The Jest Book: The Choicest Anecdotes and SayingsLemon, Mark
General
The Jest Book: The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings
Lemon, Mark
Anecdotes -- Great Britain; English wit and humor
THE death of Mr. Holland, of Drury Lane Theatre, who was the son of a
_baker_ at Chiswick, had a very great effect upon the spirits of Foote,
who had a very warm friendship for him. Being a legatee, as well as
appointed by the will of the deceased one of his bearers, he attended
the corpse to the family vault at Chiswick, and there very sincerely
paid a plentiful tribute of tears to his memory. On his return to town,
Harry Woodward asked him if he had not been paying the last compliment
to his friend Holland? "Yes, poor fellow," says Foote, almost weeping at
the same time, "I have just seen him _shoved_ into the _family oven_."
CMXCIX.--A SANITARY AIR.
THE air of France! nothing to the air of England. That goes ten times as
far,--it must, for it's ten times as thick.--D.J.
M.--GRAFTING.
VERY dry and pithy too was a legal _opinion_ given to a claimant of the
Annandale peerage, who, when pressing the employment of some obvious
forgeries, was warned, that if he persevered, nae doot he might be a
peer, but it would be a peer o' anither _tree_!
MI.--A SHORT CREED.
A SCEPTICAL man, conversing with Dr. Parr, observed that he would
believe nothing that he did not understand. Dr. Parr, replied, "Then
young man, _your creed_ will be the shortest of any man's I know."
MII.--IN THE DARK.
A SCOTCH lady, who was discomposed by the introduction of gas, asked
with much earnestness, "What's to become o' the _puir whales_?" deeming
their interests materially affected by this superseding of their oil.
MIII.--NOT TO BE TEMPTED.
"COME down, this instant," said the boatswain to a mischievous son of
Erin, who had been idling in the round-top; "come down, I say, and I'll
give you a good dozen, you rascal!"--"Troth, sur, I wouldn't come down
if you'd give me _two dozen_!"
MIV.--QUITE POETICAL.
HARRY ERSKINE made a neat remark to Walter Scott after he got his
Clerkship of Session. The scheme to bestow it on him had been begun by
the Tories, but (most honorably) was completed by the Whigs, and after
the fall of the latter, Harry met the new Clerk, and congratulated him
on his appointment, which he liked all the better, as it was a "Lay of
the _Last Ministry_!"
MV.--CORPORATION POLITENESS.
AS a west-country mayor, with formal address,
Was making his speech to the haughty Queen Bess,
"The Spaniard," quoth he, "with inveterate spleen,
Has presumed to attack you, a poor virgin queen,
But your majesty's courage soon made it appear
That his Donship had ta'en the wrong sow by the ear."
MVI.--A COMMON WANT.
IN the midst of a stormy discussion, a gentleman rose to settle the
matter in dispute. Waving his hands majestically over the excited
disputants, he began:--
"Gentlemen, all I want is common sense--"
"Exactly," Jerrold interrupted, "that is precisely what you _do_ want!"
The discussion was lost in a burst of laughter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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