[_two rules_]



A
QUIBBLER


I²s a Jugler of Words, that ſhows Tricks
with them, to make them appear what they
were not meant for, and ſerve two Senſes at
once, like one that plays on two _Jews_ Trumps.
He is a Fencer of Language, that falſiſies his
Blow, and hits where he did not aim. He
Has a fooliſh Slight of Wit, that catches at
Words only, and lets the Senſe go, like the
young Thief in the Farce, that took a Purſe,
but gave the Owner his Money back again.
He is ſo well verſed in all Cafes of Quibble,
that he knows when there will be a Blot upon
a Word, as ſoon as it is out. He packs his
Quibbles like a Stock of Cards, let him but
ſhuffle, and cut where you will, he will be
ſure to have it. He dances on a Rope of Sand,
does the _Somerſet_, _Strapado_, and half-ſlrapado
with Words, plays at all manner of Games

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with _Clinches_, _Carwickets_, and _Quibbles_, and
talks _under-Leg_. His Wit is left-handed, and
therefore what others mean for right, he ap-
prehends quite contrary. All his Conceptions
are produced by equivocal Generation, which
makes them juſtly eſteemed but Maggots. He
rings the Changes upon Words, and is ſo ex-
pert, that he can tell at firſt Sight, how
many Variations any Number of Words will
bear. He talks with a _Trillo_, and gives his
Words a double Reliſh. He had rather have
them bear two Senſes in vain and impertinent-
ly, than one to the Purpoſe, and never ſpeaks
without a Lere-Senſe. He talks nothing but
Equivocation and mental Reſervation, and
mightily affects to give a Word a double Stroke,
like a Tennis-Ball againſt two Walls at one
Blow, to defeat the Expectation of his An-
tagonift. He commonly ſlurs every fourth or
fifth Word, and ſeldom fails to throw Dou-
blets. There are two Sorts of Quibbling, the
one with Words, and the other with Senſe,
like the Rhetoricians _Figurae Dictionis & Figurae_
_Senteniae_ — The firſt is already cried down,
[^1]: _Without a Lere-Serſe] A Lere-Sterſe_ is a ſecond or supernume-
rary Scale, as a Led-Horſe was formerly called a Lere-Harſe,
See _Bailey’s_ Dictionary.

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and the other as yet prevails; and is the only
Elegance of our modern Poets, which eaſy
Judges call _Eaſineſs_; but having nothing in it
But _Eaſineſs_, and being never uſed by any laſt-
ing Wit, will in wiſer Times fall to nothing of
itſselſ.

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