Page:Everybody's Book of English wit and humour (1880).djvu/62


 * A comb, and a thimble, with Madonna bands,
 * A box of specific for chaps on the hands;
 * Some mace and some cloves tied up in a rag,
 * An empty thread paper, and blue in a bag;
 * Some pieces of ribbon both greasy and black,
 * A grater and nutmeg, the key of the jack;
 * An inch of wax candle, a steel and a flint,
 * A bundle of matches, a parcel of mint;
 * A lump of old suet, a crimp for the paste,
 * A pair of red garters, a belt for the waist;
 * A rusty bent skewer, a broken brass cock;
 * Some onions and tinder both with the drawer lock;
 * A bag for the pudding, a whet-stone and string,
 * A penny cross bun, and a new curtain ring;
 * A print for the butter, a dirty chemise,
 * Two pieces of soap, and a large slice of cheese;
 * Two teaspoons of lead, a large lump of rosin.
 * The feet of a hare, and corks by the dozen;
 * A card to tell fortunes, a sponge and a can,
 * A pen without ink, and a small patty pan;
 * A rolling pin pasted, a common prayer-book.
 * Were the things which I found in the drawer of a cook.

A literary Frenchman, being in company with the celebrated Dr Wallis, was boasting of the superiority of the French language with regard to euphony, and challenged the doctor to produce anything in English to equal the following lines : —

"Quand un cordier, cordant, veult corder une corde. Pour sa corde corder, trois cordons il accorde; Mois si un des cordons de la corde descorde, Le cordon descordant fait descorder la corde."

The doctor, with promptitude, immediately translated the very words into English, only substituting for the French word corde the pure English word twist. The reader will find that the first four of the following lines exactly correspond with those of the Frenchman; the next four were added by the doctor by way of completing the triumph. The remaining lines were not written till some time after. Dr Johnson was so pleased with the above anecdote, that he gave the whole twelve lines in his folio Dictionary, to show into how many meanings and bearings the words twist and twister may be twisted: —