here, master; how it puns and
quibbles in the glass!
_Mock._ By the universe, now I have it!--the wit lies in the
jingling. All wit consists most in jingling; hear how the glasses
rhyme to one another.
Again:--
_Mock._ Could I but dance well, push well,[63] play upon the flute,
and swear the most modish oaths, I would set up for quality with
e'er a young nobleman of 'em all. Pray what are the most
fashionable oaths in town? Zoons, I take it, is a very becoming
one.
_Rigadoon._ (_a dancing-master._) Zoons is only used by the
disbanded officers and bullies, but zauns is the beaux
pronunciation.
_Mock._ Zauns!
_Rig._ Yes, Sir; we swear as we dance; smooth and with a
cadence--Zauns! 'Tis harmonious, and pleases the ladies, because it
is soft. Zauns, Madam, is the only compliment our great beaux pass
on a lady.
_Mock._ But suppose a lady speaks to me; what must I say?
_Rig._ Nothing, Sir; you must take snuff grin, and make her a
humble cringe--thus: (_Bows foppishly and takes snuff; Mockmode
imitates him awkwardly, and taking snuff, sneezes._) O Lord, Sir!
you must never sneeze; 'tis as unbecoming after orangery as grace
after meat.
_Mock._ I thought people took it to clear the brain.
_Rig._ The beaux have no brains at all, Sir; their skull is a
perfect snuff-box; and I heard a physician swear, who opened one of
'em, that the three divisions of his head were filled with
orangery, bergamot, and plain Spanish.
_Mock._ Zauns! I must sneeze, (_sneezes._) Bless me!
_Rig._ Oh, fy! Mr. Mockmode! what a rustical expression that is!
'Bless me!' You should upon all such occasions cry, Dem me! You
would be as nauseous to the ladies as one of the old patriarchs, if
you used that obsolete expression.
Sir Harry Wildair gives a good sketch of a lady's waiting-woman of the
time.
_Colonel Standard._ Here, here, Mrs. Parly; whither so fast?
_Parly._ Oh Lord! my master! Sir, I was running to Mademoiselle
Furbelow, the French milliner, for a new burgundy for my lady's
head.
_Col. S._ No, child; you're employed about an old-fashioned
garniture for your master's head, if I mistake not your errand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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