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THE

LIFE

OF

JOHN BUNCLE, ESQ.

S.H. 1825.

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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T. WHITE, PRINTER, JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET.

THE LIFE

OF

JOHN BUNCLE, ESQ.

Nec Vixit Male, qui Natus Moriensque fefellit.

THAT the transactions of my life, and the observations and reflections I have made on men and things, by sea and land, in various parts of the world, might not be buried in oblivion, and by length of time, be blotted out of the memory of men, it has been my wont, from the days of my youth to this time, to write down memorandums of every thing I thought worth noticing, as men and matters, books and circumstances, came in my way; and in hopes they may be of some service to my fellow-mortals I publish them. Some pleasing and some surprising things the reader will find in them. He will meet with miscellany thoughts upon several subjects. He will read, if he pleases, some tender stories. But all the relations, the thoughts,

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