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 thefe Infcriptions, we are not so much to look in 'em 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 Declension of Empire) than the endeavouring to reftore this foolish kind of Wit. If the Reader will be at the Trouble to fee Examples of it, let him look into the new Mercure 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 Mer cure for the fucceeding Month. That for the Month of November laft, which now lies before me, is as follows.

Lauriers
Guerriers

Mufette
Lifette

- Cefars
Etendars

Houlette

Folette

One would be amazed to see so learned a Man as Menage talking feriously on this Kind of Trifle in the following Paffage.

MONSIEUR

MONSIEUR de la Chambre has told me, that he never knew what he was going to write when he took his Pen into hisHand ; but that one Sentence always produced another. For my own Part, I never knew what I fhould write next when I was making Verses. 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 ufe of the four following Rhymes, Amaryllis, Phillis, 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 faid, 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 Severity of the Criticifm, the Verfes were good. Vid. MENAGIANA. Thus far the learned Menage, whom I have translated 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 impofe on their Lovers. But when a grave Author, like him above-mentioned, tasked himfelf, 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 List of Rhymes till he had finished his Poem?

I fhall 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 muft fubjoin to this laft 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 Rhyine to recommend it. I am afraid that great Numbers of those who admire the incomparable Hudibras, do it more on account of thefe Doggerel Rhymes than of the Parts that really deserve Admiration. fure I have heard the

I am

Pulpits

and

Pulpit, Drum Ecclefiaftick,

Was beat with Fift instead of a Stick.

There was an ancient fage Philofopher
Who had read Alexander Rofs over.

more frequently quoted, than the finest Pieces of Wit in the whole Poem.

C

N 61.

Thursday, May 10.

Non equidem ftudeo, bullatis ut mihi nugis
Pagina turgefcat, dare pondus idonea fumo.

T

Perf

HERE is no kind of falfe Wit which has been fo recommended by the Practice of all Ages, as that which confifts in a Jingle of Words, and is com prehended under the general Name of Punning. It is indeed impoffible to kill a Weed, which the Soil has a natural Difpofition to produce. The Seeds of Punning are in the Minds of all Men, and tho' they may be fubdued by Reafon, Reflection, and good Senfe, they will be very apt to fhoot up in the greateft 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 Punns and Quibbles.

ARISTOTLE, in the Eleventh Chapter of his Book of Rhetorick, defcribes 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 greateft Authors in the Greek Tongue. Cicero has fprinkled feveral 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 alfo 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 Bifhops or Privy-Counfellors that had not fome time or other fignalized themfelves by a Clinch, or a Conundrum. It was therefore in this Age that the Punn appeared with Pomp and Dignity. It had before been admitted into merry Speeches 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 ufe of Punns. The Sermons of Bishop Andrews, and the Tragedies of Shakespear, are full of them. The Sinner was punned into Repentance by the former, as in the latter nothing is more ufual than to fee a Hero weeping and quibbling for a dozen Lines together.

I must add to these great Authorities, which seem to have given a kind of Sanction to this Piece of falfe Wit, that all the Writers of Rhetorick have treated of Punning with very great Respect, and divided the feveral kinds of it into hard Names, that are reckoned among the Figures of Speech, and recommended as Ornaments in Discourse. I remember a Country School-mafter of my Acquain tance told me once, that he had been in Company with a Gentleman whom he looked upon to be the greateft Paragrammatift among the Moderns. Upon Enquiry, I found my learned Friend had dined that Day with Mr. Swan, the famous Punnfter; 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 fometimes gave into the Plocè, but that in his humble Opinion he hined moft in the Antanaclafis.

I must not here omit, that a famous University of this Land was formerly very much infefted with Punns; but whether or no this might not arife from the Fens and Marshes in which it was fituated, and which are now drained, I must leave to the Determination of more skilful Naturalifts.

AFTER this fhort Hiftory of Punning, one would wonder how it fhould be fo entirely banifhed 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

that the firft Race of Authors, who were the great Heroes in Writing, were deftitute of all Rules and Arts of Criticism, and for that Reason, though they excel later Writers in Greatness of Genius, they fall fhort of them in Accuracy and Correctnefs. 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 Set of Writers, who gained themfelves a Reputation by the Remarks which they made on the Works of those who preceded them. It was one of the Employments of thefe Secon dary Authors, to diftinguish the feveral kinds of Wit by Terms of Art, and to confider them as more or lefs per fect, 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 thofe feveral Blemishes were discovered. I do not find that there was a proper Separation 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 natu ral for all Men of Senfe 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 vanifhed and difappeared. At the fame time there is no queftion, but as it has funk in one Age and rofe in another, it will again recover it felf in fome diftant Period of Time, as-Pedantry and Ignorance shall prevail upon Wit and Senfe. And, to fpeak the Truth, I do very much apprehend, by fome of the laft Winter's Productions, which had their Sets of Admirers, that our Pofterity will in a few Years degenerate into a Race of Punnfters: At least, a Man may be very excufable for any Apprehenfions of this kind, that has feen Acrofticks handed about the Town with great Secrefie and Applaufe; to which I muft alfo add a little Epigram called the Witches Prayer, that fell into Verfe when it was read either back. ward or forward, excepting only that it Curfed one way and Bleffed 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

t

be