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
When the prince has done with the popish archbishop, he takes to
the pipers, and is safely delivered of this sapient remark:--"These
pipers, who are almost all blind, derive their origin from remote
antiquity. They are gradually fading away, for all that is old must
vanish from the earth." This is a truism:--but, as pipers, like other
men, to whatever age they may attain, are all born young--even in
Ireland--his highness may still encourage the hope, that when the
old ones die off, others will succeed them. The chapter of pipers is
succeeded by a not very delicate one on game-cocks; but we must pass
over this, and accompany the prince to the Phœnix Park, where he is
in his proper sphere.
"Lord Anglesea invited me to dinner," says his highness, "and
the party was brilliant. He is beloved in Ireland for his
impartiality, and for the favour he has always shown to the
cause of emancipation. His exploits as a general officer are
well known--no man has a more graceful and polished address in
society. A more perfect work of art than his false leg I never
saw."
This climax of compliment will, no doubt, be felt and appreciated by
his Excellency: he adds--
"The power and dignity of a Lord Lieutenant are considerable
as representative of the king; but he holds them only at the
pleasure of the ministry. Among other privileges, he has that of
creating Baronets; and in former times inn-keepers, and men even
less qualified, have received that dignity."
Baronets, as everybody knows, the Lord Lieutenant never could
create, and the knighthoods the prince refers to most ungracefully,
considering the "free and easy" manner in which, as we shall
presently see, he treated Sir Charles Morgan and Sir Arthur
Clarke--the individuals to whom he obviously points--and their
"womankind." But, indeed, his malignity towards unfortunate Lady
Morgan is worthy of severer reprehension. The following passage
appears to us entirely indefensible:--
"I spent a very pleasant evening to-day at Lady M----'s. The
company was small, but amusing, and enlivened by the presence
of two very pretty friends of our hostess, who sang in the
best Italian style. I talked a great deal with Lady M---- on
various subjects, and she has talent and feeling enough always
to excite a lively interest in her conversation. On the whole,
I think I did not say enough in her favour in my former letter;
at any rate, I did not then know one of her most charming
qualities,--that of possessing two such pretty relatives.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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