| Andrew Lang.
1844–1912. |
Introduction: Humour in the British Isles |
| Geoffrey Chaucer.
c. 1340–1400. |
Chanticleer and the Fox |
| To My Empty Purse |
| Ballad of Women’s Doubleness |
| John Skelton.
1460?–1529. |
Ladies’ Darling |
| Fire! Fire! |
| Sir Thomas More.
1478–1535. |
Disputation between a Fool and a Friar |
| Nicholas Udall.
1505–1556. |
Gossip |
| Sir Philip Sidney.
1554–1586. |
On Plays |
| Sir John Harington.
1561–1612. |
Of a Precise Tailor |
| Of a Certain Man |
| William Shakespeare.
1564–1616. |
Dogberry’s Charge to the Watch |
| Dogberry Administers Justice |
| The Tinker’s Dream |
| Launcelot Gobbo’s Conscience |
| Valorous Jack Falstaff |
| Madness With a Method |
| Rosalind’s Suit in the Forest |
| The Retort Courteous |
| The Lost Drum |
| Francis Bacon.
1561–1626. |
Aphorisms |
| Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. |
Chivalrous Adventures of an Apprentice |
| Thomas Dekker.
c. 1570–1632. |
Obedient Husbands |
| Ben Jonson.
1572–1637. |
The Braggart Turns Tail |
| Cupid |
| Rules for the Tavern Academy |
| The Wonderful Beauty Powder |
| The Knightly Rhymester |
| Truewit Tells the True Way to Woo |
| Discoveries Upon Men and Matter |
| John Milton.
1608–1674. |
On Freedom of Print and Belief |
| Epitaph for an Old University Carrier |
| Andrew Marvell.
1621–1678. |
Parody on a Speech from the Throne by Charles II |
| Sir John Suckling.
1609–1642. |
The Pale Lover |
| The Constant Lover |
| Samuel Butler.
1612–1680. |
The Logic and Rhetoric of Hudibras |
| Hudibras’ Religion |
| Dialogue with an Infernal Elf |
| Samuel Pepys.
1633–1703. |
Extracts from the Diary |
| Abraham Cowley.
1618–1667. |
A Lover’s Chronicle |
| A Great Man’s Day |
| William Wycherley.
1640–1716. |
The Frenchified Englishman |
| Politeness Plausible |
| The Duplicate Letter |
| John Dryden.
1631–1700. |
Character of Zimri (the Duke of Buckingham) |
| Mac Flecknoe |
| The Scholar’s Wife |
| William Congreve.
1670–1729. |
The Country Squire in London |
| An Old Man’s Young Passion |
| Daniel Defoe.
1661?–1731. |
Friday’s Conflict with the Bear |
| The Education of Women |
| The Shortest Way with the Dissenters |
| George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.
1628–1687. |
Beginning a Play with a Whisper |
| Jonathan Swift.
1667–1745. |
Directions to Servants |
| Hints on Conversation |
| A South Sea Ballad |
| An Academy of Wits |
| Necessity of Wars and Quarrels |
| The University of Lagado |
| Inventory of the Man-Mountain’s Pockets |
| Some Account of the Yahoos |
| A Gentle Echo on Woman |
| Against Abolishing Christianity |
| Thoughts on Various Subjects |
| Alexander Pope.
1688–1744. |
The Rape of the Lock |
| The Spectator and The Tatler. |
The Will of a Virtuoso |
| A Grinning Match |
| The Use of the Fan |
| Sir Roger de Coverley at Church |
| The Picts |
| Phillis and Brunetta |
| Will Honeycomb’s Courtships |
| Anonymous (Time of George I). |
The Vicar of Bray |
| John Arbuthnot.
1667–1735. |
A Dissertation on Dumplings |
| Sister Peg |
| John Philips.
1676–1709. |
The Dun |
| Henry Carey.
1687?–1743. |
A Tragical Tragedy’s Ending |
| Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
1689–1762. |
Extracts from the ‘Letters’ |
| Epitaph on John Hughes and Sarah Drew |
| Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield.
1694–1773. |
Gleanings from the Letters to his Son |
| Henry Fielding.
1707–1754. |
The Immersion of an Ambassador |
| Leonard and Paul |
| Slippery Sailors |
| Partridge at the Play |
| Essay on Nothing |
| Opening Scenes of ‘Tom Thumb the Great’ |
| Different Hats: Different Principles |
| Thomas Gray.
1716–1771. |
Ode on a Drowned Cat |
| George, Lord Lyttelton.
1709–1773. |
Dialogue Between Mercury and Mrs. Modish |
| Dialogue Between Mercury, an English Duellist, and a North American Savage |
| Laurence Sterne.
1713–1768. |
Uncle Toby’s Courtship |
| The Siege of the Cities in the Kitchen-Garden |
| Madame De V——’s Religion |
| Smelfungus |
| The Case of Delicacy |
| James Merrick.
1720–1769. |
The Chameleon |
| David Garrick.
1717–1779. |
The Dictated Letter |
| Prologue to ‘Sheridan’s School for Scandal’ |
| Tobias George Smollett.
1721–1771. |
Commodore Trunnion’s Wedding-Day |
| The Origin of Breeches |
| Unregretted School Days |
| Captain Weazel and the Highwayman |
| Tabitha on Domestic Economy |
| Bramble and Barton at Court |
| Samuel Foote.
1720–1777. |
Anecdotes |
| Samuel Johnson.
1709–1784. |
The Retired Merchant |
| Ambitions of Authorship |
| Wit and Learning |
| Gulosulus |
| Fictions and Facts of Country Life |
| On Lying News-Writers |
| The Style Terrific |
| Anecdotes |
| Charles Churchill.
1731–1764. |
Lothario (Lord Sandwich) |
| Oliver Goldsmith.
1730–1774. |
Moses Acquires a Gross of Green Spectacles |
| Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog |
| Tony’s Directions to the Travellers |
| The Double Transformation |
| On Fashions |
| On Physicians |
| The True Oriental |
| Mr. and Mrs. Tibbs |
| William Cowper.
1731–1800. |
John Gilpin’s Ride |
| Report of an Adjudged Case |
| Pairing-Time Anticipated |
| The Love of the World Reproved |
| Hannah Cowley.
1743–1809. |
Miss Letitia Plays the Hoyden |
| Thomas Percy.
1729–1811. |
King John and the Abbot |
| The Distracted Puritan |
| Lilli Burlero |
| Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
1751–1816. |
Mrs. Malaprop and Sir Anthony Absolute Settle Lydia’s Future |
| Bob Acres Sends a Challenge |
| The Literary Lady |
| A Domestic Tiff |
| Gossip at Lady Sneerwells |
| Calendar of the Months |
| The Art of Puffing |
| Lord Erskine’s Simile |
| Anecdotes |
| Charles Dibdin.
1745–1814. |
Nongtongpaw |
| Hester Lynch Thrale.
1741–1821. |
The Three Warnings |
| William Barnes Rhodes.
1772–1826. |
Bombastes Furioso |
| Robert Burns.
1759–1796. |
Holy Willie’s Prayer |
| Tam O’Shanter |
| The Death of Poor Mailie |
| To a Louse |
| The Two Dogs |
| William Cobbett.
1763–1835. |
Writing Plays Like Shakespeare’s |
| The Complicated Ceremony of Shaving |
| George Canning.
1770–1827. |
The University of Gottingen |
| Frances (Fanny) Burney (Madame d’Arblay).
1752–1840. |
Who Gave Us that Shove? |
| Maria Edgeworth.
1768–1849. |
Sir Kit’s Honeymoon |
| Edward Copleston.
1776–1849. |
How to Review Milton’s L’Allegro |
| Jane Austen.
1775–1817. |
Five Daughters to Marry |
| Mr. Woodhouse’s Idea of Supper |
| Lord Byron.
1788–1824. |
Don Juan’s Sea-Sickness |
| After Swimming the Hellespont |
| Epitaph for Joseph Blackett, Poet and Shoemaker |
| Michael’s Call for Witnesses |
| Sir Walter Scott.
1771–1832. |
A Preaching Match at Tillietudlem |
| Captain Dugald Dalgetty |
| Charles Lamb.
1775–1834. |
Sayings and Anecdotes |
| A Comparison Between Whist and Quadrille |
| A Bad Cold |
| The Housekeeper |
| A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig |
| Sydney Smith.
1771–1845. |
Witticisms |
| Salad |
| Robert Southey.
1774–1843. |
The March to Moscow |
| The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel |
| The Cataract of Lodore |
| Frederick Marryat.
1792–1848. |
The Great Triangular Duel |
| Nautical Terms |
| Richard Harris Barham (Thomas Ingoldsby).
1788–1845. |
Not a Sou Had He Got |
| The Jackdaw of Rheims |
| Theodore Hook.
1788–1841. |
On Puns |
| Mrs. Ramsbottom’s Sight-Seeing in Paris |
| Mrs. Ramsbottom’s Opinions on Popery |
| William Maginn.
1794–1842. |
The Irishman |
| Winthrop Mackworth Praed.
1802–1839. |
Rhyme and Reason |
| My Partner |
| The Vicar |
| John Wilson (Christopher North).
1785–1854. |
Naked Bullmanship |
| Thomas De Quincey.
1785–1859. |
Murder as One of the Fine Arts |
| Frances Milton Trollope.
1780–1863. |
Republican Equality and Freedom |
| Patriotism and Bugs |
| Culture in the West |
| Thomas Moore.
1779–1852. |
Miss Biddy Fudge in Paris |
| The Rabbinical Origin of Women |
| On Restoring a Lock of Hair |
| Thomas Love Peacock.
1785–1866. |
The Sleeping Venus |
| John Gibson Lockhart.
1794–1854. |
Captain Paton’s Lament |
| Douglas William Jerrold.
1803–1857. |
Mr. Caudle’s Shirt-Buttons |
| Cold Mutton, Pudding, Pancakes |
| Bits of Repartee |
| Abolishing the ‘Cat’ |
| Thomas Hood.
1799–1845. |
Faithless Nelly Gray |
| A Lay of Real Life |
| No! |
| The Remains of a Lost Banquet |
| Francis Sylvester Mahony (Father Prout).
1804–1866. |
Pot-Luck at the Vatican |
| Richard Whately.
1787–1863. |
Did Bonaparte Exist? |
| Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay.
1800–1859. |
On Robert Montgomery’s Poems |
| The Ponderous Work of Dr. Nares |
| Samuel Lover.
1797–1868. |
Buying a Present for the Priest |
| The King and the Bishop |
| The Blarney |
| Lanty Leary |
| Andy as Waiter at Table and Messenger to the Post-Office |
| Rory O’More |
| Elizabeth Gaskell.
1810–1865. |
Miss Jenkyns’s Literary Tastes |
| Charles Lever.
1806–1872. |
Major Monsoon and the King of Spain’s Story |
| Widow Malone |
| How to Make Love for a Friend |
| Thomas Carlyle.
1795–1881. |
Sir Jabesh Windbag |
| Adamitism |
| The Dandy |
| George Borrow.
1803–1881. |
Three Thimbles and a Pea |
| A Lesson in Armenian |
| Lord Beaconsfield.
1804–1881. |
Aphorisms |
| William Makepeace Thackeray.
1811–1863. |
The Battle of Limerick |
| George de Barnwell |
| The Ballad of Eliza Davis |
| Sorrows of Werther |
| How Becky Sharp Made an Impression on Joseph Sedley |
| Peg of Limavaddy |
| Mr. Yellowplush to Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer |
| Charles Dickens.
1812–1870. |
Mr. Micawber’s Pecuniary Difficulties |
| ‘My First Dissipation’ |
| Hamlet |
| The Fine Old English Gentleman |
| Pecksniff at the Boarding-House |
| The Romance of Dick Turpin |
| Serjeant Buzfuz’s Address to the Jury |
| William Edmondstoune Aytoun.
1813–1865. |
Idées Napoléoniennes |
| William Edmondstoune Aytoun and Sir Theodore Martin. |
The Lay of the Love-Lorn |
| John Maddison Morton.
1811–1891. |
How to Let One Room to Two Tenants |
| Irish Bulls |
|
| Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
1809–1892. |
The Goose |
| Northern Farmer—Old Style |
| Charles Reade.
1814–1884. |
Doctor Aberford’s Prescription |
| Cibber’s Repartee |
| A Bad Shilling |
| Charles Kingsley.
1819–1875. |
The Professor’s Malady |
| Travels in and About Waste-Paper-Land |
|
Yorkshire Proverbs |
| George Eliot (Mary Ann Cross).
1819–1880. |
A Scholar’s Proposal of Marriage |
| Some of Mrs. Poyser’s Opinions |
| Tom Tulliver Impersonates the Duke of Wellington |
| Thomas William Robertson.
1829–1871. |
A Prospective Misalliance |
| Matthew Arnold.
1822–1888. |
About Compulsory Education |
| Thomas Hughes.
1822–1896. |
“Cribs”: An Institution of Providence |
| Charles Stuart Calverley.
1831–1884. |
Changed |
| Ode to Tobacco |
| Flight |
| Georgiana Marion Craik.
1831–1895. |
A Quarrelsome Little Dog and a Cross Little Cat |
| James Payn.
1830–1898. |
A Mediæval Mistake |
| Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll).
1832–1898. |
The Cheshire Cat |
| Jabberwocky |
| The Bellman’s Speech |
| Robert Louis Stevenson.
1850–1894. |
Pinkerton, Artist and Optimist |
| Nursery Rhymes. |
Simple Simon |
| Three Wise Men of Gotham |
| I Love Sixpence |
| Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid? |
| Peter Piper |
| George Meredith.
1828–1909. |
Short Citations |
| Francis Cowley Burnand.
1836–1917. |
A Rubber at Whist |
| William Schwenck Gilbert.
1836–1911. |
‘The Ruler of the Queen’s Navee’ |
| The Bishop of Rum-ti-Foo |
| Lords and Commons |
| Lorenzo de Lardy |
| The Penalty for Beheading the Heir-Apparent |
| Andrew Lang.
1844–1912. |
Two Letters from Mrs. Proudie to Mrs. Quiverful |
| William Hurrell Mallock.
1849–1923. |
A Lay-Sermon and a Shipwreck |
| John Watson (Ian Maclaren).
1850–1907. |
Our Sermon Taster |
| H. Rider Haggard.
1856–1925. |
The Bare Legs, the Movable Teeth, and the Transparent Eye |
| Thomas Anstey Guthrie (F. Anstey).
1856–1934. |
Venus Visits the Hair-Dresser |
| George Bernard Shaw.
1856–1950. |
Lines from the Plays |
| Jerome K. Jerome.
1859–1927. |
The Stage Lawyer |
| J. M. Barrie.
1860–1937. |
A Humourist on His Calling |
| A Home for Geniuses |
| Postal Facilities at Thrums |
| Anthony Hope.
1863–1933. |
Cordial Relations |
| Rudyard Kipling.
1865–1936. |
Study of an Elevation, in Indian Ink |
| Oonts! |
| The Courting of Dinah Shadd |
| Gunga Din |
| A Code of Morals |
| Edith Anna Somerville and Violet Florence Martin (Martin Ross).
1862–1915. |
Pleasures of a Tenant |
| The Lough Lonen Regatta |
| The Wreck |
| Lionel Strachey.
1864–1927. |
How to Translate German |
| Odd Ideas |
| Solitude |
