"The Seeds of Punning are in the Minds of all Men, and tho' they may be subdued by Reason, Reflection, and Good Sense, they will be very apt to shoot up in the greatest Genius that is not broken and cultivated by the Rules of Art."
— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
May 10, 1711
Metaphor
"The Seeds of Punning are in the Minds of all Men, and tho' they may be subdued by Reason, Reflection, and Good Sense, they will be very apt to shoot up in the greatest Genius that is not broken and cultivated by the Rules of Art."
Metaphor in Context
There is no kind of false Wit which has been so recommended by the Practice of all Ages as that which consists in a Jingle of Words, and is comprehended under the general Name of Punning. It is indeed impossible to kill a Weed which the Soil has a natural Disposition to produce. The Seeds of Punning are in the Minds of all Men, and tho' they may be subdued by Reason, Reflection, and Good Sense, they will be very apt to shoot up in the greatest Genius that is not broken and cultivated by the Rules of Art. Imitation is natural to us, and when it does not raise the Mind to Poetry, Painting, Musick, or other more noble Arts, it often breaks out in Punns and Quibbles.
(p. 85)
(p. 85)
Categories
Provenance
Reading; found again Laura Brown, Ends of Empire (Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 1993), 1. Found again searching "mind" in Project Gutenberg e-text.
Citation
See Donald Bond's edition: The Spectator, 5 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965).
Reading in Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. Selections from the Tatler and the Spectator. Ed. Robert J. Allen. 2nd ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1970).
Reading in Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. Selections from the Tatler and the Spectator. Ed. Robert J. Allen. 2nd ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1970).
Date of Entry
06/15/2010
Date of Review
03/22/2013
