The Pun "a play on words" - see Jonathan Culler (ed) On Puns- The Foundation of Letters, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1988, and the result of a conference. Recommended is Derrick Atridge's "Unpacking the portmanteau or Who's Afraid of Finnegan's Wake".

SEE Walter Redfern, Puns, Oxford, 1984.

Arne and Thompson, "Eight Types of Puns" Publication of the Modern Languages Association, Vol 71 1956.
 
ILLUSTRATIONS ABOVE "Honi Soit qui Mal Y Puns" a visual selection of puns - Lisle's Play Upon Words ; published by Thomas McLean in London, undated, c1835, and each in this format 11 x14cms.