2. Surer to prosper than prosperity could have assured us.
3. The same form appears occasionally in other poets. Cowper in his ‘Conversation’ has
His only pleasure is to be displeased.
One form of the pun which is just now not so frequently used is the following:—
1. ‘There’s something in that,’ as the cat said when she peeped into the milk-jug.
2. ‘I’m transported to see you,’ as the convict said to the kangaroo.
3. ‘You are very pressing,’ as the nut said to the nutcracker, &c.
Punning has been generally considered a low form of wit; and some have taken so unfavourable a view of it as even to declare that ‘he who will make a pun will pick a pocket.’ But all this is hardly just; for it may be easily shown that the highest minds have not hesitated to adopt it, and that in some writers it is a prominent feature of their style. It is true that critics have frequently condemned punning as a flaw in Shakspere’s style and manner; but it should be remembered that it was one form of that Italian tone which coloured all the English literature of the Elizabethan age, and from which no writer of those times was wholly free. We surely cannot utterly condemn any form of expression adopted by so great a master; and though it may be admitted that an immoderate use of puns should not usurp the place of the higher and more important qualities of style, there seems no good reason why they should be wholly excluded.
The late poet Thomas Hood was so remarkable for the way in which he used puns, that they formed an essential characteristic of his style. Though looked upon by the purist as a contemptible figure in literature, the pun proved in his hands a source of genuine humour, and sometimes of deepest pathos. It is a received axiom, that a keen perception of the ridiculous is a conclusive proof of real genius; and this opinion certainly holds good in his case. In him it was perfectly compatible with the deepest sympathy and intensity of feeling. In every form of wit the effect consists chiefly in the novelty of the application presented by the figure. This always produces surprise—a naturally pleasing sensation, especially when caused by a ludicrous or grotesque image. But, in some instances, a pun suggests a far higher tone of thought than the mere ludicrous: it may be connected with or produce very sober reflections, or even occasionally lead the mind to a deeply philosophical speculation:—
... ridentem dicere verum