< A chesnut, Captain, a chesnut!
Zav. Bah, you booby! I say, a cork!
Pab. And I swear, a chesnut. Captain, this is the twenty-seventh time 1 have heard you relate this story, and you invariably said, a chesnut, till now.
Jefferson traced the connection through William Warren, “the veteran comedian of Boston” who often played Pablo in the melodrama.
see old chestnut.