EDITED BY
FRANK BELLEW.
COPY OF THE TITLE-PAGE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION.
Joe Miller’s Jests; or, the Wit’s Vade-Mecum: being a collection of the mostbrilliant Jests; the politest Repartees; the most elegant Bon mots, and mostpleasant short Stories in the English language. First carefully collected in the company,and many of them transcribed from the mouth of the Facetious Gentleman,whose name they bear; and now set forth and published by his lamentable friendand former companion, Elijah Jenkins, Esq. Most humbly inscribed to those ChoiceSpirits of the Age, Captain Bodens, Mr. Alexander Pope, Mr. Professor Lacy, Mr.Orator Henley, and Job Baker, the Kettle-Drummer. London: Printed and sold byT. Read, in Dogwell Court, White’s Fryars, Fleet Street. mdccxxxix.
PUBLISHED AT THE
OFFICE OF THE NORTHERN MAGAZINE,
39 Park Row, New-York.
1865.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by
A. BELLEW,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the SouthernDistrict of New-York.
A few years ago, at a dinner party in England, a very good storywas told by one of the company, who represented the hero of theanecdote as a well-known nobleman then living. This story was immediatelypronounced to be an “old Joe.” On this, a warm discussiontook place, when it came out incidentally, that not one of those presenthad ever seen the book so familiarly referred to. This discoveryaroused the curiosity of one of the party, who immediately resolved toprocure a copy of the work—a most difficult and costly matter. Havingprocured the book, he decided to republish it for the benefit of hisbenighted fellow-countrymen, and the following volume is the result.
A singular fact connected with this work is, that every body presumesthat he himself, and every other person, is perfectly familiar with its contents;and yet, if the reader will ask his friends, it will appear that not onein a thousand ever set eyes on a copy; indeed, we doubt much whetherthere are a dozen persons in the United States who have ever seen thework.
Mr. Joseph Miller—or Joe Miller, as he is generally called, with afamiliarity that smacks of immortality—whose name as a wit is nowcurrent wherever the English language is spoken, was, when living, himselfa jest for dulness, so that his name appended to this work is whatMr. Artemus Ward would call “sarkasum.” According to report, Miller,who was an excellent comic actor, but taciturn and saturnine, “was inthe habit of spending his afternoons at the Black Jack, a well-knownpublic-house in Portsmouth street, Clare Market, which at that time wasfrequented by the most respectable tradesmen in the neighborhood,who, from Joe’s imperturbable gravity, whenever any risible saying wasrecounted, ironically ascribed it to him. After his death, having lefthis family unprovided for, advantage was taken of this badinage. AMr. Mottley, a well-known dramatist of that day, was employed to col[iv]lectall the stray jests, then current on town. Joe Miller’s name wasprefixed to them, and from that day to this, the man who never uttereda jest has been the reputed author of every jest, past and present, anddoubtless through future ages will receive credit for all the good thingsthat may be said by the grandchildren of
...BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!
Sitemize Üyelik ÜCRETSİZDİR!