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Beatrice.- -With a good leg and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in his purse, such a man would win any woman in the world, if he could get her good-will.-Much ado about Nothing, acl 2. sc. c. 1.

Beatrice. I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight.—Ibid.

Again,

Again,

Le médecin, que l'on m'indique,
Sait le Latin, le Grec, l'Hebreu,
Les belles lettres, la physique,
La chimie et la botanique.
Chacun lui donne son aveu:
Il auroit aussi ma pratique ;
Mais je veux vivre encore un peu.

Vingt fois le jour le bon Grégoire
A soin de fermer son armoire.

De quoi pensez vous qu'il a peur?
Belle demande! Qu'on voleur,
Trouvant une facile proie,

Ne lui ravisse tout son bien.

Non; Grégoire a peur qu'on ne voie
Que dans son armoire il n'a rien.

L'asthmatique Damon a cru que l'air des champs
Repareroit en lui le ravage des ans,

Il s'est fuit à grands fraix, transporter en Bretagne.
Or voyez ce qu'a fait l'air natal qu'il a pris!

Damon seroit mort à Paris :

Damon est mort à la campagne.

Having discussed wit in the thought, we proceed to what is verbal only, commonly called a play of words. This sort of wit depends, for the most part, upon choosing a word that hath different significations by that artifice hocus-pocus tricks are played in language, and thoughts plain and simple take on a very different appearance. Play is necessary for man, in order to refresh him after labour; and accordingly man loves play, even so much as to relish a play of words; and it is happy for us that words can be employed, not only for useful purposes, but also for our amusement. This amusement, though humble and low, unbends the mind, and is relished by some at all times, and by all at some times.

among all na

stage of their

It is remarkable, that this low species of wit has tions been a favourite entertainment, in a certain progress towards refinement of taste and manners, and has gradually gone into disrepute. As soon as a language is formed into a system, and the meaning of words is ascertained with tolerable accuracy, opportunity is afforded for expressions that, by the double meaning of some words, give a familiar thought the appearance of being new; and the penetration of the reader or hearer is gratified in detecting the true sense disguised under the double meaning. That this sort of wit was in England deemed a reputable amusement, during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. is vouched by the works of Shakspeare, and even by the writings of grave divines. But it cannot have any long endurance: for as language ripens, and the meaning of words is more and more ascertained, words held to be synonymous diminish daily; and when

those that remain have been more than once employed, the pleasure vanisheth with the novelty.

I proceed to examples, which, as in the former case, shall be distributed into different classes.

A seeming resemblance from the double meaning of a word:

Beneath this stone my wife doth lie;
She's now at rest, and so am I.

A seeming contrast from the same cause, termed a verbal antithesis, which hath no despicable effect in ludicrous subjects:

Whilst Iris his cosmetic wash would try

To make her bloom revive, and lovers die,

Some ask for charms, and others philters choose,

To gain Corinna, and their quartans lose.--Dispensary, canto 2.

And how frail nymphs oft by abortion aim

To lose a substance, to preserve a name.-Ibid, canto 3.

While nymphs take treats, or assignations give.—Rape of the Lock.

Other seeming connexions from the same cause:

Will you employ your conqu'ring sword,

To break a fiddle, and your word ?-Hudibras, canto 2.

To whom the knight with comely grace

Put off his hat to put his case.—Ibid. part 3. canto 3.

Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom
Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home;
Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take-and sometimes tea.
Rape of the Lock, canto 3. l. 5.

O'er their quietus where fat judges dose,
And lull their cough and conscious to repose.—Dispensary, canto 1.

Speaking of Prince Eugene:

This general is a great taker of snuff as well of towns.
Pope, Key to the Lock.

Exul mentisque domusque.—Metamorphoses, l. ix. 409.

A seeming opposition from the same cause:

Hic quiescit qui nunquam quievit.

Again,

Quel âge a cette Iris, dont on fait tant de bruit ?
Me demandoit Cliton n'aguere.

Il faut, dis-je, vous satisfaire,

Elle a vingt ans le jour, et cinquante ans la nuit.

Again,

So like the chances are of love and war,

That they alone in this distinguish'd are;

In love the victors from the vanquish'd fly,

They fly that wound, and they pursue that die.-Waller

What new found witchcraft was in thee,

With thine own cold to kindle me?
Strange art; like him that should devise
To make a burning-glass of ice.-Cowley.

Wit of this kind is unsuitable in a serious poem; witness the following line in Pope's Elegy to the memory of an unfortunate lady.

Cold is that breast which warm'd the world before.

This sort of writing is finely burlesqued by Swift:

Her hands the softest ever felt,

Though cold would burn, though dry would melt.-Strephon and Chloe.

Taking a word in a different sense from what is meant, comes under wit, because it occasions some slight degree of surprise :

Beatrice. I may sit in a corner, and cry Heigh ho! for a husband.

Pedro. Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.

Beatrice. I would rather have one of your father's getting. Hath your grace ne'er a brother like you? Your father got excellent husbands, if a maid could come by them.-Much ado about Nothing, act 2. sc. 5.

Falstaff. My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about.
Pistol. Two yards and more.

Falstaff. No quips now, Pistol: indeed I am in the waist two yards about; but I am now about no waste; I am about thrift.

Merry Wives of Windsor, act 1. sc. 7.

Lord Sands.- -By your leave, sweet ladies,

If I chance to talk a little wild, forgive me :

I had it from my father.

Anne Bullen. Was he mad, Sir!

Sands. O, very mad, exceeding mad, in love too ;

But he would bite none

K. Henry VIII.

An assertion that bears a double meaning, one right, one wrong, but so introduced as to direct us to the wrong meaning, is a species of bastard wit, which is distinguished from all others by the name pun. For example.

Paris. -Sweet Helen, I must woo you,
To help unarm our Hector: his stubborn buckles,
With these your white enchanting fingers touch'd,
Shall more obey, than to the edge of steel,
Or force of Greekish sinews; you shall do more
Than all the island kings, disarm great Hector.

Troilus and Cressida, act 3. sc. 2.

The pun is in the close. The word disarm has a double meaning: it signifies to take off a man's armour, and also to subdue him in fight. We are directed to the latter sense by the context; but, with regard to Helen, the word holds only true in the former sense. I go on with other examples:

Esse nihil dicis quicquid petis, improbe Cinna:

Si uil, Cinna, petis, nil tibi, Cinna, nego.-Martial, l. 3. eprigr. 61.
Jocondus geminum imposuit tibi, Sequana, pontem ;
Hunc tu jure potes dicere pontificem.

N. B. Jocondus was a monk.

Sanazarius.

Chief Justice. Well! the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy.
Falstaff. He that buckles him in my belt cannot live in less.

Chief Justice. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great. Falstaff. I would it were otherwise: I would my means were greater, and my waist slenderer.-Second part, Henry IV. act 1. sc. 1.

Celia. I pray you bear with me, I can go no further.

Clown. For my part, I had rather bear with you than bear you: yet I should bear no cross if I did bear you; for I think you have no money in your purse. As you like it, act 2. sc. 4.

He that imposeth an oath makes it,
Not he that for convenience takes it;
Then how can any man be said

To break an oath he never made ?-Hadibras, part 2. canto 2.

The seventh satire of the first book of Horace is purposely contrived to introduce at the close a most execrable pun. infamous wretch whose name was Rex Rupilius,

Persius exclamat, Per magnos, Brute, deos te

Oro, qui reges consueris tollere, cur non

Talking of some

Hunc Regem jugulas Operum hoc, mihi crede, tuorum est.

Though playing with words is a mark of a mind at ease, and disposed to any sort of amusement, we must not thence conclude that playing with words is always ludicrous. Words are so intimately connected with thought, that if the subject be really grave, it will not appear ludicrous even in that fantastic dress. I am, however, far from recommending it in any serious performance: on the contrary, the discordance between the thought and expression must be disagreeable; witness the following specimen :

He hath abandoned his physicians, Madam, under whose practices he hath persecuted time with hope; and finds no other advantage in the process, but only the losing of hope by time.—‚Ill's well that ends well, act 1. sc. 1.

K. Henry. O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows!

When that my care could not withhold thy riots,

What wilt thou do when riot is thy care.-Second part, K. Henry IV.

If any one shall observe that there is a third species of wit, different from those mentioned, consisting in sounds merely, I am willing to give it place. And indeed it must be admitted, that many of Hudibras's double rhymnes come under the definition of wit given in the beginning of this chapter: they are ludicrous, and their singularity occasions some degree of surprise. Swift is no less successful than Butler in this sort of wit: witness the following instances: Goddice Bodice. Pliny-Nicolini. Iscariots-Chariots, Mitre-Nitre. Dragon-Suffragan.

A repartee may happen to be witty; but it cannot be considered as a species of wit; because there are many repartees extremely smart, and yet extremely serious. I give the following example: A certain petulant Greek, objecting to Anarcharsis that he was a Scythian: True, says Anacharsis, my country disgraces me, but you disgrace your country. This fine turn gives surprise; but it is far from being ludicrous.

CHAP. XIV.

CUSTOM AND HABIT.

VIEWING man as under the influence of novelty, would one suspect that custom also should influence him? and yet our nature is equally susceptible of each; not only in different objects, but frequently in the same. When an object is new, it is enchanting: familiarity renders it indifferent; and custom, after a longer familiarity, makes it again disagreeable. Human nature, diversified with many and various springs of action, is wonderfully, and, indulging the expression, intricately constructed.

Custom hath such influence upon many of our feelings, by warping and varying them, that we must attend to its operations if we would be acquainted with human nature. This subject, in itself obscure, has been much neglected; and a complete analysis of it would be no easy task. I pretend only to touch it cursorily; hoping, however, that what is here laid down will dispose diligent inquirers to attempt further discoveries.

Custom respects the action, habit the agent. By custom we mean a frequent reiteration of the same act; and by habit, the effect that custom has on the agent. This effect may be either active, witness the dexterity produced by custom in performing certain exercises; or passive, as when a thing makes an impression on us different from what it did originally. The latter only, as relative to the sensitive part of our nature, comes under the present undertaking.

This subject is intricate: some pleasures are fortified by custom; and yet custom begets familiarity, and consequently indifference:* in many instances, satiety and disgust are the consequences of reiteration. Again, though custom blunts the edge of distress and of pain, yet the want of any thing to which we have been long accustomed, is a sort of torture. A clue to guide us through all the intricacies of this labyrinth, would be an acceptable present.

Whatever be the cause, it is certain that we are much influenced by custom: it hath an effect upon our pleasures, upon our actions, and even upon our thoughts and sentiments. Habit makes no figure during the vivacity of youth: in middle age it gains ground; and in old age governs without control. In that period of life, generally speaking, we eat at a certain hour, take exercise at a certain hour, go to rest at a certain hour, all by the direction of habit; nay, a particular seat, table, bed, comes to be essential; and a habit in any of these cannot be controlled without uneasiness.

Any slight or moderate pleasure, frequently reiterated for a long time, forms a peculiar connexion between us and the thing that causes the pleasure. This connexion, termed habit, has the effect to awaken our desire or appetite for that thing when it returns not

* If all the year were playing holidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work:

But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,

And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.

First part, Henry IV. act 1, sc, 3.

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