We shall only add, that as the Spartans used to exhibit a tipsy slave to their children with a view to disgust them with drunkenness, so we, by giving a few examples here and there, of incorrect phraseology, shall expose, in their naked deformity, the vices of speech to the ingenuous reader.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| Page | |
| FRONTISPIECE. | [Frontispiece] |
| MINERVA TEACHING | [x] |
| JOHN BULL | [12] |
| THE “PRODIGY” | [14] |
| “JANE YOU KNOW WHO” | [18] |
| MUTES AND LIQUIDS | [23] |
| AWKWARD LOUT | [24] |
| HA! HA! HA! HO! HO! HO! HE! HE! HE! | [27] |
| “O!, WHAT, A, LARK!—HERE, WE, ARE!” | [28] |
| ALDIBORONTIPHOSCOPHORMIO AND CHRONONHOTONTHOLOGOS | [34] |
| SINGLE BLESSEDNESS | [40] |
| APPLE SAUCE | [45] |
| MATILDA | [48] |
| A SOCIALIST | [50] |
| “SHAN’T I SHINE TO NIGHT, DEAR?” | [51] |
| JULIA | [57] |
| A VERY BAD CASE | [59] |
| A SELECT VESTRY | [69] |
| SELF-ESTEEM | [78] |
| “FACT, MADAM!”—“GRACIOUS, MAJOR!” | [82] |
| YEARS OF DISCRETION | [89] |
| “I SHALL GIVE YOU A DRUBBING!” | [97] |
| A COMICAL CONJUNCTION | [106] |
| “AS WELL AS CAN BE EXPECTED” | [108] |
| “HOW’S YOUR INSPECTOR?” | [119] |
| “WHAT A DUCK OF A MAN!” | [120] |
| THE FLIRT | [122] |
| THE CAPTAIN | [128] |
| THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON | [131] |
| “OH! YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING MAN!” | [137] |
| THE YOUNG GENTLEMAN | [139] |
| “VIRTUE’S REWARD” | [142] |
| “NOT TO MINCE MATTERS, MISS, I LOVE YOU” | [145] |
| THE FRENCH MARQUIS | [149] |
| “THE ENGAGED ONES” | [153] |
| “THE LADIES!” | [156] |
| “HIT ONE OF YOUR OWN SIZE!” | [158] |
| ALL FOR LOVE | [169] |
| “TALE OF A TUB” | [170] |
| “A RESPECTABLE MAN” | [177] |
| DOING WHAT YOU LIKE WITH YOUR OWN | [180] |
| “WHAT A LITTLE DEAR!” | [183] |
| BRUTUS | [187] |
| THE TWO DOVES | [190] |
| “THE NASTY LITTLE SQUALLING BRAT” | [205] |
| “OH, JEMIMA!” | [214] |
| LOVE AND MURDER | [216] |
| STANDING ON POINTS | [218] |
| “WHERE GOT’ST THOU THAT GOOSE?” | [219] |
PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.
Our native country having been, from time immemorial, entitled Merry England, it is clear that, provided it has been called by a right name, a Comic Grammar will afford the most hopeful means of teaching its inhabitants their language.