MDLXXXI.—LAW AND THE SCOTTISH THANE.
During the representation of "Macbeth," an eminent special pleader graced the boxes of Drury Lane Theatre, to see it performed. When the hero questions the Witches, as to what they are doing: they answer, "a deed without a name." Our counsellor, whose attention was at that moment directed more to Coke upon Littleton than to Shakespeare, catching, however, the words in the play, repeated, "A deed without a name! why, 't is void."
MDLXXXII.—NOT TO BE BELIEVED.
The following lines were addressed to a gentleman notoriously addicted to the vice which has been euphemistically described as "the postponement of the truth for the purposes of the moment":—
Whoe'er would learn a fact from you,
Must take you by contraries;
What you deny, perhaps is true;
But nothing that you swear is.
MDLXXXIII.—A REASON FOR POLYGAMY.
An Irishman was once brought up before a magistrate, charged with marrying six wives. The magistrate asked him how he could be so hardened a villain? "Please your worship," says Paddy, "I was just trying to get a good one."
MDLXXXIV.—BYRON LIBELLOUS.
The conversation at Holland House turning on first love, Thomas Moore compared it to a potato, "because it shoots from the eyes."—"Or rather," exclaimed Lord Byron, "because it becomes less by pairing."