The Comic English Grammar

A NEW AND FACETIOUS INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH TONGUE

By Percival Leigh



Embellished with upwards of forty-five Characteristic Illustrations By JOHN LEECH.



Fashion requires, and like the rest of her sex, requires because she requires, that before a writer begins the business of his book, he should give an account to the world of his reasons for producing it; and therefore, to avoid singularity, we shall proceed with the statement of our own, excepting only a few private ones, which are neither here nor there.



To advance the interests of mankind by promoting the cause of Education; to ameliorate the conversation of the masses; to cultivate Taste, and diffuse Refinement; these are the objects we have in view in submitting a Comic English Grammar to the patronage of a discerning Public.



Few persons there are, whose ears are so extremely obtuse, as not to be frequently annoyed at the violations of Grammar by which they are so often assailed. It is really painful to be forced, in walking along the streets, to hear such phrases as, "That 'ere omnibus."



"Where've you bin?"



"Vot's the odds?" and the like. Very dreadful expressions are also used by cartmen and others in addressing their horses. What can possibly induce a human being to say "Gee woot!"



"'Mather way!" or "Woa not to mention the atrocious "Kim aup!" of the barbarous butcher's boy.



It is notorious that the above and greater enormities are perpetrated in spite of the number of Grammars already before the world. This fact sufficiently excuses the present addition to the stock; and as serious English Grammars have hitherto failed to effect the desired reformation, we are induced to attempt it by means of a Comic one.



With regard to the moral tendency of our labors, we may be here permitted to remark, that they will tend, if successful, to the suppression of evil speaking ; and as the Spartans used to exhibit a tipsy slave to their children with a view to disgust them with drunkenness, and We will not allow a man to give an old woman a dose of rhubarb if he have not acquired at least half a dozen sciences; but we permit a quack to sell as much poison as he pleases. When one man runs away with another's wife, and, being on that account challenged to fight a duel, shoots the aggrieved party through the head, the latter is said to receive satisfaction.



We never take a glass of wine at dinner without getting somebody else to do the same, as if we wanted encouragement; and then, before we venture to drink, we bow to each other across the table, preserving all the while a most wonderful gravity. This, however, it may be said, is the natural result of endeavoring to keep one another in countenance.



The way in which we imitate foreign manners and customs is very amusing. Savages stick fish-bones through their noses; our fair countrywomen have hoops of metal poked through their ears. The Caribs flatten the forehead; the Chinese compress the foot; and we possess similar contrivances for reducing the figure of a young lady to a resemblance to an hour-glass or a devil-on-two-sticks.



There being no other assignable motive for these and the like proceedings, it is reasonable to suppose that they are adopted, as schoolboys say, "for fun."



We could go on, were it necessary, adducing facts to an almost unlimited extent; but we consider that enough has now been said in proof of the comic character of the national mind. And in conclusion, if any other than an English or American author can be produced, equal in point of wit, humor, and drollery, to Swift, Sterne, Dickens, or Paulding, we hereby engage to eat him; albeit we have no pretensions to the character of a "helluo librorum."



"English Grammar," according to Lindley Murray, "is the art of speaking and writing the English language with propriety."



The English language, written and spoken with propriety, is commonly called the King's English.



Percival T. Leigh, Comic writer. Studied medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. L.S.A. 1834; M.R.C.S. 1835. For some years practised medicine; then abandoned that profession for writing. Joined staff of Punch shortly after periodical was founded; remained contributor to time of his death, though what he wrote in his later years was unusable. Among his Punch contributions was the text accompanying Richard Doyle's illustrations for Manners and Customs of ye Englyshe. Contributed to George Cruikshank's Table-Book; occasionally to Bentley's Miscellany and other periodicals. Author of The Comic Latin Grammar, The Comic English Grammar, both published 1840; and other similar books.



Leigh was not a close friend of Dickens, but he was at various times one of Dickens's guests; he played a role in Dickens's presentation, 1845, of Every Man in His Humour. Among references to Dickens in Leigh's writings is the comment that "the talented author of the Pickwick Papers" was one of the main figures responsible for making the "Victorian Age" the "Age of Comicality"; Dickens's genius, wrote Lelgh, "has revolutionized the republic of letters ... and has become, as it were, a mirror, which will reflect to all posterity the laughter loving spirit of his age" ("Introduction", Comic Latin Grammar).



Leigh became a contributor to H.W. at Dickens's invitation. Some weeks before the first number appeared, Dickens wrote to say that he would be "sincerely pleased" to have Leigh as one of the contributors. Dickens was enthusiastic about Leigh's "Tale of the Good Old Times", which expressed ideas on social progress similar to Dickens's own; he suggested some slight changes that would "adapt [the tale] perfectly to my purpose". The subject of "A Sample of the Old School" Dickens thought excellent, and the purpose commendable. He suggested that the article be written in the first person; as it appeared in H.W., it was so written (to Leigh, February 23, March 10, April 8, 1850; typescripts Huntington Library). With his scientific and medical training, Leigh was also useful to Dickens in writing papers on science for the layman. When Dickens obtained from Faraday the lecture notes of certain of Faraday's lectures, he entrusted them to Leigh to serve as the basis of H.W. articles.

Four of Leigh's H.W. contributions were reprinted in Harper's, with acknowledgment to H.W. Five were included in the Putnam volumes of selections from H.W.:Home and Social Philosophy, 1st and 2nd series. One was included in Choice Stories from Dickens' Household Words, published in Auburn, N.Y., 1854.