By the learned Author of Hermes.
On the subject of puns the late learned author of Hermes and Philological Inquiries has the following remarks and extracts:
A Pun seldom regards MEANING, being chiefly confined to SOUND.
Horace gives a sad example of this spurious wit, where (as Dryden humorously translates it) he makes Persius the buffoon exhort the patriot Brutus to kill Mr. King, that is, Rupilius Rex, because Brutus, when he slew Cæsar, had been accustomed to KING-KILLING.
Hunc Regem occide; operum
Hoc mihi crede tuorum est.
We have a worse attempt in Homer, where Ulysses makes Polypheme believe his name was ΟΤΤΙΣ, and where the dull Cyclops, after he had lost his eye, upon being asked by his brethren who had done so much mischief, replies, 'twas done by ΟΤΤΙΣ, that is, by NOBODY.
Enigmas are of a more complicated nature, being involved either in pun or metaphor, or sometimes in both.
Ἁνδῥ ἑιδον ωυρἱ χαλκὁν ἑπ' ἱνἑρι κολλἡσαντα
I saw a man, who, unprovoked with ire,
Stuck brass upon another's back by fire.
This Enigma is ingenious, and means the operation of cupping, performed in ancient days by a machine of brass.