The Book of Modern Anecdotes: Humour, Wit, and Wisdom, American, Legal, TheatricalHoward Paul, John Timbs, Percy Fitzgerald G. Routledge, 1873 - 448 pages |
Common terms and phrases
actor ain't amusing appeared asked attorney audience barrister Bench better bill brother Brougham called character Charles Kemble Chief Justice counsel Court death dinner door dress Drury Lane Edmund Kean Erskine exclaimed eyes Garrick gentleman give hand head hear heard Henry honour horse humour Inner Temple judge jury Kean Kemble King kingdom of England lady laugh lawyer London look Lord Brougham Lord Chancellor Lord Eldon Lord Ellenborough Lord Mansfield Lord Thurlow lordship master Melissy ment mind morning ness never night occasion Old Bailey once party performance person pillory play present prisoner replied round scene Serjeant Serjeant-at-Law shirts Siddons speech stage story tell theatre theatrical thing thought Thurlow Timmy Timothy Drew tion told took trial turned walked wife words young
Popular passages
Page 232 - He appeared very ambitious to learn to write; and one of the attorneys got a board knocked up at a window on the top of a staircase; and that was his desk where he sat and wrote after copies of court and other hands the clerks gave him. He made himself so expert a writer that he took in business and earned some pence by hackney-writing. And thus by degrees he pushed his faculties and fell to forms, and, by books that were lent him, became an exquisite entering clerk; and by the same course of improvement...
Page 417 - I would have law merchant for them too; and in all cases of slander currency, whenever the drawer of the lie was not to be found, the injured parties should have a right to come on any of the indorsers.
Page 212 - Thames' broad, aged back do ride, Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers, There whilom wont the Templar Knights to bide Till they decayed through pride.
Page 436 - O my love ! my wife ! Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath, Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty : Thou art not conquer'd ; beauty's ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
Page 416 - Ponto's assembly, the conversation happened to turn on the breeding Nova Scotia sheep in this country. Says a young lady in company, I have known instances of it ; for Miss Letitia Piper, a first cousin of mine, had a Nova Scotia sheep that produced her twins.
Page 86 - Is it well with thee ? is it well with thy husband ? is it well with the child ? And she answered, It is well.
Page 180 - But when they came to straights and interruptions, for want of gravity in the beasts, and too much in the riders, there happened some curvetting, which made no little disorder. Judge Twisden, to his great affright and the consternation of his grave brethren, was laid along in the dirt : but all, at length, arrived safe, without loss of life or limb in the service. This accident was enough to divert the like frolic for the future, and the very next term after, tney fell to their coaches as before.
Page 250 - It was a bad omen ; but, as my good fortune would have it, he was afflicted with the strangury, and was obliged to retire once or twice in the course of his argument. This protracted the cause so long, that, when he had finished, Lord Mansfield said that the remaining counsel should be heard the next morning. This was exactly what I wished. I had the whole night to arrange in my chambers...
Page 312 - I've read, And to heels is of service as well as the head : But the lodgers were shock'd such a noise we should make, And the ladies declar'd that we kept them awake ; Lord Ringbone, who lay in the parlour below, On account of the gout he had got in his toe, Began, on a sudden, to curse and to swear : I protest, my dear mother, 'twas shocking to hear The oaths of that reprobate gouty old peer...
Page 184 - I did actually live three years with Mr. Chapman, a solicitor, that is to say, I slept three years in his house, but I lived, that is to say, I spent my days in Southampton Row, as you very well remember. There was I, and the future Lord Chancellor, constantly employed from morning to night in giggling and making giggle, instead of studying the law.