Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 2).pdf/79

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[73]

tinued my father,—I declare I would not have my head so full of curtins and horn-works.—That, I dare say, you would not, quoth Dr. Slop, interrupting him, and laughing most immoderately at his pun.

Dennis the critic could not detest and abhor a pun, or the insinuation of a pun, more cordially than my father;—he would grow testy upon it at any time;—but to be broke in upon by one, in a serious discourse, was as bad, he would say, as a fillip upon the nose;—he saw no difference.

Sir, quoth my uncle Toby, addressing himself to Dr. Slop,—the curtins my brother Shandy mentions here, have nothing to do with bed-steads;—tho', I know Du Cange says, "That bed-cur-"tains,