The Choice Humorous Works, Ludicrous Adventures, Bons Mots, Puns, and Hoaxes of Theodore HookHook, Theodore Edward
General
The Choice Humorous Works, Ludicrous Adventures, Bons Mots, Puns, and Hoaxes of Theodore Hook
Hook, Theodore Edward
English wit and humor
The great Gamboogee himself, however, was present, and explained the
nature and intention of the society very succinctly. It may perhaps
be necessary to quote for our readers this account of their general
views, as detailed by his Lordship.
In the first place, it appears to the excessively correct persons who
compose this grave body, that a Christian should never be merry--that
it is the bounden duty of all well-disposed persons to groan and
sigh, and make themselves as uncomfortable as possible during their
stay upon earth; and in order to render themselves apparently
subservient to the regulations which they propose to lay down for
others, the members have their seats provided on the hardest possible
benches, the president being compelled to sit in very thin silk
breeches, upon a horse-hair bottomed stool, without either arms or
back, _i.e._, while they are in public!
Every member is bound, on similar occasions, to wear large worsted
stockings, with the tightest possible shoes, stiff stocks, and hats
considerably too small for their heads. Thus accoutred, it is their
intention to effect, under the authority they very frequently have on
their tongues, a total reformation in society.
They intend to begin with Brookes's and Boodle's, which are to be
consigned forthwith to the superintendence of four respectable
Dowagers; and the direction of Almack's is to be vested in the hands
of six able ministers, to be selected by the great Gamboogee himself
for that purpose, next May, previously to the commencement of the
ensuing winter season.
In order to prevent the shameful impositions practised upon the
credulity of minors of fashion and fortune, by unprincipled women of
no property, the Hum-Fum Gamboogees have opened establishments for
the reception of young gentlemen of worldly propensities, which are
to be placed under the surveillance of most active and pious men.
Similar receptacles for young ladies, whose flagrant desires lead
them into the abominable vices of dancing or singing, will be
prepared, where, in rooms hung with black, and from which the much
too comfortable glare of day will be excluded, they will be taught to
see, in their proper colours, the enormity of those crimes of which
they have been guilty, and which their sinful mothers, grandmothers,
and great grandmothers, have been rash and vile enough to commit in a
similar way.
It appearing to the Hum-Fum Gamboogees that the sun is by far too
great a blessing for such wretched creatures as we are, they
recommend a careful seclusion during the day, and suggest that wet or
windy nights are the most suitable occasions for taking exercise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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