You have to click the ID to get the full text of each joke.
I didn't expect to get them all, but having read 4 jokes, I found all but one completely impenetrable! Can anyone explain this one, for instance? (I slightly edited it to correct transcription errors) EDIT: Hm, I'm not sure that these are all supposed to be jokes. The following couldn't possily be meant to be humourous?A good story is told of a certain actor whose fate it was to represent the inferior personages in the drama, such as messengers, serving-men, etc. One night, a certain great tragedian being engaged, the poor actor, enacting the character of a servant, had to repeat these words,— "My Lord, the coach is waiting." This was all he had to say, but turning to the gallery part of the audience, he added, with stentorian voice, ''And permit me further to observe, that the man who raises his hand against a woman, save in the way of kindness, is unworthy the name of a Briton." Shouts of applause followed. After the play, on being remonstrated with by the great tragedian for this innovation, he replied, "I regret to have annoyed you, but it's my benefit next week, and I must make myself popular with the audience."
The brave only know how to forgive; it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at. Cowards have done good and kind actions, cowards have even fought, nay, sometimes even conquered; but a coward never forgave; it is not in his nature ; the power of doing it flows only from a strength and greatness of soul, conscious of its own force and security, and above the little temptations of resenting every fruitless attempt to interrupt its happiness.
Saw this on reddit earlier, I liked this joke best:A Frenchman, meeting an English soldier with a Waterloo medal, began sneeringly to animadvert on the British Government for bestowing such a trifle, which did not cost them three francs. "That is true, to be sure," replied the soldier; "it did not cost the English Government three francs, but it cost the French a 'Napoleon.'"