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    or, Public Elegance and Private Non-Part...

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    VICISSITUDESOF A LECTURE;

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    Analysis Of Laughter

    History . The fondness of that philosopher , for resolving comp licated social phenomena into general laws of human nature ( which is remarked on by Mr Hallam , as though he considered it an eccentric addiction )—is there exercised in many of the

    Analysis Of Laughter

    most distinguished foriiis which the ludicrous has assumed . The elaborate compilation of Mr Joseph ( familiarised Joe ) Miller , as a work of reference , may also be consulted with advantage . L D .

    Or, Public Elegance And Private Non-Part...

    or , Public Elegance and Private Non-Particularity . 25

    Vicissitudesof A Lecture;

    VICISSITUDESOF A LECTURE ;

    Vicissitudesof A Lecture;

    OR , PUBLIC ELEGANCE ANDPRIVATE NON-PARTICULARITY .

    Poor Ned Pounchy ! He is no longer alive ; otherwise we should not risk the wounding of his good-natured eyes by these pages . Neither was he ever known enough to the many to

    undergo the hazard of their now digging him up again ; and , finally , we have obscured the illustrious obscurity of his name by an alias . We may , therefore , without offence , resuscitate a passage in his life , for the amusement of those critical

    readers , whom it was his highest ambition to gratify . Ned Pounchy had long been seized with a passionate desire to give a lecture—his favourite mode of literary intercourseand on Shakspeare and Milton

    —his favourite poets . Accordingly , after a series of blissful preparations and half-threatening obstacles , which only perfected the pleasure of the result , he found himself one evening at the upper end of a great

    room in a certain tavern , standing with book in hand , and in most consummate black satin

    Vicissitudesof A Lecture;

    small-clothes and silk stockings ( the former very crinkled and scholarly ) , with a great screen at his back , and an expectant

    set of beholders in front of him , to whom he had undertaken to set forth the merits of a scene or two in the Tempest , and to recite Milton ' s charming poems , Allegro and

    Pensieroso . Now our friend Pounchy , or rather our friend's friend ( for we had no particular knowledge of him , except on this occasion ) was a somewhat stout and short

    man , like many an eminent individual before and since , of some forty or five and forty years of age ; and if , unlike them , he seemed to think his person qualified to compete with his intellectual attractions , and

    to require only " a fair stage and no favour , " yet his genial disposition did ( there can be no doubt of it ) instinctively suggest to itself , that the favour would be granted him ; and in fact , he appeared so cosy and comfortable , and af ter-dinner-like , in the

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1837, page 25, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_01071837/page/23/