Jest-Books

Whether they profe to contain the humorous sayings of one man or not, in almost all cases they have been collections gathered from many sources. The wit so frequently ascribed to one person is generally the common property of many nations. Among famous English jest-books are A Hundred Mery Talys (ab. 1525), Mery Tales, Wittie Questions and Quicke Answeres, very Mery, and Pleasant to be Redde (ab. 1535), Taylor's Wit and Mirth, Tarlton's Jests, Jests of Scogin, Joe Miller's Jest - Book (1739), Liber Facet i arum, by Poggio Braccio lin i (1450).