Your father got excellent hufbands, if a maid could come by them. Much ado about nothing, A&t 11. Sc. 5. Falstaff. My honeft lads, I will tell you what I am about. Piftol. Two yards and more. Falstaff. No quips, now, Piftol: indeed I am in the waist two yards about; but I am now about no waste; I am about thrift. Lo. Sands Merry Wives of Windsor, A&t 1. Sc. By your leave, sweet ladies, If I chance to talk a little wild, forgive me : 7. Sands. O, very mad, exceeding mad, in love too; But he would bite none K. Henry VIII. An affertion that bears a double meaning, one right, one wrong, but fo introduced as to direct us to the wrong meaning, is a species of baftard wit, which is distinguished from all others by the name pun. For example, Paris- -Sweet Helen, I must woo you, To help unarm our Hector: his ftubborn buckles, The pun is in the clofe. The word difarm has a double meaning: it fignifies to take off a man's armour, and alfo to fubdue him in fight. We are directed to the latter fenfe by the context; but, with regard to Helen, the word holds only true in the former fenfe. I go on with other examples: Effe nihil dicis quicquid petis, improbe Cinna : Martial, l. 3. epigr. 61. Jocondus geminum imposuit tibi, Sequana, pontem ; Hunc tu jure potes dicere pontificem. N. B. Jocondus was a monk. Sanazarius. Chief Justice. Well! the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy. Falstaff. He that buckles him in my belt cannot live in lefs. Chief Juftice. Your means are very slender, and your wafte is great. Falstaff. I would it were otherwife; I would my means were greater, and my waist slenderer. Second Part, Henry IV. A&t 1. Sc. 1. Celia. I pray you bear with me, I can go no further. Clown. For my part, I had rather bear with you than bear you: yet I should bear no cross if I did bear you; for I think you have no money in your purse. As you like it, Act 11. Sc. 4. He The feventh fatire of the first book of Horace is purposely contrived to introduce at the close a moft execrable pun. Talking of fome infamous wretch whofe name was Rex Rupilius, Perfius exclamat, Per magnos, Brute, deos te Hunc regem jugulas? Operum hoc, mihi crede, tuorum eft. Though playing with words is a mark of a mind at ease, and difpofed to any fort of amufement, we must not thence conclude that playing with words is always ludicrous. Words are so intimately connected with thought, that if the fubject be really grave, it will not appear ludierous éven in that fantaftic drefs. I am, however, far from recommending it in any serious performance on the contrary, the difcordance between the thought and expreffion must be difagreeable; witness the following specimen. He hath abandoned his phyficians, Madam, under whofe practices he hath perfecuted time with hope: and finds finds no other advantage in the procefs, but only the lofing of hope by time. All's well that ends well, Act 1. Sc. 1. K. Henry. O my poor kingdom, fick with civil blows! When that my care could not with-hold thy riots, What wilt thou do when riot is thy care? Second Part, K. Henry IV, If any one fhall observe, that there is a third fpecies of wit, different from thofe mentioned, confifting in founds merely, I am willing to give it place. And indeed it must be admitted, that many of Hudibras's double rhymes come under the definition of wit given in the beginning of this chapter they are ludicrous, and their fingularity occafions fome degree of furprise. Swift is no lefs fuccefsful than Butler in this fort of wit; witness the following inftances: GoddefsBoddice. Pliny-Nicolini. Ifcariots-Chariots. Mitre-Nitre. Dragon-Suffragan. A repartee may happen to be witty: but it cannot be confidered as a fpecies of wit; because there are many repartees extremely fmart, and yet extremely serious. I give the following example. A certain petulant Greek, objecting to Anacharfis that he was a Scythian: True, fays Anacharfis, my country difgraces me, but you disgrace your country. This fine turn gives furprife; but it is far from being ludicrous. CHAP, CHAP. XIV. CUSTOM AND HABIT. V IEWING man as under the influence of novelty, would one fufpect that custom alfo fhould influence him? and yet our nature is equally fufceptible of each; not only in different objects, but frequently in the same. When an object is new, it is enchanting familiarity renders it indifferent; and cuftom, after a longer familiarity, makes it again disagreeable. Human nature, diverfified with many and various fprings of action, is wonderfully, and, indulging the expreffion, intricately conftructed. Custom hath fuch influence upon many of our feelings, by warping and varying them, that we must attend to its operations if we would be acquainted with human nature. This fubject, in itself obfcure, has been much neglected; and a complete analysis of it would be no easy task. I pretend only to touch it curforily; hoping, however, that what is here laid down, will difpofe diligent inquirers to attempt further difcoveries. Custom refpects the action, habit the agent. By custom we mean a frequent reiteration of the fame act; and by habit, the effect that custom has on the agent. This effect may be either active, |