SOURCE: “The Blending of Wit and Jest: An Introduction,” in “A Nest of Ninnies” and Other English Jestbooks of the Seventeenth Century, edited by P. M. Zall, University of Nebraska Press, 1970, pp. ix-xvii.

In the following excerpt, Zall traces the evolution of jests and puns in English printed materials beginning in the 1400s, examining in detail works from the seventeenth century.

The Blending of Wit and Jest

… [The] making of jestbooks became an industry in the seventeenth century, expanding with the development of a larger reading public. Jestbooks flourished throughout the land, feeding one upon another in a happy self-sustaining cycle. Badly printed, crudely written, they were welcome alike in parlor and pulpit, playhouse and pub. Aside from their value in sparkling conversation and repartee, they provided preachers with pithy parables, pundits with pungent wit, and a rising middle class with instant culture. It would not be surprising...