[...]... can feel the force of their wit, their originality and (when it is there to be felt) their greatness The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes is a successor to James Sutherland’s and Donald Hall’s anthologies, rather than a revised version I owe a great deal to Sutherland and Hall’s editorial example, but in terms of content the overlap between us is relatively small: less than  per cent of the material... Walton, Life of Dr John Donne The monument was the only one to survive the destruction of old St Paul’s in the Great Fire of London It can still be seen in the cathedral today Robert Burton 1577–1640 (author of The Anatomy of Melancholy) The author is said to have laboured long in the writing of this book to suppress his own melancholy, and yet did but improve it; and that some readers have found the same... 1554–1586 Sidney spent the last year of his life in the Netherlands In October  he joined the forces led by his uncle, the Earl of Leicester, in an attack on a Spanish relief column trying to reach the besieged town of Zutphen, and in the course of the fighting he was wounded in the thigh: The horse he rode upon was rather furiously choleric than bravely proud, and so forced him to forsake the field, but... notes at the end of the less heroic or less edifying items I had chosen, reminders of how much more there was to the authors in question But then I reflected that I ought to have faith in my readers, that they would be far too wise not to recognize that an anecdote isn’t the whole story And in any case, there are many more anecdotes in the book from which writers emerge with their reputations strengthened––stories... in their father’s chamber, asleep He carries Sir William into the chamber and takes the sheet by the corner and suddenly whips it off They lay on their backs, and their smocks up as high as their armpits This awakened them, and immediately they turned on their bellies Quoth Roper, ‘I have seen both sides,’ and so gave a pat on the buttock he made choice of, saying, ‘Thou art mine.’ Here was all the. .. Burton, and of the books he bequeathed to the Bodleian Library, a great many of which were little historical diverting pamphlets, now grown wonderful scarce, which Mr Burton used to divert himself with, as he did with other little merry books, of which there are many in his benefaction, one of which is The History of Tom Thumb Hearne, Reliquiae Hearnianae Richard Corbet 1582–1635 (Bishop of Oxford and... to me the most concise and readable version (This isn’t always the most scholarly one.) The source is given at the end of each item Spelling and punctuation have been modernized, except in a few minor cases Many of the authors who are the subject of anecdotes are introduced by a headnote briefly explaining who they were (or are) Where there isn’t such a note, it is either because I have assumed the great... by Sir James Murray to the King for writing something against the Scots in a play Eastward Ho!, and voluntarily imprisoned himself with Chapman and Marston, who had written it amongst them The report was, that they should then have their ears cut and noses After their delivery, he banqueted all his friends; there was Camden, Selden and others At the midst of the feast, his old mother drank to him, and... friend is telling the anecdote at a dinner party is barely fit for polite society Anecdotes are a form of entertainment––at their best, an art form Most of the time it is enough if they are broadly true (and even some of the whoppers are acceptable, as long as nobody takes them too seriously) Still, I must admit that the question of getting the facts right occasionally nags at me In the introduction... he reminded her of the order she had given, in the following lines: I was promised on a time To have reason for my rhime From that time, unto this season, I received nor rhime, nor reason The paper produced the intended effect, and the Queen, after sharply reproving the Treasurer, immediately directed the payment of the hundred pounds she had first ordered Theophilus Cibber, The Lives of the Poets,  .