The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Jest Book, by Mark Lemon

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Title: The Jest Book
The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings

Author: Mark Lemon

Release Date: January 13, 2007 [EBook #20352]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE JEST BOOK

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UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO.

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THE JEST BOOK

THE CHOICEST ANECDOTES AND SAYINGS

SELECTED AND ARRANGED BY

MARK LEMON

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CAMBRIDGE

SEVER AND FRANCIS

1865

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PREFACE.

The Compiler of this new JEST BOOK is desirous to make known that it is
composed mainly of old jokes,--some older than Joe Miller himself,--with
a liberal sprinkling of new jests gathered from books and hearsay. In
the course of his researches he has been surprised to find how many
Jests, Impromptus, and Repartees have passed current, century after
century, until their original utterer is lost in the "mist of ages"; a
Good Joke being transferred from one reputed Wit to another, thus
resembling certain rare Wines which are continually being rebottled but
are never consumed. Dr. Darwin and Sir Charles Lyell, when they have
satisfied themselves as to the _Origin of Species_ and the _Antiquity of
Man_, could not better employ their speculative minds than in
determining the origin and antiquity of the venerable "joes" which have
been in circulation beyond the remembrance of that mythical personage,
"the Oldest Inhabitant."

A true Briton loves a good joke, and regards it like "a thing of
beauty," "a joy forever," therefore we may opine that Yorick's "flashes
of merriment, which were wont to set the table in a roar," when Hamlet
was king in Denmark, were transported hither by our Danish invaders, and
descended to Wamba, Will Somers, Killigrew, and other accredited
jesters, until Mr. Joseph Miller reiterated many of them over his pipe
and tankard, when seated with his delighted auditory at the _Black Jack_
in Clare Market.

Modern Research has be