Part 33 (1/2)

HOOK was once observed, during dinner, nodding like a Chinese mandarin in a tea-shop. On being asked the reason, he replied, ”Why when no one else asks me to take champagne, I take sherry with the epergne, and bow to the flowers.”

DLx.x.xVII.--ON NAPOLEON'S STATUE AT BOULOGNE TURNED, BY DESIGN OR ACCIDENT, WITH ITS BACK TO ENGLAND.

UPON its lofty column's stand Napoleon takes his place: His back still turned upon that land That never saw his face.

DLx.x.xVIII.--OLD TIMES.

A GENTLEMAN in company with Foote, took up a newspaper, saying, ”He wanted to see what the ministry were about.” Foote, with a smile, replied, ”Look among _the robberies_.”

DLx.x.xIX.--AN ARCADIAN.

A LAZY fellow lying down on the gra.s.s said, ”O, how I do wish that this was called _work_, and well paid!”

DXC.--JOHNSON AND MRS. SIDDONS.

IN spite of the ill-founded contempt Dr. Johnson professed to entertain for actors, he persuaded himself to treat Mrs. Siddons with great politeness, and said, when she called on him at Bolt Court, and Frank, his servant, could not immediately provide her with a chair, ”You see, madam, wherever _you_ go there are _no seats_ to be got.”

DXCI.--ROWING IN THE SAME BOAT.

”WE row in the same boat, you know,” said a literary friend to Jerrold.

This literary friend was a comic writer, and a comic writer only.

Jerrold replied, ”True, my good fellow, we _do_ row in the same boat, but with very different skulls.”

DXCII.--A GENUINE IRISH BULL.

SIR BOYLE ROCHE said, ”Single misfortunes never come alone, and the greatest of all possible misfortunes is generally followed by a much greater.”

DXCIII.--THE RULING Pa.s.sION.

IN the last illness of George Colman, the doctor being late in an appointment, apologized to his patient, saying that he had been called in to see a man who had fallen down a well. ”Did he kick the bucket, doctor?” groaned out poor George.

DXCIV.--EPIGRAM.

(On ----'s late neglect of his judicial duties.)

LORD ----'S left his circuit for a day, Which is to me a mystery profound; He leaves the _circuit_! he, of whom they say, That he delights in constant _turning round_.

DXCV.--SHAKESPEARE ILl.u.s.tRATED.

DIGNUM and Moses Kean the mimic were both tailors. Charles Bannister met them under the Piazza in Covent Garden, arm-in-arm. ”I never see those men together,” said he, ”but they put me in mind of Shakespeare's comedy, _Measure for Measure_!”