“The troublesome fellow, who was reading on, now thought it incumbent upon him to speak, and said, ‘I swear to you, that I have not read or looked at what you are writing.’
“The learned man replied, ‘Blockhead, as you are, why then do you say to me what you are now saying?’” [25]
Making allowance for the difference of manners in eastern and northern nations, there is, certainly, such a similarity between this oriental anecdote and Joe Miller’s story, that we may conclude the latter is stolen from the former. Now, an Irish bull must be a species of blunder peculiar to Ireland; those that we have hitherto examined, though they may be called Irish bulls by the ignorant vulgar, have no right, title, or claim to such a distinction. We should invariably exclude from that class all blunders which can be found in another country. For instance, a speech of the celebrated Irish beauty, Lady C——, has been called a bull; but as a parallel can be produced in the speech of an English nobleman, it tells for nothing. When her ladyship was presented at court, his majesty, George the Second, politely hoped, “that, since her arrival in England, she had been entertained with the gaieties of London.”
“Oh, yes, please your majesty, I have seen every sight in London worth seeing, except a coronation.”
This naïveté is certainly not equal to that of the English earl marshal, who, when his king found fault with some arrangement at his coronation, said, “Please your majesty, I hope it will be better next time.”
A naïveté of the same species entailed a heavy tax upon the inhabitants of Beaune, in France. Beaune is famous for burgundy; and Henry the Fourth, passing through his kingdom, stopped there, and was well entertained by his loyal subjects. His Majesty praised the burgundy which they set before him—“It was excellent! it was admirable!”
“Oh, sire!” cried they, “do you think this excellent? we have much finer burgundy than this.”
“Have you so? then you can afford to pay for it,” replied Harry the Fourth; and he laid a double tax thenceforward upon the burgundy of Beaune.
Of the same class of blunders is the following speech, which we actually heard not long ago from an Irishman:—
“Please your worship, he sent me to the devil, and I came straight to your honour.”