Ne pereas pereas, ne sedeas, sedeas.
(What will you do if you shall come before the face of Venus? Lest you should perish through them, do not sit down, but go away.)
Sir William Dawes, Archbishop of York, was very fond of a pun. His clergy dining with him for the first time after he had lost his wife, he told them he feared they did not find things in so good order as they used to be in the time of poor Mary; and, looking extremely sorrowful, added with a deep sigh, “she was indeed mare pacificum.” A curate who knew pretty well what her temper had been, said, “Yes, my lord, but she was mare mortuum first.”
That Homer should a bankrupt be,
Is not so very ODD D’YE SEE,
If it be true as I’m instructed,
So ILL HE HAD his books conducted.
PUNNING MOTTOES OF THE ENGLISH PEERAGE.
Ne vile Fano—Disgrace not the altar. Motto of the Fanes.