The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1909-11-15
THE pUNsTERs.
The World Has Never Run Out of The
Supply, and Probably Never Will

The World Has Never Run Out Of The
Supply, and Probably Never VIII.
Although Addison has in one Of his
essays freely condemned punning as
coming under the category Of false wit,
yet II Is q practice that has prevailed
in all ages and In nearly all languages.
II must not be forgotten that Aristotle
sets down certain classes Of puns among
the beauties Of good writing and Cicero
has not only himself given us fairish
sprinkling Of puns throughout his own
works, but also IN his treatise. De Ora
tore" quotes as examples Of wit many
sayings which are nothing more than
plays on words Nearly every hook on
rhetoric has section on puns. The pun
ster therefore has authority that IS both
ancient and respectable 10 confirm him
in the error Of his ways
There have been periods at which pun
ming might almost be descrihgd as epi-
demic. james /. Of bagland. The wisest
fool IN Christondom, as he was called,
set up for being wit, and one Of his
favorite ways for showing of his ae-
complishments was by INDUCING il in
cessant pnnninp Imitation being the
sincerest form Of fiattery, the eourtiers
and ministers followed the royal OK
ample and acquired habit which ex-
perience teaches IS easy to adopt. is
very hard to lose, and is highly infee-
ti0us, 80 that from them punning went
broadcast throughout the land. This
desire 10 appear smart affected even
serious works, and accordingly we find
frequent use of puns in, for example,
the sermons Of Bishop Andrews and in
the tragedies Of Shakespeare.
Learned bodies are peculiarly liable to
catch this disease. Addison tells us That
"a famous English university was at one
time very much infested with puns. and
suggests that it may have been due to
the fens and marshes in which It was
situated, for. when draining operations
were completed, the punning ceased.
Anyone who has had experiences Of
learned bodies win be able to voueh that
it was not one university alone that was
thus affected, but many schools and coll
ieQes, and that the virus, which appears
to die out for time, periodically
springs up into fresh activity. When,
as has happened, college don IS locked
into a cellar to escape from duranes vile
until be has made q passable pun, and
Sc Immediately released on exelaiming,
20 pun the door, we may DO sure that
the pastime is ripe in those particular
groves Of Academic.
The paronomasIa and the pun are
frequently COMPOUNDED, but, strictly
speaking. there Is well-defned distiRe.
ton between them. A pun is play on
two senses Of the same word Or sound,
and il used to excite d sense Of the lu-
dicrous; the psrononnasia is the employ
ment Of words similar in sound, but diff
ferent in meaning, and its effect is not
70 bring out the Iudicrous, but to height
en- antithesis Thus, when Hood wrote
in sally Brown
They went and told the sexton, and
Che sexton tolIed the bell,
he was guilty OF a pun; but when Mac
beth says, "And catch with bis sureease
success he uses The paronomasia. A
good example Of paronomasia Is the
Latin phrase, "per augusta nd augusta
a schoolmaster of The Spectators ac-
quaintance had dined with gentleman
whom he described as the greatest para
erammatist among the moderns. He
waxed enthusiastic over this gentle
mans conversational requirements, de-
eIaring that he generally talked in the
Paronomasia, that he sometimes used
the Ploce but that be was almost brill
liant ii the Antanaelasis Such accom-
plishments, heaven be thanked. are no
longer considered the necessary equip
ment Of gentleman in our day Polite
conversation as now understood is in
tolerable onourll already. X would b
the acme 81 boredom II the frequent use
81 the paraphernalia Of speech symbol
lied BY the hard words of the worthy
sehoolmaster, we're considered essential
to its successful eonduct.-Washington
Post