satire

No glister-pipe, bum-peeping apothecary

The following speech appeared in a comic 18th-century booklet called The Harangues or Speeches of Several Famous Mountebanks in Town or Country, which makes fun of high-profile medical salesmen by attributing to them wild claims about their remedies. Later editions (under the title The Harangues, or Speeches, of Several Celebrated Quack Doctors in Town and […]

The repeated delight of so divertising a remedy

The following is from a spoof quack handbill published in 1676 as part of a pamphlet called The Character of a quack doctor, or, The Abusive practices of impudent illiterate pretenders to physick exposed. Spelling and punctuation are as originally printed. . EXIMIO PRAEDICO; OR A Thousand Infallible Cures At the Golden Ball in Fop-Ally next dore to the flying Hedghog in New-Alsasia, Lives […]

A Poem on Christmas Day

From the Gentleman’s Magazine, December 1766: CHRISTMAS DAY. Welcome, thrice welcome Christmas day ! Let’s eat, drink, dance, and sing away: Old England ne’er had stronger reason To welcome in this joyful season ! Mark high and low, and all around us And know the blessings that surround us. Let ‘em in all their pomp […]