Every man ought to read the jest-books, that he may not make himself
disagreeable by repeating "old Joes" as the very last good things.
One book of this class is little more than the copy of another as to
the points, with a change of the persons; and the same joke, slightly
varied, appears in as many different countries as the same fairy-tale.
Seven years ago I found at Prague the "Joe" of the Irishman saying that
there were a hundred judges on the bench, because there was one with two
cyphers. The valet-de-place told me that when the Emperor and Metternich
were together they were called "the council of ten," because they were
_eins und zero_.
It is interesting to trace a joke back, of which process I send an
example. In the very clever version of the Chancellor of Oxford's speech
on introducing the new doctors (_Punch_, No. 622.) are these lines:
"En Henleium! en Stanleium! Hic eminens prosator:
Ille, filius pulchro patre, hercle pulchrior orator;
Demosthenes in herbâ, _sed in ore retinens illos_
_Quos, antequam peroravit, Græcus respuit lapillos._"
Ebenezer Grubb, in his description of the opposition in 1814, thus
notices Mr. F. Douglas:
"He is a forward and frequent speaker; remarkable for a
graceful inclination of the upper part of his body in advance
of the lower, and speaketh, I suspect _(after the manner of an
ancient), with pebbles in his mouth_."--_New Whig Guide_, 1819,
p. 47.
In Foote's _Patron_, Sir Roger Dowlas, an East India proprietor, who has
sought instruction in oratory from Sir Thomas Lofty, is introduced to the
_conversazione_:--
"_Sir Thomas._ Sir Roger, be seated. This gentleman has, in
common with the greatest orator the world ever saw, a small
natural infirmity; he stutters a little: but I have prescribed
the same remedy that Demosthenes used, and don't despair of a
radical cure. Well, sir, have you digested those general rules?
_Sir Roger._ Pr-ett-y well, I am obli-g'd to you, Sir Th-omas.
_Sir Thomas._ Did you open at the last general court?
_Sir Roger._ I att-empt-ed fo-ur or five times.
_Sir Thomas._ What hindered your progress?
_Sir Roger._ _The pe-b-bles._
{147}
_Sir Thomas._ _Oh, the pebbles in his mouth_: but they are only
put in to practise in private: _you should take them out when
you are addressing the public_."
I cannot trace the joke farther, but as Foote, though so rich in wit, was
a great borrower, it might not be new in 1764.