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
"WHAT is the difference," asked Archbishop Whately of a young clergyman
he was examining, "between a form and a ceremony? The meaning seems
nearly the same; yet there is a very nice distinction." Various answers
were given. "Well," he said, "it lies in this: you sit upon a _form_,
but you stand upon _ceremony_."
DXIX.--LATE DINNER.
SOME one remarking that the dinner hour was always getting later and
later, "Ay," quoth Rogers, "it will soon end in our not dining till
_to-morrow_."
DXX.--AN OLD JOKE.
AS a wag at a ball, to a nymph on each arm
Alternately turning, and thinking to charm,
Exclaimed in these words, of which Quin was the giver--
"You're my Gizzard, my dear; and, my love, you're my Liver."
"Alas!" cried the Fair on his left--"to what use?
For you never saw _either served up_ with a goose!"
DXXI.--TIME WORKS WONDERS.
A GENTLEMAN dining at a hotel, whose servants were "few and far
between," despatched a lad among them for a cut of beef. After a long
time the lad returned, and was asked by the faint and hungry gentleman,
"Are you the lad who took away my plate for this beef?"--"Yes,
sir."--"Bless me," resumed the hungry wit, "how _you have grown_!"
DXXII.--A NOVEL IDEA.
"MORROW'S Library" is the Mudie of Dublin; and the Rev. Mr. Day, a
popular preacher. "How inconsistent," said Archbishop Whately, "is the
piety of certain ladies here. They go to _Day_ for a sermon and to
_Morrow_ for a novel!"
DXXIII.--THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER.
A MAN was described in a plea as "I. Jones," and the pleader referred
in another part of the plea to "I" as an "initial." The plaintiff said
that the plea was bad, because "I" was not a name. Sir W. Maule said
that there was no reason why a man might not be christened "I" as well
as Isaac, inasmuch as either could be pronounced alone. The counsel for
the plaintiff then objected that the plea admitted that "I" was not a
name by describing it as "an initial."--"Yes," retorted the judge, "but
it does not aver that it is not a _final_ as well as an _initial_
letter."
DXXIV.--LOSING AN I.
A MAN being interrogated on a trial, spoke several words with much
impropriety; and at last saying the word _curosity_, a counsellor
exclaimed, "How that fellow murders the English language!"--"Nay,"
returned another, "he has only knocked an _I_ out."
DXXV.--DRIVING IT HOME.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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