Studies in jocular literature

by William Carew Hazlitt

It is perhaps, at the same time, a matter for speculation whether these traits of Welsh character were not more current after the accession of the Tudors. Henry the Seventh, as his Privy Purse Expenses establish, was very lavish in his presents to his countrymen; and the royal partiality tended very possibly to render them unpopular in England, and to bring their foibles and frailties into print. The very tale above given reads like a burlesque on the importunity of Taffy for privileges and monopolies at Henry’s hands, and at the same time jeers pretty broadly at his propensity for intemperance.

There is a story of a Scottish minister who went South, and was invited to stay to dinner at an acquaintance’s. After they had dined, the whiskey was brought in; the minister took to it kindly, and accepted a proposal to remain till the morning. As the spare bed had to be aired, and there was not time to prepare the warming-pan, the lady of the house told Jenny the maidservant to undress, and get into the bed to warm the sheets for their guest; but Jenny unluckily (or otherwise) fell asleep, and when the visitor went up, he found her still in possession. “Well,” said he to himself, “the dinner was good; the whiskey was capital; but—this is hospitality indeed!”

We will not pursue the narration further. It is obviously a parody on the conventional order of things, having by possibility some indebtedness to the simple manners of a bygone time and less fastidious sleeping arrangements. The improvised warming-pan might have suggested itself to the guidwife; but we cherish a suspicion that the ex post facto improver is answerable for the pleasantry as it stands. In jocular history everybody is at angles to real life; people do precisely what they ought not to do, say what they ought not to say, are found where they ought not to be found. That is the soul of the matter; and therein lies the cunning of the wire-puller. He is for general purposes what Grobianus is for Cato and Mrs. Grundy. He seldom invents; he has a preference for ready-made material which he can employ as a groundwork or starting-point; for a familiar name goes a long way. The artist has to be wary how he deals with his puppet or lay-figure; he treads upon eggs a little; much depends on the turn given; the anecdote which he tells need not be true, God knows; it may be naughty within bounds; but it must be amusing. That is peremptory.

The Bull, in its jocular acceptation, has been commonly viewed as a genuine Irish product; but may it not be, on the contrary, of Italian and ecclesiastical descent? The papal brief, in the first place, borrowed its name from the leaden seal which was attached to it; the odium under which Popery and its supporters fell in the time of Elizabeth next led to the passage of the bull into our vocabulary as a term of ridicule or contempt; and, finally, when the strong political feeling had subsided, the expression stood for any piece of harmless extravagance or hyperbolical bravado. These side-growths of meaning are curious and instructive enough, and present many strange and unsuspected survivals. To go no farther than the word before us, the modern Italian attaches to his letter a bolla without reflecting on its actual and archaic significance, just as he perpetuates bygone methods of locomotion by continuing to call the railway carriage a poste.

Perhaps the characterisation of an imperial German decree of 1356 as “a golden bull” is not more alien to the original sense and function of the word than its pressure into service by the Italian of our day to signify a postage-stamp.

INDEX.

Adroyns, John, [94].
Æsop, [30].
Affiliation of Stories, [111].
Alanus ab Insulis, [43].
Ana or Analecta, [177] et seqq.
Anecdote, Serious, [32].
Aristippus, [43].
Aristophanes, [64].
Armstrong, Archibald, [108].
Artistic origin of the Jest, [13]-[14].
Athenæus, [33], [34], [37]-[43].
Atmosphere and costume, [25].
Aulus Gellius, [33], [46]-[50].
Bagot, Sir W., [101].
Balguy, Dr., [67].
Bardolph, [124].
Barkstead, William, [181].
Bartholomew’s (St.) Hospital, [1].
Boccaccio, Gio., [119].
Borde, Andrew, [19], [170].
Bravo of Venice, The, by Monk Lewis, [88], [127]-[8].
Brighton, [103].
Bull, the Jocular, [222].
Burbage, Richard, [115].
Burke, E., [101].
Burns, R., [67].
Burton, Robert, [118].
Byron, H. J., [10].
Byron, Lord, [124].
Chamberlain, John, [204].
Chamberlain, Robert, [178], [184].
Charles II., [2], [79].
Chaucer, [7], [119].
Chesterfield, Lord, [81]-[2], [95].
Church, the Early, and the Jesters, [20]-[1].
Cibber, Colley, [97].
Cicero, [33].
Colnbrook, Maltman of, [153].
Coleridge, S. T., [124].
Conceits and Jests, Certain, [178], [184].
Continental influence, [142]-[5].
Convivial Discourses, The, [44].
Copley, Anthony, [178].
Crichton, James, the “Admirable,” [43].
Deipnosophistæ, [36]-[7], [43]-[4].
Devil Tavern, The, [32], [98].
Diogenes and Alexander, Story of, [86].
Diogenes Laertius, [33], [50]-[6].
Edith, The Widow, [168], [173].
Edward IV., [19], [205].
Egyptian artists, [16].
Elginbrod, Martin, [122]-[3].
Elizabethan and Jacobean Literature, Neglect of, in the Last Century, [191]-[3].
Engraving, Influence of the, [15].
Epigram, The, [67]-[8].
Erasmus, [118].
Eulenspiegel, [173].
Fabliaux, [30].
Farmer, Dr., [111].
Foote, S., [10].
Formulation of Jests, [69].
Four Elements, Interlude of, [156]-[8].
Franklin, Benjamin, [109].
Garrick, David, [116].
Gaulardisms, [94].
Gesta Romanorum, [30].
Gillray and Rowlandson, [15].
Godolphin, Sydney, [43].
Goldsmith, O., [43], [93].
Gothamite Tales, The, [215].
Goussaut, M., [94]-[5].
Greek Anecdotes, [37]-[43].
—— Anthology, The, [45], [57]-[65].
—— Epigrams, [59]-[64].
—— Parodies, [42].
Greene, Robert, [97].
Grimaldi, Joseph, [12], [35].
Grisette, Parisian, [34].
Grotesque and caricature, [6], [14].
Guid and Godly Ballats, The, [131].
Harington, Sir John, [118], [182].
Harvey, Gabriel, [159].
Hawkins, Sir John, [116].
Henry VII., [2], [220].
Henry VIII., [21].
Henry IV. of France, [86]-[8].
Herodotus, [63].
Herring, Archbishop, [93].
Hetairai, the Greek, [34], [38], [40].
Heywood, John, [112], [158]-[60], [162].
High Life Below Stairs, [97].
Hobart, Parson, [126].
Hobson, Old, [168], [172].
Homer, [33].
Hood, Thomas, [10].
Hook, Theodore, [11].
Hundred Merry Tales, [7], [98], [111], [113], [153]-[61], [167], [201], [208].
Jack of Dover, [141], [149].
Jack the Giant-Killer, [136].
Jerrold, Douglas, [11], [73].
Joe Miller, [6], [7], [98], [178], [188] et seqq.
Johnson, Dr., [116].
Jonson, Benjamin, [98], [105], [107].
Knight of the Burning Pestle, The, [107].
Knight of the Tour Landry, [171].
Lamb, Charles, [73], [79], [114], [124].
Liston, [35].
Literary Club, The, [115]-[16].
Literature and the Drama, [22].
Lock, Mr., of Norbury, [192].
London Tavern, The, [82]-[3].
Lucian, [33], [35], [62].
Mackintosh, Sir James, [53].
Macrobius, Saturnalia of, [44].
Malaprop, Mrs., [95]-[6].
Malone, E., [24], [80]-[81], [101], [115]-[16], [192].
Maloniana, [20], [101].
“Martin said to his man,” a ballad, [131].
Matthews, Charles, [10].
May, Thomas, [98].
Mensa Philosophica, [44].
Mermaid, The, [32].
Merry Tales and Quick Answers, [33]-[4], [105], [117], [119], [123], [162]-[7].
Mitre, The, [32].
More, Sir Thomas, [118], [154]-[67].
Mother Bunch, [149].
Mottley, John, [188]-[99].
Myrtilus, [43].
New Wife of Beath, [75]-[7].
Newcastle, Duke of, [212].
Nithardus, [1].
Oriental influence, [16], [121]-[4].
Parallelisms, [105]-[7], [112]-[14].
Parodies, Greek, [42].
Parr, Dr., [53].
Partington, Mrs., [90]-[91].
Pasquil’s Jests, [147].
Pausanius Laccus, [37].
Peele, George, [168].
Pennant, Thomas, [212]-[13].
Philip of Macedon, [36].
Phryne, [36], [40].
Piozzi, Mrs., [116].
Plato, [64].
Plutarch’s Lives, [32]-[3].
Pool Valley, Brighton, [105].
Quin, [10].
Rahere, [1].
Raleigh, Sir Walter, [116].
Rameses dynasty, [16].
Randolph, Thomas, [98]-[9].
Rastells, The, [154], [158], [162].
Raumer, F. von, [96].
Ravenscroft’s Deuteromelia, [130]-[31].
Reynard the Fox, [30].
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, [116].
Richard III. and the Northern man, [206].
Richardson, Jonathan, [24], [81].
Roses, Wars of the, [204]-[5].
Sackful of News, The, [147].
Schoolmaster, The, or Teacher of Table Philosophy, [44].
Schools of humour, old and modern, [193].
Scogin, Jests of, [19]-[21], [109], [168].
Scottish minister, Story of a, [220]-[21].
Scottish stories, [90], [215].
Shakespear, [7], [115], [124], [146].
—— Jest-Books, [152]-[67].
Sheridan, R. B., [110], [113].
Shoes, mending of, [201].
Sixty, The Athenian Club of the, [36], [65]-[6].
Skelton, John, [159], [168], [174]-[6], [210], [218].
Smith, Sydney, [9].
Spenser, [7], [159].
Strawberry, [140].
Tadema, Alma, R.A., [97].
Talfourd, Frank, [10].
Tarlton, Richard, [35], [152], [168], [172], [179], [183].
Tavern-life, [32].
Taylor the Water Poet, [153], [178]-[82].
Testament, New, Anecdote of the, [205].
Thales, [52]-[3].
Tooke, John Horne, [82]-[3].
Turanian art, [16].
Typography, [15], [17].
United States, [28].
Wales and the Welsh, characteristics of, [217]-[19].
Walpole, Horace, [125], [193].
Walworth, [1].
Warton, Joseph, [67].
Wellington, Duke of, [211].
Whittington, Sir Richard, [1].
Wooden Legs, The Man with, [78].
Woolner, Richard, [181].
Wright Thomas, [5].
Yeo, an ancient Devonshire family, [204].
Yorick, [173].

THE BOOK-LOVER’S LIBRARY.