The wise and ingenious Companion, French and English; being a Collection of the Wit of the illustrious Persons, both ancient and modern: Containing their wise Sayings, noble Sentiments, witty Repartees, Jests and pleasant Adventures. The 4th Edition, with Corrections and great Improvements, for the Use of Schools. By Mr. Boyer, Author of the Royal Dictionary.

Transcriber’s Notes

As explained in the [beginning of the book], pages 145-256 have been wrongly numbered in the print. This has been corrected here.

The original text had in four places white spaces of the size of approximately one word, left out for unknown reasons. These have been marked by "......".

On [page 289], the name of [Mary Stead] appears instead of Anne Bonny. This has been preserved as in the original.

On [page 308], George Bendal is erroneously listed twice in a [list of nine men], making it ten names in total. This has remained uncorrected.

On [page 337], [an opening bracket] is never closed.

The original spelling was mostly preserved. A few obvious typographical errors were silently corrected. Further careful corrections are listed here (before/after):