The New London Jest Book Classic Reprint

Author : William Carew Hazlitt
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781332912674
Total Pages : 94 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (126 download)

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Download or read book A Hundred Merry Tales written by William Carew Hazlitt and published by . This book was released on 2016-06-25 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from A Hundred Merry Tales: The Earliest English Jest-Book Here may be some, who will attach value and interest to the singular old volume, now first reproduced in exact imitation of the original, on account of the casual mention of it by Shakespear in one of his plays; but I hope and think that many more will welcome its appearance on another and higher ground, and will become of opinion that, where a solitary copy of such a relic as the earliest est-book in the national tongue of England is only to be found in a foreign repository, and is liable to destruction at any moment, the survival, not of its mere substance alone, but of its very identity, in the shape of a facsimile, is one of those minor duties, which we owe to sue ceeding generations. In the good former days, a gentleman who did his friends and the public the favour of reprinting a curious old book, was re garded as a sort of benefactor by a few who knew a little about the matter, and by the greater number, who knew nothing, he was considered a person of elegant tastes and of liberal disposi tion for he usually engaged in the speculation on his own responsibility. The case is now altogether altered, and any one who proposes to give to the world a new edition of an old book or tract, is in peril of being received as a Frenchman receives the news of his third child, unless he can make out a pretty strong plea for his proceeding. He must bring his justification in his hand. The burden of proof is upon him. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.