Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-01
FAMOUS PUNsTERs.
Instances Of Men Who Showed They Had
Funny Spots.


There IL . pleasant article in the January
number Of Temple Bar on ''Puns," says the
Pail Mall Budget. Many of those mentioned by
the author are good, many bad; most are old,
but some are new to us. The ''bracket-need-
ing" and WORD mangling' classes Of puns are
dismissed a. unworthy Of notice; but here is an
example Of each: 'The great heat Of the cape
must make KafRr (make fur) coat quite un-
nes-hairy." Sometimes, however, zone comes
across a specimen Of this kind, which EFFORTS
admiration for its perverted ingenuity, as the
answer to the query. What flower is like q
healthy Irish lad out driving? A Rosa Japon-
lea "a rosy chap On q carr"
The great master of punning is Hood, and
the following is given as q very artistic speci-
men:
My temples throb, my pulses boil,
I'm sick OF song and ode and ballad;
30, Thrysis, take the midnight oil,
And pour it on q lobster salad.
My brain is dull, my sight is foul,
cannot think on what I've read;
Then, Pallas, take away thine owl,
And let US have a lark instead.
Here again, is a little piece by Frederick
Locker. which by its grace and neatness of
expression presents the same deceptive look of
ease:
He cannot be complete in aught
Who is not humorously prone;
man without merry thought
Can hardly have a funny bone.
Conspicuous, also, in this class is Persons
celebrated pun upon the Latin gerunds-a sub
ject set him, it is said, in answer to his boast
that he could make pun on anything:
When Dido saw Eneas would not come
She mourned in silence, and was Di-do-dum.
Both Hood and Hook-perhaps we might
add Person, were all punsters by profession
which either might have felt pride in owning.
Cambridge fellow, walking with visitor,
met by chance the master Of St John on horse
back. who is that2" inquired the visitor.
That, replied the other, lis st. Johns head on
charger. Here is first rate pun, Of which
the speakers name is as completely buried in
oblivion as the authors Of the famous witicism
against Berkeley's theory, a pun which puts
into nut shell whole system Of philosophy:
What is mind! No matter. What is matter2
Never mind"
But in punning, as in other departments of
ingenuity, women can well hold their own, and
none of our authors stories are better than the
following: "A plump Adonis Of forty, who was
looking at house, asked the servant. an
extremely pretty girl, whether she was to let
with the establishment No, SIR was the
answer; please, sir, I'm to be let alone Here
40 Puh "hiOA HAts Will DUN us DaTr6lB. EacQ
OF Its two meanings speaks volume; the one
informs the querist that his admiration must
not be expressed too warmly; the other, that
an eligible offer is not likely to be ill received.
Was ever greater weight Of meaning COM
pressed into two words?''
Finally, We are given instances Of puns which
have only one defect-they are too witty to be
used. Thus, ''the heir to the duke of PEN
thievre died in 1764, ruined by an attachment
to an opera singer, Mile. Mire. The wits of
Paris made his epitaph of five notes of music
Mi re Ia mi la 'Mire has brought him there.
Such an epitaph has the great defect that it is
far too witty to be used. In that point it re-
sembles many others; as that suggested for q
for billiard-marker, the long rest However
apt the application. the effect of these has no
solemnity. Indeed, the suggestion that pun
may claim place in serious lterature-in
poetry itself-may strike some readers with
surprise; and it is true that in our language no
such thing as vet exists"