It was during this period that some of his talents were displayed in the manner we have described, though his great fame as an improvisatore was established more completely in later days.  Yet he had already made himself a name in that species of wit—­not a very high one—­which found favour with the society of that period.  We allude to imitation, ’taking off,’ and punning.  The last contemptible branch of wit-making, now happily confined to ‘Punch,’ is as old as variety of language.  It is not possible with simple vocabularies, and accordingly is seldom met with in purely-derived languages.  Yet we have Roman and Greek puns; and English is peculiarly adapted to this childish exercise, because, being made up of several languages, it necessarily contains many words which are like in sound and unlike in meaning.  Punning is, in fact, the vice of English wit, the temptation of English mirth-makers, and, at last, we trust, the scorn of English good sense.  But in Theodore’s day it held a high place, and men who had no real wit about them could twist and turn words and combinations of words with great ingenuity and much readiness, to the delight of their listeners.  Pun-making was a fashion among the conversationists of that day, and took the place of better wit.  Hook was a disgraceful punster, and a successful one.  He strung puns together by the score—­nothing more easy—­in his improvised songs and conversation.  Take an instance from his quiz on the march of intellect:—­

  ’Hackney-coachmen from Swift shall reply, if you feel
    Annoyed at being needlessly shaken;
  And butchers, of course, be flippant from Steele,
    And pig-drivers well versed in Bacon. 
  From Locke shall the blacksmiths authority brave,
    And gas-men cite Coke at discretion;
  Undertakers talk Gay as they go to the grave,
    And watermen Rowe by profession.’

I have known a party of naturally stupid people produce a whole century of puns one after another, on any subject that presented itself, and I am inclined to think that nothing can, at the same time, be more nauseous, or more destructive to real wit.  Yet Theodore’s strength lay in puns, and when shorn of them, the Philistines might well laugh at his want of strength.  Surely his title to wit does not lie in that direction.

However, he amused, and that gratis; and an amusing man makes his way anywhere if he have only sufficient tact not to abuse his privileges.  Hook grew great in London society for a time, and might have grown greater if a change had not come.

He had supported himself, up to 1812, almost entirely by his pen:  and the goose-quill is rarely a staff, though it may sometimes be a walking-stick.  It was clear that he needed—­what so many of us need and cannot get—­a certainty.  Happy fellow! he might have begged for an appointment for years in vain, as many another does, but it fell into his lap, no one knows how, and at four-and-twenty Mr. Theodore Edward Hook was made treasurer to the Island of Mauritius, with a salary of L2,000 per annum.  This was not to be, and was not, despised.  In spite of climate, mosquitoes, and so forth, Hook took the money and sailed.