Einen der Fassung bei Memel, S. 20, Nr. 27 nahestehenden englischen Schwank druckt Ashton, S. 200 aus England’s Jests Refin’d and Improv’d, 3rd Ed., London, 1693 ab:
A Scholar meeting a Countreyman upon the Road rid up very briskly to him; but the Countreyman, out of respect to him was turning off his Horse to give him the Road, when the Scholar, laying his Hand upon his Sword, said: »’Tis well you gave me the Way, or I’d ....« »What wou’d you have done?« said the Countreyman, holding up his Club at him. »Given it to you, Sir,« says he, pulling off his Had to him.
Vgl. weiter Lehmann, Exilium melancholiae, D, 57, S. 96, Amalfi, XII facezie e motti raccolti in Piano di Sorrente, Nr. 1: Fateme ’a caretà, ca se no!, im Archivio, XXI, S. 335 ff. und Krauss, Zigeunerhumor, S. 143 ff., 169 ff. und 186.
Diese Drohung Entweder .... oder ....! erinnert an die im drohenden Tone gerichtete Frage: Ist das Ernst oder Spaß?, z. B. in Archie Armstrong’s Banquet of Jests, S. 216:
Two Gentlemen meeting, the one jostled the other from the Wall, and had almost made him to measure his length in the channell: who by much adoe recovering himselfe came up close to him, and asked him whether he were in jest, or in earnest? He told him plainely, that what hee did was in earnest. And I am glad, replies the other, that you told me so: for I protest, I love no such jesting: by which words he put off the quarell.
Nicht identisch mit dieser Version ist die bei Ashton, S. 335 aus A choice Banquet of Willy Jests, Rare Fancies, and Pleasant Novels.... Being an Addition to Archee’s Jests, London, 1660 abgedruckte, die Wort für Wort mit Nr. 44 der Conceits, Clinches, Flashes, and Whimzies, London, 1639, bei Hazlitt, III, S. 16 übereinstimmt; vgl. weiter Merkens, II, S. 89, Nr. 108 und III, S. 16, Nr. 20 und Joe Miller’s Jests, S. 63, Nr. 367. Hierher gehört auch die 42. Erzählung der Hundred Mery Talys, ed. by Österley, S. 73 ff. (bei Hazlitt, I, S. 65 ff. hat sie die Nr. 41).
[451.] Kroatisch, S. 101.
[452.] Kroatisch, S. 101 ff.
Ähnlich erzählt Melander, Jocoseria, I, Nr. 115, S. 93 ff. (deutsche Ausgabe I, Nr. 78, S. 67) wahrscheinlich nach Bullinger, Contra Cochlaeum‚: