FileTitle: Prose1251.html
Category: Humor
Type: Prose
Description: Insults, Legendary
Almost 2000 years after the art of insult mentioned yesterday by Diogenes to
Alexander the Great, the art had reached devistating and almost fatal
viciousness. The antagonism between Britisher William Pitt, the first Earl
of Chatham, and Robert Walpole, Earl of Oxford, lead to some of the most
severe diatribes ever recorded. The climax was reached when, after a
particularly heated speech, Walpole and Pitt met outside of Parliament. The
older man furiously taunted the younger. Said Walpole, "You will either die
on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease!"

"That, my Lord," replied Pitt, depends upon whether I embrase your policies
or your mistress."