1. Wits, Fits, and Fancies, by Anthony Copley, 1595.
2. Certain Conceits and Jests, 1614.
3. Wit and Mirth, by John Taylor the Water Poet, 1629.
4. Conceits, Clinches, Flashes, and Whimzies, by Robert Chamberlain, 1639.
5. Joe Miller’s Jest-Book, 1739.
A century and ten years elapsed between the publications of Taylor and Miller; but the earliest edition of the latter was barely more than a pamphlet, and would not be at first sight recognised by those who are only familiar with the more recent issues, in which the original text has been amplified and overlaid, till the slender proportions of the shilling book of 1739 are completely effaced.
The copious title of Taylor’s performance speaks for itself: “Wit and Mirth, chargeably collected out of Taverns, Ordinaries, Inns, Bowling Greens and Alleys, Alehouses, Tobacco-shops, Highways, and Water-passages, made up and fashioned into Clinches, Bulls, Quirks, Yerks, Quips, and Jerks.” The arrangement closely follows that of Tarlton’s Jests and the Conceits and Jests; but the plan is widely dissimilar, since Taylor has comparatively little to say about himself, and the work, such as it is, is his own; whereas Tarlton stood to the book which carries his name merely in the relation of sponsor, and the whole is devoted by the actual editor to him and his real or putative extravagances.
The self-evident truth is, that Master Taylor jotted down every smart saying or racy passage which fell in his way by road or river, or wherever his professional and private engagements happened to take him. He was rather indiscriminate and not very squeamish; and his budget exhibits wares of all sorts as well as of all shades of quality and every variety of character, new and old, original and borrowed, prose and verse. Yet, taken as a whole, the farrago has very great general merit; and we must be content to set what is dull and dirty, clumsy sophistications or inferior variants, against the moderate residue of valuable permanent matter, where we get unique touches of contemporary persons or little insights into the thought and habits of the age. The whole, if the author is to be believed, underwent at his ingenious and experienced hands a sort of churning process; and, altogether, it is a book which we lay down, as we do all others of the kind, with an uncertain and dissatisfied sensation.
If I transcribe three samples from the Wit and Mirth, it must be with the proviso that no one shall blame me if, on resorting to the work, they do not meet with much more of equal excellence:—
“Master Thomas Coriat (on a time) complained against me to King James, desiring his Majesty that he would cause some heavy punishment to be inflicted upon me for abusing him in writing (as he said I had); to whom the King replied, that when the lords of his honourable privy council had leisure, and nothing else to do, then they should hear and determine the differences betwixt Master Coriat the scholar and John Taylor the sculler; which answer of the King was very acceptable to Master Coriat.”