edged by a name at each extremity, but have had the fame name running down like a feam through the middle of the Poem. There is another near relation of the Anagrams and Acrofticks, which is commonly called a Chronogram. This kind of wit appears very often on many modern Medals, especially thofe of Germany, when they represent in the Inscription the year in which they were coined. Thus we fee on a Medal of Guftaphus Adolphus the following words, CHRISTVS DUX ERGO TRIUMPHVS. If you take the pains to pick the figures out of the feveral words, and range them in their proper order, you will find they amount to MDCXVVVII, or 1627, the year in which the Medal was stamped: For as fome of the Letters diftinguish themselve from the reft, and over-top their fellows, they are to be confidered in a double capacity, both as Letters and as Figures. Your laborious German Wits will turn over a whole Dictionary for one of these ingenious devices. A man would think they were fearching after an apt claffical term; but instead of that, they are looking out a word that has an L, an M, or a D in it. When therefore we meet with any of these Infcriptions, we are not so much to look in them for the thought, as for the year of the Lord. The Bouts Rimez were the favourites of the French nation for a whole age together, and that at a time when it abounded in wit and learning. They were a lift of words that rhyme to one another, drawn up by another hand, and given to a Poet, who was to make a Poem to the Rhymes in the fame order that they were placed upon the lift: The more uncommon the Rhymes were, the more extraordinary was the genius of the Poet that could accommodate his verfes to them. I do not know any greater inftance of the decay of wit and learning among the French (which generally follows the declenfion of Empire) than the endeavouring to restore this foolish kind of wit. If the Reader will be at the trouble to fee examples of it, let him look into the new Mercurè Gallant; where the Author every month gives a lift of Rhymes to be filled up by the Ingenious, in order to be communicated to the publick in the Mercure for the fucceeding month. That for the month of November laft, which now lies before me, is as follows. One would be amazed to see so learned a man as Menage talking ferioufly on this kind of trifle in the following paffage. Monfieur de la Chambre has told me, that he never knew what he was going to write when he took his pen into his hand; but that one fentence always produced another. For my own part, I never knew what I should write next when I was making verfes. In the first place I got all my rhymes together, and was afterwards perhaps three or four months in filling them up. I one day fhewed Monfieur Gombaud a compofition of this nature, in which among others I had made use of the four following rhymes, Amaryllis, Phyllis, Marne, Arne, defiring him to give me his opinion of it. He told me immediately, that my verfes were good for nothing. And upon my asking his reafon, he said, because the rhymes are too common; and for that reafon eafie to be put into verfe. Marry, fays I, if it be fo, I am very well rewarded for all the pains I have been at. But by Monfieur Gombaud's leave, notwithstanding the feverity of the criticism, the verses were good. Vid. MENAGIANA. Thus far the learned Menage, whom I have tranflated word for word. The firft occafion of these Bouts Rimez made them in fome manner excufable, as they were tasks which the French Ladies used to impose on their Lovers. But when a grave Author, like him above-mentioned, tasked himself, could there be any thing more ridiculous? or would not one be apt to believe that the Author played booty, and did not make his lift of rhymes till he had finished his Poem? I shall only add, that this piece of falfe Wit has been finely ridiculed by Monfieur Sarafin, in a Poem entituled, La Defaite des Bouts-Rimez, the Rout of the Bouts-Rimez. I must fubjoin to this last kind of wit the Double rhymes, which are used in doggerel Poetry, and generally applauded by ignorant readers. If the thought of the couplet in fuch compofitions is good, the rhyme adds little to it; and if bad, it will not be in the power of the rhyme to recommend it. I am afraid that great Numbers of those who admire the incomparable Hudibras, do it more on account of these doggerel rhymes, than of the parts that really deferve admiration. I am fure I have heard the Yyy 2 Pulpit, and Pulpit, drum ecclefiaftick, Was beat with fift instead of a flick; There was an antient fage Philofopher Who had read Alexander Rofs over, more frequently quoted, than the finest pieces of Wit in the whole Poem. Non equidem ftudeo, bullatis ut mihi nugis Perf HERE is no kind of falfe Wit which has been fo recommended Tby the practice of all ages, as that which confifts in a jingle of words, and is comprehended under the general name of Punning. It is indeed impoffible to kill a weed, which the foil has a natural difpofition to produce. The feeds of Punning are in the minds of all men, and though they may be fubdued by reason, reflection, and good fense, they will be very apt to fhoot up in the greatest genius, that is not broken and cultivated by the rules of art. Imitation is natural to us, and when it does not raise the mind to Poetry, Painting, Mufick, or other more noble arts, it often breaks out in Purms and Quibbles. Ariftotle, in the eleventh chapter of his book of Rhetorick, describes two or three kinds of Punns, which he calls Paragrams, among the beauties of good writing, and produces inftances of them out of fome of the greatest Authors in the Greek tongue. Cicero has sprinkled several of his works with Punns, and in his book where he lays down the rules of Oratory, quotes abundance of sayings as pieces of Wit, which also upon examination prove arrant Punns. But the age in which the Punn chiefly flourished, was the reign of King James the First, That learned Monarch was himself a tolerable Punnfter, and made very few Bishops or 533 Privy-Counsellors that had not some time or other fignalized themselves by a Clinch, or a Conundrum., It was therefore in this age that the Purn appeared with pomp and dignity. It had before been admitted into merry fpeeches and ludicrous compofitions, but was now delivered with great gravity from the pulpit, or pronounced in the most folemn manner at the Council-table. The greatest Authors, in their most serious works, made frequent use of Punns. The Sermons of Bishop Andrews, and the Tragedies of Shakespear, are full of them. The finner was punned into repentance by the former, as in the latter nothing is more ufual than to fee a Heroe weeping and quibbling for a dozen lines together. I must add to these great Authorities, which seem to have given a kind of fanction to this piece of falfe Wit, that all the writers of Rhetorick have treated of Punning with very great respect, and divided the several kinds of it into hard names, that are reckoned among the figures of speech, and recommended as ornaments in difcourfe. I remember a country school-master of my acquaintance told me once, that he had been in company with a Gentleman whom he looked upon to be the greatest Paragrammatift among the moderns. Upon enquiry, I found my learned friend had dined that day with Mr. Swan, the famous Punnster; and defiring him to give me fome account of Mr. Swan's converfation, he told me that he generally talked in the Paranomafia, that he sometimes>> gave into the Plocè, but that in his humble opinion he fhined most in the Antanaclafis. I must not here omit, that a famous University of this land was formerly very much infested with Punns; but whether or no this might not a-rife from the fens and marshes in which it was fituated, and which are now drained, I must leave to the determination of more skilful Naturalists. After this short history of Punning, one would wonder how it should be so intirely banished out of the learned world, as it is at prefent, efpecially fince it had found a place in the writings of the most ancient polite Authors. To account for this we must confider, that the first race of Authors, who were the great Heroes in writing, were deftitute of all: rules and arts of criticism; and for that reafon, though they excel later writers in greatness of genius, they fall fhort of them in accuracy and correctness. The Moderns cannot reach their beauties, but can avoid : their imperfections. When the world was furnished with thefe Authors of the first eminence, there grew up another fet of writers, who gained themselves a reputation by the remarks which they made on the works of those who preceded them. It was one of the employments of thefe fecon fecondary Authors, to distinguish the several kinds of Wit by terms of art, and to confider them as more or less perfect, according as they were founded in truth. It is no wonder therefore, that even fuch Authors as Ifocrates, Plato, and Cicero, fhould have fuch little blemishes as are not to be met with in Authors of a much inferior character, who have written fince those several blemishes were discovered. I do not find that there was a proper feparation made between punns and true wit by any of the ancient Authors, except Quintilian and Longinus. But when this diftinction was once fettled, it was very natural for all men of sense to agree in it. As for the revival of this falfe Wit, it happened about the time of the revival of letters; but as foon as it was once detected, it immediately vanished and disappeared. At the fame time there is no question, but as it has funk in one age, and rose in another, it will again recover it self in some distant period of time, as pedantry and ignorance fhall prevail upon wit and fenfe. And, to speak the truth, I do very much apprehend, by fome of the last winter's productions, which had their fets of admirers, that our posterity will in a few years degenerate into a race of Punsters: At least, a man may be very excufable for any apprehenfions of this kind, that has seen Acrofticks handed about the Town with great fecrefie and applaufe; to which I must also add a little Epigram called the Witches Prayer, that fell into verse when it was read either backward or forward, excepting only that it curfed one way and blessed the other. When one fees there are actually fuch pains-takers among our British Wits, who can tell what it may end in? If we must lash one another, let it be with the manly strokes of Wit and Satyr; for I am of the old Philofopher's opinion, that if I must fuffer from one or the other, I would rather it should be from the paw of a Lion, than the hoof of an Afs. I do not fpeak this out of any spirit of party. There is a moft crying dulnefs on both fides. I have feen Tory Acrofticks and Whig Anagrams, and do not quarrel with either of them, because they are Whigs or Tories, but because they are Anagrams and Acrofticks. A But to return to Punning. Having purfued the history of a Punn, from its original to its downfal, I fhall here define it to be a conceit arifing from the use of two words that agree in the found, but differ in the fenfe. The only way therefore to try a piece of wit, is to tranflate it into a different language: if it bears the test, you may pronounce it true; but if it vanishes in the experiment, you may conclude it to have been a Punn. In fhort, one may fay of a Punn as the country-man de fcribed |
