The Comic English Grammar: A New and Facetious Introduction to the English Tongue

LONDON: PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, Bangor House, Shoe Lane.

THE COMIC
ENGLISH GRAMMAR;
A NEW AND FACETIOUS Introduction to the English Tongue .
BY THE AUTHOR OF THE COMIC LATIN GRAMMAR.
EMBELLISHED WITH UPWARDS OF FIFTY CHARACTERISTIC ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. LEECH.
LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1840.
TO MR. GEORGE ROBINS, A Writer unrivalled in this or any other Age for AN ORIGINALITY OF STYLE, (if the expression may be pardoned) quite unique , and a Dexterity in the Use of Metaphor unparalleled; whose multifarious and sublime—it would not be too much to say talented—Compositions would, it may be fearlessly asserted, afford any ENTERPRISING PUBLISHER a not-every-day-to-be-met-with, and not in-a-hurry-to-be-relinquished opportunity for an ELIGIBLE INVESTMENT OF CAPITAL, forming a Property which, under judicious management, would soon become entitled to the well-merited appellation of a PRINCELY DOMAIN! which, without exciting a blush in the mind of veracity, might be said (in a literary point of view) to be fertilised by a meandering rivulet of Poetry, comparable for Beauty and Picturesque Effect to THE SILVERY STREAM OF THE ISIS; whose richness (equalled only by his fidelity) of description, presenting a refreshing contrast to the style of his various compeers, precludes the attempt to perpetrate a panegyric, otherwise than by assuming the responsibility and risk of applying to him the words of our IMMORTAL BARD: “Take him for all in all We ne’er shall see his like again.” This little Treatise on COMIC ENGLISH is, with the most profound Veneration, Admiration, nay, even with Respect (and the term is used “advisedly”) humbly dedicated by HIS MOST OBLIGED AND MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT, THE AUTHOR.

It may be considered a strange wish on the part of an Author, to have his preface compared to a donkey’s gallop. We are nevertheless desirous that our own should be considered both short and sweet. For our part, indeed, we would have every preface as short as an orator’s cough, to which, in purpose, it is so nearly like; but Fashion requires, and like the rest of her sex, requires because she requires, that before a writer begins the business of his book, he should give an account to the world of his reasons for producing it; and therefore, to avoid singularity, we shall proceed with the statement of our own, excepting only a few private ones, which are neither here nor there.