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THE

LIFE

OF

JOHN BUNCLE, ESQ.

:

John Buncle is the ENGLISH RABELAIS.' The soul of Francis Rabelais passed into Thomas Amory, the author of the Life and Adventures of John Buncle; both were Physicians, and enemies of too much gravity. Their great business was to enjoy life. Rabelais indulges his spirit of sensuality in wine, in dried neat's tongues, in Bologna sausages, in Botargos. John Buncle shews the same symptoms of inordinate satisfaction in tea and bread and butter. While Rabelais roared with Friar John and the Monks, John Buncle gossipped with the ladies; and with equal and uncontrolled gaiety. These two authors possessed all the insolence of health, so that their works give a fillip to the Constitution; but they carried off the exuberance of their natural spirits in different ways. The title of one of Rabelais' chapters, and the contents answer to the title, is, 'How they chirped over their cup. The title of a corresponding chapter in John Buncle would run thus :-'The author is invited to spend the evening with the divine Miss Hawkins, and goes accordingly, with the delightful conversation that ensued.'

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