THE
COMIC ENGLISH GRAMMAR.
"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.
A monarch, who, three or four generations back, occupied the English throne, is reported to have said, "If beebles will be boets, they must sdarve." This was a rather curious specimen of "King's English." It is, however, a maxim of English law, that "the King can do no wrong." Whatever bad English, therefore, may proceed from the royal mouth, is not "King's English," but "Minister's English," for which they alone are responsible.
King's English (or perhaps, under existing circumstances it should be called, Queen's English) is the current coin of conversation, to mutilate which, and unlawfully to utter the same, is called clipping the King's English; a high crime and misdemeanor.
Clipped English, or bad English, is one variety of
