THE COMIC ENGLISH GRAMMAR.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
THE COMIC
ENGLISH GRAMMAR;
A NEW AND FACETIOUS
Introduction to the English Tongue.
BY THE AUTHOR OF THE COMIC LATIN GRAMMAR.
EMBELLISHED
WITH UPWARDS OF FIFTY CHARACTERISTIC ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. LEECH.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1840.
TO MR. GEORGE ROBINS,
A Writer unrivalled in this or any other Age for
AN ORIGINALITY OF STYLE,
(if the expression may be pardoned) quite unique, and a Dexterity in the Use
of Metaphor unparalleled; whose multifarious and sublime—it would not
be too much to saytalented—Compositions would, it may be fearlessly
asserted, afford any
ENTERPRISING PUBLISHER
a not-every-day-to-be-met-with, and not in-a-hurry-to-be-relinquished opportunity
for an
ELIGIBLE INVESTMENT OF CAPITAL,
forming a Property which, under judicious management, would soon become
entitled to the well-merited appellation of a
PRINCELY DOMAIN!
which, without exciting a blush in the mind of veracity, might be said (in a
literary point of view) to be fertilised by a meandering rivulet of Poetry,
comparable for Beauty and Picturesque Effect to
THE SILVERY STREAM OF THE ISIS;
whose richness (equalled only by his fidelity) of description, presenting a refreshing
contrast to the style of his various compeers, precludes the attempt
to perpetrate a panegyric, otherwise than by assuming the responsibility and
risk of applying to him the words of our
IMMORTAL BARD:
“Take him for all in all
We ne’er shall see his like again.”
This little Treatise on
COMIC ENGLISH
is, with the most profound Veneration, Admiration, nay, even with
Respect (and the term is used “advisedly”)
humbly dedicated
by
HIS MOST OBLIGED AND MOST
OBEDIENT SERVANT,
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
It may be considered a strange wish on the part of an Author, to have hispreface compared to a donkey’s gallop. We are nevertheless desirous thatour own should be considered both short and sweet. For our part, indeed,we would have every preface as short as an orator’s cough, to which, inpurpose, it is so nearly like; but Fashion requires, and like the rest ofher sex, requires because she requires, that before a writer begins thebusiness of his book, he should give an account to the world of hisreasons for producing it; and therefore, to avoid singularity, we shallproceed with the statement of our own, excepting only a few private ones,which are neither here nor