This is cantly called “talking to Bunkum:” an “honorable gentleman” long ago, having said that he was not speaking to the house, but to the people of a certain county in his district, which, in local phrase, he called “Bunkum.”

Yes in good ſooth, the vice is of a great kindred; it is vvell allied, but it is impoſſible to extirpe it quite, Frier, till eating and drinking be put dovvne.

When the miracle plays became too comic for the taste of the bishops, a generation of lay showmen carried on the tradition of clownship. The combination of showman and dramatist did not outlive the Elizabethans; […]

I saw the huge rocking-stone, that had been violently depressed by him as he sprang, fly back when relieved of his weight till, for the first time during all these centuries, it got beyond its balance, fell with a most awful crash right into the rocky chamber which had once served the philosopher Noot for a hermitage, and, I have no doubt, for ever sealed the passage that leads to the Place of Life with some hundreds of tons of rock.