You are here

قراءة كتاب Joe Miller's Jests, or The Wits Vade-Mecum

تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"

‏اللغة: English
Joe Miller's Jests, or The Wits Vade-Mecum

Joe Miller's Jests, or The Wits Vade-Mecum

تقييمك:
0
No votes yet
المؤلف:
دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
الصفحة رقم: 4

Player, was young and handsome, Lord North, and Grey, remarkable for his homely Face, accosting her one Night behind the Scenes, ask'd her with a Sigh, what was a Cure for Love? Your Lordship, said she, the best I know in the World.

56. Colonel ——, who made the fine Fire-Works Works in St. James's Square, upon the Peace of Reswick, being in Company with some Ladies, was highly commending the Epitaph just then set up in the Abbey on Mr. Purcel's Monument,

He is gone to that Place were only his own Harmony can be exceeded.

Lord, Colonel, said one of the Ladies, the same Epitaph might serve for you, by altering one Word only:

He is gone to that Place, where only his own Fire-Works can be exceeded.

57. Poor Joe Miller happening one Day to be caught by some of his Friends in a familiar Posture with a Cook Wench, almost as ugly as Kate Cl—ve, was very much rallied by them for the Oddness of his Fancy. Why look ye, said he, Gentleman, altho' I am not a very young Fellow, I have a good Constitution, and am not, I thank Heaven, reduced yet to Beauty or Brandy to whet my Appetite.

58. Lady N——, who had but a very homely Face, but was extremely well shaped, and always near about the Legs and Feet, was tripping one Morning over the Park in a Mask; and a Gentleman followed her for a long while making strong Love to her, he called her his Life, his Soul, his Angel, and begged with abundance of Earnestness, to have a Glimpse of her Face; at last when she came on the other Side of the Bird-Cage Walk, to the House she was going into, she turned about and pulling off her Mask: Well, Sir, said she, what is it you would have with me? The Man at first Sight of her Face, drew back, and lifting up his Hands, O! Nothing! Madam, Nothing, cry'd he; I cannot say, said my Lady, but I like your Sincerity, tho' I hate your Manners.

60. Sir B—ch—r W——y, in the Beginning of Queen Anne's Reign, and three or four more drunken Tories, reeling home from the Fountain-Tavern in the Strand, on a Sunday Morning, cry'd out, we are the pillars of the Church, no, by G—d, said a Whig, that happened to be in their Company, you can be but the Buttresses, for you never come on the Inside of it.

61. After the Fire of London, there was an Act of Parliament to regulate the Buildings of the City, every House was to be three Stories high, and there were to be no Balconies backwards: A Gloucestershire Gentleman, a Man of great Wit and Humour, just after this Act passed, going along the Street, and seeing a little crooked Gentlewoman, on the other Side of the Way, he runs over to her in great haste, Lord, Madam, said he, how dare you to walk the Streets thus publickly? Walk the Streets! why not! answered the little Woman. Because said he, you are built directly contrary to Act of Parliament, you are but two Stories high, and your Balcony hangs over your House-of-Office.

62. One Mr. Topham was so very tall, that if he was living now, he might be shewn at Yeate's Theatre for a Sight, this Gentleman going one Day to enquire for a Countryman a little Way out of Town, when he came to the House, he looked in at a little Window over the Door, and ask'd the Woman, who sat by the Fire, if her Husband was at Home. No, Sir, said she, but if you please to alight and come in, I'll go and call him.

63. The same Gentleman walking across Covent-Garden, was asked by a Beggar-Woman, for an Half-penny or Farthing, but finding he would not part with his Money, she begg'd for Christ's-Sake, he would give her one of his old Shoes; he was very desirous to know what she could do with one Shoe, to make my Child a Cradle, Sir, said she.

64. King Charles II. having ordered a Suit of Cloaths to be made, just at the Time when Addresses were coming up to him, from all Parts of the Kingdom, Tom Killigrew went to the Taylor, and ordered him to make a very large Pocket on one Side of the Coat, and one so small on the other, that the King could hardly get his Hand into it, which seeming very odd, when they were brought home, he ask'd the Meaning of it, the Taylor said, Mr. Killigrew order'd it so; Kelligrew being sent for, and interrogated, said, one Pocket was for the Addresses of his Majesty's Subjects, the other for the Money they would give him.

65. My Lord B——e, had married three Wives that were all his Servants, a Beggar-Woman, meeting him one Day in the Street, made him a very low Curtesy, Ah, God Almighty bless your Lordship, said she, and send you a long Life, if you do but live long enough, we shall be all Ladies in Time.

66. Dr. Tadloe, who was a very fat Man, happening to go thump, thump, with his great Legs, thro' a Street, in Oxford, where some Paviers had been at Work, in the Midst of July, the Fellows immediately laid down their Rammers, Ah! God bless you, Master, cries one of 'em, it was very kind of you to come this Way, it saves us a great deal of Trouble this hot Weather.

67. An Arch-Wagg of St. John's College, asked another of the same College, who was a great Sloven, why he would not read a certain Author called Go-Clenius.

68. Swan, the famous Punster of Cambridge, being a Nonjuror, upon which Account he had lost his Fellowship, as he was going along the Strand, in the Beginning of King William's Reign, on a very rainy Day, a Hackney-Coachman called to him, Sir, won't you please to take Coach, it rains hard: Ay, Friend, said he, but this is no Reign for me to take Coach in.

69. When Oliver first coined his Money, an old Cavalier looking upon one of the new Pieces, read the Inscriptions, on one Side was God with us, on the other, The Commonwealth of England; I see, said he, God and the Commonwealth are on different Sides.

70. Colonel Bond who had been one of King Charles the First's Judges, dy'd a Day or two before Oliver, and it was strongly reported every where that Cromwell was dead; No, said a Gentleman, who knew better, he has only given Bond to the Devil for his farther Appearance.

71. Mr. Serjeant G—d—r, being lame of one Leg; and pleading before Judge For—e, who has little or no Nose, the Judge told him he was afraid he had but a lame Cause of it: Oh! my Lord, said the Serjeant, have but a little Patience, and I'll warrant I prove every Thing as plain as the Nose on your Face.

72. A Gentleman eating some Mutton that was very tough, said, it put him in Mind of an old English Poet: Being asked who that was; Chau—cer, replied he.

73. A certain Roman-Catholick Lord, having renounced the Popish Religion, was asked not long after, by a Protestant Peer, Whether the Ministers of the State, or Ministers of the Gospel had the greatest Share in his Conversion: To whom he reply'd, that when he renounced Popery he had also renounced auricular Confession.

74. Michael Angelo, in his Picture of the last Judgment, in the Pope's Chappel, painted among the Figures in Hell, that of a certain Cardinal, who was his Enemy, so like, that everybody knew it at first Sight: Whereupon the Cardinal complaining to Pope Clement the Seventh, of the Affront, and desiring it

Pages