Joe Miller's Jests, with Copious Additions — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Joe Miller's Jests, with Copious Additions
John Stuart Mill · en
416. A certain couple going to Dunmow in Essex, to claim the flitch of
bacon, which is to be given to every married pair, who can swear they
had no dispute, nor once repented their bargain in a year and a day, the
steward ready to deliver it, asked where they would put it; the husband
produced a bag, and told him, in that. That, answered the steward, is
not big enough to hold it. So I told my wife, replied the good man; and
I believe we have had a hundred words about it. Ay, said the steward,
but they were not such as will butter any cabbage to eat with this
bacon; and so hung the flitch up again.
417. Two gentlemen, one named Chambers, the other Garret, riding by
Tyburn, said the first, This is a very pretty tenement, if it had but a
Garret. You fool, said Garret, don’t you know there must be Chambers
first?
418. Two gentlemen, one named Woodcock, the other Fuller, walking
together, happened to see an owl; said the last, That bird is very much
like a Woodcock. You are very wrong, said the first, for it’s Fuller in
the head, Fuller in the eyes, and Fuller all over.
419. An arch boy having taken notice of his schoolmaster’s often reading
a chapter in Corinthians, wherein is this sentence, ‘We shall all be
changed in the twinkling of an eye,’ privately erased the letter c in
the word changed. The next time the master read it, we shall all be
hanged in the twinkling of an eye.
420. A certain great man, who had been a furious party man, and most
surprisingly changed sides, by which he obtained a coronet, was soon
after at cards at a place where Lady T―nd was, and complaining in the
midst of the game, that he had a great pain in his side, I thought your
lordship had no side, said she.
421. A gentleman living in Jamaica, not long ago, had a wife not of the
most agreeable humour in the world; however, as an indulgent husband, he
had bought her a fine pad, which soon after gave her a fall that broke
her neck. Another gentleman in the same neighbourhood, blessed likewise
with a termagant spouse, asked the widower, if he would sell his wife’s
pad, for he had a great fancy for it, and he would give him what he
would for it. No, said the other, I don’t care to sell it, for I am not
sure that I shan’t marry again.