Quote#Science & Reason
An arch wag has declar'd, that he truly can say Why the Prince did…
Quote byTheodore Hook · 1788–1841
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: English Epigrams, On the Prince Regent's Absence from the Ceremony of Laying the First Stone of Vauxhall Bridge" (1811).
English (original)
An arch wag has declar'd, that he truly can say Why the Prince did not lay the first stone t'other day: The Restrictions prevented — the reason is clear; The Regent can't meddle in making a pier.
— Theodore Hook
More from Theodore Hook
Two Miltons in separate ages were born: The cleverer Milton 'tis clear we have got, Though the other had talents the world to adorn, This lives by his mews, which the other could not!
Cease, ye Etonians! and no more With rival wits contend: Feathers, we know, will float in air, And bubbles will ascend.
Shelley styles his new poem "Prometheus Unbound," And 'tis like to remain so while time circles round; For surely an age would be spent in the finding A reader so weak as to pay for the binding!
When Anacreon would fight, as the poets have said, A reverse he display'd in his vapour, For while all his poems were loaded with lead, His pistols were loaded with paper. For excuses, Anacreon old custom may thank, Such a salvo he should …
This pair in matrimony Go most unequal snacks: He gets all the Honey, And she gets all the whacks.
It seems as if Nature had curiously plann'd That men's names with their trades should agree; There's Twining the Tea-man, who lives in the Strand, Would be whining, if robb'd of his T.