Shakespear
, are full of them. The Sinner was punned into Repentance by the former, as in the latter nothing is more usual than to see a Hero weeping and quibbling for a dozen Lines together.
I must add to these great Authorities, which seem to have given a kind of Sanction to this Piece of false Wit, that all the Writers of Rhetorick have treated of Punning with very great Respect, and divided the several kinds of it into hard Names, that are reckoned among the Figures of Speech, and recommended as Ornaments in Discourse. I remember a Country School-master of my Acquaintance told me once, that he had been in Company with a Gentleman whom he looked upon to be the greatest
Paragrammatist
among the Moderns. Upon Inquiry, I found my learned Friend had dined that Day with Mr.
Swan
, the famous Punnster; and desiring him to give me some Account of Mr.
Swan's
Conversation, he told me that he generally talked in the
Paranomasia