*Other feeming connections from the fame cause. Will you employ your conqu'ring fword, To break a fiddle and your word. Hudibras, canto 2. To whom the knight with comely grace Put off his hat to put his cafe. Hudibras, Part 3. canto 3. Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom O'er their quietus where fat judges dofe, And lull their cough and confcience to repofe, Speaking of Prince Eugene. Difpenfary, canto 1. "This General is "a great taker of fnuff as well as of towns." Pope, Key to the Lock. Exul mentifque domusque. Metamorphofes, lib. ix. 409. A A feeming inconfiftency from the fame cause. Hic quiefcit 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 fatisfaire, Elle a vingt ans le jour, et cinquante ans la nuit, Again, So like the chances are of love and war, What new-found witchcraft was in thee, With thine own cold to kindle me? Waller, Strange art; like him that fhould devife To make a burning-glass of ice. Cowley. Wit of this kind is unfuitable in a serious poem; witness the following line in Pope's Elegy to the memory of an unfortunate lady: Cold is that breaft which warm'd the world before. This fort of writing is finely burlesqued by Swift: Her hands, the fofteft ever felt, Though cold would burn, though dry would melt. Strephon and Chloe. Taking a word in a different fenfe from what is meant, comes under wit, because it occafions fome flight degree of furprise. Beatrice. I may fit in a corner, and cry Heigh bo! 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 hufbands, if a maid could come by them. Much ado about nothing, a&t 2. fc. 5. Falstaff. My honeft lads, I will tell you what I am about. Piftol. Two yards and more. Falstaff. No quips now, Pistol: indeed, I am in the waste two yards about; but I am now about no wafte; I am about thrift. Lo. Sands. Merry wives of Windsor, act 1. fc. 7. By your leave, fweet 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 affertion that bears a double meaning, one right, one wrong; but fo connected with other matters as to direct us to the wrong meaning. This fpecies of bastard wit is diftinguifhed from all others by the name pun. For example, Paris. Sweet Helen, I must woo you, To help unarm our Hector: his ftubborn buckles, With these your white inchanting fingers touch'd, Shall more obey, than to the edge of steel, Or force of Greekish finews: you fhall do more Than all the ifland kings, difarm great Hector. Troilus and Creffida, alt 3. fc. 2. The The pun is in the close. The word difarm has a double meaning. It fignifies to take off a man's armour, and alfo to fubdue him in fight. We are directed to the latter fenfe by the context. But with regard to Helen the word holds only true in the former sense. I go on with other examples. Effe nihil dicis quicquid petis, improbe Cinna: Martial, l. 3. epigr. 61. Jocondus geminum impofuit 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, can. not live in lefs. Chief Justice. Your means are very slender, and your wafte is great Faiftaff. I would it were otherwife: I would my means were greater, and my waste flenderer. Second part, Henry IV. act 1. fc, 5. 2 Celia. I pray you bear with me, I can go no further. Clown |