CHAPTER I
Early English Wit
In the anecdotes, dry remarks, repartees, and posers of this chapter, the sayings of which were current from about 1600 on to the present day, is seen the growth of the modern form of conundrum, which is adhered to largely in the remaining chapters of this book.
A poet was asked where his wits were. "A-wool-gathering," he answered. "No people have more need of it," was the reply.
A good client is like a study gown, which sits in the cold himself to keep his lawyer warm.
"Why do lawyers' clerks write such wide lines?" "It is done to keep the peace. For if the plaintiff should be in one line and the defendant in the next, with the lines too near together, they might perhaps fall together by the ears."
A master spoke in a strain which his servant did not understand. The servant thereupon asked that his master might rather give him blows than such hard words.
What great scholar is this same Finis, because his name is to almost every book?[2]