In the following instances the ridicule is made to appear from the behaviour of the persons introduced.

Mascarille. Te souvient-il, vicomte, de cette demi-lune, que nous emportâmes sur les ennemis au siege d’Arras?

Jedelet. Que veux tu dire avec ta demi-lune? c’etoit bien une lune toute entiere.

Moliere les Precieuses Ridicules, sc. 11.

Slender. I came yonder at Eaton to marry Mrs. Anne Page; and she’s a great lubberly boy.

Page. Upon my life then you took the wrong.

Slender. What need you tell me that? I think so, when I took a boy for a girl: if I had been marry’d to him, for all he was in woman’s apparel, I would not have had him.

Merry Wives of Windsor.

Valentine. Your blessing, Sir.

Sir Sampson. You’ve had it already, Sir: I think I sent it you to-day in a bill for four thousand pound; a great deal of money, Brother Foresight.