CHAPTER III. THE RIDICULOUS. § 432. THE RIDICULOUS. THE ridiculous has reference to those things which conduce to mirthfulness, laughter, or derision. The term "ludicrous" is often used as interchangeable with it. There are some who distinguish between the two, associating the former with contempt, and the latter with mirthfulness; but this is a distinction which cannot be insisted on, and the term ridiculous may be considered as the more comprehensive of the two. The source of the ridiculous lies in the perception of incongruity. The laws of mind and experience lead us to anticipate a regular order in ideas or in events, such as the logical sequence of cause and effect, antecedent and consequent; the proper classification of genus and species; the subordination of a part to the whole, the less to the greater, and the like. By incongruity is meant the violation of this order, and the effect of this is to excite within the mind a sense of the ludicrous. This is illustrated in the following cases. 1. Cause and effect. Where there is a great parade of preparation without any result whatever: as— "The king of France, with twice ten thousand men, 2. Antecedent and consequent. Where there is an inconsequential statement, that is, where one statement follows another without any connection between them: as "To whom the knight, with comely grace, Put off his hat, to put his case." "His head was turned, and so he chewed 3. Classification. Where discordant things are jumbled together: as "Not louder shrieks to pitying heaven are cast, When husbands or when lapdogs breathe their last." 4. Comparison. Where the resemblance is affirmed between two totally incongruous objects, which, however, are said to have one thing in common: as— "Like a lobster boiled the morn, From black to red began to turn." 5. Contrast. Where an unexpected and violent contrast is presented: way. The sense of the ridiculous is as widely diffused as the sense of the beautiful, and differs according to the taste in the same The clown enjoys coarse jokes, while the man of culture can only appreciate refined wit, and is disgusted by that which is amusing to the other, while to the other the light and graceful raillery of the educated man seems unintelligible. § 433. WIT. The chief elements of the ridiculous are two, namely, wit and humor. 1. Wit. Wit is a certain quickness of fancy, by which ideas, seemingly incongruous, are associated in a pointed and amusing manner. It may also be defined as a sudden association of incongruous things, expressed in brief and striking language. In wit there are three requisites: Ist. Pointed expression, such as antithesis, which is often used; or any other form which may serve this purpose. 2d. Brevity. "Brevity is the soul of wit." 3d. The association of incongruities: as— "The general is a great taker of snuff as well as of towns." "Beneath this stone my wife doth lie; She's now at rest-and so am I." Sydney Smith's wish "to take off his flesh and sit in his bones" is a well-known example. Wit is associated with pointed language. It makes use of artificial forms of expression, which are sometimes classed among the figures of speech. Antithesis is very largely employed for purposes of this kind; and there are other figures which are used exclusively in this way, such as paronomasia, and all plays on words. Wit is employed in the following: The bon-mot, the double-entendre, epigram, innuendo, irony, lampoon, pasquinade, repartee, sarcasm, sneer. Wit is elaborately defined by Dr. Isaac Barrow : "It is a thing so versatile and multiform, appearing in so many shapes, so many postures, so many garbs, so variously apprehended by several eyes and judgments, that it seemeth no less hard to settle a clear and certain notion thereof than to make a portrait of Proteus, or to define the figure of the fleeting air. Sometimes it lieth in pat allusion to a known story, or in seasonable application of a trivial saying, or in forging an apposite tale; sometimes it playeth on words and phrases, taking advantage from the ambiguity of their sense or the affinity of their sound. Sometimes it is wrapped in a dress of humorous expression; sometimes it lurketh under an odd similitude; sometimes it is lodged in a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in a shrewd intimation, in cunningly diverting or cleverly retorting an objection; sometimes it is couched in a bold scheme of speech, in a tart irony, in a lusty hyperbole, in a startling metaphor, in a plausible reconciling of contradictions, or in acute nonsense; sometimes a scenical representation of persons or things, a counterfeit speech, a mimical look or gesture passeth for it; sometimes an affected simplicity, sometimes a presumptuous bluntness giveth it being; sometimes it riseth only upon a lucky hitting upon what is strange; sometimes from a crafty twisting obvious matter to the purpose; often it consists in one knows not what, and springeth up one can hardly tell how. Its ways are unaccountable and inexplicable, being answerable to the numberless rovings of fancy and windings of language. It is, in short, a manner of speaking out of the simple and plain way-such as reason teacheth and proveth things by-which by a pretty surprising uncouthness in conceit or expression doth affect and amuse the fancy, stirring in it some wonder, and breeding some delight thereto." § 434. HUMOR. Humor may be defined as the quality of fancy which gives. to things a ridiculous turn and evokes mirthfulness. Humor is more prolonged in duration than wit, which is fitful, short-lived, and associated with brevity and point of expression, and great artificiality in the structure of sentences. In humor the sense of the ridiculous is maintained at greater length, and it is a general element pervading a whole composition. In the following passage, De Quincey distinguishes between wit and humor : "While wit is a purely intellectual thing, into every act of the humorous mind there is an influx of the moral nature: rays, direct or refracted, from the will and the affections, from the disposition and the temperament, enter into all humor; and thence it is that humor is of a diffusive quality, pervading an entire course of thoughts; while wit-because it has no existence apart from certain logical relations of a thought which are definitely assignable, and can be counted even—is always punctually concentrated within the circle of a few words." The general characteristics of humor are illustrated in the following passages. The first is from Charles Lamb's Dissertation on Roast Pig: “The judge, who was a shrewd fellow, winked at the manifest iniquity of the decision; and when the court was dismissed, went privily, and bought up all the pigs that could be had for love or money. In a few days his lordship's town-house was observed to be on fire. The thing took wing, and now there was nothing to be seen but fire in every direction. Fuel and pigs grew enormously dear all over the district. The insurance-offices one and all shut up shop. People built slighter and slighter every day, until it was feared that the very science of architecture would in no long time be lost to the world. Thus this custom of firing houses continued, till, in process of time, says my manuscript, a sage arose, like our Locke, who made a discovery that the flesh of swine, or indeed of any other animal, might be cooked (burned, as they called it) without the necessity of consuming a whole house to dress it. Then first began the rude form of a gridiron. Roasting by the string or spit came in a century or two later; I forget in whose dynasty. By such slow degrees, concludes the manuscript, do the most useful and seemingly the most obvious arts make their way among mankind." The next is from the same writer's "Letter to B. F., at Sydney, New South Wales." The humor is based upon the fact that at that time this was a penal colony: When I try to fix it, "I cannot imagine to myself whereabout you are. Peter Wilkins's island comes across me. Sometimes you seem to be in the Hades of Thieves. I see Diogenes prying about among you with his perpetual, fruitless lantern. What must you be willing to give by this time for the sight of an honest man. You must almost have forgotten how we look. And tell me what you Sydneyites do? Are they th. . v . ng all day long? Merciful heaven! what property can stand against such depredation ! . . . We hear the most improbable tales at this distance. Pray, is it true that the young Spartans among you are born with six fingers, which spoils their scanning? It must look very odd, but use reconciles. For their scansion it is less to be regretted, for if they take it into their heads to be poets, it is odds but they turn out, the greater part of them, vile plagiarists. Is there much difference to see, too, between the son of a th . . f and the grandson, or where does the taint stop? Do you bleach in three or in four generations?... Do you grow your own hemp? What is your staple trade, exclusive of the national profession, I mean? Your locksmiths, I take it, are some of your great capitalists." $435. WIT AND HUMOR IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. It has often been remarked that the French are more given to wit, and the English to humor. This is due in part to national characteristics, but it is also due to the difference between the French and English languages. The former has greater precision and nicety of expression than the latter, and a larger supply of the very qualities which best serve the purpose of wit. Thus the whole genius of the people and of the language turns to delicacy and subtlety of expression, antithetic point, and sparkling epigram. English literature is, however, sufficiently rich in examples of wit, and writers equal to the very best of the French have flourished in every age, from Lord Bacon to Matthew Arnold. Not a few of the English wits have enlarged their vocabulary and sharpened their epigrammatic point by a close study of French models. It was the prevailing French taste that may be said to have influenced the greatest of all English witsAlexander Pope. Humor, however, is rather peculiar to the English genius. No other nation has so entirely appropriated it, nor can any other show such a body of humorous literature which is so truly great. Indeed, the very word "humor" can scarcely be translated. It is, as has been shown, more prolonged and sustained than wit; it is associated with simplicity, naivete, even homeliness of expression; and is adapted to the plain, straightforward, and unpretending nature of the Anglo-Saxon race and speech. With these it also blends kindliness, geniality, and sympathy. In character it differs altogether from wit. For wit is keen and pitiless, but humor is mild and gentle; wit is for enemies, |