ingly is seldom met with in
purely-derived languages. Yet we have Roman and Greek puns; and English
is peculiarly adapted to this childish exercise, because, being made up
of several languages, it necessarily contains many words which are like
in sound and unlike in meaning. Punning is, in fact, the vice of English
wit, the temptation of English mirth-makers, and, at last, we trust, the
scorn of English good sense. But in Theodore's day it held a high place,
and men who had no real wit about them could twist and turn words and
combinations of words with great ingenuity and much readiness, to the
delight of their listeners. Pun-making was a fashion among the
conversationists of that day, and took the place of better wit. Hook was
a disgraceful punster, and a successful one. He strung puns together by
the score--nothing more easy--in his improvised songs and conversation.
Take an instance from his quiz on the march of intellect:--

'Hackney-coachmen from _Swift_ shall reply, if you feel
Annoyed at being needlessly shaken;
And butchers, of course, be flippant from _Steele_,
And pig-drivers well versed in _Bacon_.
From _Locke_ shall the blacksmiths authority brave,
And gas-men cite _Coke_ at discretion;
Undertakers talk _Gay_ as they go to the _grave_,
And watermen _Rowe_ by profession.'

I have known a party of naturally stupid people produce a whole century
of puns one after another, on any subject that presented itself, and I
am inclined to think that nothing can, at the same time, be more
nauseous, or more destructive to real wit. Yet Theodore's strength lay
in puns, and when shorn of them, the Philistines might well laugh at his
want of strength. Surely his title to wit does not lie in that
direction.

However, he amused, and that gratis; and an amusing man makes his way
anywhere if he have only sufficient tact not to abuse his privileges.
Hook grew great in London society for a time, and might have grown
greater if a change had not come.

He had supported himself, up to 1812, almost entirely by his pen: and
the goose-quill is rarely a staff, though it may sometimes be a
walking-stick. It was clear that he needed--what so many of us need and
cannot get--a certainty. Happy fellow! he might have begged for an
appointment for years in vain, as many another does, but it fell into
his lap, no one knows how, and at four-and-twenty Mr. Theodore Edward
Hook was made treasurer to the Island of Maur