KETT, Henry.
The Flowers of Wit, or a Choice Collection of Bon Mots, both antient and modern; with biographical and critical Remarks … In two Volumes …
London: Printed for Lackington, Allen, and Co. … at the Weybridge Press, by S. Hamilton. 1814.
2 vols., 12mo., pp. iii-xxiv, 216; [2], 222, wanting the half-titles; somewhat foxed, D4 in volume I torn, but without loss; else a good copy in later nineteenth-century green textured cloth, morocco spine labels, covers a little soiled and stained.
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The Flowers of Wit, or a Choice Collection of Bon Mots, both antient and modern; with biographical and critical Remarks … In two Volumes …
First edition, scarce, of a compilation of witty anecdotes and clever ripostes ordered alphabetically by author (including Cervantes, Queen Elizabeth, Samuel Johnson, ‘The Spartans’, Swift, Voltaire), and then by subject, with an appendix of ‘Puns’ and ‘Bulls’.
Norwich-born Kett had travelled to France in 1789 and witnessed the early days of the Revolution. He contested several times for the Professorship of poetry at Oxford, without success, but was author of some Juvenile Poems 1793 and the novel Emily, a moral Tale (1809). Subject to depression, he was found drowned in 1825.
COPAC and OCLC show only British Library, Glasgow, Durham, and Cambridge.
