Demand. What people be they that never go a-procession?—R. Those that ring the bells in the mean time.
Demand. What is that that freezeth never?—R. Hot water.
Demand. What thing is that that is most likest unto a horse?—R. That is a mare.
Demand. What thing is that which is more frightful the smaller it is?—R. A bridge.
Demand. Why doth an ox lie down?—R. Because he cannot sit.
Demand. How many straws go to a goose's nest?—R. None, for lack of feet.
Demand. Who slew the fourth part of the world?—R. Cain, when he killed his brother Abel.
Demand. What man is he that getteth his living backwards?—R. A ropemaker.
The reader will please to recollect the antiquity of these, and their curiosity, before he condemns their triviality. Let the worst be said of them, they are certainly as good as some of Shakespeare's jokes, which no doubt elicited peals of laughter from an Elizabethan audience. This may be said to be only a negative kind of recommendation, and, indeed, when we reflect on the apparent poverty of verbal humour in those days, the wonder is that it could have been so well relished. The fact must be that we often do not understand the greater part of the meaning intended to be conveyed.
To revert to the lengthened transmission of jokes, I may mention my discovery of the following in MS. Addit. 5008, in the British Museum, a journal of the time of Queen Elizabeth. The anecdote, by some means, went the round of the provincial press in 1843, as of modern composition. "On a very rainy day, a man, entering his house, was accosted by his wife in the following manner: 'Now, my dear, while you are wet, go and fetch me a bucket of water.' He obeyed, brought the water and threw it all over her, saying at the same time, 'Now, my dear, while you are wet, go and fetch another!'"