*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCTUATION PERSONIFIED ***
PUNCTUATION
Personified:
OR
POINTING MADE EASY.
BY
MR. STOPS.
LONDON:
JOHN HARRIS,
CORNER OF ST. PAUL’S CHURCH-YARD.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY S. AND R. BENTLEY, DORSET STREET.
[Pg 1]
ROBERT’S first interview with MR. STOPS.
Young Robert could read but he gabbled so fast:
And ran on with such speed, that all meaning he lost.
Till one Morning he met Mr. Stops by the way,
Who advis’d him to listen to what he should say.
Then entering the house, he a riddle repeated.
To shew, WITHOUT STOPS, how the ear may be cheated.
[Pg 2]
MR. STOPS READING TO ROBERT AND HIS SISTER.
“Ev’ry lady in this land
“Has twenty nails upon each hand
“Five & twenty on hands & feet
“And this is true without deceit.”
But when the stops were plac’d aright,
The real sense was brought to light.
[Pg 3]
COUNSELLOR COMMA, marked thus ,
Here counsellor Comma the reader may view,
Who knows neither guile nor repentance;
A straight forward path he resolves to pursue
By dividing short parts of a sentence;
As “Charles can sing, whistle, leap, tumble, & run,”—
Yet so BRIEF is each pause, that he merely counts ONE.
[Pg 4]
ENSIGN SEMICOLON, marked thus ;
See, how Semicolon is strutting with pride;
Into two or more parts he’ll a sentence divide.
As “John’s a good scholar; but George is a better:
One wrote a fair copy; the other a letter.”
Without this gay ensign we little could do;
And when he appears we must pause & count TWO.
[Pg 5]
A COLON, marked thus :
The colon consists of two dots, as you see:
And remains within sight whilst you count one, two, three:
Tis us’d where the sense is complete, tho but part
Of the sentence you’re reading, or learning by heart.
As “Gold is deceitful: it bribes to destroy.”
“Young James is admired: he’s a very good boy.”
[Pg 6]
A PERIOD or Full Stop,
marked thus .
The full-fac’d gentleman here shown
To all my friends, no doubt, is known:
In him the PERIOD we behold,
Who stands his ground whilst four are told;
And always ends a perfect sentence,
As “Crime is followed by repentance.”
[Pg 7]
THE INTERROGATIVE POINT ?
What little crooked man is this?
He’s call’d INTERROGATION, Miss:
He’s always asking this & that,
As “What’s your name? Whose dog is that?”
And for your answer, he will stay
While you, One, Two, Three, Four, can say.
[Pg 8]
THE EXCLAMATION POINT !
or Note of Admiration.
This Youth, so struck with admiration,
Is of a wondering generation,
With face so long, and thin and pale,
He cries, “Oh! what a wonderous tale!”
While you count four, he stops, and then,
Admiring! he goes on again.
[Pg 9]
AN APOSTROPHE ’
The comma, plac’d as here you see,
From the word LOV’D has snatch’d a letter;
It bears the name APOSTROPHE:—
And, perhaps, you can’t contrive a better.
In poetry ’tis chiefly found,
Where sense should coincide with sound.
[Pg 10]
A dash —
Circumflex ^ Breve
˘ Diæresis ¨ Hyphen -
Acute Accent ´ Grave Accent `
Parenthesis ( )
A DASH & a CIRCUMFLEX here form a hat;
A BREVE serves to mark out the face;
DIÆRESIS, too, & the HYPHEN come pat,
As a breast & a neck in their place:
The arms are the Accents, both GRAVE & ACUTE,
And for legs the PARENTHESIS nicely may suit.
[Pg 11]
YOU
DON’T SEE
The use of me.
Don’t you see
a Caret
A Caret, marked thus ^.
If you a letter are inditing
And make an error in your writing,
By leaving out a word, or two,
The CARET may be us’d by you;
As “This new book to Charles I send,
And hope to please my dearest friend.”
[Pg 12]
A Section, marked thus §.
This Gentleman of deep reflections,
Divides a subject into Sections;
Ideas ranging under heads,
As gardens are laid out in beds;
That o’er the whole the eye may move,
Survey the plan, & then approve.
[Pg 13]
A PARAGRAPH ¶.
The PARAGRAPH, which here you view,
Always announces something new;
Distinct from what was read before,
As is the water from the shore.
This mark in Scripture oft is found,
As thriving best on sacred ground.
[Pg 14]
A QUOTATION “ ”
Two commas standing on their heads,
Their orders are obeying;
Two others, risen from their beds,
Their best respects are paying;
These four are ushers of much use,
As they great authors introduce.
[Pg 15]
BRACKETS OR CROTCHETS [] BRACE } ELLIPSIS __
PARALLELS ∥ OBELISK † DOUBLE DAGGER ‡ ASTERISK *
These Brackets some words may enclose, without doubt:
The Brace several lines will unite;
Ellipsis is us’d where we letters leave out.
As k—t may be read for a knight.
The Parallels, Ob’lisk, & Daggers we find,
Like the ASTERISK only for ref’rence design’d.
[Pg 16]
HARRIS’S
CABINET OF AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION,
Consisting of the most approved Novelties for the Nursery;
Printed in a superior manner upon good paper, 1s. 6d. each,
and illustrated with Sixteen Engravings neatly coloured.
1. Mother Hubbard & her Dog.
2. Dame Trot and her Cat.
3. Cock Robin, a Painted Toy.
4. History of the House that
Jack Built.
5. Nursery Novelties, or a
New Alphabet for Children.
6. History of the Apple Pie, an Alphabet
for little Masters and Misses.
7. Dame Dearlove’s Ditties
for the Nursery.
8. Peter Piper’s Practical Principles
of Plain & Perfect Pronunciation.
9. The Infant’s Friend, or Easy
Reading Lessons.
10. The Snow-Drop, or Poetic
Trifles for Little Folks.
11. The Hobby-Horse, being a
revival of that favourite Alphabet, A
was an Archer and shot at a Frog.
12. Cries of London, or Sketches
of Characters in the Metropolis.
13. The Courtship, Marriage, &c.
of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren.
14. The Alphabet of Goody Two
Shoes; “by learning which she
soon got rich.”
15. History of Sixteen Wonderful
Old Women.
16. Spring Flowers, or Easy
Lessons, not exceeding Words of Two
Syllables. By Mrs. Ritson.
17. The Phœnix, or a Choice Collection
of Riddles and Charades.
18. Sir Harry Herald’s View
of the Dignitaries of England,
shewing the Costume of different
Ranks, and the Coronation Regalia.
19. The Paths of Learning
strewed with Flowers, or English
Grammar illustrated.
20. Tommy Trip’s Museum, or a
Peep at the Quadruped Race, Part I.
21. Ditto, Part II.—22. Part III.
23. The Costumes of Different
Nations, illustrated.
24. Wonders, descriptive of some
of the most remarkable in Art and
Nature.
25. The Monthly Monitor; or
Short Stories, adapted to every Season
of the Year. By Mrs. Ritson.
26. The Picturesque Primer,
with 72 Engravings.
27. The Peacock at Home; with
The Butterfly’s Ball.
28. Simple Stories in Words of
One Syllable, by the Author of the
“Stories of Old Daniel.”
29. The New Tom Thumb; and
Account of his Wonderful Exploits.
30. Valentine and Orson, or
Two Sons of the Emperor of Greece.
31. Take your Choice, or the
Alphabet Community.
32. Lapland Sketches; or, Costume,
&c. of Jens Holm and his Wife.
33. Tom Pickle’s Family History,
versified by himself.
34. Tommy Trip’s Museum of
Birds, Part I.
35. Ditto, Part II.
36. The Infant’s Grammar; or a
Pic-Nic Party of the Parts of Speech.
37. The Monkey’s Frolic.
38. The Seven Champions of
Christendom.
39. Little Rhymes for Little
Folks.
40. Poetical Gems; or Short
Pieces from the most admired Authors,
to commit to memory.
41. Punctuation Personified,
or Pointing made Easy; by Mr. Stops.
42. Pug’s Travels thro’ Europe.
43. Peep at the Stars.
44. The Scripture Alphabet.
45. Portraits and Characters
of the Kings of England, from William
Conqueror to Edw. IV. Part I.
46. Ditto, from Edward IV. to
George III. Part II.
47. New Year’s Feast, on his
coming of Age; a Poem illustrative
of the Festivals and Fasts.
48. Travels and Adventures
of John Bull the Younger.
49. An Alphabetical Arrangement
of Animals, by Sally Sketch.
50. The Three Cakes; a Tale in
Verse, from the Original in Prose by
Mrs. Barbauld.
51. The Word Book.
52. The Rational Alphabet.
53. Royal Primer, or high Road
to Learning.
54. Old Woman and her Pig.
55. Cinderella, or the little
Glass Slipper.
56. Puss in Boots.
57. Whittington and his Cat.
58. Walks with Mamma.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCTUATION PERSONIFIED ***
