The Pun.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17865, 5 June 1926, Page 17 (Supplement)

The Pun.

An Ancient Form of Wit

PROFESSOR STEP HE N LEACOCK lias poured scorn on the English predilection for making p 11ns, a form of humour, he declares, unintelligible as such in the New World. We can plead tradition, but perhaps Professor Leacock is justified, for even the most amusing pun does cause the smile that is wry, tinctured faintly* with irritation; and the worthy John

Dennis, who vowed J that a man who would make a pun would pick a pocket, must have the sympathy of many for his peevish outburst. And yet more witty saying arc puns than puns are ' witty saying s. There is the famous grace spoken at dinner by Charles IPs Court Jester: “Great praise be to God and little baud to the devil.” One imagines the stately archbishop's irritation in this case: A pun attributed to Gregory the Great on seeing British captives for sale at Rome was “Not Angles, but j angels,” so we may assume that the habit was not unknown in those days, j whether regarded as wit or otherwise. In mediaeval times, too, punning must have been rife, as witness the humorous heraldic instances. In Henry Ill’s reign Adam de Swynebourne was granted three boars as his armorial cognizance, the family of Knyvette three silver knives, and that of Hopton a lion hopping on a tun, all undeniable puns though the last is very crude wit However, a glance through Fairbairn will reveal scores of similar examples. Punning seems to have reached a fever-heat about fifty years ago with the publication of “Puniana,’ under the editorship of the Hon Hugh Rowley, a two series magnum opus containing, according to the publisher’s announcement, over 10,000 outrageoris puns and the adjective is fully merited. There, are puns in Italian, French and English, some of them puerile in'the extreme, though others can perhaps claim ingenuity if not humour. Thus:

This is what you Macaulay riddle. If you saw a house on fire what three celebrated authors would 3 r ou feel disposed to name? Answer:—Dickens—Howitt —Burns! And so on, ad lib. We will suppose our fathers laughed even if we cannot. It is more refreshing to recall the bon mot attributed to a certain witty celebrity, who, on being asked if he had ever been to Cork, replied: “No, but I’ve see many drawings of it.”

But of the making of puns there can be no end.