[Transcriber's Notes]
The added cover is an image of the title page, and is in the public domain. Minor punctuation typos and Index page numbers were silently corrected. The "possible typos" listed below might be the antiquated spelling of words in common usage at the time, rather than actual typesetting errors. All the dialect and intentionally misspelled words were retained as in the original book.
Page [6]: Possible typo: "sucking-pig" for "suckling-pig".
Page [10]: Changed "were" to "where."
(Orig: the field were we had suffered)
Page [39]: Changed "sympton" to "symptom."
(Orig: a sympton of personal approbation)
Page [45]: Changed "magetism" to "magnetism."
(Orig: makes woman so adorable as magetism)
Page [48]: Possible typo: "Twelve a.m." for "Twelve p.m."
Pages [54], [80], [152], [175], [178]: "Pedlar" and "pedler" spelling variations were retained.
Page [69]: Changed "fondess" to "fondness."
(Orig: fondess pent up in each heart)
Page [70]: Changed "it" to "in."
(Orig: The failings that it woman dwell)
Page [82]: Changed "splarkled" to "sparkled."
(Orig: Here Billy's eyes splarkled)
Page [88]: Changed "dismised" to "dismissed."
(Orig: witness was dismised)
Page [101]: Changed "thing" to "think."
(Orig: quickest way we can thing of to go raving)
Page [102]: Changed "granchild's" to "grandchild's."
(Orig: rocking her granchild's cradle with one foot)
Page [116]: Changed "Revoluntionary" to "Revolutionary."
(Orig: Army of Revoluntionary War,)
Page [118]: Changed "conset" to "consent."
(Orig: Neither would conset to take it,)
Page [128]: Changed "poceeded" to "proceeded."
(Orig: who proceeded to describe their peculiarities.)
Page [144]: Possible typo: "sleepness" for "sleepless."
(Orig: Sleepness nights, broken dreams,)
Page [147]: Possible typo: "tustle," for "tussle."
(Orig: In the course of the tustle)
Page [159]: Changed "pamplet" to "pamphlet."
(Orig: holding out a pamplet)
Page [160]: Changed "homour" to "humour."
(Orig: the old gent's good homour)
Pages [172]-[173]: Possible typo: "embryotic" for "embryonic."
Page [174]: Changed "themseves" to "themselves."
(Orig: housekeeping for themseves)
Page [176]: Possible typo: "Mississipi" for "Mississippi."
Page [188]: Possible typo: "laddled" for "ladled."
(Orig: who laddled out the liquor)
Page [196]: Possible two typos: "find" for "fine."
(Orig: and find all right, except the find stream of water)
Notes on Joe Miller From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Joe Miller (Joseph or Josias) (1684-August 15, 1738) was an English actor, who first appeared in the cast of Sir Robert Howard's Committee at Drury Lane in 1709 as Teague. Trinculo in The Tempest, the First Grave-digger in Hamlet and Marplot in Susanna Centlivre's The Busybody, were among his many favourite parts. He is said to have been a friend of Hogarth.
He frequented the "Black Jack" tavern on Portsmouth Street in London, which was a favourite of the Drury Lane players and those from Lincoln's Inn Fields. Allegedly he was very serious in the bar and this led to an in-joke whereby all his companions ascribed all new jokes to him.
After Miller's death, John Mottley (1692-1750) brought out a book called Joe Miller's Jests, or the Wit's Vade-Mecum (1739), published under the pseudonym of Elijah Jenkins Esq. at the price of one shilling. This was a collection of contemporary and ancient coarse witticisms, only three of which are told of Miller. This first edition was a thin pamphlet of 247 numbered jokes. This ran to three editions in its first year.
Owing to the quality of the jokes in Mottley's book, their number increasing with each of the many subsequent editions, any time-worn jest came to be called "a Joe Miller", a Joe-Millerism, or simply a Millerism.