An essay on laughter

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Essay on laughter.
Its
forms.
Its
causes
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U
AN ESSAY ON LAUGHTER
BY TEE SAME AUTHOR.
THE HUMAN MIND
a.
:
Text-book of Psychology.
2
8vo, 21*.
vols.
OUTLINES OF PSYCHOLOGY. Crown
8vo, 9s.
THE TEACHER'S HANDBOOK OF PSYCHOLOGY.
Crown
8vo, 6s.
6rf.
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD.
CHILDREN'S
WAYS
Childhood".
top, 4s.
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8vo, 10s. 6d.
being Selections from "Studies of
With 25
Illustrations.
Crown
6cJ.
LONGMANS, GBEEN, AND
LONDON,
NEW
CO.,
YORK, AND BOMBAY.
8to, gilt
AN ESSAY
ON
LAUGHTER
ITS FORMS, ITS CAUSES, ITS
AND
ITS
DEVELOPMENT
VALUE
JAMES SULLY,
M.A., LL.D.
AUTHOR OP "THE HUMAN MIND," "STUDIES OP CHILDHOOD,"
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND
39
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1902
ETC.
CO.
^fi.
^Ai;
(?3
13 /=
76'
L3
S96-
TO
MY CHILDREN AND MY PUPILS
IN
THAT
IF
THE HOPE
THEY CULTIVATE BOTH BEAIN AND HEART,
AND HAVE A QUICK EAB FOB
THE MUFFLED MOANINQS ALONG THE BOAD,
THEY MAY HEAR ALSO,
ABOVE THE DEEPEB MUSIC,
THE BLITHE NOTES OF LAUQHTEB.
PEEFACE.
The
work is, I believe, the first attempt to
on a considerable scale the whole subject of
Laughter, under its various aspects, and in its
present
treat
connections with our serious activities and interests.
As
such,
it
will, I feel sure, lay itself
to the criticism that
it
open
lacks completeness, or at
least, proportion.
A further
feel equally sure,
it
will
criticism to which, I
expose
itself,
is
that
it
clearly reflects the peculiarities of the experience
The
of the writer.
anticipation of this objection
does not, however, disturb me.
to
It
seems to
be not only inevitable, but desirable
—at
me
least
knowledge of the
subject that one who attempts to understand an
impulse, of which the intensities and the forms
appear to vary greatly among men, of which the
workings are often subtle, and of which the sigat the present
stage of
our
—
nificance
making
is
full
by no means obvious, should, while
use of others' impressions, draw
largely on his
own
experience.
Portions of the volume have already appeared
in Keviews.
Chapter
I.
was published (under the
PREFACE
viii
a Theory of Laughter ") in
The Philosophical Review, 1900 Chapter V., in the
Reme Philosophique, 1902 and Chapter VIII., in
title
"
Prolegomena
to
;
;
The parts of
The International Monthly, 1901.
the psychoof
treat
which
Chapters III. and VI.
logy of tickling appeared in the Compte rendu of
the Fourth International Congress of Psychology
(/F™' Congrhs International de Psychologie), Paris,
1901.
Some
of the ideas in Chapter X. are out-
an article on " The Uses of Humour,"
which appeared in The National Review, 1897.
Some of my obligations to other writers and
workers have been acknowledged in the volume.
For friendly assistance in reading the proofs of
the work I am greatly indebted to Mr. Carveth
Eead, Dr. Alexander Hill, Prof. W. P. Ker, Mr.
Ling Eoth, Dr. W. H. K. Rivers, Miss C. Osborn,
and Miss Alice Woods.
lined in
H6TEL DU Weisshokn,
Val d'Anniviers, August, 1902.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I.
Intboduotoey.
PAOK
Objections to a serious study
of
laughter
1
....
Previous treatment of subject by philosophers
Their way of dealing with facts
Examination
Common
'
an
illustration given
6
by Dr. Lipps
9
defects of theories
Difficulties of
Scope
of
i
.
17
attempt to treat subject scientifically
19
20
of inquiry
CHAPTER
II.
The Smile and the Lauqb.
Need
of
studying the bodily process in laughter
Characteristics of the
movements
25
,
26
of the smile
Expressive function of the smile
Continuity of processes of smiling and laughing
Characteristics of the movements of laughter
Concomitant organic changes during laughter
27
.
27
.
30
33
....
....
Physiological benefits of laughing
31
EfEects of excessive laughter
37
The laugh as expression
Relation of expression to feeling in laughter
Interactions of joyous feeling and organic concomitants
Deviations from the normal type of laugh
.
CHAPTER
39
40
44
48
III.
Occasions and Causes of Lauqhteb.
Laughter as provoked by sense-stimulus
:
tickling
Ticklish areas
Characteristics of the sensations of tickling
Motor
reewjtions
provoked by tickling
.
.
50
52
53
56
CONTENTS
How far attributes
The mental
of sensation
determine laughter of tickling
factor in effect of tickling
Objective conditions of successful tickling
Tickling as appealing to a particular
2.
mood
.
60
.
62
Other quasi-reflex forms of laughter
Varieties of automatic or " nervous " laughter
Common element in these varieties relief from strain
:
3.
67
73
Prolonged laughing fit
The essential element in joyous laughter
Occasions of joyous laughter
(a) Play
(6) Teasing as provocative situation
(c) Practical joking and laughter
.
...
.
75
76
76
.
77
78
.
(e)
64
65
70
Varieties of joyous laughter
{d)
FAOE
57
59
Laughter as an accompaniment of contest
Occasions of unusual solemnity as provoking laughter
Physiological basis of laughing habit
CHAPTER
78
79
80
IV.
Vaeieiies of the Laughable.
The
objective reference in laughter
82
Universal element in the laughable
83
Groups
87
87
88
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
i(j^8)
(9)
(10)
of
laughable things
Novelty and oddity
Bodily deformities
Moral deformities and vices
Breaches of order and rule
Small misfortunes
Beferences to the indecent
Pretences
Want
of
knowledge or
91
94
96
98
skill
Relations of contrariety and incongruity
Verbal play and witticism
Co-operation of different laughable features
(11)
Manifestations of playfulness in objects
(12)
Spectacle of successful combat
CHAPTER
....
....
....
101
102
107
Ill
114
116
117
V.
Theories of the Ludicbous.
1.
The Theory
Degradation
Aristotle's theory
Theory
of
of
Hobbes
Hg
120
120
CONTENTS
Xli
PAGE
121
122
Prof. Bain's theory
Critioism of theory of degradation
2.
Theory
of Contrariety or Incongruity
Kant's theory of nullified expectation
125
Critioism of Kant's theory
126
....
12e
Function of surprise in efiect of the ludicrous
Schopenhauer's theory of incongruity
Criticism of Schopenhauer's theory
Difierent forms of the incongruous
Summary
of criticism of theories
129
130
132
....
134
,'13^
Attempts to unify the two principles
as failure to comply with a social requirement
136
a39:;
.
The laughable
How primitive
laughter comes into efiect of the ludicrous
140
.
rTIi)
Belation of sudden gladness to release from constraint
Element of contempt in effect of the ludicrous
Laughter and the play-mood
The play-mood in the efiects of the ludicrous
Summary
142
.
145
149
153
of results of inquiry into theories
CHAPTER
VI.
The Obighn op Laughter.
Problem of the origin of laughter in the race
Supposed rudiments of mirth in animals
155
The dog's manifestations of a sense
The mirthful displays of the ape
159
of fun
156
162
First appearance of laughter in child
Date
....
....
:
date of the
first
164
smile
166
of the first laugh
The laugh
Order of the two in the evolution
Conjecture as to genesis of the
How the primitive
Problem
168
as following the smile
smile
may
of
170
the race
human
171
smile
have grown into the laugh
of the evolution of the laughter of tickling
173
176
.
.
177
Effects of tickling in animals
Date
177
of first response to tickling in the child
....
Tickling as inheritance from remote ancestors
Value of evolutional theories of tickling
How laughter may have come into tickling
CHAPTER
178
.
181
183
VII.
Development of Laughteb dubing the Pibst Thbeb Years of Life.
Problem of the early development of laughter in the individual
Development of smile and laugh as movements
.
186-
188
CONTENTS
~
xii
process of emotional development
Relation of laughter of joy to that of play
The general
Development of laughter of joy
Emergence of laughter of surprise
First laughter of release from strain
'Crude form of laughter of jubilation
Development of laughter as accompaniment
.
.
.
•
l""
19'^
of play
....
of
The mirthful
greeting of sounds
Early responses to the funny in the visible world
First enjoyment of pretences
Early laughter at the improper
Dim perceptions of the incongruous and the absurd
Early sense
Summary
'
of verbal
198
198
201
laughing impishness
First manifestations of rowdyish laughter
<Jerms of roguish laughter
First crude perceptions of the laughable
Early forms
FAQE
189
194
'^^
203
205
207
....
....
209
212
214
215
216
217
fun
218
of results
CHAPTER
VIII.
The Lauobteb of Savages.
Sources
of
our knowledge of savage laughter
Diflerent views of travellers on the subject
Laughter as a salient characteristic
Descriptions of their
Abundance
•ft
_
of
good
movements
of savages
of laughter
220
220
223
227
228
spirits
Laughter as accompaniment of shyness
Laughter and fondness for teasing
228
Rough practical jokes
The way in which laughter
230
232
Laughter
of superiority
is
229
accepted
and contempt
233
Indecent character of jocosity
Appreciation of the laughably odd
234
Ridicule of foreign ways
237
Laughter at the doings of the white man
Laughter of the expert at the ignoramus
Savage society and the white man's gaziclierie
Germ of sense of the absurd
238
The
244
285
ridiculing of fellow-tribesmen
Reciprocal laughter of the
men and
the
women
dry humour
Organisation of laughter as entertainment
Example
of
240
241
242
245
246
247
CONTENTS
Germs
of
Zlll
the mimetic art
Difierentiation of professional jesters, etc.
247
249
Amusing songs and
260
stories
.
.
.
Co-existence of different levels of laughter
251
How
252
to
manage the savage by laughter
CHAPTER
Laughtbb
IX.
in Social Evolution.
Connection between laughter and social life
Contagiousness of mirth as social quality
255
Social uses of laughter
256
254
Class-difierentiation as condition of laughter
How
social grouping
widens the
field of
258
the laughable
Utility of reciprocal group-laughter
r Screwing
up members of other groups
Tjaughter of superiors at inferiors
.
.
.
.;....
261
26S
Quizzing of authorities by subjects
Mirthful turning on task-masters
Woman's laughing
259-
261
^
264
265
retort
267
Corrective function of laughter of inferiors
268 K-
Conciliatory service of group-laughter
269
271
Summary
Laughter
Social
of social utilities of laughter
of other groups as corrective of self-importance
movements
.
.
.
as influencing laughter
Changes of fashion
Fashion and custom
Merry aspects of movements
273
275
of fashion
276
Droll side of descent of fashion to lower ranks
Laughter at the old-fashioned
The movement
272
272
27T
279
279
of progress
Mirthful greeting of new ideas and practices
v.Laughing away effete customs
280
281
Influence of mirthful spirit on social changes
288
Effect of evolution of culture groups
283
286
Efiect of minuter subdivision of sets
Eflect of progress in breaking
dovm
group-barriers
....
Droll aspects of transition of society to a plutocratic form
.
.
286
287
Beiining effect of culture-movement on hilarity
288
Decline of older voluminous merriment
290'
between popular mirth and authority
Combination of standards in popular estimate
291
Conflict
Preparation for individual laughter
of
laughable
.
.
293
295
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
X.
Laughtbb of the Individual
HuMona.
:
PAGE
297
humour
-Characteristics of humour
Definition of
Intellectual basis of
Humorous contemplation
The
298
humorous sentiment
300
.
301
as binocular
the laughable for the humorist
Modification of the conative attitude in humour
302
field of
Complexity
Problem
of
humour
as feeling
....
301
305
of fusion of dissimilar feelings
307
Facts explained by our analysis of humour
Variations of humour with race and nationality
310
Temperament and
313
Humour
individuality in
as enlarging range of laughing activity
The' finer detection of the
The
311
humour
amusing in character
appreciation of unfitness of
men
315
315
.
....
to circumstances
317
Character-study as a pastime
Laughter as permeating sphere of serious
Effect of kindliness in extending range of laughter
Scope for amusing form of self-scrutiny
818
319
.
Laughter as mode
How humour
320
321
322
325
326
328
of self-correction
aids a
man
in dealing with others
Laughing away the smaller troubles
.
humour in the greater troubles
Humorous contemplation of social scene
Service of
.
330
Amusing aspects of the fine world
The journal as medium of amusing self-display
The social spectacle of the past and of the present
331
334
.
337
Humour in
contemplation of social scene in seasons of stress
The manifestations of war-temper as humorous spectacle
.
CHAPTER
Thb Laughable
•
in
337
338
XI.
Art
:
Comedy.
Source
of impulse of comic art
Scope for laughter in art as a whole
343
•Origin of jocose literature
346
The dawn of comedy
Comic incidents as development of child's play
Comic value of repetitions
Elements of trickery and dupery
Comedy as reflecting movements of social laughter
345
346
347
348
....
349
351
CONTENTS
XV
PACJS
Oomio dialogue
as display o£ wit
353
Theories of wit
354
Wit as intellect at play
Wit and word-play
354
356
Oharaoter as oomio material
Mode
357
comedy
....
of representation of oharaoter in
358
Comic oharaoter as type
Development of character-drawing in classic comedy
Treatment of character in early English comedy
MoliSre as comic portrayer
359
359
861
His art
364
of constructing character
....
364
Contrast of the anti-social person and the social world
The abstract and the concrete in Molifere's characters
365
The comic denouement
368
in MoliAre's plays
.
Moli^re's point of view
Characteristics of
Comedy
Lamb and Macaulay
Justification of
of Restoration
on moral aspect
Lamb's view
of
365
368
370
371
373
.
comedy
Comedy
of Restoration
The social as distinct from the moral point of view
Slackening of social restraints by comedy
Limitations of field of comic presentation
The comic point of view in fiction
373
Laughter
380
376
.
377
378
.
of
mixed tone
in literature
satire
:
....
Different degrees of seriousness in satire
381
Method of virulent
Wit in satire
382
satire
383
Contrast of satirical and humorous literature
The
relation of wit to
Boundaries
Humour
of satire
Humour
and humorous
385
literature
as ingredient of prose fiction
The boundaries
of
384
humour
humour
of fiction
.
....
and
in other species of literature
CHAPTER
of
philosophy
386
387
390
390
XII.
Ultimate Value and Limitations of LAuaHTBR.
Need
of
bringing in philosophic point of view
Philosophy as completion
Room
392 Ji^
of individual criticism of life
393
393^
for laughter in philosophic contemplation
Philosophy as belittling our everyday world
Reasons why philosophers are not commonly humorists
Speculative Idealism as robbing our common world of interest
Relation of Optimism and of Pessimism to laughter
394
Possibilities of laughter in philosophic Scepticism
399
.
39^
396
397
CONTENTS
xvi
Conditions of development of philosophic
Humour in
the final evaluation of
Service of philosophic
humour
.
.
.
•
life
403
humour
•^ Justification of the individual point of vievf
Legitimacy of an amused contemplation of one's world
Amused contemplation as favouring the survival of the unfit
.
The philosopher's preference
.
.
.
.
for retirement
Point of view of contemplation of things by philosophic humorist
The contemplator
Points of view of
by his social world
humorist, comedian and satirist
as held
PAGE
401
402
.
....
Question of total value of laughter
405
405
408
408
409
409
410
411
Alleged purifying function of comedy
411
Corrective function of social laughter to-day
413
414
Bidicule as a test of truth
Estimate
of helpfulness of private laughter
Place of laughter among human qualities
Eelation of laughter to social affections
Restraint of laughter by society
Control of laughter as part of moral self-regulation
Prudential reasons for controlling laughter
The promotion of a love of laughter in others
The claims of the agelast to be let alone
—ISlae cultivation of laughter in the young
The status of laughter to-day
T Causes
415-
416
417
....
418
420
422
423
,-424
426
427
mirth
Characteristics of laughter of the hour
ci
p,
Possibility of death of laughter
428
430
How its
432
of decline of pop^llar
conservation
may
be effected
431
CHAPTER
I.
INTRODUOTOBY.
A
WHITER who undertakes
to discourse
on laughter has to
encounter more than one variety of irritating objection.
He
dismay that a considerable part of his species,
which has been flatteringly described as the laughing animal,
finds to his
has never exercised
its high and distinguishing capacity.
Nay, more, he soon learns that a good many oppose themselves to the practice and are laughter-haters.
This kind
of person (o fitaoyekms;) is so possessed with the spirit of
seriousness that the opposite temper of jocosity appears to
him to be something shockingly wrong. All audible laughter
is for him an ill-bred display, at once unsightly as a bodily
contortion, and, as a lapse
of mental degradation.
thing unseemly
is
from the gravity of reason, a kind
This estimate of laughter as some-
well represented in Lord Chesterfield's
which the writer congratulates himself on the
that since he has had the full use of his reason nobody
Letters, in
fact
has ever heard him laugh.
In some cases this feeling of
repugnance towards mirth and fun takes on more of an
ethical aspect.
all
The laugher
is
identified
with the
things worthy and condemned as morally bad
illustrated in the saying of Pascal
:
"
scofier at
—a view
Diseur de bons mots,
mauvais caract^re ".
Now it seems
is
bound
evident that one
who discourses on
laughter
to notice this attitude of the laughter-hater.
1
If
INTRODUCTORY
2
he believes that the moods of hilarity and the enjoyment
human
of the ludicrous have their rightful place in
ex-
perience, he must be ready to challenge the monopoly of
wisdom claimed by the out-and-out sticklers for seriousness,
and to dispute the proposition that the open, honest laugh
connotes either a vulgar taste or a depraved moral nature.
Perhaps, however, our discourser need not distress him-
about these rather sour-tempered laughter-haters.
self
these days
we have
we have
In
opposition as
the refrainer from laughter, the non-
As
laugher pure and simple.
his
suggests, this rather
(dye'kaa-TO'i)
unknown
much
Instead of the denouncer of mirth as vulgar
indifference.
or wicked,
to confront not so
Greek name "agelast"
annoying type was not
In merry England, too, Shake-
in ancient times.
speare had met with the agelasts
who would
Not show their teeth in way of smile,
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.
,
Yet
in
latter
only of
is
it
its full
force.
late
that the variety has appeared
To what scanty proportions
days the band of laughers has dwindled
name which
gested by the
for " humorist "
"eccentric".
is
now commonly
if
is
sug-
given them,
meant not so long ago an odd fellow or
Indeed, one of our living writers suggests
that " as the world becomes more decorous
tongue-tied and obsolete "}
Even
in these
we grant
humour becomes
that the " gelasts " are getting reduced
to the dimensions of a petty sect, the consideration need not
deter us from choosing laughter as our theme.
Those who
have the perfect ear for music are probably but a tiny
portion of the
'Article
318-26.
on
human
"Humour"
family; yet nobody has suggested
in the CornMll Magazine, vol. xxxUi., pp.
FOES AND FRIENDS OF LAUGHTER
that this
3
an argument against the writing of books on
is
musical form, the science of thorough baas and the
rest.
The friends of laughter have, however, always existed,
and even in these rather dreary days are perhaps more
numerous than is often supposed. In support of this idea
one
may
recall the curious fact that, as the essayist just
"
"
quoted remarks, we
all
shrink from the
awful imputation
implied in the words
"You have no
sense of humour".
This recognition of the capacity for appreciating a joke as
a
human
attribute
course, very far
which
it is
well not to be without
Yet
existence of this love in a respectable
this
urge his
it
at least attests the
number of their
fellows.
true friend of laughter (o ^tXoyeXo)?)
own
of
from being proof of a genuine love of fun
in the recognisers themselves.
Now
is,
objection
to
may
our proposed discussion, an
objection less irritating perhaps than that of the zealous
laughter-hater and of the indifferent agelast, but on the
He
other hand of a more penetrating thrust.
not unnatur-
ally dislikes the idea of his daily pastime being
made the
He feels in its acutest form the
natural man on seeing his enjoyment
subject of grave inquiry.
resentment of the
brought under the scalpel and lens of the
He
scientific inquirer.
humour are the
human things and that to try
urges with force that the chucklings of
very lightest and flimsiest of
to capture
looks
them and
much
hand would
subject
;
them
to serious investigation
like the procedure of the
chUd whose impulsive
and examine his dainty soap bubbles.
To these objections from the true friends of the mirthful
god one owes it to reply courteously and at length. Yet
seize
A
the answer cannot well be given at the outset.
on laughter can remove
by showing
thought
in its
may
own
this
kind of objection,
if
discourse
at
all,
only
treatment of the subject that serious
touch even the gossamer wing of the merry
*
INTRODUCTORY
4
and not destroy
sprite
;
that
all
things,
are things to be comprehended,
right points of view;
and so the
only
if
we
lightest,
can reach the
and that the problems which
rise
above the mental horizon, as soon as we
about man's humorous bent, have a quite peculiar interest,
an interest in which all who can both laugh at things and
begin to think
ponder on them
It
may
be expected to share.
seems evident that one
in man, and to extract
It
fications.
is
its
who
is
to probe the spirit of fun
meaning, should have special quali-
by no means
sufficient, as
some would seem
He must
to suppose, that he should be able to think clearly.
couple with the gravity of the thinker something of the
intellectual lightness
to say,
mood
he must be in
itself,
hensively
Now
and nimbleness of the
warm
realising his subject at once vividly
by help
and compre-
who have
teach us the secrets of laughter have
ofiiered to
commonly exhibited
these qualifications in a conspicuous measure.
of
It
is
the whimsicality which seems to run through
affairs that
is
of a rich personal experience.
cannot be said that those
it
That
jester.
touch with his theme, the jocose
a part
human
the spirit of fun should be misunderstood not
merely by the avowedly indifferent
and the avowedly
but by those who, since they
offer to elucidate its
hostile,
ways, might be expected to have some personal acquaintance
with
it.
The combination
of a fine feeling for the baffling
behaviour of this spirit with a keen
as
is
scientific analysis,
such
found in Mr. George Meredith's Essay on Comedy,
seems to be a rarity in
literature.
This want of the familiar touch
is
especially observable
good deal of the treatment of laughter by philosophic
writers.
It is not necessary to dweU on the sublime subtlein a
ties of the
"moment"
metaphysicians
who
in the dialectic process
conceive of the comic as a
which the
aesthetic
"Idea"
SOARING ABOVE THE SUBJECT
has to pass through.
The account
the Idea has to describe,
of
5
of the gyrations
when once it passes out of
which
that state
harmonious union with the sensuous image which we
call "
Having, for
the beautiful," reads strangely enough.
reasons that are not
made
away from
too clear, torn itself
peaceful companion (the image), and set itself
its
up
as
antagonist to this in "the sublime," the august Idea encounters the unpleasant retaliation of the image
discarded in "the ugly," where
we
of the injured party to defy its late
the end,
revives from
it
the "
companion
swoon
" into
behaviour of the image has plunged
legitimate claims
—with which
—in what we
outset dissatisfied
I
it
has
it
see the determination
it,
which
this
rude
and recovers
would seem
call "
though, in
;
it
was
the ludicrous
its
at the
".
have here tried to put the speculative subtleties of these
Hegelian writers, so far as I
into intelligible
favourable
am
able to catch their drift,
Enghsh, and not to caricature them.
critics of
these theories have found
not to treat them with some amount of irony
as I
am
;
it
Even
difiicult
and, so far
aware, no rehabilitator of Hegehan thought in
England has as yet been bold enough to introduce to our
insular
they
mind
may
a chapter of the sacred mysteries which, as
well suspect, so easily lends
itself
to
profane
jesting.
How remote this kind of conception of the ludicrous is
from the homely laughter of mortals may be seen in such
attempts as are
made by
these Hegelian thinkers to connect
Hegel himself, in touching on the nature of
comedy, asserted that "only that is truly comic in which
the persons of the play are comic for themselves as weU as
the two.
This seems to mean (it is always
for the spectators".
hazardous to say confidently what a Hegelian pronouncement does mean) that a large part of what the world has
INTRODUCTORY
6
foolishly supposed to be
Molifere, are
It
not
so.^
much
perhaps, too
is,
comedy, including the plays of
to expect that the aspiring
metaphysician, when, as he fondly thinks, he has gained
the altitude from which the dialectic process of the Worldidea
seen to unfold
is
itself,
should trouble himself about
But laughter
so vulgar a thing as our everyday laughter.
has
mild retaliations for the negligent, and the comedian
its
of to-day, as of old,
is
more
likely to pluck
from those who
tread the speculative cloud-heights material for his merri-
ment than any further enlightenment on the mysteries
of
his craft.
It
however, more to the purpose to refer to those
is,
theorists
ordinary
who make some show
man understands by the
by an appeal
their theories
of explaining
ludicrous,
to recognisable examples.
instructive to note the cautiousness with
is
will
what the
and of testing
sometimes venture on the slippery
"
It
which they
empirical " ground.
Schopenhauer, for example, in setting out his theory of
—a
theory which
first
volume
the ludicrous
on—
^in
"
the
superfluous
"
of
we
his
shall deal
chief
to illustrate his theory
with later
work, thought
by example.
second volume, however, he comes to the help of
" intellectual sluggishness " of his readers
And what
to furnish illustrations.
is
the
first
to be selected
?
it
In the
the
and condescends
does the reader suppose
The amusing look
of the angle
formed by the meeting of the tangent and the curve of
the circle
;
which look
is
due, he tells us, to the reflection
that an angle implies the meeting of
two
lines which,
when
prolonged, intersect, whereas the straight line of the tangent
'
See B. BoBauquet, History of Esthetics, p. 360, where we are told that
modem ooraedy, such as Moli^re's L'Avare, is, according to Hegel,
serious
wanting in
this characteristic.
MIS-HANDLING OF FACTS
and the curve
of the circle are able merely to graze at one
point, where, strictly speaking,
words,
the
we laugh
face
is
7
they are
In other
parallel.
here because the angle which stares us in
with the idea of a meeting
irreconcilable
and a curved
With a charming candour
The ludicrous in this case is, no
doubt, extremely weak; on the other hand, it illustrates
of a tangent
the writer proceeds
:
line.
"
with exceptional clearness the origin of the ludicrous in
the incongruity between what
ceived
is
thought and what
is
per-
".1
The significance of this invention of his own illustration
by Schopenhauer is that he was not a metaphysical recluse,
but
knew
the world and
its literatures.
Other theorists
have not shown the same daring, but have contented themselves with finding their instances.
Yet in too many cases
the arbitrary
way
in
which
illustrations
have been
selected,
while instances making against the theory have been ignored,
shows clearly enough that there has been no serious
effort
and firm
This
to build on a large
may
basis of observation.
be illustrated not only from the works of Germans,
but from those of a people which has claimed, and with
justice, to be the
laughing nation par
excellence.
In a recent
volume, marked by great ingenuity, M. Henri Bergson,^ an
accomplished thinker, attempts to reduce aU forms of the
ludicrous to a substitution in our movements, speech and
action, of the rigidity (raideur) of a
and variability of an organism.
machine for the pliancy
The writer has no
difficulty
in finding examples of the stiff mechanical effects which
amuse
us, say, in gestures
ing thing
group of
is
and
carriage.
facts,
astonish-
the instances of excessive spontaneity and
^
Die Welt ah Wille und Vorstellung, Band
2
Le
Bi/re,
But the
that he never refers to the complementary
published by F^lix Aloan, 1900.
II,,
Brstes Buch, Kap.
viii.
8
•
INTRODUCTORY
repression and
The exuberant
freedom of movement where a certain
mechanical uniformity are looked
childish boundings of the clown,
for.
an excess of emphasis or
gesture in social intercourse, these and the like are surelyof the signs of a full play of
want
just as comical as the
may be in other circumstances.
Perhaps an even worse offence than ignoring facts is
trying to twist them into a shape that will fit an adopted
life
This occurs,
theory.
on our
too,
Here
subject.
is
theorists.
when we laugh at a clown
an open door, we do not laugh merely
According to a French
pushing hard against
and frequently, among writers
an example among recent
essayist,
at the absurd disproportion
between the task to be accom-
amount of efibrt put into it. We only
laugh when our minds pass to a second cmd reflective stage,
and recognise that the man does not perceive the door to
plished and the
be open, when, consequently,
we
are able to view the dis-
proportionate and quite needless exertion as natural.^
A
more
movement of common men's laughter it would be difficult to
find.
As we shall see, theories of laughter, like theories
striking instance of inability to understand the swift
of Shakespeare's genius, have frequently
come
to grief
by
projecting behind the thing which they seek to account for
too
much
of the author's
Perhaps
wont
we
own
habitual reflectiveness.^
shall the better see
to ignore
and
how
theorists
have been
to misunderstand the laughing ex-
periences of the plain
man
if
we examine
at
some length
1 See an article " Pourquoi rit-on ? " by Camille M^linaud, in the
Bemie
des deux Mondes, 1895 (Tom. 127, p. 612 fi.). The theory of M. M^linaud
seema to resemble closely that of Jean Paul Kiohter and others, which
Lotze
criticises, Geschichte
^M. Bergaon
furnishes
der ^sthetik, p. 346.
some
striking illustrations of the forcing of a
theory on reluctant facta in his treatment of the laughable aspect of the
red nose and the black akin, op, cit., p. 41 fE.
PHILOSOPHER AND PLAIN MAN
mode
the
who
of dealing with the subject adopted
among contemporary
holds a high place
9
by
a writer
psychologists.
Prof. Lipps has recently elaborated a theory of the ludi-
some
crous, illustrating it at
may
This theory
length.^
be described as a modification of Kant's, which places the
cause of laughter in
"
the sudden transformation of a tense
expectation into nothing".
the
"
comic
''
when
"
According to Lipps,
little "
the
measures
itself
thing else and so steps into the daylight.
we have
with some-
There
is
a
mental movement (Vorstellungsbewegung) from a presentation relatively great or important to one relatively
unimportant
;
little
the nullification of the latter through
its
contrariety to the
former and the disappointment which this involves.
may
What
—which the reader
the important one — always comes
be called the belittling idea
bear in mind
or
and the impression of the comic depends on
is
must
first,
the
beUttled or nullified one, always second.
In order to illustrate his point he takes among other
examples that of a hat on the wrong head.
by a
child's small cap,
and a
A man topped
child covered with a man's big
equally comical. But the reason is
two cases. In the first, starting with the
perception of the worthy man, we expect an adequate headcovering, and this expectation is nullified by the obstinate
presence of the tiny cap. Here, then, the funny feature, the
hat
are,
he
tells us,
different in the
In the second
case,
just the reverse.
We
belittled thing, is the diminutive cap.
however, the movement of thought
is
here set out with the perception of the headgear, not with
that of
its
wearer.
It
is
the dignified man's hat that
now
The lefereuces here are to one of a series of articles entitled " Psychologie
Komik " in the PMl. Monatshefte, Bd. XXIV. See p. 399 fi. The
The point
articles have been elaborated in a volume, Komik tmd Humor.
here dealt with is touched on in this volume in Kap. iv., s. 558.
'
der
INTRODUCTORY
10
the obtrusion of the child
beneath when we expect the proper wearer which is the
comical feature. In other words, when a man puts on a
baby's cap it is the cap which is absurd, when a baby dons
first fixes
our attention, and
his father's cylinder
This
the baby which
it is
ingenious, one
is
it is
must
confess,
is
absurd.
but does
it
not involve
some twisting of facts ? Would the unphilosophic humorist
recognise this account of ^he ways of laughter ? Has this
account the note of familiarity with these ways ? Let us
see.
At
the outset one
may
enter a modest protest against the
quiet assumption that the
two incidents here
may
selected are
be urged that, to the
laughable in an equal degree.
It
grown-up spectator
the sight of the
at
least,
crowned with the whelming headgear of
measurably more amusing than the
little
one
his sire is im-
Here the author
other.
strikes one as proceeding rather hastily, as he seems to
do also when he assumes that an exceptionally big and an
exceptionally
little
the laughable.
nose are equally palpable examples of
This
is,
to say the least, disputable.
One
can hardly think of a comedy turning on the smallness of
a person's nose, as the Cyrano de Bergerac of
turns on
its
bigness.
But
this objection
M. Rostand
need not, perhaps,
be pressed.
Passing, then, to the explanation of his
offered
by the
author,
we
are
first
two examples
of all struck
by the
apparent arbitrariness of the supposition, that the move-
ment
of thought
which he assumes should in the one case
take exactly the reverse direction of that taken in the
Seeing that both are instances of a grotesquely
other.
unsuitable head-covering should one not expect the enjoy-
ment
them
of
activity
?
to spring out of a similar
kind of mental
THE COMIC
IN
THE HAT
11
The author probably means to say that we tend to fix
the attention on the more dignified feature in each case,
the man beneath the tiny cap, and the man's hat above the
tiny head. But that is far from being certain. And in
any case there are good reasons against assuming a " contrary motion" of thought here. Dr. Lipps will no doubt
allow,
a trained psychologist, that these intellectual
as
movements are subject
duction from these
is
One
to well-recognised laws.
de-
that the sight of a hat will suggest
human figure to which it belongs much more
and more powerfully than the sight of the figure
the idea of the
certainly
I believe
will suggest the idea of its appropriate covering.
that everybody's experience will confirm this.
A
hat seen
even in a shop-window starts the impulse to think of some
wearer
;
but
across the
theatre,
who would say
that seeing a
dinner-table or in an
prompts us to think of
its
human
adjoining
head, say
stall
proper covering
?
at the
Special
circumstances, such as the presence of an exceptional baldness appealing to pity, must be added before our thoughts
flit
to the out-of-door receptacle.
interest
and
In other words, the whole
significance of a hat lie in a reference to a
wearer, but not vice versa.
We
must, then, reject the idea of a double and opposed
movement of thought here. If any movement takes place
it must be assumed to be in each case a transition from the
perception of the hat to the idea of
its
customary and
proper wearer.
Now,
are
we aware when we laugh
sights of carrying out this
at either of these
movement of thought ?
odd
Keeping
to the indisputable case of the child's head under or in the
man's hat, do we, before the agreeable spasm seizes us, first
mentally grasp the hat and then pass to the idea of its
rightful wearer
?
I,
at least, cannot find this to be true in
INTRODUCTORY
'
12
may
be due to the
absence of a sufficiently delicate introspection.
Let us then
my own
But such
experience.
inability
try to test the point in another way.
amusement with which we greet this
the dissolution of the idea of the
from
spectacle comes
expect the enjoyment of the
should
adult male figure, we
If the smile of
ludicrous aspect to be especially conspicuous
when
the hat
appears an instant before the child- wearer, and so thought
is
compelled to travel in the required direction.
Let us
suppose that a child in his nursery puts on his father's hat
and stands on a
and that you enter the room and
chair,
catch a glimpse of the hat
first,
say above a piece of furni-
and for a brief moment expect to see an adult beneath.
No doubt you will be aware of a definite movement of
thought in the required direction and of the dissolution
into nothing of the expectant idea. But will the element
of clear anticipation and its annihilation intensify your
ture,
feeling of the funniness of the spectacle, or even
funniness more patent
You
?
case, experience a little shock, the full
prise,
and that might add volume
You
the moment.
heartily, for
in,
as
excitement of sur-
to the whole feeling of
might, too, not improbably, laugh more
you would have a sense
of having been taken
and there would be a side-current
against yourself.
make the
would, no doubt, in such a
But
of hilarity directed
I venture to affirm that the spectacle
such would not impress you as being one whit more
ludicrous
when
wearer, than
if
What seems
seen in this way,
first
the hat and then the
your eye had lighted on the two together.
to
happen when we are amused by
comic scene in the nursery
a grotesque whole,
viz.,
?
Do we
this little
not at a glance perceive
a hat on the
wrong
head, and
is
not our amusement too swiftly forthcoming to allow of our
singling out a part of
what
is
seen and going through the
A HAT-COMEDY EXAMINED
process of thought described
theory
?
by the ingenious author of this
what common observa-
Science seems to bear out
tion discovers, for the
first
13
moment
newer psychology teaches that in the
an object we obtain not a distinct
of perceiving
apprehension of parts, but a vague apprehension of a whole
into
which
detail
and definiteness only come
later
and
gradually.
An
up
ensemble,
which can only be described as a whole made
of ill-fitting parts, this seems to be the object on
our attention
is
focussed
when we laugh
some rapid
at the child under
This intuition involves, no
the needlessly capacious hat.
doubt,
which
seizing of details: but the attention to
parts is not to separate objects, as the language of Dr. Lipps
suggests, but to related parts, to the hat as
worn
in relation
to the wearer.
This seems to be an adequate account of what takes place
so far as
moves us
it is
the palpable unfitness of dimensions which
But
to laughter.
it
may
be urged, and rightly
more than this, that
what tickles us is the uncustomary and topsy-turvy arrangement of things. And here, it may be said, there certainly
is implied a movement of thought, namely, to something
outside the spectacle, to what is customary and in order.
urged, that the laughable spectacle
is
The supposition is a highly plausible one. Since, morewhat we perceive is a whole, it is reasonable to assume
that if such a movement occurs it must be, not, as Dr. Lipps
over,
supposes, from one part of
it
as rightly composed.
from the present
some other whole
to another, but
whole as oddly and wrongly composed
Do we
not, it
to
may
be asked, here
carry out a process fairly well described in Schopenhauer's
theory of the ludicrous, that
is,
conceive of
gruity between the real object and
implication,
go back to
this idea
?
its
idea,"
"an inconand so, by
INTRODUCTORY
14
To
would reply
this I
that, so far as I
can analyse
my
own mental state at such a moment, I do not find the presence of any idea of another and normal whole to be a
necessary element in a full enjoyment of the grotesque
my
Such a second whole would, one
same hat on the right head,
or the same head under its proper covering, and I find that
I am perfectly well able to enjoy the comedy of the child
crowned with the tall hat without making present to my
whole before
eyes.
supposes, have to be either the
mind
either of these combinations.
Here, again, I think, a better scientific theory bears out
Psychology
the result of one's individual self-examination.
has made
it
clear that in recognising
crossing the road on which
to have present to our
we
mind
an
object,
are walking,
say a weasel
we do
not need
(in addition to the perception
of the object) a pictorial idea or image of a weasel
formed from past observations.
Owing
of a certain perceptual disposition
—a
readiness to see an
object as a familiar one, as of a particular "sort"
instantly greets
it
as a weasel.
as
to the organising
In other words,
—our mind
we recognise
by the help not of images present to the mind at the
moment, but of certain ingrained " apperceptive " tendencies
things
or attitudes.
All the higher animals seem to share with us
this highly useful capability of
immediate and instantaneous
recognition.
Now
I take it that there is another side to these apper-
ceptive tendencies.
Not only do they secure for us, without
up distinct ideas, these instant
the necessity of calling
recognitions of a sort of thing, they enable us as
weU
intelligent animals mentally to reject presentations
do not answer to
wax
" the sort of
figure is not a
of the living
thing ".
I can say that this
man without having any
man present
to
as
which
distinct
my consciousness.
image
This ability
FURTHER INSPECTION OF HAT-COMEDY
what we
to recognise
thing, without calling
see as not of a particular
up a
15
kind of
definite idea of this kind, extends
combinations and arrangements of parts in a whole.
to
When, after my servant has dusted my books and rearranged
them on the shelves, I instantly recognise that they are
wrongly placed,
may
I
at the
moment be
quite unable to
say what the right arrangement was.^
According to
my
which Dr. Lipps
As
such, they
that
view, the perceptions of the laughable ^
illustrates are instantaneous perceptions.
may, and commonly
do, arise immediately,
without any reversion to the idea of what
is,
is
the
customary or normal arrangement.
But the reader may urge with
of
charming
this
than a perception of the unusual and
we
enjoyment
force that the
the irregular.
not at least apprehend the fact that the hat
merely
tion
unfitting,
of
the
behaviour
because
believe
?
the
we fix
And
child
I
the
deliciously
the
the mental eye on this element of makeif
so,
does not this imply that
we may
we have
of the hat,
perceptions
do, this idea is apt to emerge.
has been implied above, the sight of the
to
not
whimsical just
mind the proper belongings
the father's head and figure ?
readily agree that when we make our
reflective, as
tend
Is not
superior?
of
so
present to the
mz.,
is
Do
and grotesquely wrong, but a usurpa-
prerogative
of
more
involves
bit of childish pretence
suggest the idea of
its
tall
As
hat does
usual wearer, and in
lingering on this quaint bit of acting
we may
not im-
probably catch ourselves imagining the hat on the right
1 The point that when we judge two successive impressions to be different we do not necessarily represent both simultaneously, has been recently
emphasised by G. F. Stout and T. Loveday, who quote the views of Wundt
and Schumann. See Mimd, N.S., ix. (1900), pp. 1-7, and p. 386.
INTRODUCTORY
'
16
head, especially as
we
see that it is
the child's playful
aim to personate the privileged owner. And the same
thing might occur in laughing at the father topped with
more probably be a
child,
which the
least to
be
cap belongs.
much more
in
might naturally enough
small child's head
reinstate in imaginative thought the
to
who would
fgr the laugher,
the small child's hat;
this case
This combination seems at
likely to recur to the imagination
than the other combination, which retaining the wearer
substitutes the idea of the right hat.
How
far
any
distinct
image of the hat thus mentally
transferred to the right wearer enters into the apprecia-
humorous
tion of this
Different
from
minds
my own
may
would be hard
spectacle, it
behave differently here.
to say.
Judging
experience I should say that at most only
a vague " schematic " outline of the proper arrangement
be what one might naturally expect.
conceive of
living
it,
fastens
wearer that
position
wearing
child.
is
we more
;
to
Laughter, as I
upon something human.
It is the
emphasised in the comical juxta-
naturally
his father's hat,
And
me
This seems to
presents itself to the imagination.
describe
it
as
the
child
than as the father's hat on the
for the comic effect
it
is
recognise the hat to be the father's.
sufficient that
This
we
we
can do
mentally picturing the hat as worn by the
The hat has become a symbol, and means for us
the man's hat and the dignity which belongs to this,
without
father.
though we
as
may have
at the time
no mental image of
worn by its rightful possessor.
Our examination seems to show that
simple
example of the laughable
is
it
this apparently
very inadequately
accounted for by supposing a movement of mind from one
presentation or idea to another which contravenes and
INSPECTION OF HAT-COMEDY CONCLUDED
nullifies
what
is
the
It
first.
may
17
be added that, with respect to
when we
certainly present to our consciousness,
look at this bit of child's play
we do not
find the relation of
A
part to part to be merely one of contrariety.
not as yet fully studied by the psychologist,
curious fact,
is
what may
be called the inter-diffusion of characters between the several
The
parts of a complex presentation.
figure of a finely
dressed lady in a gathering of poor people
may
either
throw
by contrast,
or redeem it from its shabbiness by lending it some of its
own glory. The latter effect is favoured by a certain conthe shabby look of the latter into greater relief
templative attitude which disposes us to look at the whole
as such,
and with the
and their
amount
least
When we
relations.
of inspection of details
regard the child in the big
hat a semblance of the dignity which
of the latter
is
seizure of this transferred look of dignity
essential to a full
is
the child's hat,
moment over
it
is
;
and the mental
by the spectator
enjoyment of the show as a
make-believe, of innocent hypocrisy.
disposed to laugh, a
meaning
in the
lies
transferred to the small head
little
Similarly,
if
contemptuously, at the
bit of
we are
man in
because the hat throws for half a
the heavy and lined face something of the
fresh sweet look of infancy.^
It has
seemed worth while to examine
at
some length the
attempt of Dr. Lipps to deal with a simple instance of the
laughable because, in spite of a recognisable effort to connect
theory with concrete facts, it illustrates the
to adapt the facts to the theory
common tendency
;
common tendency
and, further, the no less
to overlook the rich variety of experience
Dr. Lipps seems half to perceive this mode of interaction among parts
complex presentation when he says that the cylinder appears to
renounce its dignity (Wurde) as man's head-covering when it stoops to
1
of a
adorn the head
of a child {loc. cit.).
2
*
18
INTRODUCTORY
which our laughter covers, the multiplicity of the sources of
way in which these may co-operate
our merriment and the
As
in the enjoyable contemplation of a ludicrous object.
we
shall see, theories of the ludicrous
have again and again
broken down from attempting to find one uniform cause
a domain where the operation of " Plurality of Causes
''
ia
is
particularly well marked.
It
may
be added that such theories, even
if
they were
not one-sided and forced accounts of the sources of our
merriment, would
still
suffer
from one
Lotze says of Kant's doctrine,^ they
defect
fatal
:
make no attempt
as
to
show why the dissolved expectation or the failure to subsume a presentation under an idea should make us laugh,
rather than, let us say, cough or sigh.
a psychologist, was a physiologist, and
Lotze, besides being
it
may
be added, a
humorist in a quiet way, and the reader of his lines
may have had
the ironical
who
knowing him will see again
pout and the merry twinkle of the dark
the privilege of
little
eye behind the words.
We
have agreed that the discourser on the comic, how-
ever gravely philosophic he desires to
finely
Yet
mankind.
it
may
must touch both
The
we know
of
well be thought, in the light of the
attempts made in the past, that this
much.
be,
and comprehensively the common experiences
relish for things
is
demanding too
which feed our laughter
is
As the Master
him that
hears it more than in the tongue of him that makes it ".
The facetiae of earlier ages fall on modern ears with a
as
tells us, "
A
a very variable endowment.
jest's
prosperity
lies
in the ear of
sound as dull as that of an unstrung drum.
be that persons
'
who
pass a large
GeschichU der JEsthetik
number
It
may
well
of their hours
m Deutschland, p. 343.
SOME VAGARIES OF THEORISTS
grow incapable
abstruse reflection
in
commoner
of the
19
enjoying
of
many
Their capability
varieties of laughter.
of lapsing into the jocose vein becomes greatly restricted
may
and
take directions that seem out-of-the-way to the
more habitual laugher.
Schopenhauer's funny
little
at-
tempt to extract a joke out of the meeting of the tangent
and the
some
circle
On
seems to be a case in point.
reading
by the
German mind, one is forced to conclude that the
writers had their own peculiar, esoteric modes of laughter.
When, for example, Herr St. Schiitze, whose "attempt at
a theory of the Comic" is pronounced by the renowned
of the definitions of the ludicrous contributed
fertile
Th. Vischer to be
" excellent " (vorziiglich),
his subject in this
way
writer's sense of
fun.
proceeds to define
The comic is a perception or idea,
which after some moments excites the obscure feeling that
nature carries on a merry game with man while he thinks
himself free to act, in which game the circumscribed liberty
of man is mocked (verspottet) by a reference to a higher
liberty," 1 one seems to measure the scope of the worthy
relation to our desires
certain
:
of
A
"
That the irony of things in their
and aims has
amusing aspect
its
who that knows anything
human mirth could ever think
but
forms of
all
;
them under
so
is
of the diversified
of trying to drag
narrow a rubric ?
vivid perception of the variability of the sense of the
laughable in man, of the modification, in the case of individuals and of races, of the range of
standards to which
of
influences
it
subjects
itself,
its
temperament and habits
of
repel not merely the philosophic recluse
life,
who
be expected perhaps to have followed far the
1
and
play,
of the
by a thousand unknown
Versitch eiiier Theorie des Komiscli^n (1817),
s.
may
well
can hardly
many
23.
wild
INTRODUCTORY
20
excursions of the laughing impulse, but others as well.
Have we not, it may be asked, in the appreciation of
funny or laughable a mode of sensibility pre-eminently erratic, knowing no law, and incapable therefore of
being understood ? Do not the more grotesque attempts to
frame theories of the subject seem to mock the search for
what
is
law where no law
The
is
drawn
conclusion
?
may
difficulty
is
be
admitted whilst the practical
rejected.
Certainly no thinker will
succeed in throwing light on the dark problem
who
does
not strenuously fight against the narrowing influences of
his " subjectivity,"
who does not make
a serious effort to get
outside the bounds of his personal preferences,
and
to
compass in large vision the far-ranging play of the mirthful
spirit,
and the endless difierencing of
But
a
his
if
man
its
manifestations.
can only succeed in doing this without losing
head in the somewhat rollicking
that need repel
him from the task
scene, there is nothing
;
for reason assures us
that here too, just as in other domains of
human
experience
where things looked capricious and lawless enough at the
outset, order and law will gradually disclose themselves.
A
serious inquiry into the subject, such as
to make, must,
it is
We
supposition.
evident, start
from
take the language of everyday
imply that human laughter, notwithstanding
its
seeming
caprices, is subject to law.
objective region of " the laughable," that
relations of objects
laughter in us
which are
all alike.
fitted
laughable, and to define
propose
We
is
life
to
its variability,
speak of an
of objects and
and which tend to
excite
It will be one of our chief pro-
blems to determine the characteristics of this
But a
we
this scientific pre-
its
field of the
boundaries.
serious inquiry will take us farther than this.
While we do well to
insist that
the lightness and capricious-
A SERIOUS TREATMENT OF LEVITY
21
ness of movement, the swift unpredictable coming and going,
are of the essence of laughter,
will be one
it
show how our mirthful
of this inquiry to
main
object
explosions, our
sportive railleries, are attached at their very roots to our
Laughter, looked at from this point of
serious interests.
view, has
and
ism,
We
its significance
as a function of the
human
organ-
as spreading its benefits over all the paths of
must probe
this value of our laughing
moments
life.
if
we
are to treat the subject adequately.
In thus proposing to give to laughter a purpose in the
scheme of human
life, one must face the risk of offending
more deeply. To these laughter is so precious and sufficing a good in itself, that to propose
to connect it with some extrinsic and serious purpose
its
friends yet
looks like robbing
ing
it
to its
of its delicious freeness
it
traditional
these objectors
it
may
excess
foe,
away
the spare
moments
and enslav-
seriousness.
To
say at the present stage
suffice to
that their apprehension appears to
laugh
of
me
to be groundless.
To
will continue to be to the
laughter-loving the same delightful pastime even should
we
succeed in showing that
On
its train.
it
brings other blessings in
the other hand, to show that
these blessings
may
it
does bring
turn out to be a handy argvmentmn
ad hominem in meeting the attacks of the laughter-hater.
He
could not, one supposes, give himself quite so
the look of flouted virtue
laughter,
own
when
perfect
if
we
freedom
much
of
could convince him that
is
guaranteed
it
in its
legitimate territory, will unasked, and, indeed, un-
wittingly, throw refreshing
pastures of
life.
and healing drops on the dry
Perhaps some thought of these benefits
—
was present to the Greek philosopher the very same who
was for banishing Homer and other poets from his ideal
commonwealth when he uttered the pretty conceit that
—
"
INTRODUCTORY
22
the Graces in searching for a temple which would not
fall,
found the soul of Aristophanes.
Our subject is a large one, and we must endeavour to
keep all parts of it steadily in view. To begin with, we
who
will try to avoid the error of those
on the comic idea forgot that laughter
disquisitions
bodily
act,
entities as
in their subtle
a
is
and not fear to allude to such unmetaphysical
lung and diaphragm, where they seem to be a
central fact in the situation.
A
examination of
careful
the very peculiar behaviour of our respiratory and other
organs when the feeling of the comic seizes us, seems to
belong to a
it
scientific investigation of
appears to
me
the subject.
these gentle and enjoyable shakings of the mind,
do well to
which
spirit of
The
start,
are, to
Further,
gros
it
Indeed,
that in trying to get at the meaning of
we
shall
so to speak, with the bodily shakings,
say the
least,
much more
accessible to study.
seems desirable to study the utterances of the
fun through the whole gamut of
rire,
its
expression.
the cacophonous guffaw, must not be re-
The attempts
garded as too vulgar to be admitted here.
in
the past to build up a theory of the ludicrous have commonly
failed
through a fastidious and highly
artificial restriction
of the laughable attribute to the field of wit
humour which
the
cultivated
man
in
is
and
the
refined
habit of
enjoying.
Nor
is
this all.
It
may
possibly be found that no satis-
factory explanation of our enjoyment of the laughable
is
obtainable without taking a glance at forms of mirth which
have preceded
laughter
is
it.
Among
the strange things said about
surely the sentence of Bacon
:
"
In laughing there
ever precedeth a conceit of something ridiculous, and there-
proper to
man
That the father of the inductive
philosophy should have approached the subject in this way
fore
it is
''.
PLAN OF INVESTIGATION
is
23
one of the ironies that meet us in these discussions;
allowing that he
we must
The
is
surely recognise that his reason
conceit which
man
right as to his fact that only
is
Bacon here talks about
for,
laughs,
hopelessly weak.
is,
we
all
know,
by no means a universal accompaniment of laughter and,
what is more important, even when it occurs it is wont to
grow distinct rather in the form of an afterthought than in
;
Among
that of an antecedent.
laughter ought least of
humble
all
all
The importance
all
of thus sweeping into our scientific net
grades of laughter will be seen
recognised that the one promising
way
to trace its development
is
crudest forms.
If
we begin
when
very likely to
many
fail
it is
of dealing with this
from
its
earliest
and
at the top of the evolutional
scheme, and take no account of the lower grades,
as so
its
kinsfolk.
specimens of
subject
things human, surely
to be afraid of recognising
we
are
to penetrate to the core of the laughable,
have
of our predecessors
only stoop to consider
its
failed.
But
if
we
will
manifestations at the lowest dis-
coverable levels, and then confine ourselves to the more
modest problem
may
:
How
did the
first
laughter, mindless as
it
well seem to us, get developed and differentiated into
the variety of forms which
of civilised
It will
make up the humorous experience
man ? we may win
a modest success.
be evident that any attempt to pursue this line
of inquiry will
have to take
note, not only of facts obtainable
from the realm of primitive laughter
infancy and the savage
state,
as represented
by
but of those social forces
which have had so much to do with shaping the manifestations of mirth.
The common
and illustrate how it has insinuated
many movements of social life.
reason we shall need to discuss to some extent
attest its social character
itself into
For a
the
like
directions of our laughter
24
INTRODUCTORY
1-
the place of laughter in Art, and the treatment of the
sources of merriment
by the comedian.
Lastly, this larger consideration of the subject will,
shall
probably
fiiid,
we
take us to an examination of certain
ethical or practical questions,
viz.,
the value which
is
to be
assigned to the laughing propensity, and the proper limits
to be set to its indulgence.
The
it will
subject so conceived
is
a large and complex one, and
be hard to deal with
it
at once thoughtfully
and
familiarly,
with the genuine ring of laughter ever present
to the ear.
The present writer will account himself happy
where so many appear to have missed success,
if,
in a line
he attain to a moderate measure of
it.
25
CHAPTER
II.
THE SMILE AND THE LAUGH.
To
treat the facts with proper respect seems to be
than
ordinarily
more
incumbent on us in dealing with the
nature and the significance of our laughter.
This means,
some inquiry be made into the act
of laughing itself, the manner of it, and the circumstances
which accompany it, and that this inquiry be carried out
in the most comprehensive way possible.
as already hinted, that
We
grave elders are wont to think of laughing and
smiling as something quite occasional, a momentary lapse
once in a while from the persistent attitude of seriousness.
This view
form.
apt to be expressed in too unqualified a
is
Simple
types
savage, frequently
much
larger
would
suggest.
space
A
of
the child and the
humanity,
show us mirthful laughter
in
the day's
filling
a
hours than our view
jolly boy, the subject of chronic high
which are apt to try the patience of sedate seniors,
might perhaps say if indeed he could be brought to
frame a theory of life that laughing is the proper way
spirits,
—
—
to pass the time,
sity
in
and that seriousness
is
a tiresome neces-
which can be tolerated only now and again.
any
case such a
And
view might be said to represent the
mental attitude of those happy
idiots
whom we
persistently joyous
read that they " are
and imbeciles of
and
THE SMILE AND THE LAUGH
26
benign," and
constantlj' laughing
and that
smiling,
or
i
countenances often exhibit a stereotyped smile ".
Yet, attractive as this theory may be for a lover
" their
of laughter,
it
itself to
cannot well adjust
stern physio-
The full process of laughter is, like coughing, sobbing and other actions, a violent interruption of
As
the rhythmic flow of the respiratory movements.
logical facts.
such,
function in the
its
human organism seems
limited to that of an occasional spurt.
smile, quite apart
would,
smiler,
from
its
with the smooth on-flow of the
has been
not really
named the
amount to
hardly be
compatible
" everlasting
barren simper
we
laugh.
shall
see,
Hence we
does
"
this.
The Smile and the Laugh, viewed as
as
What
vital processes.
physiological events,
stand in the closest relation one to the other.
is,
perpetual
insipidity for others than the
speaking,
strictly
Even a
to be
rightly regarded
shall
as
A
smile
an incomplete
do well to study the two together.
Smiling involves a complex group of facial movements.
It
may
istic
suffice
to
remind the reader of such character-
changes as the drawing back and slight lifting of
the corners of the mouth, the raising of the upper
which partially uncovers the
teeth,
and the curving
lip,
of the
furrows betwixt the corners of the mouth and the nostrils
which these movements involve.
must be added the formation of wrinkles under
the eyes a most characteristic part of the expression
which is a further result of the first movements. The
(the naso-labial furrows)
To
these
—
brightness of the
increased
eyes
is
probably the
effect
of their tenseness, due to the contraction of the adjacent
and the pressure of the raised cheek, though
muscles
1
See Darwin, Expression of the Emotions, p. 199.
PHYSIOLOGY OP SMILING
27
may
an acceleration of the circulation within the eyeball
have something to do with it.
These
facial
common to the smile and to the
more violent forms of laughter the
under their lachrymal suffusion the
changes are
laugh, though in the
eyes are apt to lose
sparkle which the smile brings.
As a
is
characteristic
movements the smile
the primitive and
a pleasurable or happy state
group of
facial
excellently well suited for its purpose
most universal expression of
of mind.
feelings.
able,
It forms, in respect of certain of its features at
marked
Thus it
a
least,
—
from the
contrast to the
is far
expression of opposite
removed, and so easily distinguish-
facial expression
during weeping,
viz.,
firmly closed eyelids and the wide opening of the
in the
form of a squarish cavity
;
as also
from the
the
mouth
face's be-
trayal of low spirits and "crossness," in the depressed corners
of the mouth, the oblique eyebrows and the furrowed forehead.
I
as
have spoken here of the primitive unsophisticated smile
it
may
be observed in children and those adults
who
have not learned to control the primitive and instinctive
movements
of the face.
civilised
community,
strained
and modified,
confession of the
gladness.
With
Among
the cultivated classes of a
this primitive smile is not only re-
but serves other uses than the
elemental experiences of pleasure and
the contemptuous smile, the slightly ironi-
cal smile of the superior person, the bitter, sardonic smile,
we
to
It is enough
shall have happily but little to do here.
remark that these difierentiations answer closely to those
of laughter,
and so further
illustrate the organic aflSnity
of the two.
We may now
laugh.
That
pass to the larger experience of the audible
this action is physiologically continuous
with
THE SMILE AND THE LAUGH
28
the smile has ahready been suggested.
is
The
facial expression
approximately the same in the broad smile and the gentle
when laughter grows immoderate that
marked addition of other features, viz., the
It is only
laugh.
there
is
a
strong contraction of the muscles about the eyes leading
and the shedding of tears. How closely connected are smiling and moderate laughing may be seen by
to frowning,
the tendency
and the
we
ments of laughter.
out, there
is
when we reach the broad smile
mouth to start the respiratory moveAs Darwin and others have pointed
experience
fully open
a series of gradations from the faintest and
most decorous smile up
to the full explosion of the laugh.^
One may, perhaps, go
farther and say that the series
of gradations here indicated
finding
is
an ordinary laugh.
rapidly, in
it diflScult
gone through, more or
Persons
who laugh
less
slowly,
to "let themselves go," can be seen to
It has been said by an ingenious
American inquirer that laughter may begin either with the
pass through these stages.
eyes or with the mouth, the frequency of the former mode,
compared with the
as
being as 7 to
It
may
latter, in
the instances examined
5.^
be added that, to this continuity of form in the
actions of smiling
of function.
As
and laughing, there answers a community
will be shown more fully by-and-by,
both are in their primitive forms manifestations of pleasure,
laughter being primarily the expression of the fuller meas-
happy or gladsome state, and varying in energy
and volume with the degree of this fulness.
The chronological relations of the reign of the smile and
ures of the
the laugh in the
life
of the individual will
occupy us
See among other authorities, Baulin, Le Bire, p. 28.
See art. " The Psychology of Tickling, Laughing and the Comic," by
G. Stanley Hall and A. Allin, American Journal of Psychology, vol. ix., p. 1 ft.
'
'
THE LAUGH AS EXPANDED SMILE
Here
presently.
relations
may
it
allow us
be enough
2&
that these
to say
think of smiling at once as the
to
The
precursor and as the successor of her kinsman.
smiles are a step
hood towards
away from the exceeding gravity
full hilarity, the last are
hilarity to the stolid
It
would seem
composure of
by
a step back from this
senile infancy.
to follow that the sharp distinction often
drawn between smiling and laughing
led
first
of baby-
its Chesterfield,
Society,
is artificial.
may emphasise the difference between
the incipient and the completed process, allowing the one
and forbidding the other
to regard
them
but the natural
;
man
is
inclined
as one.
The recognition of this identity of the two actions is
evidenced by the usages of speech. We see in the classical
languages a tendency to employ the same word for the two,
laughing Hke smiling being regarded primarily and mainly
—
—as an object of visual perception.
at least
This
larly clear in the case of the Latin " ridere,"
which means to
smile as well as to laugh, the form
"
is
particu-
subridere " being rare.
This tendency to assimilate the laugh and the smile as facial
expressions
was naturally supplemented by the employment,
both in Greek and in Latin, of a separate word for audible
laughter
{"
Kaxd^eiv,"
"
cachinnare
")
in cases
needful to emphasise the fact of sound.
where
In some
languages the relation of smiling to laughing
is
it
was
modem
precisely
indicated as that of a less full to a fuller action (Italian,
"
ridere "
and
"
sorridere "
;
French,
" rire "
and
"
sourire "
;
German, "lachen" and "lacheln "). Possibly the existence
of two unrelated words in our own and some other modem
languages points to the fact that certain races have been
more impressed by the dissimilarity between the audible and
the inaudible expression than by the similarity of the visible
manifestations.
THE SMILE AND THE LAUGH
30
worth noting that even after the two expressions
have been distinguished by separate names there is a tendency to use the stronger metaphor " to laugh," rather than
It is
the weaker one " to smile," in describing the brighter aspects
of nature's beauty, such as
painter,
the
whom Dante
first in
meadows when
A
in flower.
meets in Purgatory, and recognises as
the art of illumination, gracefully transfers this
by saying that the leaves
" (piu ridon) than his
more
laugh
distinction to a brother painter
which the
latter painted
"
own.^
We may now turn
laughing, that
sounds.
is
to the distinguishing characteristics of
the production of the familiar series of
is,
Like sighing, sobbing and some other
actions,
it
an interruption of the natural rhythm of the respiratory
which inspiration and expiration follow one
The obvious feature of this
process, in
another at regular intervals.
interruption in the case of laughter
the series of short,
is
spasmodic, expiratory movements
produced.
These
are,
by which the sounds are
however, preceded by a less noticed
inspiration of exceptional energy
and depth.
These inter-
movements involve
the large muscles by
those which secure the
ruptions of the ordinary respiratory
an unusually energetic action of
which the chest
is
expanded,
viz.,
contraction and so the descent of the dome-shaped diaphragm,
and those by the action of which the ribs are elevated.
The production of the sounds by the spasmodic expiratory
movements shows that the passage from the trachea
the pharynx,
The quality
cords, is partially closed.
^
Pwgatorio, Canto
planet (Venus)
is
into
the glottis or chink between the vocal
viz.,
xi.,
lines 82-3
said to have
;
c/.
Canto
i.,
of
the sounds
line 20,
where the
made the whole East laugh
copied by Chaucer, The Knightes Tale, line 636.
poetical use of " laughter,'' Spectator, No. 249.
—a
is
lair
figure
Addison touches on
this
THE SOUNDS OF LAUGHTER
31
explained by the particular arrangements, at the
of
moment
the vocal apparatus, and more
the cachinnation, of
particularly the shape of the resonance
chamber of the
mouth.
we
Familiar though
are with them,
we should
find it
hard to give an accurate description of the sounds of
To begin
laughter.
with, they seem
same person and
in the case of the
diiFerent persons.
to vary considerably
still
more
Laughter has not yet lent
in that of
itself to
the
methods of the experimental psychologist, and so has not
been
may
studied with
scientific
precision.
By-and-by,
we
hope, the phonograph will capture its sounds, and
enable us to observe them at our leisure.
a very rough account of them
Taking the laughter
Meanwhile, only
is possible.
of the adult male,
which
is
perhaps
more frank and better pronounced, we find the more common forms of iterated sounds to range from the broad vowel
sound aw
sound
(in "
(as in "
seems to
the long
me
ee
law ") to the sharp a
The long
go "), involving the rounded mouth aperture,
common.
to be far less
and
(in " bat ").
ai sounds,
The same
applies to
and those which seem to be most
closely allied to them.
These variations appear, so far as I can judge, to go with
alterations of pitch.
The broader sounds,
e.g.,
aw, seem
naturally to ally themselves to the hardier deep-pitched
more
cackle-like utterances in
the higher parts of the register.
This connection shows
explosion, the others to the
itself,
too, in the
change in the vowel-quality when, as
frequently happens, the laugh runs through a cadence of
pitch from a higher to a lower note.
These considerations will prepare us to find that the
vowel-quality of the sound varies in general with sex and
with age.
According to Haller and Gratiolet the sounds of
THE SMILE AND THE LAUGH
32
women and
the laughter of
children,
which correspond with
their higher vocal pitch, approach in vowel-quality to the
French
i
and
e.^
Considerable variations from these typical forms would
seem to occur now and
already referred
the
to,
In the American returns
again.
mode
of laughing described
presented by such odd symbols as
" tse
!
tse
!
" etc.
These singularities,
are intended to represent habitual
are,
gah
"
!
if,
gah
as
!
it
" "iff
is
re-
iff
!
"
!
seems, they
modes of voicing mirth,
one suspects, hardly referrible to natural differences of
vocalisation,
but are probably the result of the interfering
we know,
have much to do with fixing the form of mirthful expr^ssio^.
agencies of nervousness and affectation which, as
The
description of laughter here offered applies pnly to
the typical form.
It
would have to be modified consider-
ably to suit the attenuated forms to which the expression
is
reduced in
"
poUte society
Of
".
Even where the vocal outburst
these,
more presently.
retains its primitive spon-
taneity and fulness considerable variations are observable,
connected with differences in the whole respiratory and
vocal apparatus.
The
intensity and volume of the sound,
the pitch and vowel-quality, the rapidity of the successive
expirations, the length of the
mencing and of ending, may
help to
different
make
series,
all
the
mode
of com-
exhibit variations
which
the laughter of one person or of one race
from that of another.
We may now
pass to some other accompaniments of the
muscular movements of laughter.
study these with care
if
we wish
It
is
of importance to
to estimate the precise
value of the hilarious explosion in the economy of
human
life.
' Gratiolet, De la Physionomie, p. 115.
Benedick instances as interjections oflaughing " ha ha I he "
Mvxh Ado About Nothing, IV., 1.
!
I
ORGANIC EFFECTS OF LAUGHTER
33
Since the movements of laughter are sudden and violent
interruptions of the smooth rhythmic flow of the respiratory
process,
we may
organic
effects,
expect to find that they have important
involving not merely the mechanism of
respiration, but also that of the circulation of the blood.
Here,
all
it
seems,
(we are
which, as
we have
to do with a double effect.
told), this series of
we have
spasmodic expirations
seen, the
First of
—during
glottis is partially closed
increases the pressure within the thorax or chest,
and so
impedes the entry of blood from the veins into the heart.
This
effect is
seen in the turgidity of the head and neck
which appears after prolonged and violent laughing.
In the
second place, the exceptionally deep inspirations tend to ex-
pand the limgs with
air,
veins into the heart.
actions, the
and to drain
The manner
off
the blood from the
in
which these two
deepened inspiration and the prolonged expira-
tion, alternate
during a
fit
of laughter, appears to secure a
(
considerable advantage in respect both of accelerated circuj
lation
and
riiore
complete oxygenation of the blood.
The;
movement of the blood after laughter has recently!
been observed in some experimental inquiries into the effects
brisker
of emotional excitement of various kinds on the pulse.
It
is
not improbable that this expedited circulation pro-
duces more remote effects on the organism.
It has been
suggested that one of the advantages of a " good laugh " is
that
it
it
relieves the brain,
and
this
would seem to imply that
quickens the movement of the blood through the fine and
readily clogged vessels which permeate the brain-structures.
1
See an article on " Organic Processes and Consciousness," by
Angell and H. B. Thompson, in the Psychological Beview,
J.
R.
vol. vi., p. 56.
According to these researches, a hearty laugh, causing sudden and violent
changes in the breathing curve, is accompanied by the sharpest and most
marked vaso-dilation, as tested by capillary pulse drawing though in one
;
case the opposite efiect of constriction
3
was produced.
THE SMILE AND THE LAUGH
34
And here we find ourselves face to face with the question:
What truth is there in the saying that laughter has beneficial
physiological effects
?
A
curious chapter might be written
on the views propounded, both by the light-hearted reveller
and the grave and philosophic onlooker, on the wholesomeness
of this
form
of " bodily exercise
this aspect of the subject can,
Only a bare reference to
".
however, be given here.
To begin with, the unlearned, who know nothing
diaphragms or of congested veins needing to be
have had a shrewd conviction that laughter
of life
grow
moving
briskly.
fat," attest this
Proverbs,
common
of
relieved,
sets the current
such as "laugh and
conviction.
Those who have
made
The mediaeval writers of
catered to the laughter-lovers have not unnaturally
much
of this salutary influence.
the laughable story in verse (the "fabhau " or "Conte a rire
en vers
("
held firmly to the belief in the "sanitary virtue"
")
vertu saine
")
of a burst of laughter.
This popular view has been supported by the weight of
learned authority.
clearly one,
Vocal exercises, of which laughing
is
have been recommended by experts from the
time of Aristotle as a means of strengthening the lungs and
of furthering the health of the organism as a whole.
By
many, moreover, laughter has been specifically inculcated as
The learned Burton (b. 1577) quotes
a hygienic measure.
a
number
of physicians in favour of the ancient
enlivening the feast with mirth and jokes.^
may find
custom
of
The reader
references to the salutary effects of laughter in the
Both by a vigorous
latest text-books of physiology.
re-
inforcement of the actions of the large muscles which do
the
work
of respiration, and,
still
effects of these reinforced actions
^Anatomy
of Melancholy, Pt. 2, sec.
merry company
").
2,
more, by the beneficial
on the functions of the
mem.
vi.,
subaeo. i ("mirth and
PHYSIOLOGICAL BENEFITS OF LAUGHTER
35
lungs and the circulatory apparatus, laughter properly finds
a place among " bodily exercises "}
The beneficial effects of laughter have not been overlooked
Mulcaster, for example (born about
by the pedagogue.
1530), gives a high place to laughing
health-giving
or
The
exercises.
among
his " physical
physiological
adduced are sometimes funny enough
:
He
on Galen and the doctrine of "spirits".
who have
reasons
for the author relies
thinks that
cold hands
and cold
and are troubled with melancholia, since it " moveth
much aire in the breast, and sendeth the warmer spirites
laughter will help those
chests
outward".
under the
Tickling
may
armpits
well
be
added, seeing that these parts have a great store of small
veins aud
warme
little
How
tickled so
".^
far these benign effects on health,
by the modern physician
as well as
which are recog-
by
his predecessor,
are due to the vigorous reinforcement brought
the
is
become
themselves, and from thence disperse heat through-
out the whole bodie
nised
"which being
arteries
work
of respiration
and
not easy to say.
way
and again a lusty
be distinctly
it
The latter process reminds one of the
circulation of pedestrians
In a general
by laughter to
of the circulation of the blood,
"
it
and vehicles
manages
Move on
beneficial.
!
"
in our
London streets.
Yet now
itself fairly well.
from a policeman seems to
may be extended
Similar benefits
and the rest.
not lose sight of the possibility
must
At the same time we
that laughter may act beneficially on our hard-pressed
to the organs of digestion
I
Laughter
is
his useful work,
pronounced a "good exercise" by Dr. Leonard Hill in
Manual of Human Physiology (1899), p. 236. The physioare more fully treated of by Dr. Harry Campbell in his
logical benefits
publication, Respiratory Exercises in the Treatment of Disease (1898), p.
125.
'^"Positions," ed.
by Quick, pp.
6i, 65.
THE SMILE AND THE LAUGH
36
frames in another way.
lusty cachinnation
As has been suggested above,
nature's
is
that
psychologists
way
Now
sudden increase of pleasure.
pleasurable
the
of voicing gladness, a
it
has been held by
tend
feelings
the whole group of organic functions,
to
by adding
further
to the
nervous vigour which keeps them going. Laughter may owe
a part of its benign influence on our bodily state to the fact
that
it
produces a considerable increase of vital activity
by way of heightened nervous stimulation.^
One feature of the laughing outburst may pretty safely
be ascribed to this increase of nervous action under pleasurIn all genuinely hilarious moods, the laugh
accompanied by a good deal of diffused activity of the
able excitement.
is
This
voluntary muscles.
is
seen most clearly in the un-
and savages. The sudden
movements of arm,
wing-like,
or meet in
leg and trunk, so that arms flap
the joyous clap, and the whole body jumps. In older
sophisticated laughter of children
glee which starts the laugh starts also
people matters
may
not be carried so
far,
though there are
examples of the large shakings of laughter, notably that of
Carlyle's Teufelsdrockh, whose great laugh was one " not
and diaphragm only, but of the whole man
from head to heel " and it is hard perhaps for any man
taken by the " stab " of a good joke to keep his arms down
of the face
;
and
It
his
body
may
vertical.
be added that this supplementing of the energetic
' Angell and Thompson in the article quoted ahove suppose that the
whole dilation of the capillaries during laughter is a secondary effect of
sudden changes in the breathing. This seems a reasonable conclusion.
Yet since, according to these writers, smiling as well as mild laughter
causes gentle changes of the same kind, it seems possible that we have
here, in a disguised form, the working of the general law stated by these
writers
that agreeable experiences are accompanied by dilation of the
:
peripheral blood-vessels.
LAUGHING AS A GYMNASTIC
respiratory actions
laughter
such
violent.
Its
of the limbs gives to
to be called a muscular exercise.
vigorous, voluminous
it is
on the
by movements
its clear title
37
and bordering,
salutary influence, like that of the
wiU consequently depend on the
surgeon's knife,
As
so to speak,
celerity
of its operation.
Here we come
to the other
laughter does good
by its
column in the reckoning.
occasional irruption into a
If
domain
which otherwise would have too much of drowsy monotony,
its
beneit
can
it
when
is
it
Only too easily
and inundate and destroy
rigorously circumscribed.
overdo the
" flushing " part,
should merely cleanse.
In other words, the mirth-
ful cachinnation, just because it is
an irruption, a disorderly
proceeding, must not be unduly prolonged.
At what moment
in
a
fit
of laughter the
it is
not easy to say.
prolonged
undesirable effects begin to appear,
must be remembered that a good part of what remains
of modern laughter is by no means pure hilarity. There is in
It
it
from the
first
ejaculation something of a biting sensation,
or something of a melancholy pain.
Yet, waiving this and
we
looking on what begins as genuine hilarity,
that
it is
when
moment
further prolongation of the exercise will be weakening
rather than strengthening.
like that of wine,
may
in its
The excitement
may
of laughter,
measurements have
justed to individual constitution.
of life
shall find
not so simple a matter to determine the
Among
to be ad-
the humiliations
be reckoned the discovery of an inability to go
on laughing at the brilliant descriptions of a
caricaturist,
an experience of aching exhaustion, of flabby
and
collapse, while
others continue the exhilarating chorus.
It is natural to
look on the tears which often accompany
boisterous laughter as an unfavourable
which do us good should
not,
we
argue,
symptom.
make
Things
us cry.
Yet
THE SMILE AND THE LAUGH
38
we may
reflect that
men have been known
to cry out of
laughers, too, the moisture may
With some
sheer happiness.
earlier stage than with others. Was Shakespeare,
one wonders, thinking of a violent laughter when he made
lachimo tell Imogen that her lord Leonatus had mocked
come at an
the French lover's lugubrious despondencies " with his eyes
Perhaps in Shakespeare's age,
in flood with laughter "
?
when
in
laughter
more
was held
with looser
came
rein, the tears
readily.
According to Darwin,
who
has
made
a careful study of
laughter's tears, their appearance during a violent attack
common
to all the races of
mankind.
He
is
connects them
with the contraction of the muscles round the eyes which
has for
its
purpose the compressing of the gorged blood-
and so the protection of the eyes. This is the
meaning of the tears alike in the case of grief and of
extravagant mirth. The paroxysm of excessive laughter
vessels
;
and
help us to understand
how
thus approaches the other extreme of violent grief
this fact,
it is
Darwin
thinks,
may
that hysterical patients and children often laugh and
cry alternately.^
it may be with the tears, there is no doubt that
and prolonged laughter works mischief in other ways.
However
violent
The sigh that
so frequently follows the laugh,
supposed to illustrate the wider truth that
have a sting in the
tail,"
and has been
" all
pleasures
need not be taken too seriously.
It is the sign of restoration of equilibrium after the hilarious
upset.
The prostrating
known to
'
Shakespeare.
effects of violent
laughter were well
Thus he speaks of being
"
stabbed
"
See The Expression of the Emotions, chap,
note that Muloaster and
beneficial influence for
tlie
"a
vi., p. 163.
It is curious to
recent physiologists referred to above claim a
good cry" as well as for laughter. But they
do not seem explicitly to put them on the same level as occasional exercises.
FATIGUES OF LAUGHTER
39
with laughter, of laughing oneself " into stitches "
perience which Milton probably had in
of "laughter holding both his sides''
—an ex-
mind when he wrote
—of
the heart being
almost broken "with extreme laughing," and of laughing
"to death".
oneself
whole Iliad of
The American returns speak
^
evil after-effects
giddiness, breathlessness
and so
of a
fatigue, weakness, sadness,
:
forth.
may, however, be
It
urged that these unpleasant experiences hardly justify us in
applying to laughter the rather strong epithet of
They
are,
" killing
".
under normal circumstances, temporary incon-
veniences only, and to the lover of fun do not seriously
count as against
kills,
as
it
its
substantial blessings.
does sometimes,
it is
because
it
When
laughter
has degenerated
into something distinctly abnormal, allying itself to hysterical
grief or to the unhinging effect of a great mental shock.
As already
beginning,
is
Among
of feeling.
adults
it is
noted, the laugh, like the smile which
is
its
in general an expression of a pleasurable state
unsophisticated children and savage
common mode of expressing all considerable
pleasure when they involve a sudden bright-
the
intensities of
ening of the pleasure-tone of consciousness, as in the overflow of gladness or good
marked
\feeling.
spirits.
As such
it
stands in
dissimilarity to the expression of opposite tones of
To begin
with,
it
states of suffering, sorrow
illustrates the
presents a striking contrast to
and low
spirits in general.
broad generalisation laid
It
down by psycho-
logists that a state of pleasure manifests itself in vigorous
and expansive movements, whereas a state of pain involves
a lowering of muscular energy and a kind of shrinking into
oneself.
In a more special
way
it
forms an antithesis, in
certain of its features at least, to the expression of violent
^ Maria's words in Twelfth Night, "If you desire the spleen," seem to
point to some supposed organic disturbance due to immoderate laughter.
THE SMILE AND THE LAUGH
40
Darwin remarks that in the production of
screams or cries of distress the expirations are prolonged
suffering.
and continuous and the inspirations short and interrupted
whereas in the production of laughter we have, as we have
and broken and the inspirations
This is merely one case of the wider generalisaprolonged.
tion that " the whole expression of a man in good spirits
seen, the expirations short
is
exactly the
sorrow
opposite
of
that
one
of
suffering
from
".^
The value
of this arrangement as helping us to under-
stand one another's feelings
mistakes which
we
is
wont
are
Among
obvious.
many
the
commit in reading our
to
minds, that of confusing their joy and grief
children's
cannot, fortunately, be a frequent one.
and
ceptional
abnormal
It
is
only in ex-
where the extremes
cases,
of
boisterous mirth and grief seem to approach one another,
that the language of the one can be mistaken for that of
the other.
A
curious
point,
which the ingenuities of some
psychologists compel us to consider,
of which laughter
is
later
whether the pleasure,
is
popularly supposed to be the outcome
or effect, really stands in this relation to
the theory here referred
to, of
which
According to
it.
Prof.
W. James
is
the
best-known advocate in our language, a blush cannot be
attributed to an antecedent feeling of modesty or shame-
facedness
modesty
it,
:
:
but for the blush there would be no feeling of
in truth,
it is
the blush,
that constitutes the feeling.
i.e.,
the hot sensation of
The theory has done much
to popularise psychology in these last days.
It
is,
I
found, a plum in a pudding where plums are rare for
who read psychology
1
Op.
for examinations.
cit.,
pp. 207
and
213.
It
have
many
seems to be
EXPRESSION AS SOURCE OP PEELING
particularly dear to
it
young women.
41
It certainly has about
the charm of a lively fancy.
But
science has, alas
ness of fancy
get
all
and
;
it
!
sometimes to do battle with
your emotions out of the organic
yourself in the
By
has to do this here.
awkward
liveli-
trying to
effects,
you
find
situation of being unable to say
how these organic effects themselves are brought about.
You must have something of the emotional thrill and of
the nervous thrill which this involves before
you get that
interference with the routine action of the muscles of the
facial capillaries
which brings on the blush.
Not only may the presence
of
an element of feeling at
the very beginning of an emotional experience be thus
shown
to
be a necessary assumption,
cases at least, be clearly observed.
it
can, in certain
This applies more par-
ticularly to such feelings as the admiration of a beautiful
landscape or a fine bit of harmonised melody.
cases
it
must, one would suppose, be evident to
all
In these
that the
and sustained by numerous
by way of eye
or ear, and by the agreeable perceptions which grow immediately out of these.
To say that all the joyous elevation in
pleasurable emotion
is
started
currents of agreeable sensation pouring in
these experiences springs out of the secondary, internally
excited
sensations,
which accompany the altered
those
and gland, the heightened pulseand the rest, is surely to inflict an
undeserved indignity on " the higher senses," and to exhibit the full depth of ludicrous paradox which lurks in
condition
of
muscle
rate, the bodily thrill
this theory.^
The
indeed,
'Prof.
p. 384.
case
one
of laughter
is
characteristic
James seems
to
not quite so clear.
which seems
to
It
favour
has,
the
admit this in his smaller work, Psychology,
THE SMILE AND THE LAUGH
42
view
that
eal
that
it is
the bodily resonance
everything, namely^
is
easily induced in a mechanical or quasi-mechamIt is of all the expressive
manner.
movements the one
Children's laughter,
to the force of imitation.
most subject
and that excited by the popular game, the "laughing
chorus," clearly illustrate
we know,
over, as
by
part at least,
in
a
fit
contagious character.^
its
may
of laughter
actions
which presumably reinstate
some of the physiological elements in the process.
my
son
tells
me
that he
impulse to laugh
when
was overtaken by an
seems
;
and
my
that
irresistible
the
daughter had the
mountain climb.
at the end of her first
probable
Thus
riding a horse without a saddle,,
and again when running a race
same tendency
More-
be brought on,
It
movements and the changed
condition of the breathing function are prime causes of
the irresistible tendency in such cases.
It
is,
however, one thing to allow the indisputable fact
that laughter can be excited in this seemingly mechanical
way, another thing to claim for the reaction in such
cases the value of the full joyous outburst.
a person
who watches
I believe that
his mental processes can observe that
a merely imitative laughter does not bring the whole delightful psychosis
which
when some
arises
agreeable im-
pression initiates the movements.
To
this it
must be added that
on the imitation
is
in the cases here touched
not wholly mechanical.
laugh because others laugh, do
we
When we
not accept their laugh-
gay mood ?
And are we not, commonly at least, affected by others'
voluminous laughter as by a droll sight and sound, which
ter as a playful challenge
and
fall
into the
directly stimulates the mirthful muscles
I
On
?
the Contagion of Laughter, see Eaulin,
My son's laughter,
Le
Eire, p. 98
ft.
PLEASURE AS ANTECEDENT OF LAUGHTER
in the circumstances just referred to,
to the
movements
seemed to be directed
and to those of the
of the horse's ears,
boy running just in front
4?
The movements
of him.
of
laughter have, in the case of some adults, come so completely under the initiative control of mental processes, that
even when powerful organic forces prompt the movements,
it is
necessary to
make
show
a
some cause of
of finding
merriment.
Coming now to the ordinary case of the emotional
we note first of all the swift, explosive character
reaction,
of the outburst.
motor discharge follow the
If the
swell of joyous feeling,
which
first
popularly said to excite
is
it,
make
it
seems to do so with such
it
impossible to detect this initial swell as distinctly pre-
ceding
Yet
it.
for example
we
baffle
our inquiry.
When
laugh at some absurd incongruity in speech
the laugh
not only directs
interest
need not
this fact
or manners, can
starts
electrical rapidity as to
we not
is
see
that the perception which
an emotional perception, one which
to
itself
something that has emotional
and value, namely, the incongruous features as
such, but
is
flooded from the very
To say that
hanging upon the arm
of mirth.
my
of
first
with the gladness
perception of a big
man
a small
woman
a purely in-
is
tellectual affair, like the perception
of the inequality of
two
one
lines in a geometrical figure,
either to a poverty of
is,
fears, to confess
humorous experience or to a very
scanty faculty of psychological analysis.
But perhaps the clearest disproof of this quaint paradox in the realm of laughter is supplied by the situation
of
forced
choral laugh through fatigue.
When
already
referred
to,
that
abstention
thus
and impotent, we may be quite capable
funny turns of the good "story,"
"
of
from a
doubled up
"
seizing the
and of feeling
all
the
and THE LAUGH
T'HE smile
44
In sooth
force of the bugle-call of the others' laughter.
just here that the misery of the situation
it is
the joyous sense of fun in the air
is
now robbed
Ump
sturdy ally and so reduced to a state of
The comicality
the feeling
is
makes
still
denied
appeal
full
its full
lies,
we
:
that
of
its
inefficiency.
feel
but
it,
normal outflow.
This brings us face to face with the kernel, the valuable
kernel, of truth
which
that
is,
pressed
what seems at
Though the " bodily
lies in
paradoxical nutshell.
reverberation,"
the swiftly returning tidings of a raised or de-
nervous
organism,
is
activity
outlying
in
regions
not everything in an emotion,
and an important
The
part.
full
that
coming of fun with gladness can
find its
flow along the familiar channels.
this
greet the
customary out-
Not only
expansion
large
a part,
nervous swirl
moment when we
started at the centres at the
the
of
is
experiences, im-
the vents are clear, that the
suggested above,
it
experience of the joys
of the comic, like other full emotional
plies
an empty
first
of
so,
the
but as
area
of
nervous commotion throughout the bodily system gives
added
ment
I
life
and a more
distinctive character to the enjoy-
of fun.
have here supposed a perfectly simple instance
of
laughter in which a sudden increase of pleasure up to
the point of gladness brings on the reaction.
this case,
however, there
is
Even
some complication, some
in
re-
action between the out-pouring mental gladness
and the in-pouring somatic resonance. In a good, prociprocal
longed laugh the bodily factor does undoubtedly react upon
the psycho-physical process which makes up the mental
gaiety,
and
this
physical factor
means that
In
of this process.
is
all
cases
it
precedes the later stages
where
this central psycho-
complex and requires time for
its
com-
HOW PLEASURE AND LAUGHTER
pletion, the interactions
become
vital.
intuitions
reflective
to be
the
is set
so
45
and the bodily factor
it
in the preceding chapter, the
which are
and
cause,
after-thoughts.
paratus
between
As hinted
INTERACT
to
by
said-
certain
theorists
precede laughter, are often
when
This means that
the laughing ap-
and ready to discharge, the
first
joyous per-
ception of something funny, though utterly vague with
respect to the particular features and relations wherein lies
the funniness, suffices to bring on the reaction, which in-
And
stantly reinforces the gladsome mood.
sustain itself for a while mainly as a
fit
the jollity
of laughter
may
though
;
swift mental glances are all along being shot across the
spasms at the provoking " object," glances which make
clearer
and
clearer the ludicrous features,
raise the force of the
If,
as
limits a
we have
good
and by so doing
mental stimulus.
seen to be probable, laughter
is
within
exercise, bringing a considerable increase of
pleasurable activity and furthering the sense of bodily
well-being,
we
can easily understand
how
essential it is to
the full reali^tion of good spirits and the hilarious mood.
Its explosive
movements seem,
indeed, to belong to the state
of exhilaration, of conscious expansion,
of its
piquant flavour:
and to give
whence the hardship
it
much
of losing
breath through excessive indulgence, or having to
the impulse to laugh at
its
birth
shocked look of the agelast.
movements bring
The
when exposed
deep,
forcible
stifle
to
the
chest-
a sense of heightened energy, of a high-
tide fulness of the life-current.
The voluminous mass
of
sensation which they supply, partly in the stirring sounds
which react on the laugher's own
ears,
and partly in the
large, exhilarating effects in the viscera, is in itself a vast
expansion of our consciousness.
tide in our organic
life
is
This sudden rise of the
a part at least of that sense
THE SMILE AND THE LAUGH
46
"
of
"
sudden glory
which the sight of the ludicrous
is
said
to bring us.
That
this organic swell is a large factor,
more ways than
in
is,
shown
I think,
To name but one
one.
fact
we may
;
begin a laugh with something of bitterness, something of
malignity in our hearts
consciousness, as
if
;
but end
process, and, like another
substituted a
it
having a
freer, serener
the laughter had been a sort of cleansing
and widely
happy and peaceful
different Kd6ap(n<;,
and un-
for a disturbed
happy
state of
among
the causes of laughter, a moment's relaxation of
strain
feeling.
—muscular,
'•*
It will
be seen presently that
intellectual or emotional tension
of the most common,
if it
be not universal.
The
—
is
one
delicious
sense of relief which the collapse of the strained attitude
brings us
may no
doubt be due to a consciousness of the
transition, the escape
At
the same time,
it is
from pressure of the moment
before.
not improbable that the physiological
processes of laughter themselves,
by securing organic
relief
and refreshment, contribute a large element to the whole
mental
A
state.
like
remark
applies to the element of disagreeable
which frequently,
feeling
mixed experience
at least,
makes our laughter
a
:
Our sinoerest laughter
With some pain is fraught.
Shelley was hardly the person, one suspects, to judge of
the quality of men's laughter
an element of truth.
:
yet his couplet contains
This mixture of elements
is,
doubt, largely due to the initiating perception itself;
as
we
us in
no
for,
commonly shows
the background something regrettable. But it seems
shall see, the laughable spectacle
reasonable to say that the element of sadness in our hilarity
has
its
organic support in the unpleasant feeling-tones
CEREBRAL AND ORGANIC JOY
which accompany the
effects of all violent
47
and prolonged
laughter.!
What may be the precise proportions between the initial
or " cerebral "joy and the joy reverberated by the organism
we have no
There seems something-
data for determining.
when
plausible in the contention that the former,
the reinforcement of the latter,
This view
feeling.
may
response of the body
a
man
is
is
but a
"
"
thin
and
it lacks
" pale "
be supported by the fact that the
Even when
never wholly silenced.
controls his laughter, say in church, he
But there are
swift spasm in the throat.
powerfully in the other direction.
We
aware of a
is
facts
which
tell
never
stifle
the
organic resonance without introducing other and distinctly
When by
adverse influences.
our laughter
attitude, does
conflict
is
much
distinctly disagreeable,
acute sufiering.
fails
its
to spoil the
between the impulse
we
a forcible efibrt
this efibrt itself, as
an
artificial
hold back
and
difficult
The
whole experience.
to laugh
and the curbing
will
and may readily grow into an
And when
the corporeal reverberation
through sheer fatigue, this fatigue, both in
itself
and
in
antagonism to the appeal to mirth, becomes a large factor
in the whole experience.
this
knowledge of the
We
must consequently wait
precise shares contributed
for
by the two
some ingenious experimenter can succeed in
exciting the mirthful mood and at the same time cutting off the bodily reverberation without inducing a new
factors, until
organic consciousness
method
;
or,
on the other hand, can devise a
of securing for us in
some utterly serious moment
the full bodily reverberation of laughter, say
by
electrically
' It has been pointed out by an Ingenious French writer, L. Dugas
whose work, Psychologie du ri/re, has appeared while my volume is passing
through the press that even a wild, uncontrollable laughter, " le fou rire,"
in spite of its elements of suffering, remains to a large extent a pleasurable
—
experience
(see pp. 25, 26).
TH^ SMILE AND THE LAUGH
48
stimulating our respiratory muscles. It may be predicted
with some confidence that this waiting will be a long
one.
Here
again, as in the case of the smile,
we have
to note
various deviations from the typical form of the expression.
When
laughter no longer springs from pure joy, but has in
something of a sardonic bitterness, or something of a
it
contemptuous defiance, the experience will of course be
complicated
by a new ingredient
this change of experience
is
in the initial mental attitude
of consciousness.
Whether
due merely to the difference
may
be doubted.
improbable that the physiological processes, that
It
is
is
not
to say,
the respiratory movements, the vocalisation, and the more
diffused organic effects, will be altered in such cases.
bitter laugh seems
differently
A
both to taste differently and to sound
from a perfectly joyous one.
In these deviations from the typical laugh of the joyoua
mood we
see the beginning of the intrusion of a new-
factor, the will.
in,
of
There
is
more
of intention to be
say, the ironical laughter of one side of the
Commons than
heard
House
in the laughter of an unsophisticated
child.
This intrusion of will serves both to restrain the natural
process, reducing it to a
degraded and rudimentary form,^
and to originate various
affected counterfeits of the spon-
taneous outburst.
This double action supports the idea
that the conventions of polite society aim not merely at
suppressing the " vulgar " kind of explosion, but at evoking
when an effort is being made to
Hence the multiplicity of weird utterances which
cultivated humanity has adopted.
The giggle, the titter,
the snicker and the rest appear to be not merely reduced or
the signs of amusement
amuse.
half-suppressed laughter, but substitutes which can readily
DEGRADED FORMS OF LAUGHTER
be produced
when
49
Those who
the occasion asks for them.^
confine themselves to this debased laughter are naturally-
by the much-laughing
despised
voluminous laugher at times
Carlyle
soul.
—when
—himself
a
writing of Teufels-
drockh's great laugh hurls contempt on these triflers with
the big things of mirth in this wise
titter
:
they " only sniff and
and sniggle from the throat outwards
produce some whiffling, husky cachinnation, as
An
laughing through wool".^
or at best
;
if
they were
accurate scientific record of
these strange perversions of laughter, even though
less picturesque
it
were
than Carlyle's description, would be of con-
The laughter-lover may at least console
him by this kind of imitation
with the reflection that it is empty of joy, and even of the
refreshing sensations which issue from the genuine laugh.
siderable value.
himself for the injury done
Nay, more, as a forced performance,
presumably has a
disagreeable feeling of irksomeness as its accompaniment.
it
It is sad to reflect that these spurious varieties of laughter
are apt to appear early in the life of the individual.
tells
Preyer
us he was able to distinguish, in the third year of his
boy's utterances, the genuine laugh of hilarity from that of
which was probably rather more forced. Possibly
appear among that wondrous gathering of queer
imitation,
they
all
sounds for which infancy is famous, and
selected
by a
certain
may be permanently
of " highly proper " children in
number
preference to the fuller sounds.
1 The Freuoh language is paitioularly rioh in its vocabulary under this
head, including expressions like "rire du bout des dents " and "du bout
des Uvres "
(cf.
Homer's expression,
barbe," and others like "rire jaune
*
Sartor Beswrtus, Bk.
I.,
chap.
".
iv.
iy4\a<r(r€v x^'^f'"')!
" "re dans sa
50
CHAPTER
III.
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER.
It seemed desirable to
before taking
examme the process of
up the much-discussed question
In considering
this side of
our subject,
we
by way
According to the
dinary
more
of its causes.
shall, as
cases,
common
by some
sentative idea, such as a
a droll
human
As
is
of action of
assumption, laughter, in or-
by some
provocative,
to
speak
sense-presentation, or
its
repre-
"funny"
figure, or a
not assume that such an
cases.
mode
of this larger inquiry.
excited
is
precisely,
already
and approach
of production of the mirthful outburst,
the narrower problem of the nature and
the ludicrous
itself
view of the occasions and
hinted, take a comprehensive
modes
laughter
sensation, the sight of
Yet we must
quaint fancy.
presentation occurs in
initial
all
implied in what has been said above about
the laughter of
"
good
spirits,"
and as we
clearly presently, there are cases
shall see
more
where laughter takes on
the appearance of a spontaneous or
"
automatic
"
group of
movements.
1.
It
may
be well, however, to begin our inquiry by
touching on those varieties of laughter in which the action
of a sense-stimulus
to select a
is
apparent.
And
it will
be convenient
form of distinctly provoked laughter in which the
intellectual processes play only a subordinate part.
effect of tickling is clearly of this kind,
The
and as one of the
LAUGHTER AND TICKLING
modes
simplest
first
of exciting laughter
attention here.
it
Since, moreover,
51
seems to claim our
it
is
the
mode
of
exciting laughter of which our knowledge has been rendered
in a measure precise
deal with
it
at
some
The experience
by means
of experiment, I propose to
length.
of being tickled
entirety as a sensational reflex
;
is
best described in its
that
is
to say, a
motor
reaction on a process of sensory stimulation which produces
a well-marked variety of sensation.
as
if
it
To speak of titillation
were merely the production of a certain kind of
sensation
is unscientific.
tain movements,
must
It involves the excitation of cer-
and where these are not forthcoming we
infer, either that
defective, or that the
the sensory part of the process
motor impulse
is
inhibited in
is
some
way.
The stimulation in this ease is, as we all know, a light
tactile one.
The agent commonly applied is the finger or
a still softer body, such as a feather. The mode of contact
is light, or at least does not commonly rise to the point of
heavy pressure. The manner of contact is usually intermittent, the finger or fingers giving a series of short and
Movements of the
point commonly accompany the series
staccato impacts.
cases,
fingers
of contacts.
In some
however, a single light touch, or even a continuous
touch with movement from point to point,
induce the proper
The
It
is
pretty clear that the
here employed do not give
low
may
suffice to
effect.
precise nature of the sensations is not yet fully
understood.
of
from point to
intensity.
rise to
"
minimal stimuli
purely tactile sensations
This seems to be established by the fact^
brought out by Dr. Louis Robinson that [the parts of the
skin having tke most acute tactile sensibility, the tips of the
fingers
and the
tip of the tongue, are "scarcely at all sensitive
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
52
by Wundt that the
some other skin sensa-
Lto titillation "jj It has been pointed out
sensations in this case, as in that of
tions,
tend to spread themselves out, other and even distant
parts of the surface being engaged
This in
of reflex sensation.^
tions of tickling are
tactile sensations.
up
more
by means of the mechanism
itself
suggests that the sensa-
allied to organic
than to purely
It is supposed that the light stimuli set
in the skin certain organic changes,
more
particularly
modifications of the circulation of blood in the small vessels.^
It is well
known
/susceptible of the
that not
eflect
all
of
parts of the skin are equally
tickling.
Certain areas, for
example, the sole of the foot and the armpit, are commonly
said to be " ticklish places
".
In the answers to questions
by Dr. Stanley Hall we find the order, as determined by most frequent naming of the part, to be as follows
(the sole of the foot, the armpit, the neck and part under the
chin, the ribs, and so forth.
The inquiries brought out the
sent out
\
I
fact that there are considerable difierences of experience here,
I
i'
some saying that they were ticklish in all parts, others only
The method adopted in this inquiry clearly affords
no accurate measurement of comparative sensibility.*
\in one.
Article on " Ticklishness " in the Dictionary of Psychological Medicine.
adds that ticklishness is not locally coincident with sensitiveness to
pain. On the other hand, Dr. Charles Eiohet remarks that the parts
'
He
most
sensitive to tickling are the parts richest in tactile nerves.
" Ohatouillement," DictUmnaire de Physiologie.
Article
'See Wundt, Physiolog. Psychologic {4te Auflage), Bd. i., pp. 434-5.
According to this authority the propagation of the stimulation may be
either direct from one sensory fibre to another, or indirect, involving
muscular contractions and muscular sensations.
^ See Kiilpe, OutUnes
of Psychology, p. 148.
See the article on " The Psychology of Tickling, Laughing, and the
S. Hall and A. AUin, in the American Journal of Psychology, vol. ix., p. 1 fi.
These returns do not make it quite clear whether
" ticklishness " is taken to mean the non-laughing as well as the laughing
*
Comic," by G.
varieties.
SEATS OF TICKLISH SENSIBILITY
A more scientific attempt to
Louis
Eobinson^ho
measure
53
was made by Dx.
number of experi-
this
carried out a large
ments on children from two to four years of age with the
definite
way
purpose of testing the degree of responsiveness by
According to his results the order of
of laughter.
decreasing sensibility
is
of the neck
(4) bend of elbow
and abdominal muscles (6) flanks
;
(5) junction
as follows
(2) the ribs
of ribs
;
:
(1) the region in front
(3) axillae
;
;
(7) region of the hip joint
;
(8)
upper anterior part of the
thigh.i
A glance
at these statements
shows that the determinjationT
of the scale of ticklish sensibility over the surface
completed.
the
sole,
Dr. L. Robinson,
a highly ticklish spot in the popular creed, nor the
palm, which, as
It
is
not yet
is
by the way, mentions neither
we
shall see, is decidedly a ticklish region.^
highly desirable that more precise experimental
in-
quiries should be directed to these local variations of ticklishness,
and
that, after the seats of the higher degrees of
the sensibility have been ascertained, the question should
be considered whether these are marked
ofi"
by any
definite
peculiarities of structure.
under the head
It is probable that the sensations included
of ticklishness are not all of the
same
quality.
safe to say that in all cases the sensation
this extent, that it
factor.
composed of a
see
An
greater than this.
^
is
But we may
My references to Dr.
tactile
complex to
is
and an organic
that the complexity
obvious instance
is
is
often
the addition
Robinson's views are partly to the article in the
Dictionary already quoted, and partly to notes of lectures given before the
British Association and the West Kent Medical Society, which he has been
so kind as to
show me.
I have
made much
use of his interesting and
often brilliant suggestions in dealing with the subject of ticklishness.
'
Both
parts
of these are
(loc. cit.).
included by Dr. Biohet
among the most
/
seems J
It
sensitive
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
54
when
of a peculiarly irritating effect
or nostril
tickled,
is
an
the orifice of the ear
due to the action of the
effect
stimulus on the hairs, which are specially abundant here.^
Some
surfaces, too,
endowed with a
bility.
sole,
In
which are
free
from
hair,
appear to be
special modification of the ticklish sensi-
my own
case, at
any
rate, light touches
on the
have, as long as I can remember, excited sensations
A
which seem to have almost a character of their own.
further
complication probably occurs
when
the tickling
grows rougher and approaches to a digging of the
fiingers
into the soft parts of the armpits; for here the nerve-
endings lying deeper are pretty certainly stimulated.
!
Lastly,
it is
important to add that prolongation of the
Jtickling seems to introduce changes in the intensity,
also in the quality of the sensations.
|
if
not
Hence it would appear
that the sensations falling under the head of ticklishness,
though they have certain common
characteristics,
may vary
considerably.
Since
we
are here concerned with these sensations as
it
behoves us to look rather closely
As
largely organic sensations they
provocatives of laughter,
at their feeling-tones.
may
be expected to have a strongly marked element of the
agreeable or disagreeable
least,
;
and
this is
what we
find.
I,
at
cannot conceive of myself as having the proper sensa-
and yet being wholly indifferent.
When, however, we ask what is the precise feeling-tone
tional experience of tickling,
we find no simple answer forthSome psychologists view them as having, in general,
of one of these sensations,
coming.
an unpleasant
'
How far
character.^
On
the other hand, children are
the results are complicated by the action o{ the muscles which
serve to erect the separate hairs
contract near a tickled surface, I
'E.g., Kiilpe, op.
cit.,
p. 147.
on the body, and are said by Lister
am
not sure.
to
SENSATIONS OF TICKLING
certainly fond of being tickled, ask for
pastime of
do with a complexity of feeling-tone,
to
it,
This at once suggests that
it.
55
and make a
we have here
as,
indeed, our
study of the sensations would lead us to suppose.
It
is,
I think, a plausible supposition that
coming under the head of tickling
disagreeable.
tone
It
is
seems always to be of a mixed feeling-
some sensational elements being
:
no sensation
merely agreeable or
unpleasant, though analysis
may
pleasant,
others
be unable to attribute
with exactness their respective tones to the several
ele-
ments.
Adopting
this
hypothesis,
we
should expect that the
differences in the composition of the sensations already dealt
with would lead to the result that, whereas some are
preponderantly agreeable, others are rather disagreeable.
And
this, I believe,
accords with the results of observation.
by stimulating the hairy
by Dr. Louis
Robinson to be " distinctly distasteful ". The sensations
produced by tickling the sole of the foot are commonly
held, at least by older children and adults, to be dis-
The
tickling sensations excited
orifices of
the ear and the nostril are said
This certainly
degrees of their intensity.
agreeable in
all
accords with
my own
self-observation.
say from a shampooer's hand,
is
to
me
The
lightest touch,
distinctly " nasty,"
with an uncanny nastiness which I cannot hope to describe.
An example
is,
of a distinctly agreeable sensation of tickling
curiously enough, supplied
closely
who
is
by another
hairless surface,
namely the palm. A lady,
analogous to the
an excellent observer of children and endowed with
sole,
an exceptional memory of her early experiences, tells me
that when a child she loved to have her hands tickled. Her
feeling
was a kind of
"
awful joy," the awfulness coming
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
56
from a vague suspicion that the pastime was not quite
Other preponderantly agreeable varieties appear
proper.
to be the sensations produced
by the
those parts which seem in a
special
provoking
least,
areas,
e.g.,
lighter stimulation of
way
the armpits and
suggested by the fact
to be laughter-
This
is,
at
that younger children love
to
ribs.
be tickled in these parts in moderation, and will ask to
have the pastime renewed.
An
important characteristic of these feeling-tones
moment we may be
is
their
Although at a particular
unsteadiness or changefulness.
able to detect clearly a slight pre-
ponderance of the agreeable or of the disagreeable aspect,
is
only for a moment.
it
An increase in the degree of pressure,
a further prolongation of the stimulation, or even a slight
mode of contact, may suffice to bring up
and render prominent the opposed feeling-phase.
We may now pass to the motor reactions, which are of
more especial interest in the present connection. Overlookvariation in the
ing the less conspicuous elements, such as the contraction
rof the muscles
'
movements
tective or defensive reactions
off or escaping
(6)
two easily
number of pro-
of the hairs,jwe find that there are
distinguishable groups of
:
(a) a
which are adapted to warding
from the attack of the tickling stimulus
movements expressive
of pleasure
ment, from the smile up to
and rollicking enjoy-
uproarious
and prolonged
laughter.
..
'The
defensive
movements are such as the following:
and leg when the sole is tickled the
retraction of the foot
;
bending of the head to the shoulder when the neck
tickled; the rendering of the
which
is
tickler
;
is
attacked
;
body concave on the
the thrusting
away
of the
wriggling and fencing with the arms
tickled lying on his back.
hand
is
side
of the
when a
child
These movements appear to
MOTOR RESPONSE TO TICKLING
57
introduce important modifications into the sensations excited
by
Dr. Louis Robinson
tickling.
when
of the foot
tells
tickled transforms
us that the flexing
an unpleasant sensation
into a rather pleasant one.
We may now
pass to the point of chief importance for
our present study, the conditions of the laughter-reaction
during a process of tickling.
This reaction
is
clearly the
typical form of childish risibility.
It has
been already more or
we cannot mark
less clearly implied, that
an
off the laughter in this case as
effect
determined by any assignable differences in the characteristics of
Dr. Leonard Hill,
lying nerves.
point
response to
"I
am
which provokes laughter
tickling
a
is
variety involving the stimulation of the deeper-
special
this
Dr. Louis Robinson
the sensations involved.
thinks that the
"
me, writes,
for
who has
There
specially tested
no difference in
is
deep and superficial tickling
''
and
;
again,
sure that the most delicate superficial stimulation
This certainly seems to agree
can provoke laughter".
with ordinary observation.
voking forms of tickhng
One
of the
most laughter-pro-
consists of a series of pianissimo
touches.
Again, in speaking of ticklish areas of the skin,
be careful not to restrict the
laughter to any assignable region.
there are areas which
which
titillation
It
is
undeniable that
more readily respond,
that
Darwin speaks
;
and
it
they are
tickled,
^
noticeable
laughter,
especially under the armpits "}
Expression of the Emotions,
p. 201.
i
-^
The armpits
is
of the anthropoid apes giving out
reiterated sound, corresponding with our
\
in the case of
children generally, to the tickling provocation.
perhaps will occur to most readers
we must
calls forth
"
a
when
This
~)
I
J
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
58
fact,
however, does not imply that the area of sensibility
^of
under favoiirable con-
his investigations, that \ laughter
may
\jiitions
by
be excited
tickling any part of the body.
Dr. L. Robinson in a letter explains to
He
with Dr. L. Hill here.
finds that
me
if
that he agrees
a child
On
of doing so will suflSce to provoke laughter.
we
in
a
the other
cannot speak of any part of the surface as one, the
tickling of
again,
is
mood, the tickling of any part or even the threat
ticklish
hand,
is
Dr. Leonard Hill assures me, as a result
circumscribed.
as
which
we
Here
will uniformly call forth laughter.
of mental agencies
shall see, the influence
modifies the result.
Now
these facts suggest that even those varieties of
tickling
which produce a sensation having a well-marked
disagreeable tone
may
excite the response of laughter.
The
tickling of the sole of the foot not only provokes laughter
in
an infant
may
at the
it
;
tends to do
so, I believe,
same time express
in an adult,
who
his dislike of the sensation
by a grimace.
It seems impossible then to conclude that the laughter
irrhich
from tickling
arises
is
a mere expression of the
leasure-tone of a sensational process.
posed that in
agreeable,
it
all
cases the sensations
would
still
Even
if
we
sup-
were preponderantly
be impossible to account for the
energy of the reaction by the intensity of the sensuous
enjoyment experienced.
That we have not to do here merely with the
shown by the
efiect of
when
agreeable stimulation
is
laughs under, and
said to enjoy, a process of titillation,
~the laughter
is
is
accompanied by defensive movements.
for example, a child is tickled
Robinson,
"
fact that
on
back,
its
wriggle about, fencing with
ing the attacks of
its
playmate
.
.
.
its
it will,
a child
When,
says Dr.
arms and dodg-
laughing
all
the time
TICKLING MORE THAN STIMULATION
with open mouth and teeth fully displayed
suggests that the laughter
is
59
This surely
".
not merely the result of an
agreeable sensation, but rather of a complex mental state,
in
which the agreeable and disagreeable elements
appear to play only a secondary
Nor again
does
it
seem as
of sensation
rdle.
if
the mere transition from
an agreeable to a disagreeable sensation, or the reverse
process,
would account for the laughter
of tickling.
A
person highly sensitive to the effect of tickling can imitate
the process
quite
by movements
of his
own
fingers,
and produce^
of varying feeling-tone without
similar sensations
Again we know
experiencing the faintest impulse to laugh.
when
moments of
that other experiences, such as scratching a sore place
it
is
healing up, involve an alternation of
agreeable and disagreeable feehng-tone, and yet are not
provocative of laughter.
These and other familiar facts point to the conclusion
that the laughter excited
by
the sensory stimulation.
It
by the
characteristics of
tickling
is
not a net
is
effect of
no doubt broadly determined
the sensations.
)
Intensely dis-
agreeable ones would certainly not call forth the laughing
But the determining conditions
response.
include, in ad-
dition to a sequence of sensations, a higher psychical factor,
namely, an apperceptive process or assignment of meaning
to the sensations.
This conclusion
that the laughter-reaction occurs
is
borne out by the fact
first
of all (to give the
—
presumably in the
month
second half of this month. The presence of such a psychical
factor is more strongly supported by the fact, already reearliest
ferred
date) in the second
to,
that the reaction does not occur in the
months save
when mental
first
three
agencies co-operate; and that
throughout the ticklish period an exactly similar process
of titillative stimulation applied to the
same area of the
OCCASIDNS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
60
skin will
now produce laughter, now
mood of the child.^
do
fail to
so,
according
to the varying
That the interpretation of the sensation
is
the decisive
element in eliciting laughter may, I think, be seen by a
who
simple experiment which any reader
is
ticklish
The next time he happens
carry out upon himself.
may
to have
a subjective, creepy skin sensation, he will find that he can
bring on either laughter or a very different state of feeling
by adopting one of two ways of mentally envisaging what
The merest suggestion of an invading parasite
suffices, I believe, to set up a mental state which completely
fis happening.
I
inhibits the impulse to laugh.
i
,
'^We
may now
seek to assign with more precision the
mental conditions which induce the mode of apperception
f
favourable to laughter.
Beginning with
which reside
how much
the
"
objective "
I
outset that
]
unknown
/
t
those
we may observe
apprehension of meaning has to do with the
''^funniness " of the experience,
I
characteristics,
in the tickling experience itself,
when we
to be noticed at the
is
an element of
is
the
This seems to have been recognised
in the process.
by Darwin when he
ut
are tickled there
laid
emphasis on the fact that the more
ticklish parts are those
rarely touched, at least on small
areas, and, one
may
add, lightly.^
The
familiar fact that
wone cannot tickle oneself points to the same conclusion.
person
is
who
going on.
tickle
tries to
do
this
knows
too
A
much about what
Dr. Ch. Richet observes, however, that one can
oneself by means of a feather
;
and
he, as I think
• In using the expression " ticklish period," I
do not imply that tioklishness necessarily disappears after a certain period of maximal intensity.
Like play, it probably persists in a certain number of persons as a sus-
ceptibility to
'^Op.
cit.,
which the laws
pp. 201, 202.
of propriety leave
The
restriction I
include the case of the sole of the foot.
but
little
scope for exercise.
have added enables us to
CONDITIONS OF SUCCESSFUL TICKLING
rightly, explains this apparent
61
exception by saying that
in the attempt to tickle oneself with the finger, the double
of the
sensation,
finger
and the part
inhibit the effect, whereas,
when
seems to
tickled,
the feather
is
interposed
this obstacle is eliminated.^
Other
facts, too,
seem to point to the importance of an
element of the unknown.
a chUd
by running the
is
over the skin.
The common way
fingers
of tickling
with discontinuous contact
mode of tickling
up the child's arm like
Dr. L. Hill describes his
in one case as running the fingers
This evidently brings in an element of
a mouse.
uncertainty as well as of change.
The
local
effect is increased
when, as frequently happens, there are pauses between the
-
attacks of the fingers.
The invasion
territories,
when
is,
of the skin-territory, like that of larger
it
would seem, likely to be more
has an element_of unpredictableness.
it
certainty
is,
I believe,
effective
The un-
sometimes increased by half-voluntary
and in the velocity of the
Whether the fact communicated by
Dr. L. Robinson, that a child is more ticklish when dressed
than when undressed, is explained by the increased obscurity
variations in the
tickling
direction
movements.
of the process in the former case, I
am
not sure.
worth noting, however, that some of the areas said
most
ticklish,
the armpits and the neck, are inac-
e.g.,
cessible to sight.
It is
to be
I believe, too, that
when
a child gives
himself up to the full excitement of tickling he makes no/
attempt to see what
Now
touches of
is
going
on.
unknown
j
origin at places not closely
observable have something of a disturbjng^.character.
touch
^Loc.
is
A
always an attack, and has, so to speak, to be con-
cit.
explanation.
Dr. L. Hill confirms the observatiou
and
ofiers
the same
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
62
This disturbing element I regard as an essential
doned.
element in the experience
:
goes along with the faintly
it
we have
disagreeable element of sensation, which, as
sumed,
is
commonly,
if
not always, more or
Yet
recognisable in the experience.^
it is
as-
clearly
less
certain that the
disturbing effect (like the disagreeableness of the sensation)
limited.
is
If the
unknown
bulks too largely and comes
near the point of the alarming, the
wholly counteracted.
This
effect of
of the refusal of a child to be tickled
he knows here
^consequently
forms
me
too little of
that
what
"
f
by a
stranger: for
Again, Dr. L. Hill
tickling a child unexpectedly
unseen quarter will not provoke laughter
surprise
would seem in
is
going to happen, and
is
disposed to fear,
is
laughter
a part of the explanation
is
"
:
in-
and from an
the element of
this ease to be too great.
Possibly
the comparative difficulty of making a child laugh
when
naked may be explained by the increased apprehensiveness
The
-^which goes with the defenceless state of nudity.
familiar fact that the readiness to laugh increases with
practice, points to the
same need
of a certain comfortable
assurance lying safely below the slight superficial apprehensions
All
which are excited by the
this
stimuli.
suggests, that in order to call forth the glad
response of laughter,
we must
secure a certain adjustment
of stimulus to mental attitude.
The
tickling
must
fit
in
with a particular mood, the state of mind which makes
enjoyment of fun not only possible but welcome.
Now
it is clear
that non-adjustment
may
arise,
not only
from the presence of unsuitable characteristics in the mode
In this oonneotion an observation sent me by Dr. L. Hill is significant.
little girl first responded with laughter to tickling under the armpits
at the same age (two and a half years) as she first showed fear by crying
on being put into the arms of a stranger.
'
His
THE TICKLISH MOOD
of stimulation, but from
63
some antagonistic
the
force in
The acceptance
of the attack
in good part depends on the preceding attitude.
The dread-
child's previous state of
mind.
fully serious, " on-the-alarm " attitude
nursed by a stranger
A
when
child
;
suffering
an
effectual
when
>
is true,
he adds, of a child when
from vaccination, or when mentally preoccupied
is
which he wants you
seeking for sympathy, or with
As Darwin puts
to tell him.
mind be
that the child's
"a pleasurable
in
mind which welcomes fun
'
it,_;
the great subjective condition of the laughter of tickling
state of
'
the attacker be his familiar tickler, father
if
and the same
with some hurt for which he
a story
of the child
bar to playful overtures.
cross will not, says Dr. L. Hill, give genial
response, even
or nurse
is
i
is
condition," the
in all its forms.
Possibly
the position of lying on the back, which, according to Dr.
L. Robinson,
makes children more responsive
may, through a relaxation
to tickling,
of the muscles, favour this
com-
pliant attitude of self-abandonment to the tickling fingers.
We may perhaps sum
up the
special conditions of the
laughter-process under tickling as follows
is
tickled he
pectancy.
the exact
thrown into an attitude
is
He
is
and
as play.
is
In
this case
by
attitude
and
happy and disposed
is
into
one
happens save
this
to take things lightly
we may suppose
developed mild form of fear
into nothing
;
|
This element of un-
or of the locality.
of uneasiness and apprehensiveness
the child
a chUd
expecting contact, but cannot be sure of
moment
certainty would in itself develop the
when
when
:
of indefinite ex-
'<
that the half-J
each time swiftly dissolved
a recognition of the unreality of the cause,
of the fact that the touches are harmless and
1
come from the
j
good-natured mother or nurse by
way of
nition becomes clearer as the process
there supervenes a
new
is
play.
This recog-
continued, and so
attitude, that of play, in
which
all
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
64
serious interpretation is
:
1
abandoned and the gentle attacks
are accepted as fun or make-believe.
of the experience of the
If this is a correct analysis
tickling
which
excites laughter, we,
seem to have
in it at a
very early age elements which are to be found, in a more
and more complex sorts
from a serious and constra ined
fully developed form, in the later
mirth, namely, relief
of
attitude, a transition
by the
from a momentary apprehension induced
presentation of the partially
unknown,
That
s^nse of harmless make-believe.
to
ajoyous
this is so is further
when used to
when you only
As a German writer
evidenced by the familiar fact that a child,
the game, will begin to laugh vigorously
threaten with the advancing fingers.
observes, this
is
a clear case of Lipps' theory of annihilated
expectation ; ^ only he omits to note that the laughter depends,
not on the mere fact of annihilation, but on the peculiar conditions of
in this case, involving a slight shock at the
it
approach of something partially unknown to a specially
sensitive region of the organism,
of the apprehension
and the instant correction
by a recognition
of its harmlessness.
Much the same kind of stimulative process seems to be
present in the other and allied cases of reflex or quasi-reflex
It is well
laughter.
known that
certain sense-stimuli
excite sensations of a disagreeable
though acute, are not
violent,
character, but
which
which,,
such as the application of a
cold douche, are apt to
provoke laughter.
German authority just
quoted, the eflect depends here, too,
on variation
in respect of the intensity
stimulation.
He found further, in
According to the
and the
locality of the
carrying out psychological
experiments, that whereas the introduction of a stronger
stimulus than was expected
'
Bd.
G. Heymans, Zeitschrift
xi., ss.
31
ff.
fil/r
is
apt to excite apprehension in
die Psychol,
und
die Physiol, der Simme^
PROCESSES SIMILAR TO TICKLING
65
the subject, that of a weaker stimulus will excite laughter.^
Here, too,
we seem
to have a sensational reflex in
present a distinctly mental element,
viz.,
a
moment
which
is
of mild
shock and apprehension at the sudden coming of something
disagreeable
and
partially
moment
another
unknown, instantly followed by
of dissolution of shock in a pleasurable
recognition of the harmlessness of the assault.
2.
It
Laughter
may
arise
manner
is
not, however,
always of this reflex form.
without sensory stimulation in an
''
automatic"!
as the result of a cerebral rather than of a peripheral]
process.
This
is
illustrated
by the seemingly
causeless
laughter which breaks out in certain abnormal states and
j
uncanny " aspect for the sane observer. ] A wellknown example of this is the eff'ect of the action on the
has an
"
brain centres of laughing gas and other substances.
"
automatisms
experience, as
" occur,
when la person laughs during
emotional tension.
I propose to
uncaused reactions as nervous
A common
is
a state of high
speak of such seemingly
laughter.^
and simple variety
of this nervous laughter
the spasmodic outburst that often succeeds a shock of
fear.
a
Such
however, within the limits of normal
A
woman
child will laugh after being frightened
by
a dog
often breaks out into a nervous laugh after a short
but distinctly shaking experience of
fear,
e.g.,
in a carriage
behind a runaway horse, or in a boat which has nearly
capsized.
And
it
does not seem that such laughter
is
pre-
ceded by a perception of the absurdity of the fear, or of
any
similar
mode
of consciousness
;
it
looks like a kind of
physiological reaction after the fear.
' Heymane, loc. cit.
"The abnormal foims
of
automatic laughter, including the effects of
cit., 2toe partie, chap, xv., and
stimulants, are dealt with by Kaulin, op.
3*me partie.
5
,
OCCASldNS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
66
The same thing
/
will
show
itself in
circumstances which
give rise to a prolonged mental attitude, involving a feeling
/
of apprehensiveness
and of
Thus a shy man,
constraint.
I
making
!
his first essay as a public speaker, will sometimes
betray his nervousness on the platform by weird
i
by awkward
explosions of laughter as well as
I
I
have noted the same thing in strangers to
spoken at a
table d'hSte
The way
abroad.
whom
in
little
gestures.
I
which
have
little
spasms of laughter are apt to intrude themselves into
situations which,
attention, bring
is
and
by making us the
further illustrated
in
behaviour of
the
when summoned
girls
object of others' special
an awkward consciousness of insecurity,
to
an interview
many
boys
with the
Head,' in the laughter which often follows the going up
to take
a prize before
The strong tendency
a
large
to laugh
assembly^ and the
like.
which many persons ex-
perience during a solemn ceremony, say a church service,
may sometimes
jenforced
illustrate
attitude, difficult
(length of time,
same
the
to
effect.
When
an
maintain for the required
brings on the impulse, this
will
gather
/strength from the growth of a feeling of apprehension
west we should not be equal to the test imposed.
r~ Another
laughter,
,
is
variety,
coming under the head of nervous
the sudden outburst which
now and
again
occurs in a state of great emotional strain, having a dis-
when it includes someThe news of the death of
.'Ian acquaintance has been known to excite a paroxysm of
laughter] in a company of young persons from nineteen to
twenty-four years of age.^ One may assume here that the
l^tinctly painful character, especially
'
thing in the nature of a shock.
I
1
1 Given in the returna to Stanley Hall's inquiries.
This explosion of
laughter on receiving sad news occurs in cases of cerebral disorder. See
Dugas,
op. eit., p. 16.
FORMS OF NERVOUS LAUGHTER
outbreak
is
67
not the direct result of the news, but depends
the shock, with the abnormal cerebral tension
on the
effect of
which
this involves.
(
/'
A like spasmodic outburst
of laughter occasionally occurs
during a more prolonged state of painful emotional excitement.
It
sometimes intrudes
itself
into a bout of physical
Lange speaks of a young man who, when treated
ulceration of the tongue by a very painful caustic,
suffering.
for
regularly broke out into violent laughter
reached
its
Many
maximum.^
when the pain
when thrown into
persons
a prolonged state of grief, accompanied
by weeping,
exhibit
a tendency to break out into laughter towards the end of the
Shakespeare
fit.
tendency when he makes
illustrates this
Titus Andronicus, whose hand has been cut
question
why
off,
answer the
he laughed with the exclamation
:
"
Why
I
have not another tear to shed".^
Can we
common element
find a
of nervous or apparently
to
have in
which
is
in these different forms']
unmotived laughter
?
We
appear r
them a preceding state of eonsciousnessj
exceptionally intense and concentrated.
,'The
of
all
situation of fear, of constraint on being
made the
others' unusual observation, of suddenly hearing
deep import for which the mind
emotional agitation, these
all
is
object of
news
of
not prepared, of prolonged
involve an intensification of
the psycho-physical processes which immediately condition
our states of consciousness.
^
Quoted by Dugas,
op.
cit.,
Looking at these
intensified
p. 12.
Shakespeare makes Lady Macbeth perpetrate a pun in a moment of
intense excitement when Macbeth's hesitation goads her into a resolve to
^
carry out the murder herself
"
I'll
For
Did he mean
it
—
must seem
to illustrate
to lapse for a brief
:
gild the faces of the
by
moment
grooms withal
their guilt ".
this the
way
into laughter ?
in
which emotional strain tends
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
68
forms of consciousness more
we
closely,
observe that ttey
'
include something in the nature of psychical pressure, of
Ithe presence of forces
which make for disorder, whereas the
This special strain
i^tuation calls for severe self-control^'
thrown on the voUtional process is illustrated in the demand
for closer observation and calm reflection during a fit of
fear, or other
emotional excitement, which tends to bring
about a state of wild movement and of disorderly
:
is,
which
attitude
It
makes the
it is
is
is
eminently unstable, and tends, so to
break down of
partially at least,
moment,
to
if
itself;
and
_^e_demand
will CCTtainlyLjepUapse,
seems, though only for a
Hence the readiness
grow_Jees Jmperative.
with which such a means of temporary
undoubtedly supplies
It
is
laughter
remains to determine the character of this sudden
a sudden collapse,
it is
more
precisely.
clearly to be distinguished
gradual breakdown due to
J
relief as
moment.
seized at the
relaxation of the strain of attention
!
and one which
As
to maintain for a long period.
diflficult
such,! the attitude
say, to
an
the essential pre-condition of the laughter.
attitude a highly artificial one,
exceedingly
It
ideas.
I believe, \the specially severe strain belonging to such
"
mehtal fatigue
"
As
from the
and nervous
The psycho-physical energy concentrated for
is by no means
used up, but has to find some way of escape.
Here, no
doubt, we seem to come across Mr. Spencer's ingenious idea
exhaustion.
the special purpose of meeting the strain
that laughter
is
an escape of nervous energy which_has
suddenly been set
free.
It is
no
less
evident that the
redundant energy follows the direction of the
risible
muscles
because no other commanding object for the attention presents
itself at
the moment.
The innervation
not a mere diversion of attention:
energies
which for the maintenance
of these muscles
it is
is
a d ispersion of the
of attention
ought to
LAUGHTER AS RELIEF
be concentrated. \_We are never
waking
69
during our
less attentive
than at the moment of laughter.
life
Yet even
,'
here, I think, the theory of a convenient waste-pipe arrange-
ment
There
not adequate.
is
take
I
is,
in the case
it,
which process would
a relief of sur-charged nerve-centres,
seem to be better described by the figure of a safety- valve_
arrangenient.
It
is
not
difficult to
why
surmise
the liberated energy
should follow this particular nervous route.
There
is
no
doubt that the motor apparatus, by the disturbances of
which
such interruptions of the smooth flow of respira-
all
tion are brought about,
is
very readily acted on by emotional
showing
Altered respiration,
agencies.
vocalisation,
one of the
is
of the
first
signs of emotional agitation
;
and
in altered
itself
commonly recognised
this effect has
been ren-
dered more clear and precise by recent experiments.
We
should expect, then, that the collapse of strained attitudes,
with the great change in feeling-tone which this must carry
with
it,
would deeply
however, more than
in general
an
effect
sion,
an
affect the respiration.
this.
Severe
We
know,
efforts of attention are
accompanied by a partial checking of respiration,
which seems to be alluded
effort "
de longue haleine
termination of such an effort
Now, though
sigh of rehef.
is
the
to in the
".
On
French expres-
the other hand, the
apt to be announced by the
movements
of laughter are
not the same as those of sighing, they resemble the latter in
their initial stage, that of deepened inspiration.
not conclude, then, that laughter
another mode of physiological
mental strain
laughter in
its
?
And
relief
is
likely to
May we
occur as
from the attitude of
supposing, as seems
certain,
that
moderate degrees, by bringing a new brisk-
ness into the circulation, relieves the congested capillaries of
the brain,
may we
not go farther and say that nature has
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
70
probably come to our aid by connecting with the mental
upheavals and the cruel strains here referred
to,
which
pretty certainly involve a risky condition of the cerebral
system of
capillaries,
a
mode
of muscular reaction
peculiarly well fitted to bring the needed relief
More
special conditions
laughter
in
certain
may
Darwin suggests that the rapid
I
have observed above,
alternation of crying
"
and
may
laughing which occur among hysterical patients
favoured by
is
favour the movements of
As
cases.
which
?
be
the close similarity of the spasmodic move-
In other words, the motor centres engaged, when
ments "}
swing of one mode of
in the full
to the other
and
action,
may
readily pass
This would help
partially similar action.
to account for the short outbursts of laughter during a
prolonged state of painful agitation, and to explain the
fact noted
by
no cause so readily disposes us
Descartes, that
to laughter as a feeling of sadness.^
Our theory plainly requires
that these sudden breakdowns
or relaxations of strained mental attitudes should, even
when
only momentary interruptions, be accompanied by an agreeable sense of
best qualifies
I believe that those
relief.
them to judge
dead weight of the
fear, the
whose experience
will say that this
poignancy of the
The
and the
is so.
grief,
constraining eifect of the situation of gene, seem to yield at
the
moment when
the " awful laugh
" is
snatched
at.
This
comforting sense of a lightened load, though in part the
direct result of a cessation of cerebral strain, would, as
we
have seen, pretty certainly derive added volume from the
returning sense-reports telling of the ameliorated condition
of the bodily organs.
3.
We
have considered two of the
pp. 163, 208.
^
Op.
^
See Les Passions de I'dme,
cit.,
varieties of laughter
26iiie
partie, art. 25.
LAUGHTER OF JOY
which
lie
may now
71
outside the region of our everyday mirth.
pass into this region, and inquire,
of
first
all,
We
into
the causes of those varieties which come under the head of
joyous laughter.
Here we
shall best begin
may be
early form which
by touching on the simple and
good spirits^
Darwin, as has been mentioned, rightly regards the full
called the overflow of
reaction of the laugh_ as the universal expression
good
species of
spirits,
have now to examine the mode of production of
We
this simple
type.
It
by our
of a joyous, state, of mind.
_^
is
important to note that
not bring on laughter.
all
experiences of pleasure do
There are quiet enjoyments of a
soothing character which are far from generating the powerful impulse
rib.
To
lie
needed for the movements of diaphragm and
on a summer day
in a
hammock
indulge in the sweets of dolce far niente
of the tickling imp.
occasioned
by a
in a
wood and
to be out of reach
States of enjojmient, too, which, though
measure of
exciting, require a
is
close attention,
such as those
glorious sunset, or stirring music, do not
start the spasmodic contractions of muscle.
The enjoyment that moves us to laughter, mast, it is
amount ,to_,gladness or joy. And this means, first "^
of all, that the pleasurable consciousness must come in the
.
evident,
form of a large
ample,
filling soul
accession, and, for a
and body.
moment
As the expression
at least, be
" good spirits "
suggests, the organic processes during such states of joyous-
As a part of this
we have the characteristic
gladsome mind, the movement of
ness are voluminous and well marked.
heightened tide of vital activity,
motor expression of the
the limbs, the shouting and the laughing.
Not
all risings of
the vital
tide,
however, produce laughter.
Gentle and gradual augmentations of the sense of well-being
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
72
and happiness hardly tend to stir the muscles concerned.
The joyous outburst marks a svdden accession of ha^py
consciousness.
It
has something of the
/'violent flooding of the spirit
i
character of a
and the corresponding bodily
conduits.
There is a negative condition, also, to which it may not
f,be superfluous to allude. The flood-like rise of the happy
mood which is to produce laughter must not be accompanied
by any further demand on the attention. A girl reading a
first
love letter from the
man whom her
heart has chosen will
be glad, and will grow gladder by leaps and bounds.
But
the fulness of laughter will not come while unread words
still
claim the eye.
The laughter
of joy
sets of conditions.
is
Of
most noticeable,
I think,
these the first
is
release.from externa,l restraint.
The wild
jubilant gladness
of boys as they rush out of school, provided that
the requisite reserve fund of animal
example of
to be a
under two
the situation of
spirits,
is
they have
the stock
The explosion seems here
the constraint and the didness
this sort of laughter.
way
of
throwing
of the classroom,
off
and getting a deep breath of the
delicious
So far as the outflow of good
thus connected with an escape from a serious and
sense of restored liberty.
spirits is
difficult attitude
mind and body
—strenuous
in work —
ijb
application of the energies of
is
plainly
analogous to the
nervous laughter already considered.
But the swift
accession of joy
may come
in another way,
from the sudden transformation of one's world, from the
some good thing which is at once unexpected
and big enough to lift us to a higher level of happiness.
arrival of
With
children and savages the sight of a
toy
sometimes enough to
is
will so
fill
effect this.
new and pretty
The charming bauble
sense and soul that the joy of living leaps to a
HOW
JOYOUS LAUGHTER ARISES
73
higher plane and bursts into a peal of mirth.
The unexpected
sound of the father's voice at the end of a long day devoted
we
to the things of the nursery was,
are told, enough to
evoke a shout of laughter in a small American boy
back to the
little
another and a glorious world.
We
sufficed to bring
:
it
consciousness
fellow's
older folk have, for the
greater part, lost the capacity of simply greeting delightful
things in this way, a greeting in which there
either of their
may meet
meaning or
no thought
is
of their interest for us.
Yet we
the unexpected coming of friends with something
of the child's simplicity of attitude.
on suddenly seeing a friend
in a
It is
hard not to smile
crowded London
street:
hard to keep the smile from swelling into a laugh,
friend has been supposed at the
be
many
Some
miles away.
child's capacity of
moment
if
the
of encounter to
may
of us, indeed,
retain the
laughing with a joyous wonder at a
brilliant explosion of fireworks.
It remains to account for the persistent
of laughter
fit
whicii frequenfly accdinpahies a prolonged gladness.
Does
not the fact that the child and the natural man,
when
taken with the
mood
of mirth, go on venting their
good
renewed peals teU against our theory that the
outburst is caused by an accession of joy ?
spirits in
In order to answer
this
we must
look a_little more
The language
closely at this so-called persistent laughter.
of observers of unsophisticated
human
nature
sadly want-
is
ing in precision here.
When,
travellers that
savages are always laughing,
we
are not to take the statement literally.
It
know
that
we
certain
means only what
it
means when a mother
that her rogue of a boy
is
we
for example,
are told
tells
for ever laughing
her visitor
and shouting
that under certain favourable conditions the laughing
comes readily and
persists longer
by
than usual.
fit
In a lasting
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
74
mood
we
of jollity
need very
are
little to call
all
strongly inclined- to, laiighaJ^nd
forth a long outbursts
This pretematurally large output of laughter during a pro-
onged state of high
spirits finds its explanation in part in a
i'dnd of physiological inertia, the tendency
ing movements when once these are started.
iteration of laughter in a child
is
movements
way
go on repeat-
The protracted
closely analogous to that
of his half -unconscious singing to himself.
of
to
This tendency
perpetuate themselves in a mechanical
to
probably accounts for the lengthening of the single
outburst in the case of a child violently seized with mirth.
As mothers know, this reduction of laughter to a mechanical
iteration of movement is apt to continue beyond the limits
fatigue
of
" hiccup
and to bring on such unpleasant
It is probable, too, that the
".
eflPeets
as
tendency during
a prolonged state of mirth to recommence laughing after
a short pause
is referrible
to a like cause
:
the physiological
movements being once set going, the explosive
fit tends to renew itself.
Discounting this effect of physiological inertia, we seem
springs of the
to find that in these
laughter retains
its
tively short process
the laughing
is
periods of prolonged high spirits
fundamental character as a compara-
which occurs intermittently.
not merely a trick played off
bodily mechanism, but holds a
of a
happy
consciousness,
it
germ
has
its
of
mind
Where
by the
in the shape
large and significant
pauses.
If this is so, it
seems reasonable to suppose that the
mental antecedent which brings on some new explosion
is
analogous to the sense of
for
"
the single joyous peal.
strong
disposition
to
laugh
sudden glory " which accounts-
Owing
t_o
the exceptionally
during such a
period,
the
antecedent feeling need not be a powerful one, a very slight
PROLONGED
momentary
PITS
OF MIRTH
75
increase of the joyous tone suflScing to give
a fresh start to the muscles.
not
It is
slight
No
difficult to
suggest possible sources of such
sudden augmentations of the happy feeling-tone.
prolonged state of consciousness
of one
uniform colour
;
is,
strictly speaking,
in the boisterous merriment of an
old-fashioned dinner-party there were alternations of tone,
moments following others of comparative dulness.
The course of the bodily sensations in these prolonged
brilliant
states of
joy
is
in itself a series of changes, involving a
sequence of exaltations upon relative depressions of the
" vital
sense
The course
".
and to ear in such a
festive
of the presentations to eye
mood must be
fluctuations in respect of their action
subject to like
upon the
feeling-tone
;
and the same applies to the flow of ideas which can find a
place in the mind when thus affected. Lastly, it must not
be forgotten that the movements of attention would of
themselves always secure a certain
ment.
We
all
know how, when we
new and unexpected
rise
and
happiness, the
mind
digression returns to the delightful theme,
result of this return, a
new wave
fall
are gladdened
of enjoy-
by some
after a
short
and how,
as a
of joyous feeling seems
to inundate the spirit.
There seems much, then, to be said for the hypothesis that
all varieties of joyous laughter (when not reduced to a
mechanical form) are excited by soraething in the nature
Where the
by a previous mood of
of a sudden accession of pleasurable consciousness.
laugh
is
a
new
thing, unprepared for
hilarity, this rise of the spirits will, as
we
shall see later,
probably involve a transition from a mental state which
was relatively depressed.
mood prolongs
the
movements
itself, all
Where, on the other hand, a joyoua
that seems needed for re-exciting
of laughter (provided that the muscular
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
76
Energies are equal to the explosion)
/
\
the sudden increase
is
an appreciable quantity of the pleasurable tone of the
by
jconsciousness.
We may
further illustrate and verify this generalisation
respecting the causes of joyous laughter
by an examination
of some of the more familiar circumstances in which this
wont
is
"
Here we
to occur.
early
the
and
shall of course be dealing
mind.
unsophisticated
with
Properly drilled
grown-ups " but rarely exhibit the phenomenon in
its full
intensity.
matter of
It is a
(a)
laughter
common
observation that joyous
a frequent concomitant of the play-attitude,
is
We
especially at its first resumption.
liberated
from
school.
have already found
"happy
in the laughter of
illustrated
this
boys''
just
Here the conditions indicated, a
relief
from restraint and a sudden expansion of joyous
are patent to
activity,
all.
Closely related to this situation of released bodily energies
is
that of relieved
lesson
—
mental
restraint.
only the teacher
if
manageable person
—the child
is
During a nursery
a fond mother or other
is
apt to try modes of escape
from the irksomeness by diverting the
by introducing "funny"
bold
By
little
manoeuvre
is
topics;
talk, and especially
and the execution of the
frequently announced by a laugh.
such familiar infantile
artifices
the pressure
is
lightened
moment, and the laugh announces a moment's escape
into the delicious world of fun and make-believe.
for a
The impulse
to be
gay and
to
through the enjoyment of play.
turn
may
often
grow exceedingly
laugh runs, moreover,
No
doubt this in
serious, as
when
its
the
illness of dolly, or the thrilling horrors of a bear's cave, or
of an attack
by
scalping Indians, are realistically lived out.
Yet we must remember that
this playful
tampering with
LAUGHTER
IN
the serious, even on
its
PLAY AND TEASING
genuine
The momentary
enjoyment.
young nerves, because the
side,
terror
thrill of
it,
part of the
a
is
desired
is
when
77
by healthy
the certainty
of the nothingness lies securely within mental reach,
A
delicious excitement.
fuller
is
examination of the relation
of laughter to play belongs to a later stage of our inquiry.
Another situation which
(b)
is
that
j^
By
being^^teased.
"
is
^los^ly related
teasing "
is
them an element
those varieties of attack which have in
of pretence,
and .dp not cross the boundary
As thus
intention to annoy.
a good deal of child's play.
Kne, of serious
defined, teasing enters into
Tickling
is
clearly only a
special modification of the teasing impulse.
the earliest nursery play, the
there
is
iQ._pla.j^,.
here understood
game
In some of
of bo-peep, for instance,
an element of teasing in the pretence to alarm by
a feigned disappearance, as also in the shock of the sudden
The
reappearance.
to pinch
but
it is
him
teaaer_Qf-a._chiM,
whether he threatens
or to snatch at his toy, carries out a
a make-believe menace
— a thing
menace
to be a
wee
moment, yet so li^t and passing
afraid of for just a
;
bit
as-
to bring instantly the delightful rebound^ of disillusion, if
On
only the subject keeps good tempered.
the teaser's
prompted by no
serious desire to torment, by no motive more serious than
side
(when
it
remains pure teasing)
the half -scientific curiosity to see
experiment will take
The explosions
of a
it is
how
the subject of the
it.
good-humoured subject under such
gentle teasing are closely analogous to those of a tickled
child
:
they spring from a sudden sense of
relief, of elastic
rebound, after repression. The svdft alternations of moments
of nascent fear
and
of joyous recognition of the fun of the
thing are eminently fitted to supply the conditions of a
sudden rising of the
spirits.
The
child that likes to be
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OF LAUGHTER
78
—in
teased
to
pay
the proper
for these
way
of course
momentary
—
is
perfectly willing
by the momentary
delights
trepidations.
On
the side of the teaser, the situation
favourable to outbreaks of hilarity.
is
also highly
If successful, he reaps
the joy of the superior person, and glories in the cleverness
of his experiments.
The swellings
power
of the sense of
glory " which a philosopher places at the base of
ment of the laughable
;
as
"
sudden
all
enjoy-
he watches his victim give just those experiences of
and, alas, in the less kindly these
risings of the pleasurable consciousness
may
continue and
even increase after the teasing has ceased to be play and
becomes indistinguishable from the behaviour of a
tor-
mentor. ^
Much the same kind of remark applies to practical jokwhen it is not weighted with the serious purposes
(c)
ing, which,
of punishment
and moral
correction, is
of this playful attack of the tickler
merely an expansion
and the
teaser.
When
the victim reaches the moral height of being able to enjoy
the performance, his enjoyment comes under the head of
dissolved apprehension, or disillusion after taking things
too seriously.
By
far the larger share of the pleasure of the
practical joke certainly falls, however, to the perpetrator,
who
in this case, too, realises a "
sudden glory," an increased
sense of power.
(d)
Once more, laughter
all varieties of
mental.
and the
is
a
common accompaniment
contest or sharp encounter, both physical
When,
of
and
as in the case of the savage, the schoolboy
civilised soldier, it
breaks out after bodily
fight, it
1 Oo-operative teasing, when it methodically " naga " a boy because he
happens, for example, to take the unfashionable side in some political
dispute, making his school-life a, torment, had with all deference to
apologetic headmasters, be it said better change its name.
—
—
LAUGHTER
IN
CONTESTS
79
haa some of the characteristics of nervous laughter.
It is a
<!oncomitant of a sudden remission of physical and mental
strain, of a dissolution of the attitude of
the feeling of relief
exultation at the
A
cases, since it is "
In most
protection.
reinforced
is
self-
by that
of contemptuous
first taste of victory.
prolonged combat,
if
not too unequal, ofiers on both
sides frequent openings for these
reliefs of
upspringings of the exultant mood.
ring
apprehensive
they laugh that win,"
A good
tension and
fighter in the
now and again to
by a sweet smile. This
mental contests. Nothing is more
I understand, supposed to be able
is,
relieve the grimness of the situation
is
certainly true of all
way
remarkable in the study of popular laughter than the
in
which
of social
life
which involve sharp contest and crossing of
These will be illustrated more fully by-and-by.
wits.
is
seems to penetrate those relations and dealings
it
enough here, to allude to the enormous influence
tests
between the sexes on the development of wit and a
lively sense of the ludicrous.
(e)
As
a last group
->:
of situations favourable to the ex-
perience of joyous expansion
we have
those in
unusual degree of solemnity is forced upon
already been touched on.
It
It
of con-
This has
of the
conviviality.
festive board
And
in the
In our time
social
days when society was
was doubtless the focus
of the mirthful spirit.
here.
play-mood
find its natural dwelling-place in scenes of
gaiety and
gay the
which, an
Extremes seem to meet
might be expected that an impulse born
would
us.
it
of the activity
seems almost more
natural to associate a laugh with a funeral ceremony than
with a dinner-party.
solemn things
is
Yet the art of extracting fun from
not of to-day, as
may
be seen by a glance
at the jokes of the church architect and the play writer of
the Middle Ages.
In such bizarre intrusions of the droll
OCCASIONS AND CAUSES OP LAUGHTER
80
into the
of
domain
of the solemn
we seem
an irrepressible gladness of
which threaten to strangle
Whether the invasion
to find the struggling;
spirit
against .the ..honds.
it.
of the territory of the solemn
by
the jocose results in a barely mastered impulse to laugh,
The
depends on variable conditions.
frivolous mind, hardly
touched by the gravity of the occasion, wUl, no^qubt, often
be the
first
welcome the delivering hand.
to
want
occasion shows
of genuine emotion.
cident,
be
moved
such as the mal
an
The
sincerest
he have the_ requisite
to laughter
by some grotesque Jn-
b,
propos remark of a garrulous child.
For the point of our theory
an escape from pressure
such a
it is
if
worshipper in a church may,
sensibility,
Yet
a tendency to laugh on a solemn
error to suppose that
;
is
that laughter in such cases is
and the man who
feels
deeply at
moment may experience an emotional pressure which
equals, if it does not exceed, that of the external constraint
which the non-reverent
is
"
worshipper "
is
experiencing.
It
true, of course, that the deeper the feeling the greater the
inertia that will
have to be overcome before the laughing
for itself.
Yet here, again, we must
remember that emotional temperaments vary, and that with
some a genuine awe and even an intense grief may yield
now and again for a moment to the challenge of the laugh-
impulse can
able
when
The
last
make way
its
note catches the
ear.
remarks suggest that in any attempt to deal
with the conditions favourable to laughter reference should
be made to those physiological characteristics which are
supposed to determine the particular temperament of a
his special bent, say,
towards
jollity
man
:
on the one hand, or
towards a brooding melancholy on the other.
Our
fore-
had pretty definite ideas about the sort of bodily
constitution which was the foundation of the laughterfathers
LAUGHTER ON SOLEMN OCCASIONS
A
loving temper.
Falstaff,
was, and
is,
full
"habit" tending to obesity, as in
I believe, popularly supposed to be a
mainstay of the laughing
grow
fat "
81
may imply
a
The saying "Laugh and
spirit.
vague apprehension of
this relation,
as well as a recognition of the benefits of laughter.
Yet the
happy endowment is unmakes for " good spirits " are
precise organic substrate of this
known.
Health and
all
that
no doubt favourable to a voluble laughter of the elemental
On
kind.
the other hand, as
we
shall see, the laughing
capacity frequently co-exists with physiological conditions
of quite another kind.
Men
and with a strong bent
habit,
are to be found of a lean
to grave reflection,
who
are
nevertheless able, not merely to provoke laughter from
others, like the "melancholy Jaques," but themselves to
contribute a sonorous laughter to the higher intellectual
domains of mirth.
laugh
may have
its
It is conceivable that the disposition to
own
restricted physiological conditions
in a special instability of the
again
may
mechanism concerned.
This
presumably include some as yet undefinable
property of the nerve-centres which favours rapid change
in the
mode
of tension
of brain activity,
and those sudden
collapses
which seem to be the immediate physiological
antecedent of the motor discharge in laughter.
82
CHAPTER
IV.
VARIETIES OP THE LAUGHABLE.
In the preceding chapter we have examined those early and
elementary forms of laughter which arise from the action
of such causes as tickling, the attitude of play,
sudden uplifting in a feeling of joy.
and the
These do not,
evident, imply the existence of that specific faculty
we
is
call
the perception of the laughable in things, or what
commonly spoken
We
of as the sense of the ludicrous.
have now to inquire into the mode of operation of
more
intellectual cause of
possible,
The
it is
which
laughter,
and to connect
this
it,
if
with that of the simpler processes of excitation.
peculiarity in this case
is
that there
is
not only an
external excitant, such as tickling fingers, but an object of
the laughter.
A
tickled child laughs because of the tickling,
but not at this as an object.
The same
deal of the laughter of play:
it is
sents something funny, or
rupted by a moment's
when
critical
only
is
true of a good
when
play repre-
the play-iUusion
is
inter-
glance at the poverty of the
doll or other plaything, that it gives rise to a proper enjoy-
ment
of the laughable
;
and a
like
remark holds good
of
the laughter which springs out of a relief of tension and
a sudden transition from grave to gay.
of educated
men and women we
see
an
In the laughter
intellectual element,
the perception of a laughable quality in an object, and the
justification of the action
,
by
a reference to this.
The ex-
amination of this intellectual type of laughter will bring
LAUGHTER AND
us to what
is
ITS
OBJECTS
83
undoubtedly at once the most interesting and
the most difficult problem in our study.
The
of the
j
objective reference in laughter implied in speaking
"
laughable
"
may
be illustrated by a glance at the
contemptuous laughter of the victor surveying his prostrate
The boy of ten who danced and screamed and laughed
had killed his playmate in a street fight ^ was
hardly possessed with what we call a sense of the comicality
of things.
The laughter, though directed at something, had
foe.
after he
not, in the
complete sense of the expression,
The
its object.
boy himself would not have laughed at the spectacle at
another time, but viewed
And
it
with quite different feelings.
the object would not have presented
to others
itself as
laughable
who chanced to see it. In other words, the laughter
was not caused by a mere contemplation of an object, but was
conditioned by a particular relation between the laugher
and
this object.
To say
thing
is
that a thing
This
universality.
spectacle,
e.g.,
is
laughable, just as to say that a
is
an element of permanence and of
eatable, implies
true even
that of a drunken
able to me," since he
when
man
means that
a person says about a
walking,
a general rule that the sight of such
it is
laughter.
than
It
is
laugh-
movements
excites
But the word laughable clearly connotes more
which embraces others as well as
this, a universality
A
the individual.
supposed to be
thing
fitted to
is
only rightly so called
and interested
laughable and
common
in
when
it is
provoke men's laughter in general.
Language has been buUt up by men
common forms
all similar
living the social
of experience, and the
life,
word
words undoubtedly refer to such
forms.
'Given by Stanley Hall in the
etc.,
"
for his experience at least
already quoted.
article,
"The Psychology
of Tickling,"
VARIETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE
84
common forms of
Much
These
experience
may
be conceived of
what is called laughable by a
schoolboy, by a savage, or even by an educated Englishman,
is made to appear so by the special habits and correlated
modes of thought ofJbis community or his class. This clearly
narrowly or widely.
of
holds good of laughter at strange forms of dress, language
and the
Its
like.
"
universality "
In dealing with the laughable
allude to
among
the
shall
have constantly to
relativity to particular customs
its
It will be a part of our
>,tions.
thus strictly conditioned.
is
we
common
and expecta-
problem to disengage from
excitants of laughter
what seems
to
possess a truly universal character.
In speaking of an object of laughter as having universal
we do
potency,
not imply that
always excite the outburst.
that a
man
will
it will,
as a matter of fact,
The expression means only
be ready to laugh at
it,
provided that
he has certain requisite perceptions with the correlated
emotional susceptibilities, and that nothing interferes with
the working of these.
Hence we
shall
have to speak of the
laughable as answering to a tendency only, and to note the
'i^drcumstances
which are apt to counteract
it.
It
is
obvious,
for example, that the limitations of class-custom, so far as
they make laughter relative, wiU render a
what
is
"objectively" laughable in his
own
man
blind to
In
and accidental standards,
stages in the growth of intellicustoms.
truth, the adoption of such relative
which marks
all
the earlier
gence and of aesthetic sentiment,
clear recognition of
what
is
is
the great obstacle to a
laughable in a wider and more
strictly universal sense.
when we are considering the question of fact, " What
men reaUy laugh at ? " it is important to bear in mind
Again,
do
that the tendency to laugh may, on the one hand, be reinforced
by a favourable psycho-physical condition
at
the
UNIVERSAL ELEMENT
LAUGHTER
IN
85
moment, as well as by previously formed tendencies to apperceive things on their laughable side
while, on the other
;
hand,
it
may
checked and
be
wholly counteracted by
unfavourable conditions, such as a sad mood, or an acquired
habit of looking at those aspects of things which excite
f eehngs
antagonistic to laughter.
these forces,
we
find,
!
Owing to the action
man may fail
not only that one
of
to
moves another to
many cases in which two
discern the laughable in an object which
a hearty outburst, but that in
men join in
laughing at something they
by the same laughable
may
not be touched
feature or aspect of the presentation.
Nothing, indeed, has more of that appearance of caprice
which comes from the influence
of
uncertain subjective
men, even of those who have
factors than the laughter of
a normal sense of the ludicrous.
A
word more
is
The
needed on the language here used.
terms laughable and ludicrous
may be employed
interchange-
At
ably up to a certain point without risk of confusion.
the same time
it is
well to note that the second
a stricter sense than the
to denote particularly
first.
what
is
The term
is
used in
ludicrous seems
not only an universal object
of laughter, but an object of that
more
intellectual
kind of
laughter which implies a clear perception of relations.
In
everyday language we should speak of incidents and stories,
of which the fim is obvious and broad, as " laughable " rather
"
than as
on an
ludicrous
intellectual
".
Closely connected with this emphasis
element in the meaning of the term
ludicrous, is its tendency to take
to
mark
off"
what we
on an ideal
connotatioli,
deem to be worthy of laughter.
Here,
as in the case of other objects of an aesthetic sentiment,
there
is
a half -disguised reference to the regulative principles
of art.
This control by an aesthetic principle or standard
is
more
VARFETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE
86
by the way,
clearly indicated in the use of " comic," a word,
which
is
used more freely in some European languages than
A
in our own.
comic spectacle means, for one
language with precision, a presentation which
which comes up
who
is
uses
choice,
and would be
to the requirements of art,
excellent material for comedy.
Our problem may now be defined
objects of our
ordinary
common
men tend
as an analysis of the
perception and imagination which
to laugh at
and
This inductive inquiry into facts
to describe as laughable.
implied above, a
as
is,
necessary preliminary to a discussion of the nature of the
"
ludicrous " or
"
comic
" as
an ideal or regulative conception.
way with some
In order to find our
degree of certainty
to the general characteristics of laughable things,
do well to take at
least a rapid
men's laughter as reflected in popular
rire,"
"
comic songs
as also in
repasts of
"
we
and amusing
"contes
jests,
No
pow
literature in general
what may be called the standing dishes
fun served up in the circus and other
where they laugh.
should
survey of the objects of
;
in the
places
assemblage of facts of this kind
adequate for
scientific
purposes has, so far as I know, yet
been made
so that
must
;
^
it
suffice
here to indicate some of
the leading groups of laughable objects which a brief inspection of the field discloses.
It
may
be assumed as a matter of
common
that this field of laughable objects will
recognition
in the
lie
main
human life. It is the
and thoughts of men which yield
within the limits of the spectacle of
situations,
appearances
At the same
to laughter the larger part of its harvest.
time allusion will be made
now and
again to provocatives
' Valuable beginnings may be found here and there
for example, in
the entertaining volume of a French comedian, Le Rire, par (B. C.)
Coquelin, cadet.
;
ODDITIES
87
lying outside these limits, which are certainly found in
simple examples of the laughable.
In attempting to form these groups one must give a
what has been
warning.
It is implied in
the things
we laugh at have
in
many
said above, that
perhaps in most,
cases,
more than one distinguishably amusing facet. In trjring to
classify them, therefore, we must be guided by what seems
the most massive and impressive feature; and, as already
suggested,
it is
not always easy to say what really
main determinant
the
is
of our laughter.
Among the things which are commonly said to be
we find many objects d istinguis hed by novelty. A
(1)
laughable
^esentation whidi
widely from those of the ordinary
differs
type,
and
seen,
when agceeablfuaad^rf
laughter
and
may, as we have
so has a stimulating_freshness,
.-Suffidsat,. force,
escitfi^-io
by suddenly relieving.the^duLnessof_ the common
oft-repeated,
and raising the feeling-tone
of the observer
The proper
to the level of joyous excitement.
when
recognised laughable aspect only appears
effect of
a
experience
begins to be organised and the mind of the spectator to
perceive,
dimly at
least,
a certain contrariety in the
new
presentation to the usual run of his perceptual experience,
other words, the
in
oddity.
Much
see, of savages, at
A
a
aspect of
"
out-of-the-wayness
of the laughter of children, and, as
what
is
called "
funny
roll
"
or
shall
" illustrates this.
child will_Jaugh_vigffl'ously, for example,
new and odd-sounding word,
we
on
first
hearing
or on jrst_seeing a donkey
on his back, a HighlandfiXLJn-^MsJdltjJiis^ister's^ hair
In some of these
curIingz|}.aperSj. and the like.
done up in
cases, at least, the appreciation of
singular
is
aided
novel impression.
by
the
new
object as
odd or
the agreeably lively character of the
This
two strikingly similar
is
true also of the amusing effect of
faces seen together
;
for here the look
88
VARIETIES OP THE LAUGHABLE
of oddity,
which
explained by the circumstance that our
is
ordinary experience
is
of
dissimilarity
between
faces,
supported by the stimulative force of the likeness
This expansive
may come
feeling
The
human.
effect
of the
new and
is
itself.
the odd on our
too from the perception of things sub-
sight
of
a
crab walking sideways, of an
oddly-marked dog, of an eddy of leaves in autumn, and
so forth will excite laughter in a child.
A
glance at the language employed in describing laugh-
able objects suggests the large scope of the odd.
"
whimsical
tastes,
the
and the
"
''
and the
" fantastic " in
extravagant " in the region of sentiment
seem to refer directly to what
like
the point of an amusing remoteness from
This enjoyable appreciation of the odd
obvious
Thus the
the realm of ideas and
way
subject to the
life's
is
is
—these
peculiar, to
common way.
in a particularly
condition of relativity.
begin with, the amusing aspect
is
To
determined by, and so
manner of the hour so that, as the
word " antic " shows, the old-fashioned begins to take on
an amusing aspect as soon as it is so far displaced by a
strictly relative to the
new custom
as to be
;
an out-of-the-way thing.
Again, as already hinted, the odd
the custom of a locality or a
man
alike are
wont
class.
to laugh at
actions of a foreign people
;
much
and
is
A
always relative to
savage and a civilised
in the appearance
and
this because of its sharp
contrast to the customary forms of their experience.
Jhg^ chief coun teractive to be noted here is the im pulse
to distrust and fear the new and unfamiliar.
A child may
often be noticed oscillating between laughter and fear as
some new strange sight bursts upon him.
A savage must feel
himself secure before he can freely indulge in laughter at
all
the odd belongings and doings of the white man.
(2)
A special variety of the singular
or exceptional which
BODILY DEFORMITIES
is fitted,
89
within certain limits, to excite laughter
or deviation from the tygical form.
is deformitji^
It is certain that, for
the unsophisticated palate of the child and the savage, Jbodil^
deformity
is
a large source of mirth.
hunchback, the cripple, the
man with
The dwarf, thel
the big nose, and the
hke have been great entertainers of youth. The tendency
to regard such deviations from type as amusing extends,
as we know, to our perceptions of animals and of plants.
A
limping quadruped or a tree with a wen-like excrescence
seems to
reflect a
laughable aspect.
human deformity and to share in its
obj ect may sometimes enter-
Even a lifeless
tain us with its appearance of deformity.
up
aflects us in the
same way
back view of a rickety
as a
tilted
man on
cart, as it
A
house shored
crutches,
and the
wobbles down a
may
gladden the eye much as the sight of a heavy,
human figure attempting to run.
While we may view the laughable aspect of bodily de^
street,
ill-balanced
formity as an example of the odd or deviation from the
common
pattern of our experience,
we
i^usLsoi' forget that
more brutal element in. laughter. All ugly
things had in them for the Greek mind something contemptit
appeals to the
ible or disgraceful.
deformity
person
lies in
who
Much
of the point of men's laughter at
a recognition of
is its subject.
It
is
its
demeaning
impulse to rejoice in the sight of what
contemptible.
efiect
on the
a clear manifestation of the
is
degraded, base, or
It is not difficult to detect this note of con-'
temptuous rejoicing in the derisive laughter of the coarser
sort of boy and savage, the kind of laughter illustrated in
Homer's description of the merriment
of the Achaean chiefs
at the sight of the misshapen Thersites, with his
hump,
his
sugar-loaf head crowned with stubble, and his persecuting
Here we seem to have an unmistakable ingredient
squint.^
iJMorf,
ii.,
212fE.
;
VARIETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE
90
of malignant satisfaction, of rejoicing at another's
ills
(Aris-
totle's e'iri')(ai,peKaKLa).
Roughly speaking, we may say that the laughable_force
its. extent.
The droll effect of
of a deformity varies with
an enlargement of the nose or of a reduction of the chin
with the amount of
increases, within certain limits at least,
the aberration from the normal dimensions.
be
any exact quantitative
difficult to establish
Again,
Yet
would
it
relation here.
kinds of deformity are not equally provocative
all
of laugh ter.7' In general, perhaps, positive additions or ex/tensions,
'
i,
such as a big nose or big
to merriment than reductions
perception more aggressively.
and
ears, are
losses
Then
;
more conducive
they seem to seize
there are varieties of
the deformed which probably involve special kinds of droll
Certain squints and twistings of the
suggest! veness.
face divine
may move
a red nose or a shock of red hair
to its supposed
human
us as expressions of the roguish
may owe
Long
moral symbolism.
its
force
ears and other
deformities affect us through their undignified reminder of
affinity to a
Much, however, in these
lower animal species.
preferences of the ruder sort of laughter looks quite capricious,
and can only be
set
down
to habit
and imitation.
r^ The impulse to laugh at deformity has a narrower and a
wider counteractive.
The
first is pity,
the second
is
the
VJeeling of repugnance at the sight of ugliness.
The
inhibition of laughter at deformity
consideration
is
by pity and kindly
Where
one of the marks of a refined nature.
the unsightly feature suggests suffering, whether physical
or moral, such consideration
may
completely counteract,
the impulse.
Since deformity
is
a variety of the ugly, and the percep-
tion of the Ugly as such repels us,
we have
counteractive a fine aesthetic shrinking from
as a further
what
is
un-
DEFORMITIES OF BODY AND OF MIND
A
sightly.
91
person endowed with this repugnance
his capacity of enjoying the
may have
funny aspect of a deformity com-
At the other extreme, we have a readiness to make fun of all bodily defects, even when they arej*
a revolting spectacle.
The area of enjoyment for most men
pletely paralysed.
lies
between these extremes, when the displeasing element of
the ugly
is
may
It
mitigated, so that
which
of hilarity
its
its effect is lost
in the stream
drollery sets flowing.
be added that where deformity has been turned
"make fun" has
more particularly a
into a laughable quality the impulse to
commonly been aided by other
forces,
sense of relief from fear and a feeling of retaliation.
is
This
clearly illustrated in the laughter of the people in the
Middle Ages at the
devil, the
demons and the rest. Perhaps
hunchback contains
children's rather cruel laughter at the
an element of
as vicious
(3)
who
retaliative dislike for a person
is
viewed
and hurtful.
Another group of laughable objects
closely related
is
Certain moral d eformiti es and ^^cej_have always
to the last.
been a special dish_ra,_thefea.§t, of .laughter.
We have
only to think of popular jokes, the contes of the Middle Ages,
and the large branches
satire, to see
how
of literature
known
as
comedy and
eagerly the spirit of mirth has looked out
for this source of gratification.
So far as
this laughter directs itself against a vicious dis-
position, or deformity of character, such as vanity or
ice,
and not against a
coward-
lighter defect of external manners, it
seems to involve a perception of something ugly, like a bodily
blemish, and further some appreciation of
its
disgraceful or
degrading aspect.
It
is
by the
a view
commonly
held,
and
as
we
shall see supported
practices of art, that all vices are not eq ually -£t
subjects for laughter.
Some kinds seem
to have a specially
VARIETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE
92
amusing
may
There
aspect.
be peculiar features in the
expression of the vicious disposition which give
the laughing eye.
for example
;
This
and hardly
is
value for
obviously true of drunkenness,
less so of violence of
has a large and impressive droUness in
vices,
it
temper, which
its display.
Other
such as cowardice and miserliness, have something
choice for the eye of laughter in the meanness of their
display, the petty, contemptible practices to
monly
lead.
which they com-
The supreme place given to vanity
among
laughable moral failings seems to be explicable in part
by
Nothing
this consideration.
is
more entertaining than
the inflation in carriage and speech which comes from
an overweening
Hypocrisy, again, together with
conceit.
her kinswomen deceit and lying, seems to have a peculiar
value for the mirthful eye
by reason
of her disguise,
and
the elemental joy which mortals young and old derive from
As a
a good peep behind a mask.
last
example we
may
take a porcine obstinacy over against the expression of
others' wishes, the stupidity against
which even
"
the gods
contend in vain," a variety of the amusing which seems to
tickle our sensibilities
by presenting
to us the rigidity of
the machine in lieu of the reasonably pliant organism of the
man.
j
/
we caU moral
at these we are
This glance at the amusing side of what
deformities suggests that
by no means always
actions
and
first of all,
we view
when we laugh
at the
in the fact that,
as vice,
its littleness
moral point of view, looking at
traits of character as
we do
immoral.
when we
not, as
some
is
seen,
what
say,
and harmlessness, visiting
it,
the merely nominal penalty of a laugh.
play of brutal appetite,
when
may be
This
are laughing at
always recognise
so to speak,
with
Lying, or a dis-
turned into a subject of mirth
the least reflection would
show that
it is
decidedly
HOW LAUGHTER VIEWS OUR FAULTS
harmful.
It is seen, further, in the fact that the laughable
in this case extends
commonly
of
call vices.
our youth, Mr.
beyond the limits
The excessive humility
far
Toots,
is
hardly
spectacle than excessive vanity.
of a certain completeness
It
clearly illustrated
up
qualities
by the
less
what we
of
of the friend
entertaining a
seems rather to be want
and proportion
moral structure which amuses here.
holds
93
of parts in the
This
is
yet more
comedy, as we shall
fact that
see,
want of moderation even in
which we admire, such as warmth of feeling, refineto a gentle laughter
ment
of sentiment, and conscientiousness itself.
Here again we may note that the "laughable"
will be
and standards adopted
Contrast, for example, the fund
relative to the special experiences
by the particular society.
of amusement which lies
in the spectacle of
drunkenness
for a people addicted to, and therefore tolerant
drinking, with that available for another people
the vice
is
shunned and judged
severely.
indeed, that our readiness to be entertained
It
of,
deep
by whom
is
evident,
by the look
of
excess or disproportion in a character will vary with the
idea of the normal pattern.
The
old
Greek way of scanning
character differed, in certain respects, from that habitual, say
in
England to-day.
In the case of what are palpable vices we have as counter-
active tendencies, not merely the finer shrinking from the
ugly, but the recoil of the moral sense in the distressed atti-
tude of reprobation.
trait
must not be
Hence
of such
it may be said that the immoral
volume and gravity as to call
forth the moral sense within us.
temperament and habit, and, one
which the presentation
Here,
may
too, differences of
add, of the
mood
finds us, will affect the result.
in
It is
amazing to what an extent even reputable citizens are able
to enjoy the presentment of moral failings, when they give
VARIETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE
94
themselves up to the
mood which seems
to belong to a seat
before the comic stage.
We may
(4)
pass to a group of laughable presentations
which the feature specially fixated by the observer's
in
mental eye
is
Laughable
some_6reac,^ of order and rule.
displays of vice involve this element, of course, but
cases
now
to be considered the violence done to rule
more conspicuous
i
is
The donkey
the
On the other hand,Jaughable vio-
feature.
lations of rule are closely related to the oddities dealt
above.
n the
on
rolling
his
back
may be
with
said, for
child's intelligence, to break, the rule of the donkey's,
the
normal
behaviour; .yet here the laughableness seems to spring im-
mediately out of the fresh stimulating character of the
novelty of the spectacle.
In order that an action
we must
impress us as disorderly,
least, that
some custom or rule
a donkeji' stepping on to the
is
may
recognise, vaguely at
disobeyed.
pavement
The sight
of
of a street, or quietly
browsing in a garden, would amuse as an exhibition of the
disorderly.
Perhaps we have the boundary-line between
what
is
merely odd and what
is
disorderly illustrated
the bizarre aspect of a boy in a class
who
by
deviates consider-
ably in height from the approximately uniform height of
the rest of the
class.
It has
jthat even a house in a row
been pointed out by Dr. Lipps
may assume an amusing
L ance under like circumstances.
appear-
Here the general uniformity,
immediately presented to the eye, seems to supply the
spectator with the idea of a rule which the odd-looking in-
dividual
is
violating.^
Under the present head we
shall
keep
to examples of the laughable where the breach of rule
is
palpable.
1
Loc.
cit.
There is, of course, often a reciprocal effect in these cases, the noncompliant intruder serving to show up the absurd monotony of the row.
2
UNRULY PROCEEDINGS
To begin with,
orderliness of
and even
disorderliness, the upsetting of the usual
a great source of laughter to the young
life, is
many
to
"
of jollity or
95
adults.
high
more extravagant forms
wont to pass into the dis-
All the
spirits " are
This applies not merely to uproar, but to such
orderly.
"jocose" proceedings as smashing windows, the enjoyment
of which, as Addison reminds
us, is
by some
laid
down
as
the test of humour.
This being
so,
we might
expect that the appearance of
the disorderly would wear an amusing aspect for ordinary
men.
This
is
certainly
spectacle of lawlessness
man always
The crowd loves the
find.
The laughter-moving
elsewhere.
of a
what we
and misrule in the harlequinade and
force of the presentment
in a hurry, or continually
changing his
purpose, illustrates this effect of the disorderly.
value of the
man
circumstance.
is
in a rage
All
The comic
depends too in part on this
appearances of disorder where order
counted on, as in dress, are apt to provoke a smile of
amusement.
A
out of
a recognised stimulus to laughter.
line, is
sight of a
squad of
soldiers
marching out of time, or
room turned upside down
Even
the_
for a cleaning, or of
the confusion of a dinner-table after a meal, takes on some-
thing of this amusing aspect of the disorderly.
The
droll aspect of the disorderly
becomes specialised in
The
good
offencesagainst
the
code
marked
are
best
cases
of
manners, and the rules of correct speech. Eude behaviour
and gaucheries, solecisms, provincialisms, and confusions in
the use of language, amuse us as breaches of familiar rule,
the breach of commonly-recognised rules of behaviour.
though they
may no
doubt entertain us also as manifesta-
tions of a naive ignorance.
It
is
hardly needful to point out that men's judgments
of the laughable element in breach of rule will be relative.
96
VARIETIES OP THE LAUGHABLE
The code
of
manners
with the particular
in the case of the
variations,
will
class,
vary with the community and
and
same group.
will tend to
change with time
One has only to think
from period to period, in the fashionable modes
of accost, of pronouncing words,
and so
on.
^The great force which tends to counteract this direction
[
of laughter
the respect for order and rule, which has been
is
formed slowly and with much
part of a community.
difficulty, at least in
must not seem
lawlessness
it,
are
the act of
of a gravity sufficient to offend
This condition will be satisfied
^^his respect.
the larger
men who
It follows that if
supporters of rule are to laugh at a violation of
I
of the
if it is
mani-
fest that the upsetting of rule, so far as it is intentional,
is
not serious but a sort of make-believe
;
or that
it
is
confined within the limits of the harmless, as in the case of
the angry
man
and sundry
is
;
vainly threatening denunciation against
or,
again, that the failure to
all
comply with rule
not intentional but due to ignorance.
(5)
We may now
pass to a group of presentations where
the laughable feature seems to reside in a situation or condition
which
is
especially those
a difficulty or
distinctly undesirable.
" fix,"
wear an amusing
t
Smaik. misfortunes,
which involve something in the nature of
are for the ordinary onlooker apt to
aspect.
The
loss of one's hat, a fall
due
to a slip, or a tilting against another pedestrian, are recog-
nised instances of the amusing in the spectacle of the streets.
Such sights as Ajax slipping in the foot-race and getting his
mouth filled with dirt {Biad, xxiii,, 770-85), John Gilpin
on his runaway steed, a party in a boat left stranded on a
sand-bank, the clown in the circus vainly trying to stop a
runaway horse by clinging to
its tail
;
these and other illus-
trations will readily occur to one familiar with the
laughter.
The
ways
of
older popular entertainments, such as the
SLIGHT MISFORTUNES
97
enjoyment of the performance of grinning through the horsecollar at the country fair, owed something of their value to
this delight in seeing a
compelled to
make
due to his lack of
man
many
more
"
when
It is to
was
it
refined sense of the
awkward "
situations of
she makes a meritorious but ill-judged attempt
to get into touch with one of the " lower class
an
being
if
say the unconcealable gine that overtakes a fine
social life,
lady
A
foresight.^
laughable seizes on the
— only that of
—especially when
in a fix
a fool of oneself
be noted that
irritating
many
situations involving not only
amount of inconvenience but real
excite this kind of laughter in the vulgar.
of a cripple dragging his
".
body along has
its
suffering
may
The spectacle,
amusing aspect,
not only for jovial mortals but for superior beings.
Homer
Olympian gods as dissolved in laughter at the
sight of the lame blacksmith trying to discharge the dainty
represents the
office of
the cup-bearer Ganymede.
We
same
see the
uri-i
mishap in the laughter of the savage
feeling rejoicing at
and of the coarser product
of civilisation at certain
forms of
punishment, particularly the administration of a good thrashing to a wife, or to some ugly piece of mischief, as Thersites.
Even
"
polite society "
of amusement,
if
seems to have a
we may judge from
which the fashionable crowd on one
relish for this
form
the entertainment
side of the English
Channel appears to find in scanning the gloomy figures and
wan
faces of the passengers as they land after a storaay
passage.
Here, again, the deep malignity of
man
peeps out
in a rejoicing at the sight of others' hurt (Schadenfreude).
Among
_.
these mirth-provoking misadventures, situations
and incidents which manifestly involve Joss of dignity fill
The spectacle of a flying hat pursued by its
a large space.
'
See an
article, "
The Analytical Humorist," by H. D.
nightly Bevieio (N.S.), vol.
Ix., p,
141.
7
Traill, Fort-
J
VARIETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE
98
owner owes much of its " funniness " to the fact that the
Uq§s of a symbol of dignity is involved. Possibly certain
,{
bodily deformities, especially a failure of the nose or of the
chin,
may
derive something of their laughableness from our
The laughter
perception of the loss of a dignified feature.^
which
is
wont
on his hands
to greet the sight of a
the same
illustrates
man
with a baby
The favourite
left
effect.
situations in the lighter popular comedy, as that of the
/
I
who
is
amuse
henpecked, and
so
much
vpf the house
this
who
which they involve.
who
r stumbling
when
The stimulating
"
head "
force of
the greater where the undignified
is
overtakes one
exalted position, as
man
subject to a mother-in-law,
because of the deep descent of the
kind of presentation
situation
is
is
holding at the time an
a preacher in the pulpit
is
caught
on too homely an expression, or a judge on the
Lbench giving way to an oppressive somnolence.
As
in the other instances,
tions introduced
by the
clearly appeals to a
f
Where
misadventure
On
and circumstances
kind of feeling quite dissimilar to that
pity
laughter at mischances,
restrained.
here to note the limita-
Misfortune, the sufiering of indignity,
of the spectator.
of^.miEth^.,
we have
variable nature
is
strong and alert
at difliculties,
and
much
so
of
the
forth,
is
men
in
the other hand, this pity for
comes of knowledge and of insight; and
where experience and training have not given
these, the
restraining influence on laughter will be wanting.
Hence
the familiar fact that youngsters, though not less capable
of pity than their elders, will laugh at sights, such as the old
lady slipping and falling, which touch the heart of those
V
who know what they really mean.
(6) We may now touch on a group
1
of laughable objects
Mr. Kipling suggests that the want of a proper nose in a family
among the Hindoos {Kim, p. 81).
regarded as a disgrace
is
LOSS OP DIGNITY
which has a
close kinship
with more than one of the groups
already illustrated, though
marked
99
it
stands apart by right of well-
I refer to laughter a,t^the^-i7ideeent or
peculiarities.
obscene, whether in actual presentation qr^n suggestirai^
Any
attempt to illustrate the variety of the
serious
sources of men's ordinary laughter must, I think, find a
place for this group.
Among men, and
which decency
gods, the uncovering of that
is a powerful provocative of laughter.
may add
one
the
on hiding
insists
In their more direct
j
and potent workings indecent presentations appeal to the
j
loud mirthfulness of the coarse mind, to the gros
the
man
tossing the gros
sel,
as Mr.
Meredith has
bulk among the jocosities of savage tribes
many
of
these
Yet
it
who
—and
Culture
societies.
is
—
of
|
civiKsedj
a great restraining influence herej
would be an error to suppose that educated men
are also of the laughter-loving are destitute of this
The impulse
sensibility.
indecent,
when
it
nor enlarged upon,
to greet merrily an allusion to the
comes unexpectedly, taking us
guard, so to speak, and
is,
when
it is
off
our
neither too pronounced
among men who
I believe, universal
laugh.
The laughter
at a suggestion of
what not only
civilised
but even savage society seeks to veil from view would seem
to be
most naturally regarded as a case
or breach of accepted rule.
matters
vention.
to
is
To make
of the improper,
reference to these
break through a well-understood
This breach, moreover, carries with
descent into the depths of the undignified
;
social conit
a plump
for since society
has willed to throw the veil here any attempt to uplift
it
implies something shameful.
person
there
who
is
The
disgrace falls on the
is the subject of the allusion
a definable person concerned.
—in
all
'
They
it.
or at least
among
of the less refined
rire
cases
where
In others, where
I
VARIETIES OP THE LAUGHABLE
100
the allusion
is
common
directed to a
nature, the indignity done
Not only
flisa,
we
so,
is,
"
infirmity " of
of course,
of the
more widespread.
on hearing such an allusion that there
feel
lapse of dignity all round in speaker
^.The blush
human
and hearers
alike.
hearer attests this feeling of
refined
shame.
i
"Tet
to describe the effect here as due to breach of rule
and lapse of dignity
certainly not to give a full account
is
the modus operandi of this variety of the laughable.
of
to speak of these things
''If
an offence to good
taste,
is
forbidden and branded as
on the other hand that which
I
and an inseparable part
l^is alluded to is a real
The enjoyment
of
these
allusions
may
of our nature.
accordingly be
viewed under another aspect as a rejection of the
/
-an favour of simple unadorned nature.
for the
/' is
\
(_
moment
of the decent veil
customarily hidden
by a
away
historians
of
artificial
casting aside
and the facing of what
seems, indeed, to be attended
distinct feeling of' liberation
joyous expansion.
The
from restraint and of
Hence, probably, the fact noted by
mediaeval manners that the
coarseness of
the jocosity appeared to increase with the magnitude of
the
The mood
feast.
slackening of
all
of exuberant hilarity favours the
artificial
sideration may, perhaps,
jokes,
if
restrictions.
The same con-
explain the hold
which coarse
only they have just the right quantum of
maintain on the humorous palate of the strong and
among men
salt,
virile
of intellect.
In this brief account of the mirthful aspect of the indecent
I
have confined myself to what
discloses itself to conscious-
common among
practise a certain self-restraint.
Yet we
outbursts which are provoked, in coarser men
ness in the moderate forms of laughter,
civilised
know
men who
that the
at least,
by the uncovering
of sexual matters have a deeper
THE INDECENT
101
source in the obscure parts of our animal organisation.
sources of knowledge with respect to the condition of
when they
Our
men
are seized with the sexual orgasm, including the
testimony of mythology, suggest that laughter here assumes
the function of voicing
-a
state of riotous self-glorification
of the animal part of our nature,
moment
laughter,
when
and, further, that here, as in
;
it
fully released for a
some forms
of nervous
has an organic connection with a condition of
emotional paroxysm.
It
hardly necessary to point out that relativity has
is
a large empire in this branch of the laughable.
idea of
what
of his society,
'
A
man's
obscene will be relative to the standards
is
which
may
The English-J
vary considerably.
man living abroad is apt to
men and women, otherwise
be impressed by the fact that
as
refined as
hesitate less to call a spade a spade
his
own
people,
and to allude in con-
versation to subjects which are tabu at home.
may be
cultivated women
Similarly,
the modern reader of Shakespeare
shocked by the
freedom of speech of the
of another age.
Further, as implied above, the readiness to laugh here
will be
it is
modified profoundly by refinement of feeling.
true that all
men
no
less true
If
are capable of enjoying an allusion
to the indecent, provided that
is
it
is
delicately executed,
it
men are able to
rather muddy spring
that only coarse-minded
drink frequently or deeply at this
of laughter.^
(7)
Another group of laughable presentations has_a certain
Popular mirth has made a prolast.
analogy with the
'
It
may
of laughter
be well to add, by
which a
modem
way
of caution, that
theatre-goer
is
/
I
the feeble semblance
apt to produce
when he
sees
something risqui is not a simple form of laughter at the indecent. It is
the outcome of a highly artificial attitude of mind, in which there is an
oscillation of feeling between the readiness of the natural man to indulge
and the fear of the civilised man that he may be carried too far.
VARIETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE
102
minent target of men's
pretences.
and seize the make-believe
So
ourselves with laughter.
and disguise in
affectation
ruder popular
source of
its
art,
is
To peep behind the mask
means of providing
a sure
large, indeed, is the part of
not only the
social life, that
but comedy has made them one chief
entertainment.
The flavour
varies greatly according to the moral
of the laughter
complexion of the
Seeing through the transparent make-believe of
pretence.
the child sets us laughing in one key
half -unconscious
humbug,
in another ;
;
the detection of the
and that of the artful
impostor, in yet another.
That the appreciation
able
is relative,
at the
may
numerous
of this
embodiment
of the laugh-
not be at once evident.
little
Yet a glance
hypocrisies not only allowed, but
even exacted by polite society, will
suffice to
show how
The dulling influence of use is
[the standard may vary.
The shams of life cease to
exceptionally apparent here.
amuse us save a very few when they are numerous and
'
—
—
ubiquitous.
'
The Englishman who laughs
pretences of society abroad,
may
at the little
be quite incapable of
discerning the amusing side of quite similar simulations
i
and dissimulations in the ways of
r^
the impulse will be restrained
'
seriously,
\
Men
1
own
society.
by the tendency
and by the higher degrees
of
to judge
moral sensitiveness.
of easy morals will laugh cynically, perhaps, at forms
of imposture
1
his
Here, too, as in the case of moral blemishes generally,
which would shock those of a
finer
moral
pass to a species of the laughable
which
texture.
I
,
(8)
We may now
has a more markedly intellectual character.
Among
the
human quality none appears to have had its
mark more widely recognised than that of wamt
exhibitions of
j
ludicrous
(
\
of knowledge or of
skill.
Here, again, our friend, the clown
MEN'S PRETENCES
of the circus,
comes to our
The
aid.
103
spectacle of his futile
attempts to imitate the exploits of the skilled horseman and
other experts stirs the risibility of the multitude to one of
its
fortissimo outbursts.
when
Ignorance of
lands a traveller in a mess,
it
of merriment to the rustic onlooker.
and
all
locality,
is
a
especialiy"\
common
source
I
Children, savages,
1
simple folk delight in such exhibitions of ignorance J
and incompetence.
The more restrained amusement
or
"society" at the want of savoir faire in the uninitiated
shows that
this
enjoyment of the spectacle of ignorance by
the well-informed
is
is
The value of the spectacle
that when in argument a man
widespread.
by the fact
win the laugh of onlookers to his
best to show up a laughable degree
evinced
he will
desires to
side,
do his
of ignorance
The presence
gathering of bucolics
a situation pregnant with possi-
bilities of
is
I
i
1
a—
in his fellow-disputant.
of the expert in
1
Let the delightful discussions
mirthful enjoyment.
Wessex folk suflSce as illustration.
These amusing uncoverings of ignorance and inability
of Mr. Hardy's
a spicy ingredient in the mutual quizzings of
men
to distinct peoples or classes, such as the savage
white man, the sailor and the landsman.
are
belonging
and the
This will be
illustrated later on.
In these cases the spectator
session
by
may
others of knowledge or
not count on the posskill.
The man who
laughs has at most a vague expectation that outsiders should
own set. The laugh at ignorance
and incompetence takes on another and more ironical ring
when knowledge and competence are reasonably to be expected, as for example when an oflScial shows a striking
be equal to those of his
incompetence for the duties of his
The
spectacle
entertaining
of
when
it
human
office.
ignorance grows particularly
has to do with matters supposed to be
j
\
]
j
VARIETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE
104
\
of
gives us an example in
common knowledge. M. Bergson
the observation of a disappointed traveller on hearing that
there
;
was an
extinct volcano in the neighbourhood
had a volcano and allowed
what
of ignorance of
it
go out
to
generally
is
So firm
ticularly those of language.
everybody, even the foreigner,
our language that
we cannot
It is this element
".'
known
many
gives the amusing aspect to
which, in part,
breaches of rule, paris
our assumption„that
ought to be able to^geak
hear a gross mispronunciation
or misapprehension of meaning without feeling
naive.
-
course the fun is greater
German
to be
Hugh
Evans.
Of
the foreigner stumbles unwittingly
tells
against himself
;
as
when
how his wife was,
and when she is not
visitor to London, being asked
answered, "She
lying she
if
which
into an observation
" feeling
it
Shakespeare in the same play makes us laugh at
the bad English of Dr. Caius and Sir
a
They
"
:
is
is
generally lying,
swindling," meaning to say
giddy
"
lying
side of the paradoxical, of
what
" ("
The ludicrous
hat Schwindel
opposed to common-sense
fuUy presently
—
down " and
").
—a matter
to be dealt
is
violently
with more
illustrates the effect of intellectual naivete.
All exaggeration in description and other extravagance of
statement are laughed
jance of
the well
what
is
at,
in part at least, as
credible.
known and
On
showing ignor-
the other hand, insistence on
the obvious, especially
when
it is ac-
companied by a laboured argument, amuses us by ignoring
the circumstance that the hearer or reader
is
already quite
familiar with the matter.
A
by a
what
delightful exhibition of the naive intelligence
is
given
what is happening or of
the moment.
The Londoner may
gross misapprehension of
is
being said at
delight his country listener with his misunderstandings of
^
Op.
cit.,
p. 45.
WANT OF KNOWLEDGE OR
what
105
seems perfectly self-explanatory.
to the latter
tickling force of such misapprehension
it
SKILL
involves an idea which
is
heightened
The
when
the very reverse of the truth.
is
The good story of the Yorkshire juryman who remarked
that " Lawyer Scarlet gets all the easy cases " turns on the
When
delicious inversion of causal relations.
travelling
once in a train I heard a mother say to her Httle
who had been
girl,
complaining of the heat, "The more you
it the worse it will be "
upon which the child
remarked in a drily humorous tone, "I should say the
think of
;
worse it is the more I shall think of it".
The mother's
remark had probably seemed an inversion of the true
relation.
Other examples of what we
at least, under this head.
call
naivete come, in part
The want
of tact, the bringing
in of that which has no relevance to the
or the ideas of the moment,
men
of
all levels
of culture.
The inappropriate ways
which the kindly savage or child
visitor's
circumstances
an excitant of laughter for
is
comfort are a pretty example of such simplicity.
Irrelevances in conversation and discussion, such as
cb
of
moT
propos, mistakings of the issue, unfortunate suggestions
reasons,
and the
like,
are
among
tributaries of the river of laughter.
make
the
recognised
These irrelevances
a large contribution to the lighter enjoyment of social
intercourse.
is
in
tries to minister to his
An irrelevance
having a peculiarly broad
a response to a question which wholly misses
effect
its point,
as
when one reads of a man on a descending balloon who asked
a yokel, Where am I ? " and received for answer only the
''
absurdly obvious,
"
In a balloon
Children's naivete
—a
".
J
mine of wealth to the discerning
seeker after the laughable
—Ulustrates
this tickling property
of a perfect simplicity of intelligence, and of those irrelev-
/
VARIETIES OP THE LAUGHABLE
106
ances of behaviour and of utterance which
compass
seize
by
and occupy for the instant the
templative vision.
/One of
its
mighty
their
con-
field of
most valuable manifestations
the habit of quietly substituting the child's point of view
"
large number of the " funny remarks
/for the adult's.
Is
A
Here
of children illustrate this.
is
prover of occasions asked a child
grandfather into a rather alarming romp,
very kind to play with you, dear
"
correction,
A
may
"
im-
seduced her
" Isn't
grandpapa
and received the sharp
".
I'm playing with him
bare reference
be made to other illustrations
of the intellectual simplicity
eyej The
?
An
an example.
who had
which entertains the mirthful
effect of prejudice
and passion in narrowing the
'mental outlook and setting up erroneous views of things
is
As we
a favourite subject of comic treatment.
see,
the spectacle gains a higher value
intelligence
amusing
when
shall
the degraded
approaches that of the disordered, and the
person,
wholly preoccupied with his
illusions,
utters a string of remarks so widely irrelevant to the actual
circumstances of the
moment
as to upset the gravity
even
of^a serious spectator.
The limiting
this
influence of relativity in the appreciation of
branch of the amusing has been pretty plainly
trated in
what has been
said.
The lack
ledge which excites our merriment
is
a familiar possession of our
least,
is
set,
tend to look for in others.
amused
at
is
of skill or of
illus-
know-
the lack of that which
which accordingly we, at
Hence, the
man
of society
your not knowing one kind of thing, say, the
history of the British Peerage, the bucolic at your ignorance
ways of calves, and so forth. The
mind only impresses us in relation to
our own grown-up and complex ways of thinking. Even
of another, say, the
simplicity of a child's
the absurdities of paradox are relative, for what
we
are
NAIVETfi
107
pleased to regard as the stable, unalterable
sense
(9)
is,
body
of
common-
in reality, subject to change.
We
will
now
touch on a group of facts on which
writers on the ludicrous are accustomed to lay stress.
The
spectacle of a child wearing a man's hat, fully considered
above, shows us the laughable directly and unmistakably as
a juxtaposition of two foreign elements, the semblance of
a whole
made up
all
Here we see the
of incongruous parts.
sense of fun fixing its eye on relations.
It is recognised
that the perception of certain relations,
by
more particularly
the unfitting, the disproportionate, the incongruous and the
logically inconsistent, plays a large part in calling forth the
more
refined sort of laughter.
In dealing with
distinction.
imbecile
movements
from a
When
a
ceiving a relation
of a skater as he tries to save himself
;
is
may
be aware of half-per-
such as want of
departure from the normal.
mental eye
person laughs, say, at the
or at an outrageous costume, or at the fantastic
fall,
language of some pr^cieuse, he
he
we must
this laughable aspect of relations
draw a
fitness,
He knows,
not focussed for this relation
feels as if the presentation in itself,
extravagant
however, that his
;
on the contrary,
by giving the re-
quired jerk to his apperceptive tendencies, were directly
provocative of mirth.
On
the other hand, he will, I believe, hold that there are
/
where the enjoyment of the laughable depends on the
mental eye directing itself to a relation. The relation may
cases
not be apprehended in a perfectly precise way; but the
point
is
that
of a second
;
it is
mentally seized,
if
'•
'
l
only for the fraction
and, further, that a degree of definiteness
is
I
given to the apprehension of the relation by a glimpse, at
[
least, of
the related terms.
This localising of the laughable in a relation
.
;
is
most
~
VARIETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE
108
evident in the case of those complex presentations where
lack of
harmony and
congruity
of
mutual
fitness
—appear in the several parts
—what
we
call^in,-_,
of the whole
which
are present to the eye, and forces itself on the-attentioji.,in
a thoroughly aggressive fashion.
A
country
woman
dis-
playing in her dress or in her speech a bizarre mixture of
the peasant and the fine lady, a proposal to climb a mountain in dainty high-heeled shoes, the couching of a vote of
thanks in language far below or above the needs of the
occasion, these pull at the muscles of laughter because they
strike us as a forcing together of things
The same holds true
refuse to consort.
the incongruity
which hurtle and
of cases in
which
between one presentation and another
lies
which has preceded and
is still
present to the imagination,
as in the clown's utter failure to reproduce the model action
of the expert which he sets out to equal.
Even
in cases
where the laughable incongruity holds
be-
tween things both of which are not present at the same or
I
\nearly the same moment, a direct glancing at the relation, in-
volving at least a dim representation of the absent
of the related twain,
may
member
be requisite for a full enjoyment.
It is probable, for example, that
Homer's gods, when they
laughed uproariously at the sight of the grimy and lame
Vulcan essaying the part of Ganymede, mentally recalled
the image of the latter and carried out a comparison be-
tween the two.
Similarly in
many
of our nicer
of the amusingly excessive in dress, speech
we_may,
judgments
and so
forth,
as suggested above, envisage the relation to a
standard of measure in this direct way.^
^
It
may, no doubt, be a question whether the relation
made " focal " in consciousness in such cases lies between
two parts of a complex presentation, or between the presen'
Compare above,
pp. 13
ff.
THE INCONGRUOUS
tation as a whole
When,
and a represented standard arrangement.
for example,
we laugh
at the intrusion of a too
into the pulpit, do
lively gesture
109
we mentally
fixate the
incongruity between the situation and the action, or mentally
go back to the idea of the customary and suitable kind
and amount of gesture, and view the present performance
as disagreeing
with these
This point
?
may
be reserved for
later consideration^
The view
that in the cases just illustrated
we have
to
do with another variety of laughter, that of the mind or
by the
intelligence, is confirmed
ia
reflection that
much
of
it
excluded from the popular category.
enjoy a palpable
performance
of
lace
The masses can
between profession and
contradiction
—witness the
enjoyment aflbrded to the popu-
by the spectacle of the moral
But when it comes to the
the Middle Ages
inconsistencies of the monks.^
appreciation of inherent inconsistencies within the character,
such as want of stability of purpose, fickleness in the
aifections
and so
forth, the
need of a certain acuteness in
perceiving relations, and of quickness in mentally reinstating
what
is
not present,
enjoyment.
Gross
may
greatly restrict the area of the
and palpable
such as
inconsistencies,
those represented in the delightful monologue L'Indecis,
with which M. Coquelin (alne) rejoices
us, are accessible
most of the self-contradictions with
which a Moli^re, a George Eliot, or a George Meredith
to popular laughter, but
refreshes our spirits are
the same
is
true
of
measuring eye when
it
"
caviare to the general
".
Much
the laughter which gladdens the
lights
on the unmeasured, the Ex-
cessive, the disproportionate.
'
As our mode
of olassifloation shows,
instances of laughable degradation.
contradiction
is
clearly involved.
we may regard
these as primarily
Nevertheless, some apprehension of
VARIETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE
110
subdivision of this domain of the laughable
One
logically incongruous or the ahswrd.
Here, again,
is
the
we touch
on a region into a large part of which culture must give the
An example of such a laughable absurdity
key of admission.
is
found in that which
conflicts
paradoxical
is
with our deepest and most
What
unalterable convictions.
is
logically far-fetched or
a familiar provocative of mirth.
case, like that of
Since this
laughing at an extravagant costume,
does not imply a direct and clear perception of relation, but
onlyja kind of harmless shock to our firmly rooted apperceptive tendenciesj
we may
expect to find illustrations of
low down in the
scale of intelligence^'
children will be
moved
to mirth
As we
it
shall see later,
by the presentation
of an
idea that directly conflicts with their crude standards of the
possible
what is
;
and savages show the same impulse to laugh
at
manifestly opposed tq^their fixed traditional standS3s
So it is with suggestions and proposals^ which
more mature intelligence as paradoxical, that is
to say, as a kind of assault on its deeply fixed habits of belief,
and what it is pleased to call its " common-sense ". Ideas
which strike it as revolutionary, whether they appear in the
of trutL
strike the
domain of
social custom, of political activity, of morals, or
of scientific explanation, are greeted
Darwin's idea of man's descent
when
first
by voluminous laughter.
from an ape-like ancestor,
introduced, probably excited almost as
much
hilarity as indignation.
More
amusement supplied by
The spying out of amusing incon-
restricted is the area for
logical inconsistencies.
is the work of an
must be very palpable, and the
contradictory statements must be very near to one another
sequences in a man's various utterances
expert.
A
contradiction
in time, in order that food for laughter
The
may
reach the many.
best example of this laughter at contradiction in popular
THE ABSURD
mirth
where the incompatibility
you from a single statement, and sets your
I suppose, the "bull,"
is,
stares out at
sides
111
shaking
;
as in the
argument, attributed to an Irish
statesman, that, in the prosecution of a certain war,
man ought
"
every
to be ready to give his last guinea to protect the
remainder "}
One might
these
more
naturally suppose that in the appreciation of
forms of the laughable there would
intellectual
be no room for the restraining action of relativity.
An
incongruous relation would seem to be one and the same
object for all men's intuitions, and the
least affected
temperament and external circumstances.
accidents of
this supposition is not quite correct.
Such incongruities
moral and logical inconsistencies have,
disagreeable and
bered, their
by
Yet
as
<
must be remem-i
it
even their painful aspect.
|
When
discovered in the character or in the intellect of
person
known
would
naturally offend the admiring
too,
to be of a high consistency, a contradiction
we have
then,
that there
to
add the
i
spectator, j Here,"
qualification,
"provided
nothing disagreeable and repellant in the
is
Not only
manifestation".
so,
popularly called paradox
is
a'i
with respect to much that
it
the standard of truth employed
is
is
to be
far
remembered that
from being that of
the eternal verities.
As the
on Darwin's theory
of natural selection shows,
allusion to the ridicule poured^
what one
\
generation laughs at as plainly contradictory to funda-
mental notions
truth by
(10)
may
be quietly recognised as a familiar
its successor.
A
|
_i
group of laughable presentations making large
appeal to the more intellectual kind of laughter meets us in
'
Prom a speech
Commons,
179S.
(" Irish Bulls ").
by Sir Jolrn Parnell in the Irish House of
B. Le Fanu, Seventy Tears of Irish Life, oh. xvi.
delivered
See
W.
VARIETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE
112
and amusing
verbal play
witticism.
come
of the nature of wit will
What seems most
forms of the
"
funny
for
I
bring in a
clearly enough.
results of this reduction the better are
words or phrases are purposely altered so as to
new meaning or where without any verbal
;
and obvious one
effects
new meaning for the primary
The playful
the required change.
Pimpulse to get as far away as possible from rule and
\
and wildly
capricious, is clearly
enough recognisable here.
of this word-play, too, has a close kinship
believe
restric-
turn things topsy-turvy, to seize on the extravagant
tion, to
Much
New
to be reduced to familiar ones,
alteration the substitution of a
i
verbal
This leads by a step to punning, where quite
.they pleased.
intelligible
of
the intrusion of the playful impulse.
them sounds
and the funnier the
examination
closer
manifestly characteristic
" is
Children's word-play shows this
words are
A
later.
a natural
;
this case,
whereas the reality
introduced
— me that
and obvious meaning
is
by the inventive wag.
this
is
with make-
the pretence in
the half-hidden meaning
'All
the same
group of laughable objects has
its
it
seems to
place close
and absurd.! A pun that claims
any intellectual rank must have a point, a bite, and this
would appear to be most naturally secured by introducing
an element of irony and rendering the primary and obvious
to that of the incongruous
meaning
When, for
example, a preacher whose ponderous dulness had set his
congregation genteelly scuttling was said to have delivered
"
of
the sentence ludicrously
false.
a very moving discourse," the point of the witty thrust lay
in the complete opposition
between the best and the worst
result of eloquence brought together in the
of " moving,"
two meanings
an opposition which gives the trenchant irony
to the description.
In cases,
too,
where there
is
no verbal trickery the lighter
VERBAL PLAY AND WITTICISM
113
kind of wit shows the same tendency to a playful capriciousness of fancy.
It delights in substituting for our ordinary
points of view and standards of reference others which
strike the hearer as
This
is
is illustrated
wont
by much
wan and
;
faint
as
which
of our entertaining talk,
to try to escape for a
strings of sober sense
looking
amusingly fanciful and extravagant.
when
moment from
a person
some hours
after
d,
the leading-
propos of a
an
moon
eclipse observed
that she seemed not yet to have got over the effects of the
eclipse.
department of contemplative amusement we
more the limitations introduced by differences of
temperament and mental attitude, as well as of experience
and knowledge. Nowhere, perhaps, is the habitual inclination
of the balance between seriousness and love of fun in a
man more clearly indicated than in his readiness to tolerate
and enjoy word-play and the entertaining side of nonsense
generally.
One to whom words and serious points of view
are sacred things, will barely suffer any form of this recreation.
On the other hand a ready appreciation of these
In
this
see once
pranks of wit means that the
site
speed
of
wing.
listener's
It means, too,
intelligence is in touch
fancy has the requi-
commonly, that his
with the wit's standpoint, with his
experience and circle of ideas.
to the superior gentleman
Bucolic wit
from the town
;
is
a sealed book
the merry verbal
sports of the judge, the statesman, the theologian
forth, reflecting like their
and habits of thought, are apt
those
who
and so
dreams daily types of experience
to fall flat on the ears of
are not in touch with these.
The above may, perhaps, serve as a sufficiently full
enumeration of the more prominent of those attributes
or aspects of laughable things which, some in some cases,
others in others,
make
direct appeal to our mirth.
8
VARIETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE
114
That each of these
may
of itself thus start the currents
of laughter will, I believe, be admitted
human
familiar with the field of
[ample evidence to show that 'what
contrary to rule,
is
what
and pretentious, and the
^gonditions,
It
is,
move men's
no doubt,
in
many
different stimuli
laughter.
combine their
sometimes
it is
been pointed out that
This
forces.
is
so
is
much
decide which of
difficult to
For
the most prominent.
example, the spectacle of the lackey donning the externals
of a fine gentleman
—
ment by Moli^re and
I
supply a perfect demonstra-
It has already
the co-operating attributes
/
unreal
is
most agreeable instances of the laughable
of the
the case that
embarrassing, what
is
the intrinsic laughableness of each
of
jpt these features.
are
I hold,
is,
do each, under certain limiting
difficult to
tion of the fact
There
demeaning, what
is
rest,
by those who
mirth.
favourite subject of mirthful treat-
^a
others
—may amuse us as a transparent
pretence, as a fine display of insolent vanity, or, again, as
an amusing
^^fine
caricature of the extravagant absurdities of
Extravagance in
manners.
company
frequently found in the
idea of one's
own
and the
dress
Intellectual naivete
importance.
peep out at us and a moral naivete look over
as in the
remark of a lady
had invited to see an
had arrived too
late
to begin again for
unfitting is in
of something
:
"
sake "}
;
as
is
will be
I
a
that she
good enough
have remarked, the
of cases
when
may
shoulder,
the astronomer Cassini
As
number
a large
its
when she found
M. de Cassini
my
unworthy
whom
eclipse,
like
of a deliciously erroneous
man
an introduction
at a dinner-party
almost suggests something of an animal violence in his
mode
of eating, or
" wooden " manner
when an unhappy simile hurls
an orator resorts to a
of speech or gesture, or
'
See Bergsou, op.
cit., p.
45,
COMBINATION OF LAUGHABLE FEATURES
115
the hearer into the lowest region of the commonplace, a
proceeding satirised in the well-known lines from Butler's
Hudibras
:
—
And like a lobster boil'd, the morn
Prom black to red began to turn.
As a last example of the many-sidedness of the laughable
we may name affectation, particularly when it takes the
form of aping another's manners
;
may amuse
for this
as a bit of acting seen through, or as
an incongruous
us
in-
trusion of a foreign element into the natural character of
the imitator, or, again, as a weakness, a lack of intellectual
or of moral initiative.
Nevertheless, the
scheme
cient
is
really
number
appearance of cross - division in our
no objection
of instances,
to
By
it.
collecting a suffi-
and noting how the presentation
when it is plainly the prehow it will continue to affect us
in much the same way when its concomitants vary, we
may satisfy ourselves that each of the aspects here named
of a certain feature affects us
ponderant stimulus, and
is
effective
if
ever
to grapple with the subject, to
There
last,
cases
is
is
It will be for
as a provocative of laughter.
experimental psychology,
its
methods are competent
make
this clearer.
another objection, which, though related to the
to be
carefully distinguished
where the
laughable
feature
from
Even
it.
clearly
is
in
localised
something arbitrary in our mode of deFor example, it may be said, why distinguish
the relation of the unfit and kindred relations as a special
group, since in all cases they may be regarded as products
there
may seem
scribing
it.
and expressions of a defective intelligence or
this
difficulty
theoretical
problem,
raise
laughable
feature
now
how
lend
is,
far
however, to
these
themselves
several
to
taste
?
To
anticipate our
varieties
reduction
to
of
a
^
VARIETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE
116
common
I
principle.
In naming each of the above groups
have sought to envisage the laughable aspect as the
natural man, innocent of theoretic aims, would envisage
What
is
important here
is
it.
emphasise both the frequent
to
combination of entertaining features in the objects which
and the
excite our laughter,
feature
may
fact that
one and the same
be envisaged in more than one way.
These
two circumstances throw an interesting light on the meaning of the long discussions and the want of agreement among
theorists.
In drawing up this
of the
list
laughable features in
things I have said nothing about the connection between
this part of the inquiry
and that which preceded
taining effect of
new
things
it.
Yet
In the enter-
the connection has not been wholly hidden.
we have found an element
of
the laughter which springs from a sudden expansion of
joy.
In the laughter excited by the indecent we have noted
a trace of the laughter of
"
sudden glory " and of what
have called nervous laughter.
entertaining quality of the
I
Lastly, in dealing with the
more sportive wit we seem
to
have got near the laughter of play.
This connection would appear the more clearly
if
we were
by adding a pair of groups. These are
(11) laughable objects which affect us as expressions of
and (12) laughable situations which ina merry mood
to extend our list
;
volve a relation akin to that of victor and vanquished.
word
'
or
two on each
(11) There
is little
of these
doubt that
must
all
A
suflSce.
presentations which are
instantly interpreted as manifestations- of a fun-kmng^ disposition tend to excite merriment.
This
is
true of series of
sounds, musical as well as non-musical, which have in their
rapid staccato
It holds
good
movement
a resemblance to those of laughter.
also of play-like
movements, such as the
OTHER EFFECTS OF THE LAUGHABLE
117
freakish gambols of a just loosened pony, or of a circus
The
clown.
exprfiaaioiL^^ttie mirtiiful temper in things
awakens- a sjnnpathetic_ laughter in the observer.
perhaps
it
would seem to be more
we laugh not
playful freak.^
ov over,
at
-but,
we
Nevertheless,
onejnay
if
by
to
the
what we
cannot be understood
reference to these appearances of plaj^ul challenge.
(12) That the sight of a
man winning
getting the better of another in some
furnish amusement,
in
so say,
shall find that
recognise as objectively laughable
save
Here,
correct^ tQ,^ay that
is
indisputable.
in a struggle or
way
is
fitted to
This obviously
falls
part under the head of laughter at the spectacle of
another's difficulty or scrape
;
but
it
I
certainly deserves a-1
separate place in an enumeration of the larger and popularly
distinguished sources of merriment.
There
is
all
that
no need to emphasise the
owes much of
spectacle
is
its interest
understood by men's measuring their powers
The amusing
one against the other.
is
fact that the social
to combat, competition,
side of this interest
found in the gleeful satisfaction which the impartial
spectator derives from each successful stroke, whether on
;
the one side or on the other.
The
attraction of all eujj
counters of wit in the market-place, in the political domain,
on the stage and so
will
show that the
from
man
plain
Popular literature
has fed his mirth bounteously
this source.
The
glory
forth, illustrates this.
situations
'
in
which minister to
this feeling of "
an onlooker are not confined to those of
sudden
contest.
All displays of a capacity to get the better of another seem
to be entertaining to the
chastising his wife
is
many.
—especially
man
good sport for the savage onlooker,
so the spectacle of taking
liation
Just as the sight of a
if it
down, of discomfiture and humi-
involves an element of deception or
-
VARIETIES OP THE LAUGHABLE
118
—may
and so takes on the look of outwitting
befooling,
yield excellent fun to the civilised spectator.
'"
A
more
occurs
refined variety of the perception of the laughable
when we look on Nature
or fate as discomfiting man,
playing tricks on him or outwitting him.
idea of irony comes into our view of things,
especially
if it
So far as this
any misfortune,
involves disappointment of hopes and frustra-
tion of efforts,
may
" over- tone " of
triumphant mockery.
The enjoyment
excite a note of laughter
of the spectacle of one
which has an
man triumphing
over another or showing superiority to him will in
all
cases
be limited by conditions already sufficiently indicated. Since
the laughter excited here
ingredient a reflection
is,
presumably, in
by way
of the victor's sudden glory,
its characteristic
of sympathetic imagination
it
must be included in the
more brutal variety.
enough a sympathetic apprehension
If a lively sensibility produces quickly
vanquished,
it will effectually
Finally, a bare allusion
of the feelings of the
check the impulse to laugh.
may be made
to the
way in which
the laughter of relief from emotional or other strain comes
The amusfrom dignity in religious and other
into our appreciation of the laughable in things.
ing aspect of
all lapses
ceremonies cannot, I believe, be understood merely as an
an inconsequence and irrelevance, but must
be connected with the powerful tendency to throw off a
illustration of
heavy and depressing mental load by a moment's mirth.
The laughter at what is lawless, and still more at the indecent
and the profane, certainly derives a part of its gusto from a
sense of relief from restraint, which
the enjoyment of
is
a main ingredient in
But the
fuller discussion of
which the primal sources of laughter contribute
the impressions we receive from laughable objects belongs
the
to
way
all license.
in
to another chapter.
119
CHAPTER
V.
THEOEIBS OP THE LUDIOBOUS.
OuB
survey of laughable things has led us to recognise
which appear to induce the laughing mood
certain groups
each presenting
group
may be
some form
of
its special
variety of laughable feature.
:
One
aa,id,primd facie, to exhibit mischances, another
human
defect, another, again,
the misfitting or incongruous, and so forth.
something of
We may now
advance to the theoretic problem of unifying and explaining
these varieties of the laughable.
Here, for the second time,
we must
touch on the views
propounded by authorities on the subject under the name of
Theories of the Ludicrous.
burden the reader with a
of course pass
by
all
Happily,
full
it is
not necessary to
account of these.
We
shall
doctrines deduced from a priori meta-
physical conceptions, and confine ourselves to those which
make a show,
at least, of grounding themselves on an analysis
Of these I shall select two or three typical theories
which come to us with the claims of distinguished authorship.
We shall test these by examining how far they succeed in
of facts.
comprehending the diversity of
1.
The
first
fact
now
of these typical theories localises the secret
force of the laughable in something
in
the object.
laughter
is
before us.
unworthy
or degraded
According to this view, the^unction^of
to accojnpany
and give voice to what
called the derogatory impulse in
man^
may
be
his tendency to look
THEORIES OF THE LUDICROUS
120
out for and to rejoice over what
undignified.
be called the Moral Theory, or Theory of De-
may
This
mean and
is
gradation.
Aristotle's brief
remarks on comedy in the
taken as illustrative of this
Comedy, he
—
type
^not,
tells us, is "
however,
way of
the full sense of the word bad "
is
a subdivision of the
consists in "
some defect or ugliness
not painful or destructive".^
Of an adequate theory
ugly (rou
is
may be
an imitation of characters of a lower
in.
and, again, the Ludicrous (to 76X0101')
which
Poetics^
envisaging the laughable^
alcT'xpov),
of the subject there
and
is
here, of course, hardly a pretence.
It
Seems strange, indeed, that a great thinker with the works
of his compatriot Aristophanes before
him should have placed
the ludicrous wholly in character, altogether overlooking the
comic value of situation.
Still,
able to the category of ugly
TO alaxpov on
its
the reference of the laugh-
and disgraceful things
—for
moral side connotes the disgraceful (com-
pare the Latin " turpe
")
—may be said to imply a
germ
of
the principle of degradation.
A
more careful attempt to construct a theory of the
by a reference to something low or degrade^, in
the object is embodied in the famous doctrine of Thomas
ludicrous
Hobbeay According
is
to this writer, " the passion of laughter
nothing else but sudden glory arising from sudden con-
ception of
some eminency
in ourselves,
the inferiority of others, or with our
this theory our laughter is
viewed as
by comparison
own formerly ".
arising, not
witti
In
immediately
from a perception of something low or undignified, but only
mediately from this perception, through a recognition of our
own
superiority
and an accompanying emotional movement,
namely, an expansion of the "self -feeling," a sudden quickening of the sentiment of pride or power.
'
Poetics, V.
i.
Nevertheless, the
(Butcher's translation).
THEORY OF DEGRADATION
theory^ may be said to
tion, in so far as it
with a perception of
come under the
121
principle of degrada-
makes the process of laughter start
some point of inferiority, that is to say
of a comparative loss of dignity, in the laughable object.
The main point
the ludicrous
we
whenever we.,enjoy
of this theory, that
are consciously realising, aur superiority
to another, will, I think, hardly bear examination.
in this
enjoyment there
may
be,
and often
is,
That
an element
of this agreeable sense of elevation I readily allow, and
I shall try to
.
is
show presently how
gets there.
it
But jt
altogether inadequate^ as an exhaustive account of the
several varieties of our laughing satisfaction.
groups of cases to which
it
Even
in the
seems to be most plainly
and awkward
applicable, for example, those of mischances
situations, it is not a sufficient explanation.
Is there
any
discoverable trace of the uplifting of pride, of the temper of
—
Schadenfreude " the malicious satisfaction of watching
from the safe shore the tossings of mariners in a storm in
"
—
the instantaneous response of our mirth to the spectacle of
the skater's wild
movements when
moment he
for a
equilibriuEQ, or of the hat wind-driven far
seat on the respectable citizen's head
from
its
Is there time here
?
for mentally bringing in the contrasting idea of our
immunity
?
of victory, of taking
In dealing with
test it in the
Prof.
emotion
in
excited
this
type of theory,
it
it
nig,rked
consciousness
seems only
by a
fair to
recent writer.
the occasion of the ludicrous
some person or
circumstances
The most
"
by the
?
more mature form given
as "the degradation of
".
is
somebody down
Alexander Bain defines
dignity
own
Has the laugh the characteristic taste of the
outburst of contempt which
,
loses
proper
that
excite
"
interest possessing
no
other
strong
improvements here on Hobbes'
statfifljentare (1) that consciousness of
our
own
superiority
<^
THEORIES OF THE LUDICROUS
122
we may laugh
jieed not come in, since
another
who
scores off his adversary,
sympatheticallj'jwith
and so forth
;
the object degraded need not be a person, since
general,
in
affairs
political
e.g.,
down and
;
human
a code of
institutions,
manners, a style of poetic composition,
(2) that
may
be taken
(3) that, as in Aristotle's theory, certain limiting
conditions, namely, absence of counteracting emotions, such
These extensions on the
as pity or disgust, are recognised.
one hand and limitations on the other are clearly meant to
safeguard the Hobbesian principle against the attacks to
\
which it so dangerously exposes itself.^
Even in this new and more guarded form, however, the
theory will not bear the strain put upon
fairly well for
list,
some
of the
it.
It will account
forms of the laughable in our
such as slight misfortunes or mischances, defects, moral
and
intellectual,
which do not shock or otherwise hurt
our feelings, also certain forms of make-believe which are
and so capable of being regarded
distinctly hypocritical
at
once as moral defects, and (being seen through) as discomfitures.
It
may apply
also, as
the effect of the obscene
out some forcing the
way.
;
effect
There seems to
me
something of the joy of the
Whitman,
Leaving
at the sight of
this,
has been hinted above, to
though
I,
at least, feel that with-
cannot be interpreted in this
to lurk in our laughter here
child, of the
what
is
Naturkind, Walt
customarily hidden away.^
however, as a more doubtful
turn to other groups.
case, let
Is it possible to regard
us
aU laugh-
able exhibitions of incongruities as degradations?
Is the
'A further and most important enlargement of Hobbea' principle is
made by Bain when he urges that the spectacle of degradation works upon
us, not merely by way of the emotion of power or glory, but by way of the
feeling of release
from constraint.
dealt with later.
^
Compare above,
p. 100.
This point will more conveniently be
BAIN'S
THEORY
charming unsuitability of the
by
the childish form viewed
degradation
when he
" lets
at the clothes as degraded
"
grown-up's
"
himself go
strikes
me
and hat
coat
to
Are we laughing
?
by being thus transformed, or at
way
that such a
"
the laughing spectator as a
the child's naivety as a degradation of
I confess
123
human
intelligence ?>
of interpreting the spectacle
The look
as grotesquely forced.
thing in the complete unfitness of
of the whole
parts seems to affect
its
one as a delicious absurdity before the sweet simplicity
below the surface
where nothing
is
detected.
is
Our author does
his best to
that mere incongruity,
made out
readily grant that he has
show that
show
degraded, does not raise the laugh.
I
his case, so far as to
most of the pungent and potently moving
in
examples of the incongruous an element of degradation, of
malicious detraction
is
But
present.
this is not
enough.
The question is whether it is always present, and whether
where it is present it is thesole excitant of our
in the cases
mirth.
not
so.
X believe
that a finer analysis shows that this
Where, for example,
is "
the degraded
laughter at the sight of his nursery
cleaning day
by
?
"
is
in a child's
topsy-turvy on a
all
Does he view the nurse as put
to
shame
the setting of chairs on tables and so forth, instead of
observing the proper local congruities
room
the
as
?
or does he think of
something quasi-human which takes on an
improper look as he himself does when he makes himself
in
a glorious mess?
kind
may
be present
Slight
:
laughter and constitute
As another way
movements
but do they
its
lie
his^
main moving force ?
of testing the theory,
those examples of the odd or out of the
find nothing of deformity,
mental glance on any
of fancy of this
at the sources of
we may glance at
way in which we
and do not seem to focus our
loss of dignity,
but are content to be
/
THEORIES OP THE LUDICROUS
124
amused
at the queer spectacle for its
own
a child of three or so go into a long
fit
I
sake.
have seen
of laughter at the
antics of a skittish pair of horses just turned loose
Did the
common.
child see anything of
graceful, undignified in these
Were they
new and
on a
the mean, dis-
lively
movements
?
immensely, overpoweringly funny, just
not
because they were outrageous deviations from the customary
proper behaviour of horses
carriage
street
1
who
1 reflect
may
any
my roving
captures
on any
signify.
saddled or harnessed to a
distinct
" in
the
which the bizarre costume
happy moment,
in this first
thought of the personality behind the wild,
a friendly one.
to the person
if,
guy
nonchalant eye long before
loss of dignity
In sooth,
startling figure floats
is
when
I feel the impulse to laugh at a "
?
who
I
up
am
to the surface of consciousness,
it
disposed to like and feel grateful
thus for an instant relieves for
insufierable dulness of the spectacle of
London
me
the
citizens all
dressed according to one stupid fashion.
Or
let
and the
us take another group
lighter kinds of wit.
the relish for word-play
:
Here, again, I concede to
Bain that the taking down of somethiag a good peg-interval
intensifies
our satisfaction
:
but
it
seems impossible to main-
tain that our mirth depends altogether on the recognition of
this.
A
good pun, a
skilful turning of
words so as to give
new and startlingly disconnected meaning, can hardly be
said to owe its instant capture of our laughing muscles to
a
our perception of a degradation of language and the habits
of serious speech.
On
the contrary, I should say that any
focussing of thought on this aspect would considerably
weaken and might altogether
It
is
to the serious person
arrest the laughing impulse.
who keeps
his
that this feature of the case addresses
here, even in the case of mirthful
mouth firmly closed
itself.
Is there not
men, some of the delight
THEORY OF INCONGRUITY
who amuses
125
himself
by turning words
and expressions into queer nonsense just
for the fun of the
of the playful child
thing
2.
?
We may now
main types
pass to the second of the
of
theory which have been proposed as explanations of the
working of the laughable on our
muscular mechanism.
of setting behind our
feeling
Its distinctive
and the correlated
mark
is that,
instead
enjoyment of the ludicrous an emotion,
or a change in our moral attitude, namely, a sense of our
own
superiority or of something else's degradation,
it sets
a purely intellectual attitude, a modification of thought-
The laughter, according
activity.
results
from a peculiar
effect
to this second theory,
on our intellectual mechanism,
such as the nullification of a process of expectation or of an
expectant tendency.
lectual process
and
its
which brings about the feeling of the ludicrous
expression in laughter.
tellectual Theory, or
Since
It is this perfectly disinterested intel-
we have
Theory
This
may
be called the In-
of Contrariety or Incongruity.
already touched on this
mode
of conceiving
of the effect of the ludicrous in criticising the view of Dr.
Lipps, a brief examination of
It
may
may
content us here.
way
of dealing with
German.
The dominant
be noted in passing that this
the ludicrous
is
characteristically
note in the philosophy of
to regard
it
all
Kant and
his successors has been
determinations of experience as fundamentally
a rational process.
Just as in the domain of ethics these
thinkers conceive of
what
to call the
British Ethicists have been
wont
Moral Sentiment as essentially a process of
Reason, so in that branch of Esthetics which deals with the
Comic we
find
them disposed
to regard the effect of the
ludicrous, less as the excitation of a concrete
and familiar
emotion, such as Pride or Power, than as a special modification of the process of thought.
THEORIES OP THE LUDICROUS
126
Kant may be taken
as the first great representative of this
According to him, wit
theory.
ludicrous which he touches on
—
—the
is
only variety of the
a kind of play, namely,
In everything that is to
that of thought.
excite.a.liyely laugh
must be something absurd. It is! " an affection arising from the sudden transformation of a strained (gespannte)
expectation into nothing". The transformation is, of course,
there
'
not directly enjoyable to the understanding
it
:
seems to
in-
duce gratification indirectly by means of a furthered bodily
This,
process.
by
German thinker
the way,
is
a noteworthy concession
body
to the claims of the poor
by a
to recogni-
tion in these high affairs of the understanding, a concession
which
He
his followers quickly struck out.
example of
sitting at
his theory the story of a
an Englishman's
gives as an
Hindoo who, when
and seeing a bottle of beer
Being questioned
table,
turned into froth, expressed astonishment.
as to the reason, he
that
it
it
remarked
:
"
I
am
not at
should flow out, but I do wonder
all
astonished
how you
ever got
in".
I
have enlarged on Kant's theory mainly because of the
authority of the author.
nise
how
German
absurdly inadequate
is
critics
the
themselves recog-
little
he says on the
subject as an explanation of the effect of the laughable.^
A
make this plain.
It is evident that what Kant was thinking of under the
head of the ludicrous was merely those exchanges of witty
few words
will perhaps
words and amusing
stories
which naturally enough formed
a principal pastime of the devoted Konigsberg thinker^
Yet,
even when considered under this narrow aspect, his theory
shows
itself to
be palpably insulEcientJ
'Kant's contribution to
single "
tlie
Remark " appended
theory of
tlie
It
ludicrous
to a discussion of the
is
is
noteworthy
contained in a
Fine Arts and Taste.
See Dr. Bernard's translation of his Kritik of Judgment, pp. 221-4.
KANT ON LAUGHTER
that, in seeking to
make
quoted above, Kant
feels
it fit
127
the remark of the Hindoo
himself called upon to contradict
we laugh /" because we deem ourselves
man ". This objection, which
occur to one who remembers Hobbes.j can-
the suggestion that
cleverer than this ignorant
could not fail to
not,
however, be summarily dismissed by a bare assurance
such as Kant gives us
" there is
;
and, as a recent writer remarks,
good reason to suppose that we laugh
difficulty in a
One may go
wrong
place
at the ignor-
man who
ance (better, 'at the naivete') of the
seeks the
".^
farther and venture the assertion that
it is
impossible to explain any laughable incident, story or remark
as due altogether to dissolved expectation or surprise.
In examining the adequacy of Kant's theory to this
purpose, I set out with the natural presupposition that,
j
when
using the word expectation, [he does not mean a
definite anticipation of
what
is
some particular concrete sequel
momenta In
presented to the mind at the
illustration
given,
he would not have meant
J;hat
to
the
the
questioner had a well-defined expectant idea of another
explanation of the Hindoo's astonishment.
It is only fair
''
meant merely what the word " expect
means when, on meeting a friend in a London street whom
to assume that he
I
had supposed
to be out of England, I say
expect to see you
".
here for a general attitude of mind, a
readiness to assimilate
"
In other words,
any
"I did not
expectation
mode
"
idea of a certain order, that
to say, standing in a recognisable relation to what
sented^'' 'It
is
the attitude in which
evolution of a plot in fiction
when
^
Article "
On
we
is
is
pre-
appreciate the
this appears natural
does not give a shock to consciousness.
1898, p. 255.
stands
of apperceptive
and
'
|
the Philosophy of Laughing," by the Editor, The Mcmist,
THEORIES OP THE LUDICROUS
128
Employing the word
when we
in this sense, one
may
say that, even
conundrum
laugh on receiving the solution to a
which has teased and
dissipation of
baffled us, it is not because of the
an expectant attitude.
suggested by the familiar fact that,
This conclusion
when
is
at the end of
our self-puzzhng we are told that there is no solution,
and when consequently we are unmistakably the subjects
of an annulled expectation, we are very likely not to laugh
or, if
we
are good-natured enough to do
so, it is
as a result,
not of any disappointment, but of a discovery that
been hoaxed.
This laugh at one's befooled
we have
—which
self
shall not be disposed to repeat if the trick is tried a
time
—so
far
expectation
is
from
a
illustrating the principle
particularly
clear
of
we
second
annulled
example of that
of
lowered dignity.
The best kind
example of the laughable for Kant's
of
purpose would seem to be something odd and fantastic
in dress or manners.
of shock
But
is inflicted
Here, as I have allowed, a kind
on our fixed apperceptive tendencies.
speak of a process of dissipated expectation here
to
As
seems to be hardly accurate.
have hinted, the sudden
I
appearance of the unexpected moves us to laughter primarily as a delightful novelty.
seems to follow that Kant's
It
principle of
nullified
expectation offers no adequate explanation of those forms
of the ludicrous
pose.
I
may add
attempt to mark
which are most promising for
that
ofl"
[it
fails
the domain of
well-defined characteristics.
We
his
pur-
makes no serious
the laughable by certain
because
it
have seen that the objects
which excite our laughter are things human, or akin to
the human.
The theory of degradation evidently recogmsea
by making the ludicrous consist in a loss of dignity
points at once to the human sphere.
But the theory
this
it
:
RELATION OF SURPRISE TO LAUGHTER
129
that the effect of the ludicrous comes from an annihilation
of a strained expectation suggests that
ally to
As
do with the spectacle of human
I
life.
have not included the capability of dissipating
among
may indicate what
expectation
the laughable features
of
objects,
I
I hold to be the function of surprise
in the effect of the ludicrous.
presentation for which the
Surprise, the
mind
is
effect
of a
not perfectly pre-ad-
justed at the moment, seems to be a
of vivid
has nothing speci-
it
common
condition
and exciting impressions, certainly of those which
Hence we need not wonder that
among the antecedents of that outburst
which we call laughter.'
induce a state of gladness.
it
should be found
of gladness
Nevertheless,
seems probable that the part played_by
it
laudable has been exDoes the Londoner who laughs again and again
surprise in tiie^^joymerit of the
aggerated.
at the rough jocosities of the
on annihilated expectation
Punch and Judy show, depend
for his mirth
Dogberry's love
?
by no means peculiar to him. A
really good joke continues to amuse long after the first
effect of surprise has worn off.
A like conclusion is reached
by remembering that even when a definite attitude of expectation for the coming of the ludicrous turn is assumed,
of a
mildewy
old story
is
|
laughter's greeting
is
stories are circulating
of
some new joke
effect to
say that
it
none the
and the
less hearty.
lips
seems an odd
it is
move
way
When
racy
in anticipation
of describing the
due to a dissipation of expectation.
There surely seems to be more of realisation than annihilation here, even though the precise form of the impending
attack on our laughter
over, as
when we
of one on
whom
is
unknown.
are watching with
a practical joke
is
which wej_ being ia the secret of the
9
In certain
cases,
amusement the
more-
actions
—actions
being played
plot, are able to fore-
THEORIES OF THE LUDICROUS
130
with a considerable degree of precision, the element of
cast
The
surprise dwindles to the vanishing point.
essential
condition of our laughter would thus appear to be, not the
meeting of the amusing presentation with a state of complete
unpreparedness of mind at the moment, but such a degree
of contrariety
between the presentation and our fixed and
irrepressible apperceptive tendencies as will, even in spite of
a pre-adjustment, secure something of a mild, momentaryshock.^
A
more
carefully developed
example of the mode of
conceiving of the laughable which finds
annihilation of a rational attitude
hauer.
essence in the
by Schopen-
According to this writer, the process which deter-
mines our laughter
and
its
supplied
is
its frustration.
phenomenon
is describable as
an
intellectual^ ej^trt.
'/' In every instance (he tells us) the
of laughter indicates the sudden perception
of an incongruity between a conception (Begrifi)
object,
which
is
to be understood
jOT
'
thought
and a real
through
'
The incongruity between the perception and the conception under which the
understanding necessarily strives to bring it must be of
(i.e.,
by means
of) this conception."^]
such a degree Jhat the perception strikingly
difiers from
The greater and the more unexpected the
incongruity, the more violent (heftiger) will be our laughter.
The author's example of the absurdity of the presentation of the curve and straight line trying to force itself
the conception.
/
under the incongruent conception of an angle
to illustrate this theory.^
'
Here
is
is
intended
another which has a
I find after completing this paragraph that the point dealt with, namely,
efiEeot of mental unpreparedness, is not
an invariable antecedent of our response to the laughable, has been urged
by a French writer, M. Oourdaveaux. His critic, M. Dugas, does not seem
to me to have effectually combated it.
(See Dugas, op. ait., p. 63 fi.)
that surprise, in the sense of the
*
See above,
p. 6.
SCHOPENHAUER'S THEORY
more promising
soldiers
is
is
A man who
look.
has been arrested by
allowed to join them in a
found cheating and
forgetting that he
Schopenhauer,
is
game
He
Here, according to
because the incident, the ejection
of a prisoner just arrested, will not
rule,
of cards.
kicked out, his playmates quite
their prisoner.
is
we laugh
131
fit
into the general
"cheats at the card-table should be thrust out".
This form of the Intellectual theory clearlj_avoids the
we
objection to Kant's version, that
things
when
there
is
frequently laugh at
no discoverable trace of a preceding
expectation involving something in the nature of an idea;
for
we take
and as a
it
as
meaning that the conception
result of, the perception.
arises after,
It is further indisputable,
Kant has shown us, that in our explicit judgments, as
when we say, " This painting is (or is not) a work of Eubens,"
as
a general form of representation or something in the nature
of a concept
may
take part, the percept being (or refusing
subsumed under this.
At the same time, as was urged in the
to be)
distinct calling
up
first
chapter, the
of this general representation
occa-
is
sional only, and, therefore, not a pre-requisite of a perception
of
conformity
When
or
non-conformity to
the
normal type.
I envisage a person as correctly or as oddly dressed,
I do not in either case need to have a schematic repre-
sentation of the proper typical style of dress.
holds good of
many
cases in
language or good manners,
to be broken
:
we do
sentation of the rule.
which a
is felt
not need to
The same
definite rule,
say of
to be complied with or
call
up
a distinct repre-
At most we can speak here
of a
conceptual tendency, of an apperceptive acceptance or rejection of a presentation, certain features of
which are
specially
attended to as characteristic of the type or general form
or,
on the other hand, as marks of deviation from
this.
THEORIES OF THE LUDICROUS
132
Even
we adopt
if
we
theory,
it
Nor
will his illustration of the self-befooled
warders
may
note a
To begin
bear close inspection.
with, one
mode
certain arbitrariness in the use of a
which plainly allows of an
well, either (with
cheat
rule
"
of Schopenhauer's
not sufficient for explaining his
is
Of the fanny tangential angle no more need be
examples.
said.
amended form
this
find that
who
is
alternative.
of interpretation
We
can say equally
Schopenhauer) that the extrusion of a
also a prisoner will not
fit
into the general
cheats have to be ejected," or that the extrusion of
a prisoner
who
is also
a cheat will not
that prisoners have to be confined.^
fitting here also to
perception of this
It
fit
into the rule
seems to be more
—so
regard the incongruity
is
far as the
—
the direct cause of our laughter
-as
holding between two aspects of the incident presented.
The man
is
envisaged at once as a cheat and as a prisoner,
and as such comes under two regimes which directly
The perception
conflict.
of the fun of the story surely begins with
a discernment of this mutual interference of
two systems
of rule.
Yet
this is certainly not all or the chief part of the per-
The unstinting laugh comes only when we view
ception.
the keepers as naively " giving themselves
by consenting
away "
to their
become playraates, and so putting
themselves under a rule which wholly destroys their rSle
prisoner
as custodians.
shows
itself to
Here, too, then, the principle of incongruity
be
insufficient.
It only remains to
turns out
to
to
be
add that
if
inadequate even
example chosen by himself,
it is
Schopenhauer's theory
when
applied
pretty certain to
to
fail
an
when
applied to other groups of instances of the laughable in our
list,
1
in
which incongruity does not seem
Compare what was
said above
dpropos
o£ the child
to be a
and the hat,
potent
p. 14.
FUNCTION OP CONCEPT
ingredient,
if
indeed
it is
LAUGHTER
IN
present at
To
all.
133
suggest, for
example, that our laughter at small and harmless vices,
such as Aristotle speaks of, is the outcome of a suddenlyconceived incongruity between a " real object " or presen-
Would
tation and' a conception sounds sufficiently forced.
the author of the theory have been prepared to say that
we have
in these instances
mind the concept
and that our laughter comes
present to our
of a perfectly virtuous man,
of our failing to bring the perception under this conception
?
Surely the intrusion of any such exalted " concept " would
be
fatal to
our enjoyment of the laughable aspect of vice.
Facts, moreover, contradict this
may
of laughter. Sir
we ought
to
John
view on every hand.
According to this theory,
Falstaff.
laugh most at his vices when he
them, since this
is
the
first
reveals
moment when we should be most
on him the
likely to bring to bear
decent gentleman.
It
one of the world's great purveyors
suffice to allude to
But
is
it
"
concept
" of
not the fact that
a proper
we laugh
more freely when we have quite ceased to think of him
as a possible embodiment of sobriety and decency, and when
we
apperceive his behaviour
by help
of the conceptual
tendency answering, not to the type of virtuous
citizen,
but
manner of behaviour or the character of John
himself ? The same is true in everyday life. We
to the general
Falstaff
are, I think,
most ready to laugh
man's
at a
vanity or his exaggerations of speech,
man and
can say,
"
Oh,
it is
foibles, say, his
when we know
only So-and-So
the
!
Neither the theory of Kant nor of Schopenhauer seems,
what it undertakes to do, to
impressions of the laughable.
and
explain the various forms
then, to be competent to do
These two theories, in spite of their
difference, agree in
regarding the incongruity which excites our laughter as
lying between
what we perceive and what our previous
V
THEOklES OF THE LUDICROUS
134
experience and our pre-existing ideas and
apperceptive
habits have prepared us to accept as natural and proper.
But our examination of the instance of the ill-matched hat
and head supplied by Dr. Lipps, as also our fuller discussion
of the relation of incongruity in the preceding chapter, has
led us to recognise an amusing contrariety between different
parts of a
presentation, of
what may be
called internal
incongruity in contradistinction to the external dealt with
by Kant and Schopenhauer. Hence we have to inquire
how these two modes of apprehending incongruity are
related.
we have to do in this case with a real
mode of perception, seems indisputable
That, prima facie,
difference in the
reader compare the effect of the two spectacles, a
let the
man wearing an
extravagantly
;
man alone, and a short man by the side
In some instances, indeed, we may see
intrinsic
as
or
and a small boy
tall hat,
wearing a hat of the height of a man's
or, again,
of a
tall
a tiny
woman.
that there
is
an
repugnance between the parts of a presentation,
when two colours in a woman's dress violently clash,
when a statement is palpably self-contradictory. Here
there seems to be no reference, however vague, to previous
experience or the customary.
At the same time we may
easily see that this field of the internally incongruent is a
very narrow one.
on
Much
of
what looks
like this turns out,
closer inspection, to be, in part at least, externally deter-
mined.
This
is
true of
what we
call
a bizarre mixture of
incongruent elements in mode of attire or in manners
it is
experience and the habits of social
life
;
for
which dispose
our minds to regard them as foreign one to the other.
Much
of our mirthful gratification at exhibitions of the incongruous
arises
through a perception of the intrusion of something
foreign into a situation.
When,
for example,
we
observe a
INADEQUACY OF INTELLECTUAL THEORY
we mentally view
rather sprightly gesture in the pulpit,
background which
this action against a
the moment.
presented
Now
it is
:
this situation is
135
is
the situation of
by no means wholly
a presentation greatly enlarged and pro-
foundly modified by the addition of a general significance.
The
attitude of the spectator's mind, face to face with the
scene, is
determined by apperceptive tendencies which imply
And this,
a readiness to expect a certain kind of behaviour.
means that
again, evidently
activity,
certain directions of imaginative
and something in the nature
and of conceptual thought, are
of a " generic
stirring.
image
"
This efiect of
experience and apperceptive habits in modifying our perceptions
is
probably illustrated in
the amusingly incongruous.
To
all
our appreciations of
revert once
more
spectacle of the man's hat on the child's head,
say that in this case,
loper in the situation
It
wise,
is
we
not
envisage the hat as an inter-
—the sweet sanctum of the nursery
?
seems to follow that Kant and Schopenhauer were
when
dealing with incongruity, in emphasising the
apperceptive factor.
to
also,
to the
may we
Contrariety to what
we are accustomed
undoubtedly the great determining element in the
ill-assortments
things which
of
provoke
our
laughter.
Hence, in examining the theories of these two writers,
we
seem to have dealt with the intellectual principle in its
most comprehensive and most favourable form. Nor do I
see how any transformation of this principle will make it an
adequate theory.
and awkward
The entertaining
instances of mischances
situations, of takings
intellectual failings, these
and other
down,
of
moral and
varieties of the laugh-
able dealt with above steadily refuse to yield
up
their secret
at the bidding of this theory.
Let us
theories.
now sum up
We
seem
to
the results of our criticism of the
have found
that,
whereas neither of
THEORIES OP THE LUDICROUS
136
the two chief types ol theory covers the whole fiekl of the
laughablej each has
many
that in
action,
its
proper, limited domain.
we laugh
cases
where the provocative
is
best described as a loss of
many
It is equally certain that in
dignity.
It is certain
at an incident, a situation, an
other cases our
laughter; springs directly out of a perception,
more or
less
distinct,,of incongruity.
That
Ithese principles
have each a large sway over our
laughte{ has been sufficiently illustrated in the preceding
chapter:;
they frequently co-operate in one and
also that
Hence we might expect
the same amusing presentation.
that the advocate of each theory would be able to find his
illustrations,
and would sometimes manage
one just after
But,
it
it
may
had been carried
be urged, even
to be valid they
may
off
by
to pounce
upon
his rival.
both principles are shown
if
be unified.
If
by
this is
meant that
the incongruous and the undignified or unworthy, considered as abstract ideas, are identical,
each involves the other, I
point.
It is
am
or that logically
not concerned to discuss the
enough for our present purpose
to urge that
the modes of perception and the shades of feeling involved
are clearly distinguishable.
The same fundamental
distinction
would nullify the
attempt to subsume one of these principles as a special
case under the other.
If
we
set out
with the Intellectual
principle, we may, without doubt, succeed in showing that
many, if not all, amusing losses of dignity—such as a slight
disgrace, or a bungling into a "fix"
contrariety between
what
—logically
involve a
presented and the
normal
But our question is one not of the logical
analysis of meaning but of the psychological analysis of
process, and I can find no evidence in favour of the theory
custom or
^
is
rule.
Cf. above, p. 114
;
also the article in
The Monist already quoted.
PROPOSED SYNTHESIS OP PRINCIPLES
that
when we laugh
any apprehension
It
the same
is
we
if
with the other or Moral prin-
start
And it may be
possible to
incongruity some loss of dignity
if it
we have
the incongruity and yet none at
Where
is
still
Yet
stand
a full sense of relishing
enjoying a degrada-
all of
the degradation in the spectacle of a crow
a sheep's back
truth,
in all cases of
logically implied.
cases of incongruity, including our old friend
the child in the father's hat,
tion.
show that
is
be so, the psychological contention will
many
that in
on
moment
certainly, as already conceded, be regarded as degra-
dations.
even
at the
of such a contrariety.
Incongruities which are lapses from standard ideas
ciple.
may
we have
at these things
137
which
may
flood a child with mirth
?
In
our theorists had only condescended to take note
if
of so small a matter as children's enjoyment of the world's
have stood
fun, the hypothesis of degradation could never
its
ground so long.
Yet another way of evading a glaring dualism may
suggest itself. Allowiug that the two principles are each
valid,
we
might, at
least,
be able to combine them in the
form of a single generalisation.
for example, who,
Hazlitt,
This
what
is
though he
iinds
done by
is
the essence
of the laughable in the incongruous, defines the ludicrous
as involving disappointment of expectation by something
having deformity or (something) inconvenient, that
contrary
to the
customary and desirable.^
expression, a "descending incongruity,"
similar
mode
is
of combining the principles.^
incongruity, with
its distinction of
a
what
is
clearly a very
Lipps' theory of
little,
presentation, might also, I think, easily be
another mode of such combination.
is
Herbert Spencer's
and a
made
belittling
to illustrate
More recently Fouillee
^English Comic Writers, lect. i., " Wit and Humour".
2
"The Physiology of Laughter," Essays, i., p. 206.
THEORIES OF THE LUDICROUS
138
and others have urged that the one principle
in a
manner
supplements the other.
however, that this apparent mode of escape
It is evident,
will not avail us.
The combined theory implies that all
and degradaperceived and felt to be such. In dealing
cases of the laughable are at once incongruities
tions, that is to say,
with the principles separately, however,
we have
in the case of each alike, there are well-recognised
of the laughable to which
manifestly carries with
it
it
does not apply.
seen that,
examples
This conclusion
the proposition that there are cases
which a combination of the principles does not apply.
to
A
last
attempt to escape this theoretic dualism would be
to urge that the
two
might be urged, we have to
it
do with the intellectual principle
sphere
is
In
principles rule in distinct realms.
that of the ludicrous proper,
enlarged to include
all
:
it
that
is
is
only when the
laughable, and so
the region of the ridiculous, that the principle of lowered
dignity comes
but
and
it
in.^
seems to
me
Theorists
fast boundaries.
things do not
of malice
may
insist
on such
As has been shown above, laughable
all afl'ect
us in quite the same way.
make
some striking example
good Irish "bull".
an
When
;
yet this does
of incongruity, say a
the note of derision begins to
clearly, there is of course
effect of
no longer any suggestion of
the laughable pure and simple.
The attempt
'
spice
the experience substantially different from that
of enjoying
sound
A
comes into much of the laughter that greets the
spectacle, say of a bit of successful trickery
not
distinctions,
that they cannot be maintained as hard
to analyse our perceptions of the laughable
Aooording to Pouillee, contrast is the formal element, faultiness
See Dugas, op. cit., p. 85 S.
"), the material.
(" le
d^faut
2 HazUtt defines the ridiculous as the highest degree
which is " a proper subject for satire," loc. cit.
of the laughable,
NO SINGLE CAUSE OF LAUGHTER
in the hope of discovering
some
We
proved to be abortive.
139
single uniting principle has
find in the
end that two causes
of la ughter remain on our hands.^
The most promising way
and aspects
qualities
of bringing the several laughable
of things under one descriptive
would seem to be to say that they
all illustrate
head
a presentation
of something in the nature of a defect, a failure to satisfy
some standard-requirement, as that of law or custom, provided that it is small enough to be viewed as a harmless
plaything.
Much, at least, of our laughter: at the odd as
opposed to the customary, at the deformed; at failure in
good manners and the other observances of
and
defects of intelligence
fortunes
social life, at
of character, at fixes
and mis-
— so far as the situation implies want of foresight
at the lack of a perception of the fitness of things,
other laughable features,
may undoubtedly
to something which fails
directed
requirement, jet is so trifling that
upon
I
to
and at
be regarded a&
comply with a social
we do not
feel
called
to judge the shortcoming severely,
am
sure that to look at the laughable in this
way
is
an
indispensable step in the construction of a theory of the
We
subject.
the
must, as
common mode
psychological
function.
we
shall see presently,
supplement
of dealing with laughter as an abstract
problem, by bringing into view
Yet
this does not necessarily
mean
its
social
that the
consideration of this function will lead us straightway
a simple theory of the ludicrous.
chapter,
tire
of laughter,
may
As hinted in
easily exaggerate the
and this point
will be
to-
the preceding
more serious function
made clearer
in subsequent
chapters.
That the
eflfects
of the laughable cannot all be brought
under the head of means of
'
Compare
Bibot,
La
social correction or
improvement,
Psychologie des sentiments, p. 344.
140
THEORIES OF THE LUDICROUS
may, even
at this stage of oui inquiry, be seen
another point, to which
qualities of things in
by considering
we will now turn. No analysis of the
which the laughable
resides will enable
us to account for the mirthful eifects of these, even while
we remain within
the limits of
chapter,
what
is
commonly recognised
This has been illustrated in the preceding
as the ludicrous.
and a word or two more may
suffice to
make
it
clear.
I
have tried to show that some at
that shake us with laughter do so
least of the spectacles
by
satisfying something
within us akin to the child's delight in the gloriously
and extravagant.
new
means that these spectacles
make appeal to that primitive form of laughter, already
illustrated, which is called forth by some sudden increase
of joy.
Our
This, again,
rejoicing at the sight of the clown's droll
costume and funny movements has in
laughing joy of
it
something of the
savage when he
the
is
shown some
mechanical wonder of Europe, something of the laughing
joy
sudden invasion of his nursery wall
of the infant at the
by a dancing sunbeam.*
A little more reflection on the groups of laughable things
will show that other ingredients of this primitive laughter
are present in our appreciation of the ludicrous.
Dr.
Bain finds himself compelled to eke out the deficiencies
of the Hobbesian principle
degradation
may move
by urging that the
spectacle of
us to laughter, not merely b y excit-
ing the feeling of power or superiority (as Hobbes said), b ut
by supplying a sudden release from a state of constraint.
The abandonment of the serious attitude in church when
some
trivial incident occurs is
an instance of a lowering
of the dignity of a thing, or an occasion,
1
M. Bergson has a glimpae
laughter, op.
cit.,
p.
69
;
which refreshes
of tlie oo-operation of " child's fun " in our
but he fails to see the magnitude of this factor.
JOY IN THE EFFECT OF THE LAUGHABLE
us with a sense of liberation.^
This idea carries us
will,
presentation in which no degradation
is
very severe
the narrator of a funny story
I think,
many
reinforce other mental agencies in
times the constraint
much
The joyous deliverance
farther than the author thinks.
from pressure and constraint
141
;
be found to
cases of ludicrous
discoverable.
Some-
witness the effect
when
is
knows how
to
wind up the
emotion of fear to just the right pitch in order to give us
works when the funny
Here our laughter has a large
support in the joyous relief from nervous tension.
In other cases, again, the release comes as an interruption
of a solemn occasion by the intrusion of something disconnected, and, by contrast, trifling. The tittering in a
the delicious run
down
ddnoiiement bursts
upon
of the mental
us.
church at a small contretemps has been our illustration.
There
you
incongruity here between two orders of ideas,
is
like
;
or, as I
of interest.
should prefer to put
For the point
seem ludicrous
by
is
it,
if
between two levels
that the interruption must
exhibiting clearly a trifling character,
by
powerfully suggesting a non-reverent point of view.
As hinted above,
these
two sources of laughter, a sudden
relief from restraint, are closely
oncoming of gladness and a
The unexpected presentation which gladdens
This is
commonly to bring a kind of relief.
certainly true of all cases in which the preceding state was
The laughter of
one of conscious depression and ennui.
connected.
us seems
the young, in response to our often cumbrous attempts to
amuse them, may be an escape from a certain strain which
belongs to a state of ennui, from the confinement or restraint
which the poverty of their surroundings at the moment
imposes on them.^
'
"
See The Emotions amd the Will, " The Emotions," chap,
Cf. Dugas, op. cit, p. 128 ft.
xiv., §§ 38-40.
THEORIES OF THE LUDICROUS
142
There
is
another conceivable
way
of bringing together
the effect of sudden gladness and relief from restraint.
It has been
way
urged that
laughable things affect us by
all
of a shock of surprise followed
by a sense of
Leigh Hunt, for example, thinks that when
something we
check
to
check which
the breath, a
this.'
principle,
we
;
is
in proportion to the
and that our laughter
is
a relief
This theory embodies a sound physiological
one which
As
to go too far.
as
at
receive a shock of surprise which gives a
vivacity of the surprise
from
relief.
we laugh
I
we have
already adopted, but
have tried
it
seems
show, a shock of surprise,
to
ordinarily understand the expression,
is
not an in-
variable antecedent of our response to laughable things.
On
the other hand,
it
may
even in cases where this
wanting, there
is
be urged with some reason that
full
moment
a
shock of the unexpected
is
of strain as the presentation
affronts the custom-trained eye,
and that the laughter
is
the
expression of the condoning of this affront, the acceptance
of
as harmless play.
it
In order to complete our psychological analysis of the
tendencies which combine in our enjoyment of ludicrous
things,
we need
to glance at one other variety of primitive
In dealing with this in Chapter
laughter, that of contempt.
III.
we drew
the line between
the laughable as something
"
it
and the true enjoyment of
".
Yet it would be a
objective
profound error not to recognise the
kinship between the two.
fact,
To begin
that there
is
a real
with, the laugh of con-
tempt, say over a prostrate foe, or over one
whom we
have
succeeded in teasing by playing off on him some practical
joke, readily passes into an
enjoyment of the laughable
proper.
It is obviously in part a
only
as a laugh
so,
it
'
may
Wit and
laugh at something.
be presumed to involve a
Sumow,
p. 7.
Not
less
CONTEMPT
IN
EFFECT OF THE LAUGHABLE
143
serious attitude in the successful spectator than a sneer,
say, or the hurling of opprobrious words.
direct itself to
It will naturally-
something in the undignified
look of the dis-
comfited party which would be likely to be recognised by
others also as laughter-moving.
Again, though I hold that Hobbes' theory, as he himself
formulates
errs
it,
by
insisting
on the swelling of the
spectator's self-consciousness into a feeling of superiority
or power,
it
me to be indisputable that
seems to
of the laughable
which clearly
fall
all
examples
into the category of mild
degradations do give us a sense of uplifting, something akin
As we are reminded by Dr.
Bain, malevolence or malice has its protean disguises, and
one of them is undoubtedly the joy of the laugher. The
note of malicious crowing, of Schadenfreude, may, no doubt,
be most distinctly heard in some of the laughter of satire
and of the more brutal sort of joke. Yet I suspect that a
to Hobbes' "
trace of
it
sudden glory
".
lurks, like a beaten foe, inexpugnable
though
greatly reduced in strength, in a large part of our laughter.
There are one or two facts which seem to
the conclusion that superiority
is
implied
me
in,
if
to point to
not tacitly
claimed by, the forms of laughter which have a distinctly
One
personal aim.
of these
is
the familiar fact that any-
thing in the shape of a feeling of inferiority
of respect for,
of
more
or even
But other facts seem to me to be
Of these the first is that if a person
the eontemplator.
still
to,
the laughable person inhibits the laughter
conclusive.
finds himself distinctly involved in the disgrace, the absurd
situation, or
whatever
provokes laughter, he no longer
else
laughs, or laughs in another key.
I see
my
estimable
fellow-pedestrian lose his hat at a street corner where the
wind
lies in
moment
ambush:
after, I, too,
my
may
soul expands exultingly.
fall
The
a victim to the ambuscade, in
THEORIES OF THE LUDICROUS
144
which case I probably stop laughing and become the subject
of a different emotion.
enough to keep up the
Or,
am
I
if
hilarity, the
"laughing animal"
laugh will have changed.
All the glory, the sense of uplifting, the exultation will have
fled,
and the new laugh, which embraces myself along with
another unfortunate, will have in
tion, will at
it
The second
fact is still
more
something of humilia"
most have shrunk into a
chastened joy
decisive.
If
".
no superiority
common laughter at others, how does it
come about that we all have so very obstinate a dislike to
be made its object ? The most amiable of men find it hard
is
implied in our
enough to
bare toleration of others'
rise to the level of a
laughter: the
man who
can reach the sublime height of
finding a real and considerable gratification in
hero, or
—as some would say—a craven.
a genuine and most blameless
it
must be a
There are
humour who
men
are hardly,
if
of
at
aU, less keenly sensitive to the attack of another laugher
than the most serious of
unless
we
prigs.
this understandable
Is
suppose that laughter at a person
interpreted as an assertion of superiority over
It
instinctively
is
him
?
would seem then to be a reasonable view, that
laughter in ordinary cases involves superiority, and
regarded by its object, the enjoyment of
be very apt to bring with
conceive,
is
it
it
by its
is
if
so
subject will
a taste of superiority.
This, I
the element of truth in Hobbes' theory.
The foregoing considerations seem
the realm of the ludicrous
is
not a closed
territory, as the theorists for the
Our enjoyment
of its
and indeed absorbs
show clearly that
and clearly bounded
to
most part assume
amusing sights connects
into
itself,
it
to be.
itself
with,
tendencies which
we may
observe in the laughter of children and uncivilised adults.
And,
if so,
the fact seems to reqmre us to go back upon those
primitive tendencies in order to see
how
far the connection
GLORY
IN
GREETING THE LAUGHABLE
holds, that is to say,
how far
145
the effects of the ludicrous can
be regarded as due to the play of those tendencies.
An
cede
analysis of the primitive forms of laughter,
regulation
its
fact that
it is
by a reference
what we
of
to ideas, has disclosed the
the expression of pleasure, yet not of
pleasure, but only of the
pleasure,
which preall
sudden oncoming or increase of
call
gladness.
further, that this joy of laughter
is,
It
has shown
many,
in
if
not in
us,
all
by a sudden relaxation of mental strain,
and may, indeed, be described by reference to this condition
as a sense of relief from pressure.
This was seen to hold
cases, conditioned
good alike in those graver situations in which nervous
laughter
is
apt to occur, in the lighter ones, such as the escape
of schoolboys
the
still
from the classroom to the playground, and in
which the strain relaxed is momentary
lighter ones in
only, of which the laughter induced
by
tickling is the best
representative.
Now
seems evident that
it
we have
ences something analogous to play.
of laughter with the
on.^
We may now
in all these experi-
The natural
alliance
play-mood has already been touched
go a step farther and say that these
spurts of joyous consciousness which, in simple natures un-
trammelled by thought of appearances, express themselves
in laughter are of the essence of Play.
the gaiety of laughter, to throw off the
attitude of seriousness
jollity
is,
To be glad with
stiff
and to abandon oneself
and wearing
to mirth
The deep kinship between laughter and play
itself
and
in truth, to begin to play.
us look at
discloses
we begin carefully to compare them.
some of their common characteristics.
as soon as
Let
Play contrasts with work, not as rest or inactivity contrasts
with
it,
but as light pleasurable activity contrasts
>
See
p. 76,
10
ff.
THEORIES OF THE LUDICROUS
146
The
with the more strenuous and partly disagreeable kind.
same holds good
of laughter.
in contrast to the
It is light pleasurable activity
more burdensome
activity of our serious
hours.
Again, play
That
to say,
is
is
free activity entered
it is
upon
for its
own
not directed to any end outside
sake.
itself,
to
the satisfaction of any want, save that of the play-impulse
itself
;
and
so
it is
free
the sense of compulsion
from external
—of
a
"
must
"
restraint,
and from
at the ear, whether
embodied in the voice of a master or in that of a higher
—which accompanies the attitude of the worker.
when we laugh we
self
Similarly,
are released from the strain and pressure
of serious concentration, from the compulsion of the practical
and other needs which keep men, in the main, serious beings.
It follows at once that play is relative to
enjoyed as a
relief
indefinitely prolonged.
same holds true
work, that
it is
from graver occupations, and cannot be
And, as has been hinted above, the
of laughter
and what we appropriately
describe as playing the fool.
In saying that play
is
spontaneous activity, freed from
the imperious rule of necessity, I do not
mean
that
it is
The play-impulse provides its own ends; for,
without something to aim at, it could not become conscious
Thus in the case of children, at
activity in the full sense.
any rate, and possibly of young animals also, playing at
aimless.
some form
of combat implies, as Prof. Groos urges, a
striving for something akin to conquest.
keen
In other words,
the instinct which underlies the activity seems to bring with
it
the setting
up
of something like
an end.
Similarly with
respect to those varieties of children's play which aim at
the realisation of an idea, and so resemble
too,
an
instinct,
art.
In
this case,
namely, imitative production, prompts to
the semblance of a serious conative process, the striving
RELATION OP LAUGHTER TO PLAY
The same
an end.
after
applies to mirthful activity.
playing off a joke on another
In neither
aim in view.
147
case,
as a serious or important one.
we
In
certainly have a definite
however,
is
the end regarded
Play ceases to be pure play
just as soon as the end, for example conquest, begins to be
regarded as a thing of consequence to the player
;
and, in
manner, laughter ceases to be pure mirth just as soon
like
as the end, say the invention of a witticism,
is
envisaged as
a solid personal advantage, such as heightened reputation.*
A
remark
like
applies to the intrusion of the serious
attitude into play
when
this takes
on an elaborate form
requiring some concentration of attention.
This does not
destroy the playful character of the activity so long as the
end
not viewed as matter of serious import.
is
respect,
laughter resembles play, for
too,
In this
we may
take
considerable pains in shaping our practical joke without
ever losing hold of fun as our end.
This brings us to another point of kinship between play
and laughter.
Each, though marked off from the things of
the real serious world, has to do with these in a manner.
The play both
that
is
of serious
character.
play,
of animals
and
of children
is
largely pretence,
to say, the production of a semblance of an action
e.g.,
life,
involving some consciousness of
This seems
inferrible,
its illusory
in the case of animal
the make-believe combats, from the palpable
the
movements within the
restriction
of
harmless.^
And with
limits
of the
regard to the play of the nursery,
it
enough the distincbe said to half-recognise it when he
speaks of "joy in conquest " as the end of play combats (Plwy of Arwmals,
1
Prof. Groos does not, I think, bring out clearly
tion here drawn, though he
may
pp. 291, 292).
^This restriction sometimes takes on a look of a oonative process of
when an older cat, not used to play, is importunately
self-control, e.g.,
challenged by a lively kitten.
THEORIES OF THE LUDICROUS
148
is
probable that
all
through a play-action there
of the look of absorbing seriousness, a
the make-believe.
in this
double or
"
in spite
dim awareness
It is fairly certain that
case with a
is,
divided
we have
of
to do
consciousness.'
"
And, as has been illustrated above, laughter is wont to hover
about the domain of the serious. In both cases we find the
love of pretence playing pranks with the real world, divest-
ing things of their significance and value for the serious
part of our mind, and transmuting them
by fancy
into
mere
appearances for our amusement.
may
Another point of similarity
be just alluded
to.
Recent discussions on the nature of play have served to
bring out
its utility
logical benefit as
Not only is the
young animals of physio-
or serviceableness.
sportive activity of children and
wholesome
exercise, it is
now
seen to be
valuable as a preliminary practice of actions which later
Thus
in play-combats children
and
to learn the arts of skilful attack
and
on become necessary.
young animals begin
defence.^
Much
of this benefit of play-activity
circumstance that
it is
a
mode
of organised
is
due to the
co-operation
and supplies a kind of training for the serious social activity
I shall hope to show later that laughter has
of later years.
a like value, not merely as a source of physiological benefit
to the individual, but as helping us to
of society.
the fact of this utility
the laugher,
become
fit
members
It seems hardly needful to point out that since
it
is
known
neither to the player nor to
does not in the least afiect the truth of our
contention, that their activity
is
not controlled by external
ends which have a practical or other serious value.
'
On
this " divided consciousness " in play see Groos,
Play of AnimaU,
p.
303
2,
' On the uses of animal play see Groos, The Play
of Man, Part
and Lloyd Morgan, Animal Behamour, chap, vi., sect. 2.
ff.
III., sect.
IDENTITY OP PLAY AND LAUGHTER
Our comparison
justifies
so far as to say that
mood
when we
play and
"Fun,"
to support this view.
these and the like
play and
in
us in identifying play and mirth,
may
all varieties
making the
language seems
"frolic," "sport," "pastime,"
be said to cover at once
We
of mirth.
all
joyous
are justified, therefore,
principle of play fundamental in our theory
We may now
of laughter.^
when we laugh our
Common
substantially the same.
is
149
proceed to illustrate rather
more fully the presence of the play-attitude in the higher
domain of laughter, the enjoyment of ludicrous spectacle.
To begin with, much
may
of the laughable illustrated above
be regarded as an expression in persons or things
play-mood which
of the
by way
Examples have been given
seizes the spectator
a sympathetic resonance.
of
in
the laughter excited by the spectacle of aimless actions
which have the look of frolicsomeness.
As our name
" word-play " clearly suggests, verbal jokes are recognised
as
an outcome of the play-mood which throws
oflf
nonce the proper serious treatment of language.
when
the odd
it
eflect of
Again,
reaches the height of the extravagant
has an unmistakable look of play-license.
amusing
for the
Much
of the
disguise, of pretence, including certain
kinds of " aping," appears to involve some recognition
of the make-believe aspect of play.
when
applies to a room,
it
suggestive of the
larities
of
ways
is,
of rompish play.
disorderly, even
Many
irregu-
thought and action readily take on the look
of a self-abandonment to play
and confusions
as going
The
to say the least, powerfully
ofi"
;
for example, irrelevances
of idea, droll, aimless-looking actions, such
the scene and coming back again and again,
1 Among previous writers on the subject M. Dugas seems to be the one
who has had the clearest apprehension of the essentially playful character
of laughter (op. cit., chap, vi., especially p. 115 seq.).
THEORIES OF THE LUDICROUS
150
by the same person or by
of the circus and the
senseless repetitions of actions
others
—a
common entertainment
As a
popular play-house.
example,
last
the effect of the incongruous
when
aspect on a solemn occasion.
This
cause
instance
trifling
surely amusing be-
is
so like the interruptions of child's play.
it is
How
we may
assumes a
it
far can this principle be carried
?
May
not a good
deal of the amusingly incongruous in behaviour
and
this
wears the aspect of
be said to affect us as an
folly,
expression of the play-mood
in
when
circumstances, of intellectual and of moral collapse,
And
?
is
not our amusement
at the sight of certain mischances which have the look
of a tripping up,
others or
an outwitting or befooling, either by
by circumstance
or " fate," traceable to a per-
ception of something indistinguishable from playful teasing?
Yet we must not rely on this expression of the playful
There seem to be many cases of the laughable,
for example, amusing vices, absences of mind, and all
too much.
irrelevances
of place,
which bring in the solemn where
is
very opposite of the playful.
this principle to
tacle does not
an extreme.
wear the look
bring up the playful
way.
It
may
mood
it
is
out
a mood the
Nor do we need to push
Even if the laughable spec-
where that which
expressed
is
of a play-challenge, it can
in
the spectator in another
so present its particular feature as to
throw
us off our serious balance, and by a sweet compulsion
force us to play with
A
it
rather than to consider
it
seriously.
brief reference to our store of laughable things
may
suffice to illustrate this.
To begin with our laughter at novelties, the odd, the
what is it but the outcome of a play-impulse,
gay caprice which wills for the instant not to take objects
extravagant,
a
seriously,
but to disregard their real nature and significance,
PLAYFUL EFFECT OF THE LUDICROUS
practical, theoretical,
them playthings
and even
for the eye
aesthetic, for
Or,
?
obtrudes
itself,
the joy of making
the suggestion of a
if
broken by the newcomer into our
rule,
151
field of perception,
our laughter announces that the infraction
does not matter, that the violation of custom's good law
itself is
by the
passed over and turned into fun
blithe
play-spirit in us.
It is the
sorts of
same with mischances, awkward
fixes,
moral and intellectual shortcomings.
and
all
These things
obviously have in them what should appeal to our seriousness
:
they come up for judgment as
pitiable, as regrettable,
Yet we laugh and
often as distinctly culpable.
cast aside
mood of the
moment disposes us to be indulgent, and because the attitude
we take up in viewing the ofience as a little one instantly
our judicial responsibilities just because the
brings
up the
love of play, the impulse to turn the significant
into enjoyable nonsense.
Once more, in our laughter
obscene,
it
is
to the
the same swift transition from the serious
attitude to that of play
of
allusion
at artful
our merriment.
which seems
Here again
it
to be at the
is
the
bottom
littleness
—a
quantity, as pointed out, varying considerably with the
quality of the laugher
tude and allures
it
— which
disarms the serious
In pretences, both hypocrisies and
which
raise the laugh,
the play-attitude.
atti-
to play.
we
less
serious kinds,
note the same swift lapse into
For, in order to enjoy these vain
shows
with perfect gaiety, we must be ready to bring a mental
"
blind spot "
to bear on
serious moral significance.
everything in them which has
Here, too,
we
take a leap into
the world of the player, transmuting what has something
of seriousness, something even of offending hurtfulness, into
a mere plaything.
THEORIES OP THE LUDICROUS
152
The more
intellectual varieties of the ludicrous disclose
The incongruous, the
the same deep-seated characteristic.
absurd, the tricks of ambiguous speech, these are things
which offend us as serious mortals bent on having consistency of ideas and clearness of utterance in our social
They evoke our laughter when they take such a
form as to upset this serious attitude and to win us over to
regarding them as nothing but entertaining show.
In all the more intellectual laughter at things we seem to
world.
find the perfect
form of the mind's play.
I
say
" perfect
because psychologists as well as others are wont to speak of
though
poetic imagination as playful activity,
trolled
by the ends
of art,
is
seriousness itself
when
the freer movements of ideas
takes
One
this, as
con-
compared with
the sportive temper
us.
other illustration of the role of the playful spirit in
the sphere of the laughable must not be overlooked.
have dealt with the intrusion of the
trivial into
scenes as an expression of the child's playfulness.
has been suggested above,
more than
it is
this.
But, as
Scenes of
great formality, where a degree of severe self-control
forced which
is
I
solemn
is
en-
trying to mortals of only a limited gravity,
are apt to throw us into a state of highly unstable equilib-
rium.
Hence the welcome we
are
disposed to give to
anything which touches the playful
susceptibilities in us.
Under such circumstances small
occurrences, which at other
times would pass wholly unmarked, are grasped at and
become laughable things for
necessity of
man
to escape
us, just because of
now and
the great
again into the freedom
of play.
As already
implied, this saturation of laughter with the
spirit of playfulness is characteristic
that which
is
purified
from
all
only of the gayer kind,
tinge of seriousness.
So
far
PLAY OP INTELLECT
LAUGHTER
IN
153
as our jocose impulses lend themselves to serious purposes, as
for
example in the laughter of
satire, the playful character
Not that
tends to become less clearly recognisable.
too,
we
and play
;
sport has
may
here,
are unable to find a resemblance between laughter
for, as
its
we know, much
serious interest,
easily slip across the line
the serious attitude.
more playful than
others,
is
play or
call
like the laugher,
which divides the playful from
we
Nevertheless,
on the point that laughter
what we
of
and the player,
shall
need to
insist
a thing of different tones, some
and that
its
nature and
its
function
can only be clearly determined by distinguishing these.
The
result of our inquiry
is
that the impressions of the
Our
laughable cannot be reduced to one or two principles.
laughter at things
itself
a
number
It gathers
of various tones.
is
of primitive tendencies
it
;
up
into
represents the
products of widely removed stages of intellectual and moral
evolution.
This
is
virtually admitted
by
the Intellectual and the Moral principle
at seeing dignity unfrocked
is
all
;
who
recognise
for our laughter
presumably of more ancient
origin than the " laughter of the mind," which discoursers
on the ludicrous are
argument takes us
for the
most part thinking
Our
of.
farther, namely, to the conclusion that the
efiect of the laughable,
even of what
as a sample of the ludicrous,
is
is
given by philosophers
a highly complex feeling,
containing something of the child's joyous surprise at the
new and unheard
of;
something too of the
responsiveness to a play-challenge
;
child's
gay
often something also of
the glorious sense of expansion after compression which
gives the large mobility to freshly freed limbs of
young
animals and children.
A
consequence of this recognition of the relation of the
laughable to our laughter as a whole
to alter our
method
is
that
of treating the subject.
we
shall
need
Our problem
THEORIES OF THE LUDICROUS
154
naturally transforms
itself into
the question
can
:
we
trace
out the organic differentiation and integration of the several
psychical tendencies which our analysis has disclosed
other words,
we
we must
find that
?
In
resort to the genetic
method, and try to explain the action of the ludicrous
upon us in the modest scientific fashion by retracing the
stages of
its
Such explanation may some
development.
day be crowned by
a distinctly philosophical one, if a finer
logical analysis succeeds in discovering the essence of the
ludicrous
It
wUl
for the present
;
it
seems to be
all
that
is
available.
at once be evident that a large investigation into
the origin and development of the laughing impulse will
take us beyond the limits of pure psychology.
We
shall
have to consider how the impulse grew up in the evolution
of the race
;
and
this will force us to adopt the biological
point of view, and ask
came
to be selected
On
species.
how
and
this special
fixed
among
group of movements
the characters of our
hand, laughter
the other
more than a
As hinted
is
physiological and psychological phenomenon.
above,
it
has a social significance, and
the higher stages of
its
we
shall find that
evolution can only be adequately
dealt with in their connection with the
movement
of social
progress.
Lastly,
in the
it will
be by tracing the evolution of laughter
human community
that
we
shall best
approach the
problem of the ideal which should regulate this somewhat
Such a study would seem to promise
by which laughter has been
the past, and by the light of which it
unruly impulse of man.
us a disclosure of tendencies
lifted
may
and refined
in
consciously direct itself in the future.
155
CHAPTER
VI.
THE ORIGIN OP LAUGHTER.
To attempt to
get back to the beginnings of
may well seem
to
human
be too ambitious a proceeding.
may
are small things, and
easily escape
laughter
Beginnings
detection,
even
when they lie well-lit not far from the eye. How, then, can
we hope to get at them when they are hidden in the darkness of the remote past
It
is
?
evident that our method here can only be the modest
one of conjecture, a method which must do
its
conjecture look reasonable, while
the fact that
is
it is
it
its
best to
never loses sight of
Our aim
dealing with the conjectural.
to get an intelligible supposition,
make
by the help
of
which
we may explain how laughter broke on the earthly scene,
adding one more to the many strange sounds of the animal
world.
This bit of conjectural inquiry will begin by trying to
answer the question
:
By what
process did the laugh, from
being a general sign of pleasure, become specialised into an
expression of the uprising of the mirthful, fun-loving or
jocose spirit
What
fun and of
It
?
It will
then address
itself to
the problem
has been the course of development of the
would
its characteristic
mode
conjectural account of these far-off
but for the
of utterance
not, of course, be possible to
new
spirit of
?
attempt even a
and unchronicled events,
instruments of hypothetical construction
THE ORIGIN OF LAUGHTER
156
with which the Theory of Evolution has furnished
attempting so hazardous a task
we
us.
In
have, at least, the ex-
ample of one of the most modest of men to draw us on.
Charles Darwin has taught us how to be at once daring and
cautious in trying to penetrate the darkness of the ages
and one can wish nothing better than
walk worthily in his steps.
behind us
to
;
It will be evident that in essaying
an
effort
to be able
which can at
we must use every availmeans, not merely that we try to trace back
best end in only a plausible guess
This
able clue.
the history of mirthful utterance, alike in the evolution of
the individual and of the species, to
its
rude inchoate forms,
we search for vestiges of utterances vaguely resembling human laughter in the animal world.
This last suggestion may well seem to the reader like
but that
another blow to man's early pride of
naturalist
who
The worthy
race.
called his species the " laughing animal " did
not probably trouble himself about the question of the
dignity of the attribute.
man
things that only
way of describing him.
Since laughing was one of the
could do,
it
served as a convenient
Yet, since the later evolutional psy-
chology has led us to be more generous in recognising in the
lower animals something closely similar to our
of reasoning,
it is
we need
own
processes
not be greatly shocked to hear that
actually crediting other species than our
own with
a
simple sense of fun, and a characteristic manner of expressing
the feeling
;
that
is
to say, an utterance answering to our
laugh.
Now
here, if
anywhere, we must be on our guard.
In
attempting to detect traces of mirthful expression in animals
we
are exposed to a two-fold danger
observation of animal ways
of interpretation
;
—a
:
that
common
to all
too anthropomorphic kind
and that of mistaking
in other beings,
SUB-HUMAN RUDIMENTS OF MIRTH
157
whether human or sub-human, what we envisage as funny,
It is eminently natural,
for their conscious fun.
when we do
not screw ourselves up to the severely scientific attitude, to
see signs of chuckling glee in animals.
watched somewhere
Norway,
in
remember how
I
in the early morning, a
magpie as he stood for some time ducking
throwing up his long
tail,
with chuckle-like sounds
;
I
his
head and
accompanying these movements
and how
found
I
it
exceedingly
hard not to believe that he was having a good laugh at
something, possibly the absurd ways of the foreign tourists
who
his
visit
judged by the standard
Yet,
coast.
observation,
scientific
this
"natural"
interpretation
of
was
scarcely satisfactory.
Since our aim compels us to be
accept
scientific,
we cannot
"
of interpreting the " mischievous
common modes
Many
we may
performances of animals.
of a monkey's tricks are
"
seriously doubt whether
funny " enough
he enjoys them
;
yet
that
human
ance
jokers have a
of gravity.
His
as, practical jokes.
but then
certainly does not suggest it;
A
way
solemn
it
of keeping
may
mien
be said
up an appear-
consideration of greater weight
much
is
merry joke may be
instinct,
display
of
the
teasing
when
this goes beyond
a
the playful limit, and aims at real annoyance or mischief.
that
what looks
to us
The remark probably
stories of
applies to
Having
some
of the
well-known
"animal humour,'' for example, that of Charles
Dickens about the raven.
bered,
like a
had
to
This bird,
share the garden
may
it
with
be remem-
a captive eagle.
carefully measured the length of this formidable
creature's chain, he turned to
by
good account the occasion of
and then, the
owner having presumably woke up, made an
impudent display of eating the same just safely outside the
the giant's sleep
rightful
stealing his dinner;
THE ORIGIN OF LAUGHTER
158
eagle's " sphere of influence
This doubtless showed some
".
cunning, and something of spite
it
but
;
it is
not clear that
indicated an enjoyment of the fun of the thing.
That
this teasing
now and
again approach the
mirthfulness
its
and playing of
is
tricks
human
A
not improbable.
by animals may
attitude of malicious
cat that " plays " with
captive mouse, half -pretending, as
it
seems, not to see
the small thing's hopeless attempt to "bolt,'' may, perhaps,
be enjoying something of the exultant chuckle of a
victor.
lively
human
So, too, some of the mischievous behaviour of a
and imperfectly domesticated monkey, which a
simple-minded sailor has brought to his mother by
of
making her happy, may
disclose a
fun, of a malicious playfulness which
its
germ
way
of the spirit of
capable of enjoying
is
jokes as such.
we may
Yet, while
question the truth of the proposition
that these mischievous actions are enjoyed as practical jokes
—in the way
in
which Uncle Remus represents them
—we
need not hesitate to attribute to animals a simple form of the
child's sense of fun.
This trait appears most plainly in the
pastimes of the young of
our two domestic
pets,
many
familiar species, including
pastimes which are quite correctly
The
described as animal play.
particular forms of this
playful activity, the tusslings, the attacks and retreats on
both
sides,
the chasings and the
determined by special
and
to a child's love of " pretending".
make-believe, for example,
an
alert foe
;
" lies
of
Is
when a
proach of a canine stranger,
are pretty certainly
But, as play, these actions
instincts.^
are an expression of high spirits
rest,
something analogous
it
not a bit of playful
dog, on seeing the ap-
low " wearing the look of
yet, as soon as the stranger approaches, " gives
'Karl Groos connects both the tusslings and the teariugs of young
animals with the instinct of sex-oompetition {Play of Amrnals, p. 35 fi.).
"
ANIMAL JOKES AND SENSE OF FUN
away
show" by entering with an almost
the
the same
when
disgraceful
with him
celerity into perfectly friendly relations
159
?
It is
a dog teases another dog by startling him,
showing signs of enjoying the
H. M. Stanley writes
trick.
My
"
dog took the same delight in coming up quietly behind a small dog and giving a terrifying bark as does the
child in jumping out from a corner and crying boo "}
'
'
Owing, to no
extent, perhaps, to the fact of its edu-
little
by man, the dog gives much the
cation
No
of a sense of fun.
clearest indications
one can observe a dog during a walk
with his child-comrades without noting
in with their playful proposals.
The
how readUy he
falls
infectiousness of an
announcement of the playful temper is clearly illustrated
The dog imitates the gambols, and will even seem to
here.
respond to the vocal outbursts of his merry playmates.
Darwin has rightly recognised a germ of our '"sense of
humour" in a dog's joining in the game of stick- throwing.
You throw a bit of stick for him to fetch, and having picked
it up he proceeds to carry it away some distance and to
squat down with it on the ground just before him. You
then come quite close as
which he
if
to take the stick
and bears
it
from him, on
off exultingly, repeating the
make-believe with evident enjoyment.^
little
I
seizes it
have tested a dog again and again when playing with
him
and have satisfied myself that he is
knows perfectly well that you are
and
in the play-mood,
too so that if you pretend to be serious and to command
in this fashion,
;
him
in
sidles
your most magisterial voice to give up the stick he
up with a hollow show
impose on nobody, as
not really serious
;
if
so I
of obedience
to say, " I
am
know
which could
better
:
you are
going on with the game ".
^
The Psychological Review, 1899,
^
Descent of Man, 'P&Tt
I.,
p. 91.
cha^p. Hi.
All
THE ORIGIN OP LAUGHTER
160
the notes of a true sense of fun seem to be present in this
the gay and festive mood, a firm resolve desipere in
and a strong inclination to play at " pretending ".
Prof. Lloyd Morgan gives an example of what certainly
case
:
loco,
looks like a dog's merry make-believe in which man's lead
takes no part.
The writer
tells
us that he used at one
time to take an intelligent retriever to a sandy shore,
dog engaged spontaneously
where the
in
the following
He buried a number of small crabs in the sand, and
pastime.
then stood waiting
a leg or a claw appeared, "upon
till
which he would run backwards and forwards giving short
barks of keen enjoyment
I find
it
".'
hard to doubt that
of joyousness
and
this
was a genuine outburst
something indistinguishable from a
of
love of fun, and that
was connected with the " coming
The repetitions of the burial when
it
off" of a practical joke.
the dog had seen that
it
was
ineffectual, points clearly to
a consciousness of the make-believe character of the per-
formance.
Whatever a dog's powers of jocosity when uninstructed
by man, it seems safe to set down a good share of his
highly developed sense of fun to his profound susceptibility
to man's educative influence
;
which again
(as the difference
between the educability of the dog and of the cat at once
shows) implies an unusual strength of those instincts of
attachment to
man which have made him
almost the type
of fidelity.
How
man
far,
one wonders, will
this educative
influence of
be likely to go in the case of the most companionable
of our domestic pets
lie
?
W. Preyer
of imitating the
signs of
teUs us, that the dog
human
gaiety, that
' Animal Life and Intelligence, p. 407.
The author strikes
most excessively cautious in accepting these evidences of canine
me
is
an
as al-
jocosity.
THE SENSE OF FUN
intelligent specimen,
will
when
DOGS
IN
161
confronted with our laughter
draw back the corners
mouth and leap into the
Here we seem to,
of his
with a bright lustre in the eye.^
air
may
have a rudiment of a genuine laugh, and
"
to speak rather confusingly of a dog's
tail
G. J.
".
Romanes
relates that he
perhaps cease
laughing with his
had a dog who went
some way towards qualifying himself for the office of clown.
This animal would perform a number of self-taught tricks
" For
which were clearly intended to excite laughter.
lying on his side and violently grinning,
instance, while
he would hold one leg in his mouth."
"
stances
nothing pleased him so
duly appreciated, while,
would become
Under
much
these circum-
as having his joke
no notice was taken
if
of him,
he
sulky".''
This animal must, one supposes, have been in an exceptional degree a
"funny dog".
observer did not take a
it
might be a shade
"
seems a pity that the
It
snapshot
less abstract
that grin so that
" at
and
"
in the air " than
the grin of the Cheshire cat, as treated by Mr.
Carroll.
a dog
of
What seems
manages
our smUe.
expression,
may
clear
is,
Lewis
that the physiognomy of
to execute a weirdly distorted semblance
With
we must
respect
not
to the
expect
part of the
vocal
too much.
The bark
not be able to adjust itself to our quick explosions
of gaiety.
It is
commonly
said that the
dog has a special
bark for expressing pleasure, and it seems likely that he
employs this when he is said to be seized by the sense
of the funniness of things.
On
the moral side, the possibility of the dog's becoming
a humorous beast looks more promising.
He
certainly
exhibits rudiments of feelings and mental attitudes which
' W. Preyer, Die Seele des Emdes, p. 197.
''Quoted by Lloyd Morgan, loc. cit.
THE ORIGIN OF LAUGHTER
162
seem
in
man
As the inner
to be closely related to a reflective
human
circle of his
friends
dog under-
I saw, not long since, a small
terribly bored.
humour.
know, he can be
going the process of chaining by his mistress before she
He drew
took him into a shop.
a long yawn, and his
appearance was eminently suggestive of a keen sense of
the absurdity of the shopping habits of ladies, a sense
which only wanted the appropriate utterance to become
a mUd, tolerant kind of satire.
of one's
own warning
Yet one must be mindful
against a too hasty interpretation of
such actions.
We may now
turn to animals
much nearer purselves
Among monkeys we
zoological scale.
in the
obtain, undoubtedly,
something more closely akin to our smUe and laugh.
Darwin
has made a careful inquiry into the similarities between the
two.
He
tells
us that some of the essential features of the
facial expression
during a laugh, the drawing backwards
of the corners of the mouth, the formation of wrinkles
and expressive of a
of mind in various kinds of monkeys "?
under the eyes,
pleased state
etc.,
"
are
characteristic
Darwin gives us
young chimpanzee will make a
kind of barking noise when he is pleased by the return of
any one to whom he is attached, a noise which the keeper
With respect
to laughter-like sounds,
A
several pertinent facts.
interprets as a laugh.
tion
is
The
correctness of this interpreta-
confirmed by the fact that other
kind of
"
tittering
sound
"
when they
monkeys
utter a
see a beloved person.
A
young chimpanzee when tickled under the armpits produces a more decided chuckling or laughing sound.
"
Young
ourangs, also,
when
tickled will
make
a chuckling
sound and put on a grin."
It has
been found by Dr. L. Robinson that the young of
'
Expression of Emotions,
p.
208
;
cf. p.
132
ff
RUDIMENT OF LAUGHTER
APES
IN
163
the anthropoid apes are specially ticklish in the regions of
the surface of the body which correspond with the ticklish
regions in the case of the child.
Not only
a young
so,
chimpanzee will show great pleasure when tickled, rolling
over on his back and abandoning himself to the pastime,
much
as a child does.
When
the tickling
is
prolonged he
resembles a child further by defending ticklish spots.
too, does a
young ourang.
many
apes, like
It
may
make
children,
So,
be added that young
a pretence of biting
when
tickled.
To sum up
the young of the higher apes have something
:
resembling our smile and laugh, and produce the requisite
movements when
Their attempt at laughter, as
pleased.
might be disposed to regard
it,
we
appears as a sign of sudden
joy in circumstances in which a child will laugh,
e.g.,
on
the reappearance of a beloved companion after a considerable
It further
interval.
occurs
when the animal
is
tickled,
along with other manifestations which point to the existence
of a rudiment of the child's capacity for fun
and for the
make-believe of play.
One more
fact should be
laughable.
It is probable,
observers, that
is
monkeys
added in order to bring out
human
the similarity here to the
attitude towards the
from the testimony of several
dislike being
laughed
at.^
Now,
it
true that the enjoyment of fun and the dislike to being
made
its
object are not the
same
to vary together in the case of
thing.
men
;
Nor do they seem
otherwise the agelast
would not be so often found among those who keenly
resent being the object of others' laughter.
they
may
creatures which
show a
the objects of laughter
1
Nevertheless,
be regarded in general as correlative traits
distinct distaste for being
may
made
be supposed to be capable of
See Darwin, Ths Descent of Man, Part
I.,
chap.
iii.
THE ORIGIN OP LAUGHTER
164
the laughing attitude, so far at least as to be able to
understand
it.
Turning now from sub-human kinds of laughter to the
full
expression as
we know
it
in ourselves,
years of
life.
we may
briefly
and laugh during the
first
Here the question of the date of the
first
trace the history of the smile
appearance of these expressive movements becomes important
;
and happily we have more than one
set of careful
observations on the point.
With
respect to the smile, which
be the
to
first
to
show
Darwin and by Preyer.
itself,
commonly supposed
notes made by
is
we have
According to the former, the
first
smile appeared, in the case of two of his children, at the
age of forty-five days, and, of a third, at a somewhat earlier
date.i
back,
Not only were the corners
of the
mouth drawn
but the eyes brightened and the eyelids slightly
closed.
Darwin adds that the circumstances pointed
a happy state of mind.
Preyer
is
much
points out the difficulties of noting the
pleasure.
In the case of his
own
boy,
first
it
to
He
fuller here.^
true smile of
seems, the move-
ments of the corners of the mouth, accompanied by the
formation of dimples in the cheek, occurred in the second
week, both in the waking and in the sleeping
father thinks, however, that the
first
occurred on the twenty-sixth day,
when
the child's eyes lighted on the mother's
smile, he adds,
it
was not an imitation
The
state.
smile of pleasure
after a
face.
good meal
This early
of another's
imply a joyous recognition of the mother.
It
;
nor did
was
just
the instinctive expression of a feeling of bodily satisfaction.
'
So in The Expression of the Emotions, pp. 211, 212.
contributed to Mind, vol.
of
which smiled when
' The references are
ii.
(1877), p. 288,
forty-five, the other
to his work,
In the notes
two infants are spoken
when
of,
forty-six days old.
Die SeeU des Kindes, 4te Auflage.
one
DATE OF INFANT'S FIRST SMILE
Other observers
first
Dr.
differ, too,
in respect of the date of the
occurrence of the true expressive smile.
Champneys puts
it
165
in the sixth,
For example.
Sigismund in the seventh
week, agreeing roughly with Darwin
whereas Miss Shinn
;
gives as the date the latter half of the
first
month, and so
Another lady, Mrs. K. C.
supports Preyer's observations.
Moore, would go farther than Preyer and say that the
first
may be added
that
smile occurs on the sixth day of
Miss Shinn
is
more
precise than Preyer in her account of
the early development of the smile.
the
first
—
She tells us
that,
whereas
—whom we
will henceforth call
(latter half of first
month) was merely
smile of her niece
by her name, Ruth
It
life.^
the outcome of general comfort, a smile occurred in the
second
month which involved an agreeable
perception,
namely, that of faces bending over the child in which she
took great
ing
much
interest.
This smile of special pleasure, express-
gaiety, occm-red
when
she was lying fed, warm,
and altogether comfortable.
some
At the
It is fairly certain that these differences indicate
inequalities of precocity in the children observed.
same time,
it
seems probable that the several observers are
dealing with different stages in the development of the
smile.
Preyer shows clearly that
it
undergoes considerable
expansion, involving increased complexity of movement, and
the addition of the important feature, the brightening of the
eye.
Mrs. Moore gives no description of
sixth and seventh days, and
vague resemblance
^
is
what she saw on the
presumably referring to a
rudiment of a smile which had no
to a
Champneys and Sigismund
are quoted by Preyer.
Miss Shiun's ob-
servations are given in her work, Notes on the Development of a Child, p.
Mrs. Moore's are to be found in her Essay, The Mental Development
238.
of a Child, p. 37.
Dr. L. Hill writes that he noted the
boy when he was three weeks
older.
old,
and in
his girl
first
smile in his
when she was some days
THE ORIGIN OF LAUGHTER
166
expressive significance
and some things in Prayer's account
;
lead us to infer that he
is
less
highly de-
that the
movements
speaking of a
veloped smile than Darwin.^
All that can certainly be said, then,
is
of a smile, as an expression of pleasure, undergo a gradual
process of development,
and that an approach to a perfect
smile of pleasure occurs some time in the second
month
of
life.
If
we
turn to the dates assigned to the
a laugh,
we
Darwin
encountered in the case of the smile.
a smile
first
occurrence of
find the uncertainties are at least equal to those
may
illustrates
how
gradually take on an accompaniment of sound
One
which grows more and more laughter-like.
of his
children, who, he thinks, first smiled at the age of forty -five
days, developed about eight days later a
which, he adds,
however,
till
"
more
little "
impressive smile, accompanied by a
perhaps represented a laugh
much
later (113th
distinct
".
It
" noises
Another
days
old,
accompanied his smile
very like laughter ".
A
laughter, with all the
it,
occurred in the case of
child of his,
by
was not,
day) that the noises became
broken up into the discrete sounds of a laugh.
when
and
bleating " noise,
sixty-five
indications of genuine fun behind
one of his children on the 110th day, when the game was
tried of throwing a pinafore over the child's face
suddenly withdrawing
it,
this being varied
and then
by the
father's
suddenly uncovering his own face and approaching the
He
adds that, some three or four weeks before
appeared to enjoy as a good joke a
little
child's.
this, his
boy
pinch on his nose
and cheeks.
Preyer puts the date of the
first
laughter-like sounds, as
' See especially wiiat lie says about an unusual expression,
including
" a strongly sparkling eye," which occurred in the eighth week, op. cit.,
p. 194.
DATE OF FIRST LAUGH
he puts that of the
first smile,
earlier
167
He
than Darwin.
says he observed a visible and audible laugh in his boy on
This was a chuckling at the view
the twenty-third day.
The sounds were repeated
of a rose-tinted curtain.
in the
following weeks at the sight of slowly swinging coloured
objects
and at new sounds,
same time he
tells
cognisable as such
going on,
by
first
his mother.
excited
what was
month when the boy
it will
Among
the other observers
of the most careful, Miss Shinn.
be remembered, puts the date of
smile as early as the
first
month, assigns the
genuine laughter to the 118th day.
child's first
by the
At the
a person not looking at
may suflSce to refer to one
This lady, who,
Ruth's
those of the piano.
occurred in the eighth
first
was playing with
it
e.g.,
us that a prolonged loud laughter, re-
sight of the
mother making
was
It
It
faces.
is
worth adding that Ruth reached her third performance
eleven days
In this
later.^
case, too, it is
probable that
we have
to do, not
merely with differences of precocity in the children ob-
what
served, but with the difficulties of determining
clear
example of the expression
doubt that the
stages.
This
full reiteration of
is
concerned.'^
our laughter
There
is
is
is
a
no
reached by
brought out fully by Darwin, and
is
allowed
Yet how much of the series of more or less
laughter-like sounds produced by an infant during states of
by
Preyer.
pleasure
is
to be regarded as entering into the development
of laughter,
it is
give out curious
not easy to say.
little
the 105th day, that
'
I
is
Miss Shinn heard Ruth
chuckling sounds of two syllables on
thirteen days before she produced her
am indebted to Miss Shinn for a sight of her complete original
of my references are to these.
notes
;
and some
*
It is regrettable that
Preyer does not describe with some precision the
sounds produced by his boy on the twenty-third day.
THE ORIGIN OF LAUGHTER
168
laugh.
She adds under the
date, 113tb day, that is to say,
five
days before the laugh, that the child had developed
new
throat sounds, crowing, croaking,
and showed a
etc.,
strong disposition to vary sounds in a pleasurable mood.
seems highly improbable that these sounds were not
It
preparatory stages in the development of the laugh.i
It is fairly certain that laughing
Preyer'a words
may no
comes after smiling.
doubt seem to suggest that the
laugh (twenty-third day) comes before the
sixth day)
;
says that laughter
;
first
smile (twenty-
but his account of the development of the two
shows plainly that
smile
first
this is not his
is
and remarks,
meaning.
He
distinctly
only a strengthened and audible (laut)
further, that " in all (children) alike
the utterance of pleasure begins with a scarcely noticeable
smile,
which quite gradually passes into laughter in the
course of the
first
three months
''.
He
adds that this
development depends on that of the higher brain centres,
and the capability of having perceptions.^
The first laughter is, like the smile, an expression of
pleasure.
As Preyer puts it, the laughter is a mere
heightening of the look of pleasure.
It
a higher level of agreeable consciousness.
marks, however,
Whereas the
first
clumsy experiments in smiling denote nothing but a comfortable state of repletion, the first attempts at laughter
are responses
to gladdening
swinging coloured
This laughter at
objects,
new
sense-presentations,
such as
and the new sounds of a piano.
visual
and aural presentations was
followed, according to Preyer, between the sixth and the
Miss Shiun insists that the laugh did not develop out of the chuckle,
it appeared, as many articulate sounds appear, with
something of a sudden completeness. But this is just what we should
expect if the laugh is an inherited movement.
'
since apparently
^Op.
cii., p.
197.
EARLY FORMS OF LAUGHTER
ninth
week by
a laughter
more
distinctly joyous or jubilant,
as the child regarded his mother's face
and appeared to
This laughter of mental gaiety seems at an
recognise
it.
early age
—about
month
the fourth
movements of the limbs
etc.)
(raising
—to
ally
with
itself
and lowering of the arms,
as a complex sign of high spirits or gladness.
How
far
the provocative
own) implied a rudiment
child's
am
of fun, I
and agreeable
it
head (or
not sure.
shows, however, the early connection between
though
by
mentioned
laughter
of
Darwin, namely, suddenly uncovering the
his
169
It
laughter
surprise, that is to say, a mild shock, which,
borders on the alarming,
is
on the whole glad-
dening.
One other early form
young animals,
certain
has been
of laughter,
is
is
by
found also in
tickling.
This
observed, in the case of the child, in the second
first
or the third month.
Preyer's
tickling in the second month. ^
that his
which
that excited
who was
little girl,
to titillation, responded first
boy laughed
in response to
Dr. Leonard Hill
tells
me
by-the-bye specially sensitive
by laughter
in the tenth week.
Since our analysis has led us to regard the effect of
tickling as largely mental, and as involving a playful attitude, this fact confirms the conclusion that the specialised
laughter which
is
the accompaniment of play occurs in a
well-defined form within the
To sum up
:
first
three months.
We find, within the first two
or three months,
both the smile and the laugh as expressions of pleasure,
including sensations of
sense-presentations.
We
bodily comfort
of laughter under tickling, which
Preyer puts this at the end of the
'
to be late.
2
Op.
cit.,
p. 96.
and gladdening
find, further, in the reflex reaction
first
is
observable about the
half-year,
which seems
to
me
THE ORIGIN OF LAUGHTER
170
end of the second month, the germ of a sense of fun, or of
mirthful play
by
excited
and
;
little
this is indicated too in the laughter
pinches on the cheek at the end of the
third month.
It
certain that these tendencies are not learned
is
This
imitation.
is
proved by the
that imitative
Preyer,
normal child
till
fact,
established
movements do not occur
considerably later, and
by the
in
by
by
the
fact that
Laura Bridgman, who was shut out by her
blindness and deafness from the lead of companions,
the child,
We
developed these expressions.
must conclude, then,
that they are inherited tendencies.
Here the psychologist might well stop in his inquiries, if
Darwin and others had not opened up the larger vista of
Can we, by carrying the eye
the evolution of the species.
along this
vista, conjecture
came to be acquired
The
first
how these instinctive movements
in the course of animal evolution
question that arises in this inquiry
is
?
whether
the smile or the laugh was the earlier to appear in the
The expressions
course of racial development.
below
man
do not
offer
any
of animals
decisive clue here.
The an-
thropoid apes appear both to produce a kind of smile or
grin,
and to utter sounds analogous
may, however, be contended that
much
less like
to our laughter.
It
this so-called laughter is
our laughter than the grin
is
like our smile.
In the absence of better evidence, the fact that the smile
appears
first in
the
life
of the child must, according to a
well-known law of evolution, be taken as favouring the
hypothesis that man's remote ancestors learned to smile
before they could rise to the achievement of the laugh.
This
is
further supported
the individual, the laugh
by the
when
it
fact that, in the case of
occurs announces a higher
form of pleasurable consciousness, the level of perception
SMILE AS PRECEDING LAUGH
as distinguished
by the
pressed
among
from the
first
level of sensation
smile.
am
Lastly, I
imbeciles the smile persists lower
degeneration than the laugh.
which
is
ex-
informed that
down
in the scale of
Beddard writes to
Dr. F. E.
me: "I remember once seeing a
171
defective
human monster
(with no frontal lobes) whose only sign of intelligence was
drawing up the
lips
when music was played "}
commonly held
It is
much more
is
a
pressing necessity for purposes of family and
tribal preservation
the former
that, since the expression of pain,
apprehension of danger among animals
suffering, or
is
than that of pleasure or contentment,,
developed considerably earlier than the latter.
According to this view,
we can understand why the adumwe find in animals
brations of a smile and a laugh which
closely related to man have been so imperfectly developed
and appear only sporadically.
Supposing that the smile was the
movements
pressive
species,
we
can
first
conjecture
how
it
came
to be the
and best-defined expression of pleasurable
ing with this point
of the
two ex-
human
common
to appear in the evolution of the
we may
states
?
In deal-
derive more definite aid from
Darwin's principles.
The
mouth
fact that the basis of a smile is a
human
of
over,
movement
of the
at once suggests a connection with the primal source
enjoyment and there seems, moresome evidence of the existence of such a
A baby after a good meal will, I believe, go
as of animal
to be
connection.
;
on performing something resembling sucking movements.
The
first
these
smiles
may have
arisen as a special modification of
movements when there was
a particularly lively feel-
ing of organic contentment or well-being.
'
On
I believe, further,
the point of the priority of the smile in the process of evolution,
see Th. Bibot,
La Psychologie
des Sentiments, p. 346.
THE ORIGIN OF LAUGHTER
172
that an infant
when food
is
illustrated
by
choice
apt to carry out movements of the mouth
is
shown
to
A
it.
similar tendency seems to he
was given
delicacy
it
a
of the
Again, our hypothesis
".^
in the fact that, according to
others, the first smiles of infants
happy condition
when
movement partaking
nature of "an incipient smile
some support
which,
at meal-time, slightly raised
the corners of the mouth, the
finds
monkey
the behaviour of a
Preyer and
were noticed during a
of repletion after a good meal.^
Supposing the smile in
origin
its
to
have thus been
organically connected with the pleasurable
experience of
we can easily see how it might
get generalised
sated appetite,
Darwin and Wundt have
iuto a
common
made
us familiar with the principle that expressive move-
sign of pleasure.
ments may be transferred to
states of feeling resembling
those of which they were primarily the manifestations.
The
scratching of the head during a state of mental irri-
tation
is
There
a well-known instance of the transference.
are, I believe, facts
which go some way towards
verifying the supposition of a transference of eating-i^igns to
states of lively satisfaction
are
wont
and pleasure generally.
to express keen pleasure
by
gestures,
e.g.,
Savages
rubbing
the belly, which seem to point to the voluminous satisfactions of the primal appetite.
The
clearest evidence, however,
seems to be furnished by the account of a baboon given us
by Darwin. This creature, after having been made furiously
angry by his keeper, on making friends again, "rapidly
moved up and down his jaws and lips and looked pleased ".
Darwin, Expression of the Emotions, p. 133.
Lehmann, in his interesting account of the development of the
emotions and their expression in the individual, suggests that the first im'
^A.
which expresses the pleasure of sweetness, is
movements of sucking (Hauptgesetze des mensM.
perfect smile of the infant,
genetically related to the
QefahlsUbens,
ss.
295, 296).
GENESIS OP SMILE
Darwin adds that a
may
movement
similar
be observed in a
man when he
173
or quiver of the jaws
laughs heartily, though
with us the muscles of the chest rather than those of the
and jaws are " spasmodically aiFected "}
lips
Judging from the interval between the occurrence of the
first
smile and of the
we may
laugh in the
first
life of
conjecture that laughter did not
the individual,
grow
into a full
sound in "primitive man," or his unknown immedi-
reiterated
ate predecessor,
much
till
We
later.
should expect that a
power would be a condi-
considerable development of vocal
mode
tion of man's taking heartily to this
The study of the infant
The babble of the second and
made up of a reiteration of many
of emotional
utterance.
certainly supports this
idea.
third months, which is
sounds,
may
The observations
speech.
vocal and consonantal
prepare for laughter, as
it
certainly does for
of Miss Shinn, quoted
above,
on the expansion of the range of vocal sound before the
occurrence of the
They seem
first
laugh are most significant here.
to point to the fact that in the evolution of
the species the
first
laughter was selected from
among
a
great variety of sounds produced in pleasurable states.
now
Let us
suppose that our immediate animal ancestor
has reached the level of clear perceptions, and
is
given to
the utterance of certain reiterated sounds during states of
Let us further conceive of him as having his
pleasure.
sympathies developed up to the point of requiring a medium
for
but pleasures, and more
expr^essing not only pains
particularly for calling others' attention to the
of cheering
family
who
and welcome
objects,
of
of the
Such an animal
his primal smiles
would require vocal utterances
presence
member
of a
has been abroad for a time.
would need to improve on
'
e.g.,
and
grins.
some strength
Darwin, Expression of the Emotions, pp. 134, 135.
He
in order
THE ORIGIN OP LAUGHTER
174
something answering to the cackle
to reach distant ears,
of the
hen when she has discovered some choice morsel and
How
desires to bring her brood to her side.
provement to be
effected
is this
im-
?
One may hazard the guess that the process may have been
The position of the open mouth
something of this kind.
during a broad smile was,
we may
reason, in itself favour-
We
able to the production of vocal sounds.
analogy of positions of the eyes, speak of
position " of the vocal
position
it
as the
chamber when opened.
would pretty certainly be
may,
after the
"
primary
This primary
specially favourable to
the utterance of a certain kind of sound, let us say that
commonly
indicated
by
" eh,"
^
together with something of
the guttural or chuckling accompaniment of this in the
sound of laughter.
the
We may
then infer that,
reiterated babble-like sounds
states of pleasurable satisfaction, the
would be taken up.
We
when some
Of
were produced during
same (primary)
position
should thus get, as psycho-physical
concomitants of the sensed position of the opened mouth
during a broad smile or
iterate the
whole
"
grin," not only a disposition to re-
"eh" or some similar sound as a completion of the
action, of
which the opening of the mouth
is
the
first
stage, but a definite associative co-ordination between the
movement
of opening the
mouth and the reiterated actions
the muscles of the respiratory and vocal apparatus.
way we may understand how, when
the
happy
feeling excited
into the joy of recognising a
by the
of
this
the pleasurable state
expressed by a smile increased in intensity,
when
In
as, for
example,
sight of a face passed
member
of the family, the
^ As pointed out above, the French e sound seems to be the common
one in children's laughter. Preyer tells us that the corresponding sound
in German (0) occurs in the first infantile babble (Development of Intellect,
p. 239).
TRANSITION FROM SMILE TO LAUGH
movements would widen out
175
into those of a laughter-like
utterance.
It appears to
me
that, in this connection, the observed
course of development of laughter in the individual
without
its
suggestiveness.
is
not
Miss Shinn remarks that Kuth's
—
mouth was opened wide on the 113th day five days before
the first laugh while the child was tossed and tumbled.
Under date of the 134th day, again, we read of much
—
laughter of an inaudible kind, consisting of broad laughterlike smiles
and these observations certainly show that
first laughter an expanded smile,
;
about the date of the
by the absence
indistinguishable from a laugh save
respiratory and vocal adjunct,
words, they
her
first
tell
was
frequent.
us that about the time
when
of the
In other
she achieved
laugh she was freely practising the intermediate
facial step
between the
and the true laugh.
earlier smile
This theory would plainly illustrate Mr. Herbert Spencer's
principle, that states of feeling affect the voluntary muscles
in the order of increasing calibre, the smaller being called
into play
by
But
of higher intensity.
must take into account
and
by those
feelings of lower intensity, the larger
this
theory
is
not enough.
We
also the order of frequency of use,
of consequent liability to discharge in the connected
nerve-centres.
in the
seems probable that the muscles engaged
It
movements
of
the
mouth and those
exercised in
phonation would, for these reasons, be specially liable to
be acted upon.
These wider tendencies would, according
to the above hypothesis, be assisted
by
special associations.
These would secure the combination of the two groups of
movements, which I have assumed
to
have been employed
independently as utterances of pleasurable feeling
:
namely,
those involved in smiling, and those underlying the
happy
reiterated sounds of a quasi-infantile babbling.
first
THE ORIGIN OP LAUGHTER
176
One element
the laugh,
in
explosive vigour, seems
its
Here, I think, the
unaccounted for on this hypothesis.
eifect of relief
human
from
laughter,
strain,
may
which
be called
is
common
so
The
in.
For example,
of the child seems to illustrate this element.
that which occurs
and
during tickling, in a game of bo-peep,
at the sight of the
mother makiag
the
first
may
be said to
dissolved.
Perhaps
faces
from a serious attitude suddenly
arise
a factor in
earliest laughter
man
great laugh was produced by
proximate progenitor, when
relief
came
or
by
his
after fear or the
So far as primitive laughter was the outcome of such concentrated energy seeking relief, this circumstance would help to account for the prolongation as well
strain of battle.
as for the strength of the sounds.
Our conjecture cannot lay claim to be a hypothesis. It
makes no attempt to explain the precise forms of the
changes which enter both into the smile and into the laugh.
At
best, it is
only a rough hint as to a possible mode of
genesis.
I
have here treated of the genesis of laughter under
more general aspect as an expression of pleasurable
states of feeling.
We have seen, however, that within the
its
first
three months of hfe another and clearly speciaUsed
variety of laughter emerges, namely, that called forth
foUows from our analysis of the
It
tickling.
tickling that
it
is
one of the
earliest
demands
special
by
of
manifestations, in
a clear form, of the laughter of fun or of play.
it
efiect
As
such,
any attempt to explain
attention in
the development of laughter.
As
form,
a specialised reaction having a clearly
it is
tickling
is
marked
reflex
natural to ask whether laughter in response to
not inherited, and,
evolution of the race.
if
And we
so,
how
it
arose in the
find that suggestions
have
TICKLING OF ANIMALS
been made for explaining the
We
phenomenon.
genesis
177
of
curious
this
will first glance again at the facts,
and
then examine the hypotheses put forward for explaining
them.
Here, again, the question
how
far animals are susceptible
of the effect becomes important.
Darwin's remark, that
more
if
I
have already alluded to
a young chimpanzee
particularly under the armpits, he responds
of laughter.
The sound
The emission
of these sounds
is
amount
of
is
that a
wrinkling in the lower
young chimpanzee when
by
the
of
effect
of
tells
us
He
apes.
tickled for
a slight
Dr. Louis
eyelids.^
on the young of anthropoid
some time under
the armpits would roll over on his back showing
teeth and accompanying the
movements, just as a
child does.
A
The young
all
his
by defensive
simian grin
young ourang
at the
a very similar
Zoological Gardens (London) behaved in
way.
a kind
accompanied by retraction
Kobinson publishes other observations
tickling
by
of a chuckling or laughing kind.
corners of the mouth, and sometimes
of the
is tickled,
of other animals, too, betray
some degree
Stanley Hall remarks that a dog will
of ticklishness.
retract the corners of his
mouth and thus go some way
tickled over the ribs.^
towards smiling
if
finds that horses
and
pigs are also ticklish
;
Dr. Robinson
and he thinks
that these animals have specially ticklish regions, which
correspond to a considerable extent to those which have
been ascertained in the case of the child.
We may now refer to the first appearances of the tickling
reflex in the child.
defensive
1
2
As pointed out above, the response by
movements appears shortly
Ex^ession of the Emotions, pp. 132-3.
See the article already quoted on "The
Laughing,"
etc., p. 33,
after birth, whereas
Psychology
of
Tickling,
THE ORIGIN OF LAUGHTER
178
the earliest instance of a response
second, or in the
be noted that this date
first
is
first clear
occurs in the
It is to
distinctly later than that of the
laughter of pleasure, though
that of the
by laughter
half of the third month.
first
it is
not far removed from
appearance of the laughter of gaiety
or jubilation.
These chronological facts bear out the theory that the
laughter of a tickled child has a distinct psychical antecedent.
follows
:
On this point Dr. L. Robinson writes to me as
"I have never been able to succeed in eliciting
laughter from young infants under three months old
means
by
of tickling, unless one also smiled and caught their
attention in some such
way ".
This evidently points to the
influence of mental agencies
even
in
the
first
stages of
laughter from tickling.
With
respect to the parts in
which the tickling
first
excites laughter, difierent observers appear to have reached
dissimilar results.
Preyer distinctly speaks of the tickling
of the sole of the foot as provoking laughter in the second
month.
Whether he
Dr. Leonard Hill
tried other parts he does not say.
tells
responded to tickling
me
that one of his children first
when
the titillation
attacked the
palm of the hand, or ran up the arm. Responses to the
tickling of the neck and soles of the feet came later.
The
fact
that the efiect of tickling becomes so well
defined by, or soon after, the end of the second month,
proves pretty conclusively that
it is
an inherited reflex
and the evolutionist naturally asks what
it
means, what
significance has been in the life of our ancestors.
its
Dr. Stanley Hall carries back evolutional speculation very
far,
and suggests that
stratum of our psychic
in
in tickling
life,
that
we may have
it is
the oldest
a survival of a process
remote animal progenitors for which touch was the only
„REMOTE_ANCESTRY^P_IlCKLlIiG
He
sense.
179
supposes that in these circumstances even light
or"ininimal"touches, say those coming from the movements
of small parasites, being
unannounced by sight or other
far-reaching sense, would
strong
tionately
explain
how
be accompanied by dispropor-
reactions.
He
does
not
attempt
to
He
laughter grew out of these reactions.
does indeed call them reactions "of escape," but he does
not follow up the idea by hinting that the violent shakings
body by laughter, when
of the
it
came, helped to get
rid of the little pesterers.
In truth, this ingenious thinker
make
the explanation of the laughter
hardly appears to
of tickling, as distinguished
from the other
reactions, the
subject of a special inquiry.^
A
more
serious attempt to explain the evolution of the
laughter of tickling has been
He,
made by Dr. Louis Robinson.
too, hints at the vestigial survival of
parasites,
experiences of
but appears to think that these account only for
the disagreeable effects which are brought about
when
hairy orifices of the nostril and the ear are tickled.
limitation strikes one as a little arbitrary.
of laughter, which Dr. L. Hill called forth
his fingers
run up the arm of his
of a vestigial reflex
The
the
This
reaction
when he made
infant, is surely suggestive
handed down from ages of
parasitic
pestering.^
With regard
to the laughing reaction, which, as
seen, he considers to involve a distinct
mode
we have
of stimulation,
it is an inherited form of that common mode
animals, which consists in an exchange
young
play among
good-natured and make-believe attacks and defences, or a
he suggests that
of
of
sort of
^
See
game
of sham-fight.
tlie article
already quoted.
Dr. Kobinson considers that another agreeable efiect of tickling maybe an inherited echo of the caresses of man's progenitors.
^
THE ORIGIN OF LAUGHTER
180
In support of this theory he lays stress on the fact that
susceptibility to tickling
number
is
shared in by the young of a
of species of animals standing high in point of
intelligence, including not
only the higher apes, but the dog
and the horse. He adds that, in general, there is a concomitance between the degree of playfulness of a young
creature and that of its ticklishness, though lambs and
kids which are not ticklish are allowed to be an
awkward
exception.
If tickling is a playing at fighting
we may
expect
it,
we know that
the
first
rude attacks of man, so far as
like
Now
other kinds of play, to mimic serious forms of assault.
we can
gather from the movements of a passionate infant, took the
forms of striking, tearing with the nails and biting.
may
Robinson
puppy
Dr.
us that about 10 per cent, of the children he
tells
has examined pretended to bite
as a
Tickling
be said to be a sort of mild pretence at clawing.
when they were tickled, just
will do.
Dr. Robinson goes a step farther and seeks to show that
the areas of the bodily surface which are specially ticklish
in children are those likely to be attacked in serious warfare.
In nearly
all
of them, he says,
such as a large artery,
is
some important
structure,
close to the surface
and would be
were penetrated.
They would
liable to injury if the skin
thus be highly vulnerable regions, and consequently those
which would be singled out for attacks by teeth or claws.
He
argues that the same relation holds in the case of
animals which attack one another in the same
The regions of
way
as
man.
special ticklishness in their case, too, appear
to correspond, roughly at least, with vulnerable regions.
Indeed, in the
young chimpanzee and the young ourang
these ticklish areas are approximately the same as in the
child.
TICKLING AS PLAY-COMBAT
181
From all this he concludes that ticklishness, being bound
up with the mimic warfare which fills so large a space in
the life of many young animals, has its utility.
The
strong liking to be tickled, which children and, apparently,
some other young animals express,
serves, in combination
with the playful impulse to carry out this gentle mode
of attack, to develop
mimic attacks and defences which
and serious
are of high value as training for the later
warfare.
These applications of the evolution theory are certainly
and promising.
interesting
parasites
I think the idea of relief
might be worked out
May
further.
it
from
not be that
the light touches given by the fingers of the parent, or
other
member
parasites
of the ancestral family
when hunting
for
on the surface of the young animal, have, by
association with the efieets of relief from the troublesome
visitors,
have
developed
an
agreeable
feeling-tone
As we
?
mental
seen, the laughter of tickling has a distinctly
antecedent
;
it
appears in the child, only
ning to enjoy laughingly
little
when he
begin-
is
pinches on the cheek, and
The
otherwise to show a germ of a sense of fun.
light
and of
touches, reminiscent at once of unpleasant settlers,
delivering fingers, would, one imagines, be exactly fitted
to
supply that dissolution into nothing of momentary
apprehension indicated by our analysis of the
mental
factor in tickling.
With
respect to Dr. Robinson's hypothesis,
knowledged ungrudgingly to be a
tical construction.
facts,
palm
of the
is
may
be ac-
hypothe-
But, as the writer frankly confesses, the
here and there, do not point in
serious objection
it
brilliant piece of
its direction.
A
very
the fact that the sole of the foot and the
hand are not taken
to establish a correspondence
into account in his attempt
between the
ticklish areas of
THE ORIGIN OF LAUGHTER
182
the surface and a high degree of vulnerability.
Hall's returns it
is
the sole of the foot which
quently mentioned as a ticklish area
it
was the
first to
and, as
;
In Stanley
is
most
we have
fre-
seen,
give rise to laughter in the case of one
child at least.i
There
is
another and more serious objection to Dr. Robin-
One may urge
that the occurrence of such violent movements would, by
shaking the body and by inducing fatigue much earlier than
son's theory as
need
an explanation of laughter.
be detrimental to that prolonged
be, pretty certainly
practice of skill in attack
son attaches so
much
and defence,
The supposition that
playmate
;
among combative animals
The
I think, highly probable.
is
which Dr. Robin-
a variety of play de-
tickling is
veloped by natural selection
children,
to
importance.
is,
play of animals, like that of
largely a form of social activity involving a
and
is
apt, as
we know,
to take the form of
attack and defence, as in chasing, throwing over, pretending
to bite, etc.
These playful attacks
closely related to teasing
;
merely a play-imitation of the
first
stage of combat, that of
Tickling pretty ob-
challenging or exciting to contest.^
viously finds a fitting place
we have seen,
may be viewed as
are, as
indeed, teasing
among
the simpler forms of
playful combat which have a teasing-like character.
over, these forms of social play all
More-
seem to show, in a
particularly clear manner, the utility referred to in the
preceding chapter.
1 Stanley Hall also suggests that the most ticklish parts, which, according to his inquiries, are the sole of the foot, the throat, etc., are the " most
vulnerable ". But he does not explain what he means by vulnerable here,
and certainly does not appear
to use the
word
in the sense given
it
by
Dr. L. Eobinson.
^ Groos deals with the teasing of animals under the head of " Fighting
Plays " {Play of Ammals, p. 136 ff.).
LAUGHTER
UTILITY OF
Now,
IN
TICKLING
this idea will, I think, help us to
loud and prolonged laughter came to join
bative
game
it
understand how
itself to
the com-
and being
play — pure,
—was to be developed out of teasing attacks,
of tickling
good-natured play
183
tickled.
If
would become a matter of the highest importance that
first
of
all,
that the assailant
not serious attack, but
its
made
it
it
This would mean,
should be clearly understood to be such.
clear that his
playful semblance
;
aim was
and secondly,
that the attacked party expressed his readiness to accept the
assault in
good part
as sport.
would be of the greatest
It
consequence to the animal that chanced to be in the play-
mood and wished
to
make overtures
of friendly
combat that
he should be sure of an equally gamesome attitude in the
One may
see this by watching
what happens when a dog, unwisely trying to force a frolic
on another dog, is met by a growl and possibly by an uncovering of the canine teeth.
Now, what better sign of
recipient of the challenge.
good-temper, of readiness to accept the attack as pure fun,
could nature have invented than the laugh
doubfc, a pretty
?
The smile is, no
Yet
good indicator in some circumstances.
one must remember that the rudimentary smile of an apelike ancestor
our
own
may, now and again, have been misleading, as
A laugh would presumably
smiles are apt to be.
be less easy to affect in such circumstances than a smile
any
and, in
case, it
would be far
less liable to
be over-
looked.
In saying that the laughter which accompanies tickling
and other
value to
closely allied
its
forms of play in children owes
being an admirable
friendly playful mood, I do not
absent.
mean
its
of announcing the
that other signs are
Dr. L. Robinson reminds us that a tickled child
will roll over
and the
way
on
his
rolling over
back just
seem
like a
to be
puppy.
The laughter
two congenitally connected
THE ORIGIN OF LAUGHTER
184
modes
of
abandonment
of other ticklish animals,
may
It
In the young
to the playful attack.
e.g.,
the puppy, the rolling over
of itself suffice to give the friendly signal.
seems not unlikely that this consideration, the
utility
of laughter as a guarantee to a playful challenger that his
overtures will be received in the proper spirit, applies to the
evolution of
ally
laughter which enters into such forms of
all
play as the pretence to attack, to frighten, and gener-
social
what we
call
good-natured teasing.
It
has been
suggested that teasing might well be taken as the starting-
By
point in the evolution of play.^
by regarding
we might
a feature of social play,
sideration
of
utility
by the
much, at
fact,
with this con-
One
is
tempted, too, to follow this
recognised in
common
language, that
the later and more refined laughter
least, of
analogous to the
set out
constructing our theory of the
in
evolution of laughter.
course
adopting this idea, and
laughter, in its elementary form, as essentially
is
effect of tickling.^
Nevertheless, as
we have seen,
the best evidence attainable
points to the conclusion that this simple form of the laughter
was preceded by, and grew out
of social play
of,
a less
specialised
kind of laughter, that of sudden accession of
pleasure.
We may
by
tickling
conjecture that the laughter provoked
was reached
in the evolution of our race soon
after this reaction passed out of its primal
tiated
and undifferen-
form as a general sign of pleasurable excitement, and
began to be specialised as the expression of mental gaiety
and
of
something like our
hilarity.
^
H. M. Stanley, Psychological Beview,
2
This idea, that
when we laugh
mentally analogous to that
The
fact,
noted above,
1899, p. 87.
at ludicrous things the process
of being tickled,
is
funda-
has been made the basis
of a
curious and suggestive physiological theory of laughter, developed by a
German
writer.
See Ewald Hecker, Die Physiologie und Psychologic des
Lachens v/nd des Komischen.
THE OLDEST FORM OP LAUGHTER
that children only laugh in response to tickling
are in a pleasurable state of
mind seems
hypothesis that the love of fun, which
tickling
and makes
it
of mirthful play with
is
to
185
when they
confirm the
at the bottom of
perhaps the earliest clear instance
its
element of make-believe,
first
emerged gradually out of a more general feeling of gladness.
186
CHAPTER
VII.
DEVELOPMENT OF LAUGHTEB DURING THE PIEST THREE
YEARS OP LIFE.
Having examined
the earliest and
germs of the laughing impulse
to the
consideration of
during the
the
new
its
distinctly hereditary
in the child,
we may pass
expansion and specialisation
am
Although, so far as I
first years.
aware,
child-study has not yet produced a methodical
record of the changes which this interesting expression of
feeling undergoes,
we may by
accessible be able to trace out
of
development.
its
Two
how
help of such data as are
some of the main directions
closely connected
problems are involved here
(a)
:
the expressive movements, the laugh and the smile,
themselves change and get differentiated
;
and
(b)
how
the
psychical process which precedes and excites these expressive
movements grows
and differences itself
amusement enumerated
in complexity
into the various forms of gaiety or
above.
In dealing with these early manifestations
course, look for reactions
we
shall, of
which are spontaneous,
in the
and the lead of others.
determine what are such.
sense of not being due to imitation
Yet
it
It has
will not
always be easy to
been pointed out above that laughter
is
the most contagious of the expressive movements.
dren, therefore,
who
are
much given
to imitation
one of
Chil-
may
be
HOW
TO GET PURE CHILD'S LAUGHTER
187
expected to show this contagiousness in a particularly clear
manner.
The
however, not really so formidable as
difficulties are,
they might at
seem to
first
If a child
be.
is,
on the one
hand, highly susceptible to the contagion of laughter, there
is,
is
on the other, no expression of his feeling in which he
more spontaneous. The swift directness of the " natural
may
or spontaneous laugh
Not only
fine observer.
in the tone of
and
the laughter
and when
real,
The note
of affected laughter
child is not
it
perfectly natural
is
It
is
well
known
artificial.
particularly plain
is
careful
to
where a
merely reproducing the laughter of others at
the moment, but has
is
when
may be detected
merely imitative and
is
it
observers of children.
thing
be readily discriminated by a
but a difference
so,
laughable.
it
suggested to him by others that a
Miss Shinn's niece developed at the
end of the second year a forced laugh on hearing the word
" funny " employed by others.
The
best safeguard against this error
only child
who
is
is
This need not be so cruel an experiment as
the social world of the merry
told,
to choose
an
well isolated from mirthful surroundings.
little
was a "laughing person".
great value to the observations
it looks.
Ruth, nobody,
we
In
are
This circumstance gives
made on
this child.
Her
laughter was probably as purely self-initiated as anything
in child-life can be.
It
may
be added that, even
the imitative and the
be a pretty wide
own
artificial
leave us dull
"
is
could not eliminate
would
still
observation in the child's
For, as all his friends
know, his
frequently a response to things which
grown-ups
in quite another
we
element, there
field for careful
freer type of mirth.
hearty laughter
if
way.
"
wholly
unafl'ected,
or affected
DEVELOPMENT OF LAUGHTER
188
With regard
to the development of the expressive move-
ments themselves I can find but few data at hand.
are enough, however, to
show that the process
commences during the
tion
first
These
of differentia-
Mrs. Moore
year.
tells
us that her boy in the thirty-third week acquired a new
form
of smile "
which gradually but not entirely supplanted
the (earlier) broad open-mouthed smile.
wrinkled up, the eyes nearly
to express an extreme
closed.
.
.
.
.
.
The nose was
.
This smile seemed
and more conscious enjoyment."
Preyer remarks that his boy developed in the
months
of the first year
"
a
laughter," which, presumably,
I
of
difierent character as
In the case of the boy C, of
an expressive movement.
whom
had a
last three
movement
more conscious
^
have written elsewhere, a new and clearly
difier-
was detected in the laugh of defiance (to
be referred to later) which appeared early in the second
enced note
Mrs.
year.
Hogan
says she noticed a
at the age of fifty-five
the
first "
"
mischievous laugh"
weeks, whereas Preyer remarks that
roguish laugh
"
end of the second year.
occurred in his boy's case at the
A
more
precise
phonetic changes in laughter during the
years
is
record of the
first
two or three
greatly to be desired.
The movements of laughter are subject to the laws of
movement in general. Repetition and Habit. They tend to
and the result probably
perfect themselves by practice
;
involves a strengthening and an expansion of the wide-
ranging organic commotion which makes up the reaction.
A
child of four will laugh on being tickled
vigorously than one of two.^
much more
Moreover, the
efiiect
of
repeated exercises of the function would seem, as already
1
Loc.
^
I
am
cit., p.
39.
indebted for this fact to Dr. L. Hill.
applies to all the laughter of play.
I believe
a like remark
CHANGES
IN
MOVEMENTS OP LAUGHTER
189
up
in the motor-centres,
from
which the discharge in laughter
issues, a condition of
high
hinted, to involve the setting
instability, so that a
very slight application of the stimulus,
or (as in the case of tickling) the
suffices to
evoke the reaction.
mere threat
Lastly, this
to apply this,
work
of organ-
isation will plainly involve a fixing of the connection in
the brain-centres between the effect of the stimulation and
the motor reaction.
We
say that the impulse of laughter
has become associated with a definite kind of sense-pre-
The
sentation.
ing fingers
instant response of a child to the threaten-
a
is
clear
example of the result of such an
associative co-ordination.
Other examples are seen when
a particular sight or sound takes on permanently a funny
A
character.
child that has
come
funny
whenever
will laugh
regard a figure in
the nurse as
this recurs or is
spoken
of,
moment is favourable.
This is a noteworthy illustration of the way in which the
which, as we all allow,
action of the novel and unexpected
provided that the
mood
to
made by
a picture book or an odd sound
of
the
—
has a large rSle in the excitation of laughter
replaced
which
It
by that
itself
may
—may
be
of an antagonistic force, namely, habit,
appears to secure the hilarious response.
be added that so far as Habit comes
the importance of the initial
in,
reducing
psychical stage, and rendering
the reaction automatic, the theory of Lange and James
applies fairly well.
The
this case largely the reflex
feeling of genial hilarity is in
mental
effect of
the
movements
themselves, including the whole organic commotion brought
about.
Coming now to the development of the psychical element
in laughter, we may, by way of introduction, refer to certain
principles
(a)
which ought to be useful.
with, any variety
To begin
of
emotional reaction
DEVELOPMENT OP LAUGHTER
190
excited by a particular kind of presentation appears, as
repeated, to undergo a process of development, taking
it is
on more of fulness and complexity. A feeling of attachment to a person or to a place, or of admiration for a
cherished work of art, grows fuller and deeper with the
establishment of a relation of intimacy.
Dimly
realised
resonances of former like experiences melt into, and deepen
the
and new
feeling,
woven
elements are
associative complication,
and by growing
into
by
it
This
reflection.
increasing complexity affects both the ideational basis of
the emotion and the closely connected emotional tone
At
first
sight
we might
itself.^
be disposed to think that the
feel-
ing of sudden joy at the back of a merry explosion would
prove to be an exception to this law.
Since an element of
novelty, a sense of joyous mental collapse under a sudden,
yet harmless stimulus, runs through
all
our laughter, there
might seem to be no room for any increase of depth and
volume.
But
this
it "
in
volume and
The
not
so.
A
child's feeling of the
hand seems
"fun
to gain
force with the repetition of the experience.
enjoyment of a laughing romp with the
zest of the
nurse, or, better,
ways
is
at the approach of the tickling
of
of a kitten,
with the father, of watching the funny
and
so forth,
grows
fuller because of the in-
creasing complication of the psychosis behind the laughter.^
(6)
In the second place the development of an emotion
essentially a differentiation of
definite
is
not merely into a more
kind of experience as a whole, but into a number of
•The nature
and the
treated,
it,
of
the process of emotional development
is
more
fully
relation o£ its efieot to that of the dulling action of repeti-
is indicated, in my work, The Human Mmd, vol. ii., p. 75 ft.
Of course, increase of volume might arise through a widening of the
sensational factor in the experience, due to the larger diffusion of somatic
tion
'
stimulation, which, as already remarked,
laughter.
is
an element in the expansion
of
GROWTH OP LAUGHING PSYCHOSIS
distinguishable sub-varieties of feeling.
the reaction
is
called forth
by new
191
In other words,
excitants
and new modes
of stimulation which give rise to mental complexes some-
what
different
Thus, as
from those caused by the
we mentally
earlier excitants.
develop, admirations having a richer
ideational structure
and more complexity of feeling -tone
take the place of the
first
simple ones, which last die out or
survive only as rudimentary processes.
This enlargement of the field of exciting objects, with the
concomitant differencing of the emotional state into a larger
and larger number of shades,
process of mental growth.
It
is
the outcome of the whole
means,
first
of
all,
differentiation of the child's experience, that
the growing
is,
of his per-
ceptions and ideas, as well as the expansion of his reflective
In this
processes.
way a modified
admiration attaches
itself
new kind of object, e.g., works of art, virtuous actions,
when these come to be perceived and reflected on in such a
way as to disclose their admirable side.
to a
In
all
such extensions the emotional reaction remains in
may
say, if
ferred " to a
We
elements one and the same experience.
its essential
we like, that the expression has been " transnew situation or a new experience, through the
working of a force which has been
called " the analogy of
feeling "}
This process of extension by analogy of situation and
attitude
may
of laughter.
be seen to be a constituent in the development
Taking
its
primitive form to be the expression
of a sudden raising of the feeling-tone of consciousness to
the level of gladness
1
—which
elevation
may
be supposed to
This expression is commonly used only where an expression
on to a palpably dissimilar
feeling.
But an
is
passed
essentially similar process
takes place, according to my view, within the limits of development of
we call the same emotion.
what
DEVELOPMENT OF LAUGHTER
192
involve at least an appreciable sense of relief from a fore-
going state of strain or oppressive dulness
see
how
the reaction
is
—we may readily
passed on, so to speak, to analogous
mental attitudes which are developed
later.
Let us take as an example a child who, having reached
a
dim apprehension of the customary behaviour of things
begins to laugh at certain odd deviations from
Here
this.
the transition appears clearly to be a kind of transference
mediated by the identity of the mental attitude with that
of the laughter of an earlier stage, say at the sight of the
new and
entertaining baubles.
consciousness of rule
it
is
on" by pretending
Similarly when, after the
developed, a child roguishly
to disobey,
we may regard
" tries
the
new
outburst of the spirit of fun as a natural transition from
an
laughing pretence of running
earlier variety, the
away
from mother or nurse.
we have to do here with more than a mere
Such extensions always involve some amount
Nevertheless,
transference.
of complication
and enrichment
of the mirthful experience.
These later forms of mental gaiety depend on the develop-
ment of more complex psychoses, both on the
and on the emotional side. The first amusement
intellectual
at the sight
of the ill-matched, the inconsequent, implies the advance of
an analytic
reflection
A
of relations.
up
to the point of a
dim perception
large part of the extension of the field of
the laughable depends on this intellectual advance, a finer
and more precise apprehension of what
parts
and so as a whole, as
things.
With
the emotional
of laughter
is
presented, in
its
also in its relations to other
respect to the other condition, expansion of
life, it is
which
fall
enough to remark that
within the
first
certain forms
years of
life arise
directly out of a deepening of the emotional consciousness
as a whole,
e.g.,
the awakening of the
" self-feeling,"
as seen
COMPLICATION AND DIFFERENTIATION
in the laughter of success or
triumph
;
on the other
or,
hand, of tenderness and sympathy, as illustrated
first
in the
rudiments of a kindly humour.
We
a feature in development, differen-
see, then, that, as
tiation into a multiplicity of
forms
number
inseparably connected
is
The gradual appearance
with another feature, complication.
of a
193
of laughters variously toned, such as that of
slightly malicious elation at collapse of dignity, of entertain-
ment at an intellectual inconsequence, and of a kindly
amusement at a petty disaster, means that the elemental
by
feeling of joy is getting modified
tions of
A
new
final
Among
accretions or absorp-
psychical elements.
remark
needed to prevent misapprehension.
is
the several processes of complication which underlie
this differentiation of the laughing psychosis,
arrest or tone
down
sympathy comes
the reaction.
some tend to
It is thus that,
when
to be united with the laughing impulse^
the gaiety of the latter
is
apt to become subdued into
something between a smile and the gentlest of laughs.
In
addition to this inhibitory effect of heterogeneous emotional
elements
we have
that of
new
conative attitudes.
A child
soon finds out that a good deal of his rollicking laughter
offence,
and the work
of
With these general
now
may
considerations to help us,
first
we may
three years.
differentiated
dissimilar attitudes.
as signs of qualitatively
In the case of Ruth the two expres-
sions remained for a time interchangeable,
'
an
be premised that the smile and the laugh only
become gradually
and frequently
application of the principle of arrest to the changes in emotional
has been made with great success by Th. Bibot in his volume, Psy-
The
states
is
spirits begins.^
look at the course of development of the laughing
experience during the
It
taming the too wild
ehologie des Sentiments, p. 260
flf.
13
DEVELOPMENT OF LAUGHTER
194
same
alternated in the
129th day the smile,
of
its specialised
Coming now
But about the
of joyous delight.
fit
it is
remarked, began to take on one
functions, the social one of greeting.
we have found
to laughter,
that
it
begins
at an early date to pass from a general sign of sudden
increase of pleasure or good spirits into something akin
This has been illustrated in the early
to mirthful play.
responses to tickling, and, a
a laughing game
By what
to laugh
when
may ask,
does the impulse
the heart suddenly grows glad pass into the
?
Allowing, as seems certain, that the play-
inherited, can
is
simple forms of
bo-peep).
process of change, one
laughter of play
impulse
(e.g.,
little later, to
we
connection between the two
point out
any psychological
?
The answer has already been given
in substance in our
general analysis of the causes of laughter.
when
of pleasurable consciousness,
and becomes gladness, say the
it
A
sudden
possesses the
rise
mind
infant's flood of delight at
the swinging coloured baubles, necessarily dissolves, for the
time, the tense, serious attitude into a loose, play-like one.
The
child's
his bauble
;
consciousness
and play
is
is
now
all
just another
gladness in face of
way
of effecting this
dissolution of the serious attitude into a large gladness.
Not only
so,
but the elemental mood of laughter resembles
the play-mood, since
make-believe.
interest
it finds its
The gladdening
satisfaction in pretence or
object divested of all serious
becomes a play-thing, a mere semblance of the thing
of practical account
moments.
which the
Its greeting
child observed in the serious
by the senses may be
indeed, as a kind of play of these senses.
described,
Hence, the
specialisation of the primal laughter of delight into that
of fun
would appear
to be one of the simplest processes in
the whole development of the emotion.
LAUGHTER OF JOY AND OF FUN
We may now
briefly trace out
some
195
of the phases
of
development of these two primal forms of laughter.
With regard to the laughter of delight and jollity, we
judge from the careful record of Ruth's emotional
find, to
and
utterances, that there is a rapid development during
child
was thrown
expressed
crowing
itself
—by
we
read, the
into a state of vivacious delight
in smiles,
—which
movements, in cooing and
in
and voices which may be said
the faces
have "played" to
to
In this month,
the fourth month.^
after
her as
she
advent of the meal was that of a
sat
at
The
table.
new joyous
world, and,
the child could have spoken, she would probably have
if
exclaimed, " Oh,
what fun
"
!
The
large change effected
by
the return of a familiar face and voice after an absence
was only another way of transforming her world into a
merry one.
Towards the end of the fifth month, the note-book speaks
over and over again of "jollity" and "high spirits," of the
child's " laughing with glee when any one smiled or spoke
to her," of "being exceedingly jolly, smiling, kicking
and so
sputtering,"
be the outcome of
to
new expansions
consciousness, of a piu-e
its
and
This growing gleefulness seemed
forth.
"
Lebenslust
".
of the pleasurable
No
doubt
it
had
obscure source in a pleasurable coenaesthesis, the result
of merrily
life.
of the
Yet
life
muscular
are told,
working digestive and other processes of organic
it
had
its
higher conditions, also, in the expansion
of the senses
activities.
and in the growing range of the
Laughter and shouts of joy would, we
accompany not merely the inrush
and sounds, but the new use
of delightful sights
of bodily powers in exploring
and experimenting.
1
Miss Shinn's observations are recorded in Parts
Notes.
III.
and IV.
of her
DEVELOPMENT OP LAUGHTER
196
new world showed
The new appearance
This gaiety in taking possession of her
itself in
the greeting of friendly faces.
an absence excited her laughter
of her grandfather after
on the 133rd day.
By
about the middle of the year, the
child had, like Preyer's boy, developed a jubilant greeting
nod with
for her social belongings, nodding a friendly
all
the signs of huge delight.
may sometimes
These outbursts of laughing joy
to have been preceded
be seen
a distinctly disagreeable state of
In the case of Ruth,
feeling.
jollity
by
we
are told that the
fit
of
broke out, on one or two occasions, upon "instan-
taneous relief from great general discomfort
the 222nd day, having
awoke and
with joy and a sense of
the room.
I
relief
Again, on
".
felt timid,
she laughed
when her mother came
of overflowing gladness
is
often to
some extent a
Thus, a boy of one and a half years
constraint.
into
have other evidence to show that this laughter
relief
from
who had
a
new nurse, and for some days behaved with great gravity
when with her, was during the same period "extremely
hilarious " when alone with his parents.
The gladness
girl
of the
world grew larger to this happy
when, towards the end of the seventh month, she was
taken into the open
and, shortly after, allowed to
air,
lie
The wooing of the
sun and shadow, the large
on a quilt and roU on the ground.
passing freshness, the play of
stir of life in
her and
With
old,
moving and sounding
made her
this
may
"
things, all this possessed
laugh and ejaculate with pleasure
".
be compared a note on a boy nine months
who, lying in a clothes-basket in a garden one summer's
day, looked
up
laughed with
"
at the leaves dancing in the sunshine
a hearty noisy laugh
The development
year brought
our
of
and
".
bodily power in this same half-
little
maiden much gleeful laughter.
EARLY FORMS OF GAIETY
Any
filled
197
experience of movement, passive as well as active,
To
her with noisy hilarity.
brought out, at the end of the
ride on anybody's foot
month, the unmis-
fifth
A month later, the
by the new frolicsome ex-
takable signs of hilarious rapture.
gleeful explosion
was
perience of being
jumped and tossed. Similar expressions
when new active movements were accom-
of mirth occurred
plished.
we
In the record of the middle of the ninth month,
are told of a medley of movements, tumbling on the
floor or
lawn, sitting up and lying down, raising herself on
the feet and hands,
A
of
called out
etc.,
which brought her
singular joy
".
part of the gleefulness of this widening experience
movement
due to
is
probable that the
unexpected
its
seems
It
results.
successful experiments in crawling,
first
climbing and the rest
of muscular
may
give rise to
new complexes
and other sensations which come as a joyful
surprise.
Such
impressive
when
For example, a
the arms and hands begin to experiment.
aged two and a quarter years,
little girl,
her head, and was seized
gleeful outburst
grow more varied and
delightful surprises
happened when throwing a
first
"
is
random
with a spasm of
ball at
to jerk
— half-wonderful,
when
over
The
hilarity.
apt to occur, too, later on
achieves the feat
it
a child
half -amusing
—of
walking, of running and of jumping.^
In these expanding processes of
we may
detect the beginnings of
of laughing enjoyment.
jollity or
more
gleefulness
specialised
forms
Thus, in the outburst of merri-
ment which winds up a successful attempt to climb, we
germ of that mode of reaction which is apt
recognise the
to follow at the
moment
of sudden relaxation of tension
on the attainment of an end.
We may
be sure that a child
1 For a pretty reminiscent description of a first experience
and jumping, see Pierre Loti, Boman d'tm Enfant, ii., p. 4 fE.
of
running
DEVELOPMENT OP LAUGHTER
198
of nine
months
very serious
finds the effort to stand a
;
which occurs in
case
this
may
and
and exhausting strain
is
infer that the laughter
momentary
largely due to
relaxations of this strain.
But again, these experiences clearly supply conditions
favourable to the emergence of that " sudden glory " which
enters into successful effort.
of little
Ruth
The " .shouting and laughing
(forty -five weeks)
"
on completing the magni-
ficent exploit of climbing the staircase had, as her aunt's
epithet
" exultant "
recognises,
something
of
breathing jubilation of the successful mountain
We
are told further that, in the tenth month,
the
-
free-
climber.
Ruth would
break into the same exultant laugh after some successful
mental
this
such as pointing out the right picture
effort,
was asked
Here, then,
when
for.
we have the laughter of a joyous feeling-tone
new elements. These include, not merely the
complicated by
some
dim form of an agreeable consciousness of growing power
and of an expanding self. In the glee on mastering a new
movement, e.g., riding on somebody's foot, we see traces
of a more distinctly playful mood.
We may now follow
out the development of this large variety of gamesome
delightful feeling of relief after prolonged effort, but
mirth.
The overflow
of the health-filled reservoirs of muscular
activity begins at
an early stage to wear an unmistak-
able aspect of playfulness.
The
first
exercises in crawling,
accompanied by various sounds of contentment and gladness,
are indeed recognisable
As the
by
all
as
a kind of play.
forces of the organism establish themselves a
manifest bent to a romping kind of game appears.
more
This,
game in which co-operation enters, involves a development of the social consciousness, and its gleefulness comes
as a
FROM GLADNESS TO MIRTH
199
from the reverberations of mutual sympathy.
in part
good example of the hilarity of a romping game
uproarious delight, in the seventh month,
A
Ruth's
is
when dragged
about on a carpet, an experience which involved, of course,
much
loss of equilibrium
and some amount
of
awkward
That the bumps were of the essence of the
bumping.
enjoyment
is
confirmed by the fact that, in the tenth month,
she would like to stand, holding on to a chair, and then
deliberately to let herself go so as to "
come down
sitting
with a thud," winding up the performance by "looking
up laughing and triumphant ". Another game involving
exciting jolts was liked in the middle of the twelfth month.
The child was shot in her carriage, now from the aunt
to the mother, and now back, each little ride ending up
with a jolt, over which she grew very merry. Later on,
end of the twentieth month) she laughed heartily
(at the
on being knocked down by her dog in a too pushful
bit
and she enjoyed in like manner some pretty rough
play at the hands of a nine-year-old boy companion.
This mirthful treatment of romps, which must have in-
of play
;
volved a palpable amount of discomfort,
showing how laughter plays
serious.
least, to
This
little girl
aboiit
seems,
up
is
interesting as
the confines of the
to the age of three, at
have been curiously indifierent to pain.
common
Yet she
was not wanting
in
looks, then, as
the fun of these rather rough games
if
the
childish
timidity.
It
turned on dissolutions of nascent attitudes of apprehension,
and, consequently, the laughter expressed something of a
joyous contempt of
fear.
Indeed,
it
seems likely that an
element of this joyous rebound from a half-developed state
of fear entered into
illustrated,
much
of this child's laughter, already
on succeeding in a rather risky experiment, such
as climbing the staircase.
We
read that, like other vigorous
DEVELOPMENT OF LAUGHTER
200
was a keen pursuer of new experiences, even
which she knew that some pain was involved.
children, she
in cases in
The passion
new experiments seems
for trying
urged her on, in spite of nascent fear
ing and laughing
joy of successful
timid
and the
a sense of triumph over the weaker
hardy experi-
ability, illustrated in these
ments, to turn situations suggestive of danger into
play,
was a singular proof
this child's prevalent
to have
final shout-
well have announced, along with the
effort,
The
self.
may
;
"
larkish
of the firm foundation on
mode
"
which
of gaiety reposed.
In some cases Ruth's play would take on a form which
clearly involved a triumphing over fear.
told that
''
we
Thus,
are
when, on the 429th day, she was asked to find
auntie " in the dark she at
first
stood
and
still
silent.
Then, when her head was touched by somebody's hands,
she broke into laughter and started off by herself to explore
in the dark.
this laughing
Later on, with the growth of a bolder
triumph over fear extended
itself,
spirit,
so that
in the twenty-ninth month she played at bear with her
uncle,
going into a dark room, with her hand in her
aunt's,
and enjoying
"
the exhilaration of unreal alarm "
and when the uncle sprang out from
growling fearfully, she
"
his
dark hiding-place,
laughed, shrieked and fled
all
in
went a little too far in the use of
the alarming she would check him by saying, " Don't do
one
".
If the uncle
that again
".
In these cases,
it is
evident,
with alternating phases.
itself at
we have
The
a complex psychosis
awful delight
which vents
once in a laugh and in a shriek and a flight
tainly of a
mixed
feeling-tone.
The laughter
is
is cer-
the note of
a triumphant spirit, and yet of one in which, in the
moment
of triumph, the nascent fear leaves its trace.
In these laughing games we have clearly an element of
MIRTH AS REBOUND FROM FEAR
make-believe.
A firm persuasion, low down in consciousness,
bump and
of the harmlessness of the coming
bear in the blackness keeps the
little girl's
of the
human
heart steady and
At the same
turns the adventure into fun.
3,8
201
time, the play
"pretending" would seem to involve at least a half-
formed expectation of something, and probably,
too,
a final
taste of delicious surprise at the fully realised nothingness
In some forms of play-pretence
of the half -expected.
element of
this
expectation becomes more
final annihilation of
conspicuous and the distinct source of the hilarious exulta-
When,
tion.
for example, in the eleventh
month, Kuth
sit-
ting on the floor held out her arms to be taken up, and the
this, stooped and kissed the child,
was a perfect peal of laughter again and again.
The increase of muscular activity shown in the laughing
romps leads to the extension of mirthful enjoyment in an-
mother, instead of doing
there
other way.
A
when
vigorous child, even
a
girl,
grows
aggressive and attempts various forms of playful attack.
As we have
seen, to tickle another
is
merely one variety of
a large class of teasing operations, in which the teased as
well as the teasing party
is
Regarding now the child as
supposed to find his merriment.
begins to exercise at once his
durance.
The pulling
of whiskers
forms of practical jokes.
week
month the
first
and
"
we see that he very early
own powers and others' en-
teaser,
one of the earliest
to this pastime in the
By
the end of the sixth
of the fifth month.
little
is
Ruth took
tormentor had grown aware of her power,
became most eager
clamour, at the nose,
one that held her".
to pull,
ear,
and
with laughter and exultant
especially the hair, of
The boy C,
at the
same age, delighted
in pulling his sister's hair, and
was moved by her
only to outbursts of laughter.
As
these practical jokes
any
cries
intelligence develops,
grow more cunning.
Another
little
DEVELOPMENT OF LAUGHTER
202
of
girl,
whom
I
have written elsewhere under the
when seventeen months
M.,
" tick-tick,"
looking very saucy
;
she tugged at his moustache,
it,
initial
father's.
and as he stooped to give
and almost choked with
''
".
laughter
With
asked for her
old,
this teasing of
When
animals.
human companions we have
sixteen months old,
cat with shouts of laughter.
that of
Ruth would chase
Another
child, a boy,
the'
about
the same age, went considerably further, and taking the
pufF from
toilet
"
Moses," the
its
pufi"
proper
who was
and proceeded
fire,
the
cat,
to
place
went deliberately
to-
sitting unsuspectingly before the
powder him, each new application of
being accompanied by a short chuckle.
There
is
no need of reading into
cruel exultation over suffering.^
this laughter the note of
Ruth's mischievous doings
would take forms which had not even the semblance of
cruelty.
There was merely impish playfulness in the act of
snatching off her grandmother's spectacles and even her cap,
with
full
accompaniment
month when
lifted to
of laughter, in the twenty-second
spirit the other little girl, M., delighted,
in untying the maid's apron strings
much
when two
In
say good-night.
the
same
years old,
and in other jocose forms
of mischief.
The laughing mood
in these cases
is
understandable as
a rioting in newly realised powers, a growing exultation
as the consciousness of ability to produce striking effects
grows
clearer.
violently
Ruth, in her eleventh month, blew a whistle
and looked round laughing
others present.
to her aunt and the
Here, surely, the laughter was that of
I have met with to a suggestion of a wish to
pain in this early practical joking is the following The child M.
when two years old stood on her mother's foot saying, " Oh, my poor toe "
But it seems reasonable to say that in such moments of frolic pain is quite
'
The nearest approaoli
inflict
:
!
unrepresentable.
MIRTH AS RIOTOUS EXULTATION
rejoicing in a
new power.
form of
clearer
This sense of power implies a
" self -feeling
".
A
child
moments
the moments of
conscious of the self in such
grows
as he
in "
203
of
may grow
newly
keenly
tried powers,
intense pain
".
This
laughter, then, furnishes a good illustration of the sudden
glory on which Hobbes lays emphasis.
have assumed that in
I
this laughing mischief
do with a form of (playful) teasing.
The
we have
enjoys the fun of the attack and counts on your enjoying
The indulgence
also.
of others, even
if
to
assailant
little
it
they do not show
an equal readiness for the pastime, removes
all
thought of
disobedience, of lawlessness.
Yet things do not commonly remain at
this point of
The gathering energies of the
child, encouraged by indulgence in games of romp, are pretty
perfectly innocent fun.
certain to develop distinctly rowdyish proceedings.
for example,
when about twenty-one months
old,
Ruth,
scrambled
defiantly on to the table at the close of a meal, seized on the
salts,
and scampered about laughing.
new
this
plate
About the same time
rowdyism showed itself in flinging a
Little boys,
across the room and other mutinous acts.
spirit of
much given
fun which they know
I suspect, are
to experiments in a violent kind
of
to be disorderly.
One
of them,
aged two years eight and a half mouths, was fond of
it
on
"
by
"
trying
pulling hair-pins out of his mother's hair, splashing
in the puddles in the road,
and so
forth, to her great per-
plexity and his plainly pronounced enjoyment.
In these outbursts of laughing rowdyism we see more
than an escape of pent-up energies, more than a mere
overflow of
factor,
child of
and
"
high spirits
"
;
they are complicated by a new
something of the defiant temper of the
two has had some experience
may
rebel.
A
of real disobedience,
be said to have developed simple ideas of order
DEVELOPMENT OF LAUGHTER
204
and
We may
law.
reasonably infer, then, that in this
some consciousness of setting law
The presence of this new psychical factor is
turbulent fun there
at defiance.
is
In
seen in the alteration of the laughing sounds themselves.
we
Ruth's case,
are told,
they were
natural and joyous utterance.
method
"
rough " and unlike the
It is further seen in the
of the fun, for, as Miss Shinn observes,
how
repeatedly to see
far she could
Ruth
" tried
go safely in roguish
naughtiness".
I think
we
find in this behaviour a clear
instance of
laughter becoming an ingredient in the attitude of throwing
off a
customary
It is the early analogue of the
restraint.
laughter of the rowdies bent on window-smashing, of the
riotous enjoyment of the people at festal seasons
when
the
lord of misrule holds sway.
The degree
of conscious defiance of order
vary greatly.
much
In
what we view
of
may, no doubt,
as the disorderly
mirth of a child this ingredient of the laughing mood
be small and sub-conscious
and prominent.
;
yet at times
it
grows
Thus, Ruth, in the eleventh month, de-
veloped a special expression for the attitude of defiance
disobejring, namely, a comical face
nose, together with laughter.
year,
may
distinct
when
with a wrinkling of the
The boy
0.,
early in the third
would give out a laugh of a short mocking ring on
receiving a prohibition,
He would
way.
not to slap his dog companion.
and laugh in a half -contemptuous
moods of defiance he would go so far
a member of his family and then laugh.
His
remain
silent
Sometimes in
as to strike
e.g.,
his
laugh was sometimes highly suggestive of the mood of derision.
In this note of warlike challenge we have a point of
kinship with the
is
"
crowing
"
laughter of the victor.
Yet
it
doubtful whether a child at this early age reaches the
GERM OF ROWDYISM
mental attitude of a mocking contempt.
205
Preyer
tells
us
that he has never observed scornful laughter within the
first
four years.^
When
the consciousness of the unruly in these "high
jinks " becomes distinct and begins to be oppressive, the
laughter will be less boisterous and express more of playful
The
pretence.
feint to rebel,
child learns to be satisfied with
making a
with a make-believe unruliness.
Ruth, on
when pretending to disobey by biting
ofl' the petals of flowers, and on the 455th day, by stuffing
buttons into her mouth. The boy C, when about the same
the 236th day, laughed
age,
had
his little
way
of turning disobedience into a game.
In the seventeenth month, when he was bidden by his
mother
up
a picture he had got possession of, he
and made a show of handing over his
unlawful possession, and then drew his hands back with
to give
walked up
to her
much laughing enjoyment.
A more
complicated psychical attitude appears
laughing pretence at disobedience takes on a
when such
"
roguish
Here we have, not only an element of slight uneasiness, but one of self-consciousness, which together give a
distinct complexion to the whole mental attitude and to its
aspect.
expression.
This ingredient of a timid self-consciousness or shyness
under the scrutiny of others appears, as
time after the simpler forms of
we know, some
In Ruth's case
it
on the 123rd day in a distinctly
seems to have showed
itself
'
When
roguish " attitude.
fear.
at
dinner and spoken to by
her grandfather, she turned her head as far as she could.
On
'
the 141st day, too,
Op.
three
cit.,
and a
p. 196.
half.
cise observations.
I
when
have heard
held in her nurse's arms, she
of it
The point should
occurring in
u,
girl at
certainly be determined
the age of
by more pre-
DEVELOPMENT OP LAUGHTER
206
smiled at her grandfather and others and then ducked her
head.
This expression of roguish self-consciousness had
more
of the look of a nervous explosion in the eleventh
month, when the
a coi'ner
girl
laughed on being set on her feet in
where she was much noticed
;
and again,
in the
thirteenth month, as she tumbled about and showed herself
This laughter, with something of the gSne of
off.
consciousness in
it,
was,
we
self-
are told, not to be confounded
with the expression of a complacent self-consciousness.
The element
of an
the early playful
C,
"
just mentioned,
awkward shyness comes
trying
it
it
on
was seen
".
into
much
of
In the case of the boy
in the sly,
the eyes and the short, half -nervous laugh,
upward look
when he was
of
face
and disposed to play at disobedience.
The fuller roguish laugh occurs frequently along with a risky
bit of play, as when a boy of one and a half year would
point to himself when asked for a finger-recognition of
somebody else. In such cases the laughter seems like an
attempt to get rid of the element of risk. When the masking of the impulse of fun by timidity is greater, the exto face with authority
pression reaching only to a tentative smile, the roguishness
of a child
may
easily
wear a look
of kinship
with our
grown-up humour.^
A
account of the development of laughter during
full
these
first
years, as
be of great value.
how
an ingredient of the play-mood, would
It would, in particular, help us to see
the reaction comes to be definitely co-ordinated with
the sense of make-believe, and the attitude of throwing
ofl"
the burdensome restrictions of reality.
The vocal mirth
of children, as they give reins to their fancy, attests to
•
{op.
Preyer
cit, p.
Xiaohen
".
first
observed roguish laughter at the end of the second year
196).
He
does not
define
the expression " schelmisohes
;
ROGUISH MIRTH
207
the weight of this burden and to the intense delight which
comes from
its
momentary abandonment.
In seeking for the
^nd
of defiance,
we
first
fering influence of others.
work even
No
by
the inter-
doubt this influence
is
at
The nurse and the parents are pretty
here.
much
certain to laugh at
and
traces of the laughter of play
are not greatly troubled
this laughter will react
of the roguish
upon the
"
child's
trying
own
it
on
"
merriment.
In play, too, in which others usually take some part, there
is this
action of older persons' laughter.
Still, in
the main,
the utterances are spontaneous, and at most are reinforced
by way
of
some sympathetic rapport with another.
otherwise
It is
when we come
to
consider
the
first
amusement at the presentation of
" funny " objects.
The lead of others now complicates
the phenomenon to a much more serious extent. The recognition of an object as "funny" implies some detection
instances of laughing
of a quaUty which acts on others as well as on the self
consequently,
it
^
;
presupposes a certain development of the
Hence, some cautiousness
social consciousness.
is
needed
in noting the first clear examples of a perception of the
quality.
Before language comes and supplies a means of
self -interpretation,
we cannot
safely say that
child laughs in presence of an object there
may
because a
a recognition
As we have
of something objectively "funny".
laughter
is
seen, such
be fully accounted for by supposing that the
object has an exhilarating or gladdening effect on the child's
feeling.
On
the other hand,
have to cope with the
child's
when language
difficulty,
is
added we
already touched on, that a
pronouncements are apt to be controlled by what
others laugh at and
call
funny.
the child's spontaneity and his
'
Nevertheless, here, too,
way
Compare above,
of discovering his
p. 83.
own
208
DEVELOPMENT OF LAUGHTER
sources of
amusement may enable us
overcome the
to
diflSculties.
Our study
of the conditions of the perception suggests
that a true enjoyment of presentations as oddities
to be expected at a
very early date.
And
for the reason that the new, especially if
though
An
other and inhibitory attitudes.
year of
not later
life, if
also, is
by
may
its
not
strange, even
easily excite
infant, during the
fii-st
apt to be disturbed and
apparently alarmed at the approach of
to be unafiected
the laughter
it is
draw forth a joyous laugh, may
fitted to
is
this, first of all,
rejoicing aspect
;
new
objects, so as
or, if
he
feels this,
be accompanied by signs of fear.
Ruth,
on her 254th day, greeted a kitten which her father brought
to
show her with
" all
gradations from laughter and joy to
In the second place—and this
of more importance
—the recognition of an object as funny presupposes the work
fear
".
is
of experience in organising a rudimentary feeling for
customary.
consciousness and of an idea of a
Now
what is
This, again, involves a development of the social
all this
requires a certain
common
amount
order of things.
of time.
It
hardly
seems reasonable to look for a true apprehension of the
laughable till some time after the appearance of an imitation of
others' laughter
and play -gestures, which was
first
observed,
boy C, in the ninth month. Nor could
weU be expected until after a child had acquired some
in the case of the
it
understanding of others' language, so as to note
agree in
naming and describing
how they
certain objects as funny,
which understanding only begins to be reached in the
second half of the year.
Hence, I should hesitate to speak
of a clear recognition of a laughable object as such before
the last quarter of the year.
a
little
It
seems to me, for example,
rash to say that a boy of five months,
laughed inordinately
when
who always
a very jolly-looking physician.
EARLY PERCEPTIONS OF THE FUNNY
him a
the image of Santa Glaus, paid
"
When
of
displayed a
visit,
humour "}
sense of
to
209
once the idea of objects of
common
laughter begins
grow clear a child is, of course, able to develop perceptions
the funny along his own lines.
This he certainly seems
The freshness of his world, the
absence of the dulling effect of custom which is seen in the
to do
pretty briskly.
him an excellent pioneer
King Laughter.
Among the sense-presentations which awaken the infantile
laugh are new and queer sounds of various sorts and they
may weU be selected for a study of the transitions from mere
joyous exclamation to a hilarious greeting of what is
"funny". Early in the second half of the first year, a
perceptions of older folk, renders
imknown
in the largely
territory of
;
good health
child in
the ear, and to turn
will begin to
what
is
About the 222nd day brave
surmount the alarms of
new and
little
strange into fun.
Ruth was
able to laugh,
when her
not only at such an odd sound as that produced
aunt rattled a tin cup on her teeth, but at that of a piano.
Preyer's boy, later in the year,
various
new and out-of-the-way
piano, of
was given
to laughing at
sounds, such as that of the
gurgling or clearing the throat, and even of
thimder.
Odd sounding
articulations appear to be especially provo-
cative of laughter about this time.
day, Ruth laughed at
as
"
Pah
!
Pah
!
"
As
early as the 149th
new sounds invented by the aunt, such
Queer guttural sounds seem
to
have a
specially tickling effect.
After words and their commoner forms have begun to
grow
familiar,
new and odd-sounding
words, especially
names, are apt to be greeted with laughter.
when one year
'
nine months
old,
The
was much impressed by the
See Mrs. Hogan's Study of a Child, p. 18.
14
child M.,
DEVELOPMENT OP LAUGHTER
210
exclamation "good gracious "
!
made by her mother on
dis-
covering that the water was coming through the ceiling of
a
room
and the child would sometimes repeat
;
When
fun "shaking with laughter".
seven months old she laughed on
first
it
in pure
she was two years
hearing the name
"Periwinkle".
In these and similar cases of the hilarious response to
sounds
we seem
to have, well within the first nine months,
germ of a feeling for the odd or droll. The early development of this sense of the funny in sounds is aided by their
aggressive force for the infant's consciousness, and by the
circumstance that for the young ear they have pronounced
a
characteristics
vances,
which are probably
and they are attended
to,
lost as
merely as signs of things which interest
The psychical process involved
described as follows.
development ad-
not for their
own sake,
but
us.
in the transition
may
be
Sounds, while by reason of their
suddenness and unexpectedness they are apt to take the
consciousness off its guard and to produce a kind of nervous
shock, are of
all
sense-stimuli the most exhilarating.
The
sudden rousing of the consciousness to a large joyous commotion
shock,
is
interfere
Nor
the fundamental fact.
when
will the jar of the
the sense-organ develops and becomes hardier,
with
On
this.
the contrary,
it
will
add something
in the shape of an agreeable rebound from a nascent
tude of uneasiness.^
The laughter
of the child at the first
sounds of the piano, which have frightened
and other young animal,
There
is
here, too,
joicing, as the
is,
atti-
many
a child
in part, a shout of victory.
an element of " sudden glory " in the
new expanding
self is
dimly conscious of
reits
superiority to the half-alarmed and shrinking self of the
moment
^
0/.
before.
what was said in chap,
v., p. 142,
apropos of Leigh Hunt's theory.
SENSE OF THE FUNNY
In this
we have
case, it is evident,
of the laughable
which
will
new sound
211
to do with a greeting
vary greatly according to the
The same
psycho-physical condition of the child.
laughs at a
SOUNDS
IN
to-day will to-morrow,
child that
when
in
another mood, be disturbed by a quite similar surprise of
the ear.
But more
wear
The sudden and
by new sounds is apt to
involved in this laughter.
is
slightly disturbing attack of the ear
We
for the child's consciousness a game-like aspect.
have only to think of the nursery rhymes, alluded to by Miss
Shinn, in which the excitement of fun
explosive shock at the end,
the fun
lies in
play
new
In these rhymes
For a
?
manner
as a
kind of disorderly
may
hold
much which
is
expressive of the
This will apply not only to utterances like the
play-mood.
many
series of quiet orderly sounds.
child's ear, pitched for the intrinsic character
of a sound, they
" Pah!
—
sounds, the guttural utterances and the
a child in a like
rest, aifect
by an
the very soul of frivolous play, since
it
comes at the end of a
not the
secured
the shock, though only half-unexpected
shock which has in
May
is
closely analogous to the
which terminated in a good bump.
rides
it
games
Pah
!
"
which are clearly recognised
others produced
to entertaining.
by
as play, but to
a nurse or a mother
who
is
given
Perhaps the gurgling sounds which moved
the mirth of Preyer's boy appeared laughter-like.
This tendency to look on certain sounds as a kind of play
seems to supply a psychical link in the development of a
We have
feeling for the odd and out-of-the-way as such.
seen
how
the
play-impulse "tries
straints of rule grow too irksome.
it
on" when
I suspect that the
the re-
mirthful
appreciation of the queer and out-of-the-way grows out of
this inclination to a playful disorderliness or law-breaking.
A child is
apt to feel oppressed with the rules of propriety
DEVELOPMENT OP LAUGHTER
212
By these rules
imposed on him.
of noises
branded as
is
"
quite a terrible multiplicity
naughty," and the prohibition tends
to fix the playful impulse precisely in the direction of the
Children have a way, moreover, of pro-
forbidden sounds.
and
jecting their experiences
which we
their inclinations into things
What more
call lifeless.
natiu-al, then, that
they
should feel these incursions of violent and quite improper-
sounding noises to be a kind of playful throwing aside of
order and rule
?
In the domain of the
sentation
rarely
Yet there
or joltiness.
visible world,
reaches,
is
perhaps,
suddenness of pre-
the
point
ample scope, here,
working of the unexpected on the
of
shock
too, for the
The
child's sensibilities.
visual excitants of laughter, the sudden uncovering of
first
the face in bo-peep, the unexpected return of the familiar
face after an interval of absence, the instant transformation
accustomed features when the mother " makes a
show how directly the surprisingly new may act
on the young muscles of laughter.
of the
face,"
Here, too,
new and
we may
see
how the hilarious enjoyment of
distorted face of the
mother produces a laugh when
ceased to alarm and
observer, this
making
is
taken as fun.^
of faces
time towards the end of
the
The
out-of-the-way emerges out of play-mirth.
it
has
According to one
grows into a standing pas-
the second year.^
greeting of the baby-face in the mirror,
Is not the
which
in Ruth's
occurred on the 221st day (eighth month), and in
case
that of Preyer's boy at the
end of the ninth month, a
kind of accost of a newly discovered playmate
the laughter of a
little
referred to, at the
?
Perhaps
boy, of one and a half year, already
jumping of a ping-pong
ball
and at a
'
Ruth's laughter at the mother's face was certainly very early.
*
Hogan,
op. cit., p. 71.
RESPONSES TO MERRY SIGHTS
spring- blind going
up
or coming
down with
213
a run, expressed
a recognition of something play-like.
This co-operation of the play -inclination in the perception
is still more plainly
and postures.
The
of the laughable in visual presentations
in the
illustrated
effect
of
actions
quickness of the eye of mirth for expressions of the
of
to,
romping play
Ruth was
at the gambols of a horse or other animal.
much
entertained on her 441st day
dog.
Especially enlivening
play-like
mood
seen in a child's laughter, already referred
is
is
by the
antics of
a
the appearance of quick,
movements in grave elders addicted to decorous
The girl M., at the age of eighteen months,
deportment.
broke into boisterous laughter on seeing her father as
he ran to catch a
may come
with his handkerchief hanging out
train,
This sudden revelation of the playful temper
of his pocket.
to the child
by way
of postures
and expressions.
The awful laws of propriety soon tend to give the look of
playful licence to certain bodily postures, especially that of
The boy C, when twenty months
lying down.
old,
laughed
heartily on seeing his sister lying on the ground out of
Making
doors.
faces,
pouting
lips
and the
rest
become
playful just because they are felt to be improper, the sort
of thing one only does in a disorderly
moment, playful
—to the
child's conscious-
or other.
May
not the drolleries
ness—of animal form,
giraffe,
actions,
owe something
example the long neck of the
to suggestions of improper jocose
such as trying to stretch oneself into Alice-like
dimensions
•^In
for
?
this blithe recognition of the irregular in others' be-
haviour
we have
the rudiment of an appreciation of the
laughable, not only as a violation of rule but as a loss of
dignity.
This
is
apparent in such
laughter at the prostrate form of his
cases
as
sister,
the
boy's
illumined as
DEVELOPMENT OF LAUGHTER
214
it
was by the observation
that, at the age of twenty-six
months, he expressed great contempt at the spectacle of a
Japanese gentleman stretched on the grass in the suburban
Heath, which was the
seemed
child's daily resort,
and which he
strongly disposed to subject to his
manners.
Possibly, too, there
tion of lowered dignity
when
was a touch of
the same boy,
own
code of
this apprecia-
at the age of
twenty-eight months, laughed greatly on seeing his father
The
batter in an old hat.
new element
laughter, complicated
now by
a
of conscious superiority, probably took on a
crowing note, though our dull ears
clear detection of the change.
that the laughter of children,
may
not be equal to a
Not only
common
so, it is possible
in the second year, at
signs of disorderliness in the hair or dress of others,
and
especially superiors, implies a perception of something like
lowered rank.
In this
new
in the visible
world different
tones of mirth are no doubt distinguishable.
As the higher
effect of
the
forms of perception begin to develop the primitive laughter
of joy
may
specialised
persist
kinds.
and combine with
Ruth's voicing of
thirteenth month, on having a
her,
was
new
and more
pair of mittens put
largely an outburst of joy, though
of the oddity of the thing probably
On
later
merriment, in the
combined with
the other hand, the laughter called forth in the
this.
little
age of twenty-one months, by the spectacle
girl M., at the
of a doll that
on
some dim sense
had
lost its
arms presumably had in
it,
along
with a sense of something weirdly absurd in the mutilated
form, a pretty keen sub-consciousness of dollish proprieties
set at defiance.
Other directions in the development of this early laughter
at entertaining spectacles
in the fun of play
with
may
its
be said to have their origin
pretence or make-believe.
Mrs.
DISCRIMINATION OF FUNNY ASPECTS
215
Hogan's boy, at the age of two years and two months, would
laugh at his nurse's pretended efforts to put on his shoes,
away wildly into freedom.
which, instead of getting on, flew
This laughter was evoked at the fun of the thing, and
probably involved an interpretation of the nurse's action as
Yet
play.
it
had in
it also,
an appre-
I think, the trace of
farcical collapse of
ciation of the absurdity of the
effort.
borne out by the fact that the boy, about the same
This
is
time,
would
also
laugh when the nurse, not in play, tried by
hang a garment on a
jumping
to
He may,
of course,
nail just too high for her.
have regarded
Yet
tinuation of the play.
it
but a con-
this, too, as
seems reasonable to suppose
that the merry current had one of
its
sources in the per-
ception of the amusing aspect of failure, of effort missing
its
mark and
lapsing into nothingness.
I confess to
have been surprised at what looks like the
precocity of some children in the matter of honouring the
proprieties
of
conduct.
fourteen months old,
surdly conscious
is
way"
The
little
when only
M.,
boy who stood by her
at a small
perambulator asking for a
kiss.
Was
was not forthcoming.
in a mood of nervous
girl
said to have laughed in an "ab-
That
kiss,
we
are told,
the laugh merely an incident
shyness, or did it signify a dim per"
"
ception of
bad form on the part of the proposer ? Much
care
is
needed in the interpretation of such expressive
A small
reactions.
his pants slipped
from a sense
of the
ing, aided perhaps
of
shame
may have
is,
boy
down.
of eighteen
But
this
months laughed when
only have resulted
may
fun of the irregularity of the proceed-
by
others'
amusement.
A
of course, not developed at this age
true feeling
;
yet a child
caught from instruction a feeling of the shocking
impropriety of an ill-timed casting aside of the clothestrammels.
DEVELOPMENT OP LAUGHTER
216
We may
find in the laughter of the child, within the
period of the
first
three years, pretty clear indications of
the development of a rude perception of amusing incongruities in dress
and behaviour.
The young eye has a keen
outlook for the proprieties in the matter of clothes.
Ruth,
month amused at seeing her new
amusement
mittens put on, showed
about the same date
when her pink bonnet was put on her aunt's head. In this
who was
in the thirteenth
case, the play-significance of the action for the child's con-
sciousness
is
apparent.
It
seems fairly certain, indeed, that
form of a recognition of the laughable grows
this higher
When
out of the play -interpretation.
at play children not
only throw off rules of decorum and do improper things,
they put aside ideas of appropriateness and launch out
and
into bizarre discontinuities and contrarieties of action
speech.
The
play-attitude, as lawless
and
free,
tends to
Hence the readiness with which a
inconsequence.
child
interprets such inconsequences as play.
It is the
same when a
child laughs at droll stories of the
doings of animals and persons.
He may
take fables and
other fancies seriously enough at times, but
if
his
mind
is
pitched for merriment, he will greatly appreciate the ex-
travagant unsuitabilities of behaviour of the heroes of his
The
nursery books.
months
old,
kittens, in
meat
is
little girl
M.,
when two
which they are made to say,
tough
;
"
"
Waiter, this cat's
asking in the midst of her merriment,
you ever saw such funny tits
Along with this rudiment
spectacle of the incongruous,
"
Did
?
of
merry appreciation
we have
the
festation of the closely related feeling of
absurd.
years seven
laughed gaily at a passage in a story about
first
of the
crude mani-
amusement
at the
Children are said to have no measure of the pro-
bable and possible,
and to accept the wildest fancies in
GLIMPSES OF THE UNFITTING
unquestioning
work during
Yet experience begins her educative
faith.
and one may detect
these first three years,
sporadic traces of a feeling for
A
217
what
is
gloriously incredible.
boy, already alluded to, aged about one and a half year,
laughed as his aunt asked him what the waves, which he
was gravely observing, were saying. The boy C, when
old, grew quite hilarious over the idea
of flying up into the air.
Some one had suggested his
twenty-two months
and he proceeded to cap the suggestion,
" gee-gee (horse) fy air".
The
flying like a bird,
adding,
"
Tit (sister) fy air,"
last idea of
a flying horse especially delighted one innocent,
as yet, of Greek mythology.
may
Lastly, a bare allusion
ment
of
of wit.
an appreciation
That
of pretence,
this
be made to the early develop-
of word-play
and the
lighter kind
grows out of the play-element, the love
"
Verbal fun, " trying it on
at once evident.
is
common
with an incorrect use of words and so forth,
is
outlet of the rollicking spirits of childhood.
Mrs. Hogan's
a
boy, at the age of one year eight months, developed a fancy
by their wrong names, a knife a " fork,"
Eath did the same towards the end of the
for example.
third year.
The fun derived from punning seems to be
immense in the case of many children at the close 'of our
period, as when a boy on hearing his mother say she had
just called on Mrs. Fawkes asked, "Did you call on Mrs.
knives too ? "
This easy childish mode of satisfying a
for calling things
jocose bent
seen also in the use of false statements, not
is
seriously, but " in fun," as the child has
of
it.
Ruth had
such merry fibbing at the end of the third year.
child will often " try
called
up
on
" this
a
fit
A
kind of verbal game, when
for a moral lesson.^
This same roguish impulse to
^
See
my
"
try
it
on
Studies of Childhood, pp. 274-5.
"
with the
DEVELOPMENT OP LAUGHTER
218
authorities leads to something like a play of wit in repartee.
The merry interchange
which
relieves so
many
of intellectual attack
and defence,
serious relations of adult
life,
grows
naturally enough in the case of children out of their relation
The playful experiment
of subjection to the grown-ups.
the direction of disobedience
is
frequently accompanied
in
by
pretty exercises in verbal fencing, the joke of which the
perpetrator himself,
sportive dialectic
correction.
A
if
get spots on her face.
by way
of meeting serious
"
How
latter's chin,
by
After listening gravely she turned
asked with
"
said, perhaps,
little
pimple
a most mirthful smile,"
Lizzie (the nurse) det dat 'pot dere den
Enough has been
told
she put out her tongue she would
on her instructress and, putting her finger on a
on the
Such
greatly enjoys.
rate,
arise, too,
two and a quarter years was
girl of
a foolish nurse that
any
at
may
?
even in this slight ex-
amination of children's laughter, to show that within the
first
three years
all
the main directions of the mirth of
adults are foreshadowed.
Humour
itself,
which
is
supposed
only to come with maturity of feeling and reflection, begins
to announce itself in a modest
boy C,
in his twenty-first
way during
The
this period.
month, had managed to twist his
india-rubber horse, so that the head was caught between
the tail and the legs.
He
laughed out loudly at
waxed tender, saying in a pitiful
so swung from the one emotional
tone, "
first,
then
Poor Gee-gee," and
attitude to the other.^
This appearance of the two feelings, distinct though contiguous,
is,
of course, a very different thing from the highly
organised sentiment which
we
call
humour.
Miss Shinn
1 Moat of the observations here quoted, on the laughter of the boy C.
have appeared before in a chapter of my volume, StvMes of Childhood.
The reader who is familiar with this chapter will, I feel sure, pardon the
repetition.
RANGE OF INFANT MIRTH
tells
219
us that, in the case of Ruth, the period of infantile gaiety
has been followed by one of serious practicality, into which
come
In
humour does not
enter.
any case we have
to recognise in this laughter of the first
Perhaps
it
years something far removed from the
It is a
will
humour of
later.
the adult.
pure primitive gaiety, uncomplicated by reflection
and sadness.
It
to disclose faint
is
enough for
my
purpose
if it
can be seen
embryonic tracings of the main
differentiation in the
development of
human
lines of
laughter.
220
CHAPTER Vm.
THE LAUGHTER OP SAVAGES.
last chapter we took a glance at the primitive forms
human laughter as illustrated in children. We may
now supplement this by a brief inquiry into the merri-
In the
of
ment
of the childhood of the race, so far as this
is reflected
in the laughter of those savage tribes which have
under the direct observation of the
We
civilised
come
man.
expect the two domains to disclose similar
shall
features, spontaneity, absence of reflection, whole-hearted
simplicity.
At the same time we
shall expect the
study
of the laughter of savages to bring us more directly in
touch with the social conditions which help to determine
The study
the directions of mirth.
the study of a collective mind, that
form of
ideas, sentiments,
of the savage
is
mind
is
to say, of a typical
and psychical tendencies generally,
Its modes of merriment,
more serious emotional manifestations, have been
observed as common traits of members of a tribal society.
running through a community.
like its
A
word may be
said at the outset
sources of our information.
civilised
man
finds all his
get into touch with the
It
is
with respect to the
commonplace that
a
powers taxed when he
mind
of a savage.
of this access will naturally be greater
be observed
itself
is
an emotion which, while
The
when
it ia
tries to
difficulties
the trait to
wont
to display
with an instinctive directness so long as the surround-
OPENNESS
IN
DISPLAY OP FEELING
221
ings secure freedom, tends to hide itself as soon as any-
The
thing strange appears which induces a feeling of gSne.
presence of strangers, so far removed from the plane of
life
of savages as the missionaries or officials of a civilised nation,
would, one supposes, act as such a check to their risible
impulses.
It is possible, too, that the stranger
a savage tribe
may
his look, dress,
supply, quite
and manner
who
visits
unknowingly perhaps,
of behaviour, a
number
in
of pro-
vocatives of laughter which are resisted from a feeling of
what is due to a guest.
That there is some hiding of the merry mood here is not
a mere matter of inference, since travellers distinctly testify
to the fact.
The undisciplined savage wiU now and again
show a degree of self-restraint comparable with that which
an educated Frenchman will show when in a Paris street
he is addressed by a hardy British youth in what the latter
cheerfully supposes to be the language of the country.
The following story may serve as an example. A public
meeting was being held in a native village in Africa. An
Englishman who was present got up on a recumbent trunk
of a tree, which is used as a seat in native villages.
The
log rolled and the Englishman fell heavily.
meeting looked as grave as
of the
programme.
An
if
uninstructed observer might have
hastily inferred that the tribe
of
humour
".
Yet the whole
the accident had been a part
The narrator
was wanting
of the incident
in a " sense
knew
better,
and gives the incident as a proof of the great power of selfThe same writer observes that African
restraint displayed.
humour them
"amuse themselves at his
savages, while allowing a European traveller to
and
treat
them
expense after he
they
know
»
as children, will
is
gone, and, indeed, while he
is
present, if
that he cannot understand their speech "}
Eev. Duff Maodonaia, Africana (1882),
i.,
pp. 266-7.
THE LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
222
how
who know not
These considerations will prepare us to understand
some have
regarded savages as dull creatures,
commonly held by those
visited them is suggested by a passage in
one of Peacock's stories. In Crotchet Castle Mr. MacQueedy
puts forward the thesis that laughter is "an involuntary
action developed in man by the progress of civilisation,"
and adds that " the savage never laughs "}
how to laugh.
who have not
That
this
view
is
only fair to say that travellers themselves have not
It is
At the same
been so foolish as to uphold this view.
time,
some of them have drawn hasty conclusions from the fact
that they happened never to have heard members of a par-
A
ticular tribe indulge in laughter.
this reasoning
curious illustration of
from inadequate negative evidence
is
the dis-
pute that took place, not so long ago, as to whether a people
of Ceylon,
known as Weddas (or Veddas), came
gory of the laughing animal.
It
was
into the cate-
confidently asserted
a certain Mr. Hartshome that they never laughed, even
by
when
they were experimented upon, and were confronted with the
Another
spectacle of others convulsed.
to understand this
by
his
a taciturn and almost morose
laughing reckless
mood when
it
may
"
help us
between
mood when hungry, and
not hungry".
must evidently have observed them
Could
visitor
remark that they vary
in a
a
Hartshorns
hungry mood.
have been that, unlike Mary Kingsley, as some of
us remember her playfully observing, he had something
about him which kindled appetite
'It
is
ironically
learned friend (Brougham) and the
^
^
true that this astounding proposition is answered somewhat
by Rev. Dr. Polliott, who says, " Give him modern Athens, the
sham
intellect Society
Yet it seems odd that
task for his amazing ignorance.
velop his muscles
taken to
?
".
—they will de-
this confident assertor
was not
The dispute may be followed by the curious by turning up the followviii., p. 316; cf. E. Desohamps, Pays des
ing: Indian Antiguary, vol.
DISCREPANT REPORTS OF VISITORS
223
Other illustrations of a too confident basing of a conclusion on failure to observe
one
may
Thus
be found.
traveller, Bates, that the Brazilian
A
phlegmatic, apathetic temperament.
Von den
it is
said
by
Indians are of a
more recent
visitor,
Steinen, gives us a different impression, remarking
in one instance that " the silent Indian
tinually chattered,
merrily" (lustig
men and women
con-
and Eva's laughter sounded forth right
heraus).-'
These apparent discrepancies in the notes of difterent
observers point, I suspect, to something besides such accidents as the particular
The
mood
in
provoke laughter
ability to
witness the failure of
many
which the
is
tribe is found.
not possessed by
meritorious attempts
to excite children's merriment.
by
all
adults
Something of the easy
good-nature which disarms timidity, of fraternal sympathy,
and
of the
knack
like themselves,
of
making your audience
believe
seems needed to draw forth
fulness of these children of nature.^
all
you are
the mirth-
We must always
allow
for this factor in the personal equation of the observer of
savage ways.
It
is
refreshing to find that missionaries have
so often succeeded in getting at the lighter
heathen.
It speaks well for their genial
moods of the
humanity.
The general impression one derives from these accounts
is
that
savage
tribes
are
certainly
not given over to
a sullen despair, but on the contrary have a large and
abundant mirth.
Like children, they appear to express
The Taprobanian, vol. i., p. 192 ff. The German
upholds the v?riter in the latter periodical, and says that
the Veddas "laohen gerne," though some of them are bad tempered, and
laugh but little. NaturforscJmngen auf Ceylon, pp. 378 and 540.
^ Carl von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvolkern Zentral-Brasiliens, p. 61.
''This applies, of course, to the detection of the whole of the social
qualities which make up good-nature.
F. Nansen attacks the missionary
Egede for his misrepresentation of the Greenlanders in calling them coldblooded creatures. See Eskvmo Life, pp. 100, 101.
Veddas, pp. 378-9
visitor, Sarasin,
;
THE LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
224
their emotions with great freedom,
and their laughter and
other signs of good spirits are of the most energetic kind.
Darwin
us that his correspondents, missionaries and
tells
him on this point. Loud laughter accompanied by jumping about and clapping of the hands, and
others, satisfied
frequently carried to the point of a flooding of the eyes
these are conspicuous characteristics to be
met with among
the Australians and other savage tribes.^
Other testimony
supports Darwin.
Sturt, for example, tells us that the
natives of Central Australia are a merry people, and
laughing and talking
all
sit
up
The more recent
the night long.^
observations of Lumholtz support the view that the natives
are "very humorous".^
said
by one
gaiety
The Maoris
they are merry fellows
:
New
(of
Zealand) are
traveller to be " remarkable for their natural
:
always laughing and
joking, especially during the adventures of a journey
Of the Tasmanians we read
:
fun in the despised aborigine
"
There
",^
is
not a
little
Similarly, the
".*
love of
South Sea
more accustomed to jesting, mirth and humour
".*
The natives
of Tahiti, again, "jest upon each other with greater freedom
than the Europeans "J So, the Tongans have " a strong sense
of the ludicrous " which they show in " the ordinary interIslanders are
"
than irritating and reproachful language
course of
life ".*
Borneo, speaks of
of every
Kanowit
Mr. Ling Roth, writing of the natives of
"
the
chafi"
and fun so dear to the heart
".'
1 Expression,
of the Emotions, p. 209.
^Central Australia (18S3), ii., p. 138.
'
Among Cammbals
(1889), p. 291.
New Zealand (1847), ii., p. 11.
"Bonwiok, The Daily Life of the Tasmanians (1870), p. 174.
*
Angaa, Australia and
"Ellis, Polynesian Resea/rches (18.32),
1.,
p. 96.
A
Voyage Bownd the World (1818),
sBrskine, The Western Pacific (1853), p. 159.
'TurnbuU,
'Natives of Sarawak and Brit. N. Borneo,
i.,
p. 372.
p. 84.
EXUBERANCE OF MIRTH
In other regions,
too,
and among other races we
the same exuberance of mirth.
This
is
light
on
true of the natives
when they are unspoiled by Europeans. The
by one who knew them earlier, to be
Africa,
of
225
Kafirs were said,
generally speaking a good-humoured people with a keen
relish for
amusement, and ready to join in a jest.^
to the Gold Coast
joke, and
people
writes
:
found that the natives dearly loved a
had a most
Kingsley, as
is
still
given to mirth and jokes.
"
West
I think the
is this
Miss
lively sense of the ludicrous.^
well known, found in the
West Africans
In a letter to
me
a
she
African, unadulterated, the most
humorous form of human being there 'is, and
him exceedingly good company for me ".
Nor
Visitors
this
makes
joyous exuberance confined to the natives of
warm climates. We find examples of it in the chiUy North.
One who visited the Indians of the Canadian Red River
(the Chippewas) about forty years ago says, that they are
and fond of relating anecdotes they laugh
immoderately at any trifling joke or absurdity and seem
" full
of frolic
;
thoroughly to enjoy existence
".^
These recurring statements of travellers about the mirthsome extent supported by other
fulness of savages are to
The writer on the Tasmanians, already quoted,
gives us a number of their difierent local names for fun.
When a people and especially a savage people has a
name for a thing, it is a fair inference that it has some
evidence.
—
—
considerable acquaintance with the thing
To say that
itself.
this or that tribe is given to laughter
and
joking does not, of course, imply that the merry temper
>
»
is
Bev. Jos. Shooter, The Kafirs of Natal (1857), p. 232.
Cruioksliaiik, The Gold Coast of Africa (1853), ii., p. 253.
'Hind, OanaMan Bed River Exploring Expedition (1860), ii., p. 135.
Other examples of the mirthfulness of savages are given by Herbert
Spencer, Vesorvptwe Sociology, Div.
I.,
15
—A.
Pt. 2
TUB LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
226
We
the constant or even the predominant one.
indeed, in certain cases that the
mood
is
are told,
a changeable one,
and that these undisciplined men and women resemble
children in their rapid transitions from grave to gay.
Thus one
traveller to
the Gold Coast remarks that the
inhabitants will change suddenly from reckless gaiety to
On
despondency.^
the other hand, as
may
be seen from
our quotations, the predominance of the gay temper, as
expressed in the habitual smile and readiness to laugh,
seems to be a distinguishing
One
faces
were
two
of
"
trait of certain
"
ordinarily bright and good-natured," and that
them
in
particular,
whom
he
always had a smile on their faces
On
the other hand, there
tribes stand out
folk
savage peoples.
traveller, writing of the Patagonians, teUs us that their
by
is
knew
intimately,
".^
reason to think that some
from the general run of good-natured, merry
a habitual preponderance of the grave
in their bearing.
and austere
Rengger, for example, remarks of the
Indians of Paraguay that they are serious and gloomy
laugh only rarely, and never break into loud
(diister),
laughter.'
There are probably serious savage
there are serious children in England
tribes, as
and other
civilised
would be strange, too, if the treatment of
American Indians and other aboriginal races by their
countries.
It
civilised conquerors should
again, even in naturally
not have developed
merry
folk,
now and
something of a gloomy
demeanour, at least in presence of the white man.
Hence,
these exceptional cases do not seem to impair our general
conclusion, that laughter has a large dwelling-place
the uncivilised peoples of the earth.
•
'i
3
Cruiokshank, Gold Coast of Africa, he. cit.
Home with the Patagonians (1873),
Musters, At
Saugethiere von Paraguay (1830),
a.
10.
p. 167.
among
DIFFERENCES AMONG TRIBES
227
The descriptions of the movements expressive of mirth,
given by these visitors to savage tribes, are not as a rule
full or exact.
This might be taken to mean that the laugh-
much like our own. Yet this would be a
for we must remember that it is not easy
ter of a savage is
rash inference
;
for one imtrained in the finer kinds of observation to note
with
precision
movements
so
complex
and so rapidly
changeful as those which express gladness and mirth.
The
apparatus of the photographic camera and of the phono-
graph has not as
yet, I believe,
been made use of for the
purpose of registering these presumably primitive forms of
laughter ere they vanish from the earth.
Darwin, as we have seen, has
satisfied himself as to the
The concomitant movements of hands
and feet seem to be common. A more precise account of
these movements is given by Ling Roth. The Tasmanians,
flooding of the eyes.
he
tells us,
accompanied their loud bursts of laughter with
movements of the hands to the head and quick tapping movements of the feet.^ The loud, deep-chested character of the
men's laughter
is
sometimes specially noted.
to Central Africa regrets that,
A recent visitor
under European influence, the
men is being replaced by
the " mission giggle " in the younger folk.^
deep-chested, hearty laughter of
what
is
known as
1 have come across, too, one attempt to describe with
some exactness the expression of a happy mood when it
flows on more quietly. The good spirits of the Andamanese,
it appears, show themselves in a sparkling of the eyes, and
a wrinkling of the surrounding skin, also in a drawing back
of the corners of the
may
It
be
mouth which remains
concluded
Tasmania
that
the
facial
partially open.^
movements and
(2iid ed.), p. 38.
^
Ab<n'igines of
2
Johnston, British Central Africa (1897), p. 403.
B. H. Man, " Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands," Journal
'
of Anthropol. Institute, vol.
xii., p. 88.
TH« LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
228
other changes correspond broadly with what
we have
seen
to be the characteristic expression in the case of the children
of
racial physique
though differences of
civilised races;
undoubtedly introduce a slight amount of dissimilarity
into the expressive
Much
"
movements
of laughter.^
of this savage laughter
gladsome mind," a flow of good
thought of care or trouble.
is
just the outcome of a
undisturbed by the
spirits
This persistent
" cheerfulness,"
by our inadequate language, stands their
possessors in good stead.
The natural gaiety of the Maoris,
assured,
comes
to
their aid when they encounter
we are
hardship. They are full of fun even when short of food on
to describe
it
a journey.^
But the laughter
of savages does not appear merely as a
general sign of gaiety and roUieking
specialised into
the laughter of our
For example, we
recoil
become
and attitudes similar to those which are expressed
ditions
by
It has
spirits.
the expression of particular mental con-
children.
find instances of laughter occurring as a
from something
relates a
own
Two
like timidity or shyness.
boys,
missionary, had had the small-pox and had not
seen one another for a month.
missionary's house they began
another their disfigured
faces.
When they met in the
by shyly hiding from one
At last they summoned
courage, and after many side looks at one another they
faced round and burst out laughing, the elder boy saying,
We
marked "? Here escape from gene, from a
feeling akin to shame, was the primary condition of the
laughter, though this was no doubt reinforced by a sense of
"
are alike
triumph as each discovered that he was, at
off
than the other.
A
least,
not worse
writer tells us that in East Africa
'
See Baulin, op.
eit.,
p.
94
'
Ling Eoth, Natives
of
Sarawak,
*
ff.
etc.,
i.,
Angas,
p. 81.
loc. cit.
SPECIALISED FORMS OF MIRTH
" a slave
never breaks a thing without an instinctive laugh
of pleasure "}
struction
naughty
yet
;
This laugh
may
it
shame; for
it is
us, that
down
is set
part at
be, in
to the love of de-
least, like
that of a
laugh of bravado hiding a consciousness
child, a
of naughtiness, a
tells
229
mode
drowning a nascent sense of
of
presumable, from what this same writer
an East African slave does not destroy
At the same
owner's property with impunity.
his
time, one
must allow that the process of destruction in itself may be
to a savage, as alas it often is to an English boy, an easy
way to the attainment of a " sudden glory "
Savages appear to resemble children more clearly in their
introduction of jocose attack into their play.
Here we
see an analogy between the mental attitude of a savage and
that of an older child.
Nothing comes out more plainly in
the reports on these uncivilised peoples than their fondness
for teasing, including practical jokes.
The love
of teasing
A
writer.
much more
one another
than Europeans
".^
to
testified
is
good authority
freely
by more than one
us that savages
tells
" tease
and jokingly (scherzhaft)
This fondness for teasing comes out
strongly in their mimicries of one another's defects, a point
to be illustrated presently.
as with our
A
form.
observes
:
''
own
boys,
is
In certain
cases, the teasing,
apt to take on a decidedly rough
lady, writing of the inhabitants of Funafuti,
It is
thought a good practical joke in Funafuti
saw an unsuspecting youth with a pandanus
which produces a very painful scratch " a good deal
for a girl to
leaf,"
:
of laughter on the one side
is
and volubility on the other
the usual result of this joke
".^
1
Burton, Lake Regions of Central Africa,
2
Waitz, NaturvOlker, 6ter Theil,
*
Mrs. Edgeworth David, Funafuti, p. 230.
B.
ii.,
102.
p. 331.
THE LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
230
new
of the teasing instinct: they
grow out
Practical jokes
are
by
The savage
inventions which take the victim
they do not distinctly mislead.
surprise, if
intelligence
quite boyish in the fecundity of its invention in this
is
domain.
The younger
folk seem to practise rude jokes very like
by our own youngsters. Here is an inyoung African negro, seeing an old woman
carrying a pumpkin, approached her and shouted that
there was something on her head.
She forgot all about
those carried out
A
stance.
the pumpkin, shrieked at the thought of some hideous
object on
her head, and ran forward, allowing her tor-
mentor laughingly
As is
to pick
up the
prize she
had
let fall.^
natural, these practical jocosities are sometimes directed,
with a certain caution, of course, against the European.
A
young savage
of
shell-fish laid
let
of Tasmania once slyly
down by
him search
for
it
removed a bag
a sailor at the foot of a rock, and
in vain, and,
replaced the bag, showing himself
"
when
tired of his joke,
highly diverted
" at
the
had played the European.^
As with ourselves, these practical jokes are wont to be
paid back, and with " interest ". A story is told of certain
trick he
Hottentots
who
played off a joke on some sleeping com-
panions by shooting a couple of arrows close to them,
which made them
waggons, where
start
up and hurry
they were
received
for
with
arms to their
a
shout
of
The victims of this false alarm afterwards paid
out the perpetrators. They succeeded in terrifying them by
a skilful imitation of the roar of a lion, which drove them
into camp screaming with terror.'
In other cases the
laughter.
1 Shooter, The Kafirs
of Natal (1857), p. 232.
'Ling Both, Aborigines of Tasmania (2nd ed.),
' Wood, Natural History
of Mam, i., p. 261.
p. 29.
PRACTICAL JOKES
may
practical joke
and may even be
231
be retaliative of some serious annoyance,
inflicted
on some European
"
superior
''.
how some of her West African " ladies "
had been'piqued by the employee of a trading company, who
tried to get them apart, when planting manioc, so as to
hinder them from talking.
They took their playful revenge by making a haycock over their tyrant and shouting
Miss Kingsley relates
"
Get along, white
man
!
I 'spectable married
She gives another instance
so forth.
A
playful punishment in her ladies.
had been rude to some
young black
official
whereupon they resorted
of them,
him
to the broader joke of throwing
water "}
passes for
woman," and
of this disposition to
into
"
the batter that
'
Closely connected with these modes of teasing,
we have
the practice of taking off bodily defects by mimicry and by
These modes of playful attack appear to be
nicknames.
directed most
commonly against
outsiders, but instances are
given of a discreet mimicry of a fellow-tribesman in his
absence.
It
seems probable, though
I
have not found the
much
fact brought out explicitly, that
of the
amusement
derived by these simple folk from their nightly talks, which
are
made gay with
laughter, consists in
teasing attacks
on the bodily defects or peculiarities of certain members;
though, from the evidence forthcoming, one would infer that
a choral laughter over the stranger
is
the more usual feature
in these social entertainments.
In
all
this mirthful teasing it is easy to see
strikes us as cruel, or, at least, as unfeeling.
natural that the hilarity of peoples low
now and
of culture should
down
much
that
It
only
is
in the scale
again take on this aspect; as
when, for example, they are said to laugh exultantly at
iprom an
Telegraph.
article,
"West
African Woraen,'' contributed to the Daily
THE LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
232
Yet, on the whole, the
the struggles of a drowning man.i
merriment of these peoples,
when
the butt
is
a fellow-
tribesman, though undoubtedly rough and often very
does not seem to be so brutal as one might expect.
We
can understand the diversion of so large an amount
savage mirth into these practical channels
of
coarse,
—teasing,
bantering and playing-oiF jokes upon members of one's
tribe,
by
reflecting that laughter
plays, as
we
working,
if
is
a social process,
shall see presently, a large part in the
and
smooth
not also in the very maintenance, of the social
fabric.
In order to see the meaning of this teasing laughter,
we must
note the
way
which
in
it
There
accepted.
is
no doubt, to begin with, that savages have by nature
is
a lively dislike to being laughed
indeed
if this
were not
so,
at.
It
would be strange
seeing that both the
monkeys
below them and the white men above them display
This seems to have
aversion.
we have
as
seen,
laughter-loving,
have
show
the butt of a joke.
voked
(gereizt)
a
of Ceylon, who,
not impressed
marked
We
been specially noted in
The Weddas
the case of certain races.
all
visitors
It is related of one of these
as
made
much pro-
displeasure at being
are told that they are
when they
this
are laughed at (ausgelacht).
men
that,
when during
a dance
he was thus treated by a European, he shot an arrow at
Poor old folk among ourselves will, we
the laugher.^
know, do much the same when they are jeered
at
by
Bain in his English Composition and Rhetoric,
but Mr. Ling Roth
assures me that the statement is probably correct and says that he remembers having read recently an account of the amusement of Chinese
bystanders on such an occasion, one man putting out a boat merely to
'
This
p. 237.
is
stated by Prof.
I have been unable to verify the statement
;
;
—
save a hat
'
1
Sarasin, Forschungen auf Ceylon,
s.
537.
HOW
TEASING
IS
ACCEPTED
incautious boys, and even a youth has been
A
writer
to shy
tells
us that a
made
good of other
facetious attention holds
savages as well.
known
This dislike of being
a stone at a too robust jeerer.
the object of a
233
common
fireside
amusement among certain savages is to tease the women
till they become angry, which always produces great merriment.
The teasing, it is added, is of a rough and not
Further evidence of this distaste for
very decent kind.'
the douche of a voluble laughter
is
supplied
by the curious
ordeals of the Greenlanders, to be spoken of presently.
On
the other hand, there
is
ample evidence to show that
game are, as a rule, acThe youth who bore tlie biting satire
the rough jocosities of the teasing
cepted in good part.
of the
pandanus
leaf
seems to compare favourably in
this
London policeman, who recently complained
him by a lady of the
tickling some part of his official visage with her
respect with a
in court of the soft attentions paid
East
End
in
dainty feather.
Sometimes we are distinctly told that jokes
are taken in good part, so long as they are seen to be intended
So
as such.
of the African Hottentots
ing to the authority already quoted.^
is
and
Kafirs, accord-
Of the Tahitians
it
said that the jests played off at their expense are never
taken in
ill
part.^
It is evident that the rougher kinds of jocosity here de-
scribed allow considerable scope for something of the spirit
One fears that this was felt
by the women victimised by
As with boys, so with savages,
of superiority and contempt.
to be present, for example,
the men's coarse teasing.
we may
suppose
that
playful
respect its limits, but that
'
Sproat, Scenes
2
Wood,
op. cit.,
»Turnbull,
attack
now and
does not
again
it
and Studies of Savage Life (1868), p. 51.
p. 261, and Shooter, op. cit., p. 233.
i.,
op. cit., p. 372.
always
allows itself
THE LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
234
by the brutish element
to be infected
humour
Nor
man.
in
when we remember how much
surprising
men owes
in civilised
of
is
this
so-called
piquancy to the same
its
brutish ingredient.
This attitude of superiority and contempt seems, as one
may
might have expected, to be more apparent in what
called the extra-tribal direction of jocosity,
larly in the
common
of the nature of
be
particu-
laughter at members of other rival and
possibly hostile tribes.
is
more
In certain cases we are told that this
mockery and
Among
ridicule.
savages
and early communities, writes one authority, when their chief-
amused themselves
tain sat in his hall with his warriors, they
by turning enemies and opponents
into
mockery, laughing at
on their defects, giving them nickThe savage again like a boy is apt
to be a vain sort of fellow, and to think that his ways are
a lot better than those of the rest of mankind. Hence he
their weaknesses, joking
names, and so
will,
—
with something of contempt in his heart, laugh at the
bungling
and
—
forth.^
efforts of
will give a
men
of another tribe to kill a turtle,
nickname
to
man
or take off
crazes,
such as his
the white
with admirable mimicry some of his
passion for road-making or for bartering.
Yet
it
would, I think, be an error to treat this laughter
at the outsider as a
form of serious
of the corrective superior.
It
is,
ridicule,
with
its
feeling
even when lightly touched
with contempt, savage play, and has for
its chief
ingredient
the love of fun, and that delight in the mere contemplation of
what
is
with his ethnic
One
foreign and odd which the savage shares
betters.
characteristic of this savage jocosity
referred
to
by
travellers
have seen that the teasing of the
'
is
so frequently
that I cannot pass
women
is
Wright, History of CaricaPwre and Orotesgue,
it
by.
We
apt to take
p. 2.
COARSENESS OF MIRTH
on an indecent form.
We
235
are told, again and again, that
savage jokes are commonly low and immoral.
the joke,
we
are informed, the better
The
natives of the Gold Coast.^
it
is
The coarser
liked by the
jests of the natives of the
islands in the Pacific are said to be "
low and immoral to
a disgusting degree".^
Possibly the European
is
not permitted to
of this aspect of savage mirth.
It is easy,
know the worst
however, to give
To the simpler
by the laws of decency
too serious a significance.
it
savages, untrammelled
people
know
them, there
may
feeling
of
as civilised
be no suggestion here of a
delight in the immoral as such.
Their laughter
may
well
them an undisguised reference to
on hiding up has in it nothing improper
indicate the fact that for
what we
insist
that they are just within sight of the stadium of culture
which convention begins to brand such references as
at
Young
obscene.
children
among
ourselves will, I believe,
often laugh at such open and direct mention of unmentionable things
many
in
in doing
suspect
and much in the same way.
cases, I surmise,
than a
little
It is
hardly more
bravado, a glorying
something unusual which they are beginning to
is
forbidden, though this
is
no doubt apt to be
accompanied by a perception of the indignity done by this
uncovering to the person involved.'
We may now
turn to those forms of savage laughter
which involve a more disinterested contemplation of things,
and a rudimentary sense of their ludicrous phases. There
^ Ellis, op. cit., i., p. 97.
Cruiokshank, loc. cit.
easily one may overcharge this indictment of coarse immorality
is illustrated by what Von den Steinen says of the laughter of the Brazil
Indian women when he asked them the names of the several bodily parts.
Some would have taken this to be the low joking of brazen-faced women.
He distinctly tells us that it was "just simple innocent laughter," op.
1
'How
cit.,
p. 65.
THE LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
236
is
no doubt that the enjoyment
world
fills
a large place in the
conjecture that
it is
that of most boys
may
;
of the droll side of their
One may
savages.
life of
a larger pastime in their case than in
for
though the
intellect
of a savage
not surpass that of a boy, his experience and matured
good sense enable him to judge of the unseemly and the
incongruous with considerable
derive
much mirth from
The simplest form
and quickness, and to
skill
the contemplation of them.
of this merriment, serving, as in the
case of the child, as a bridge from joyous expansion under a
new sensuous excitement to an appreciation of the odd, is
the common laughter of savages at what is strikingly new
to
them, and at the same time takes their fancy.
For
much amused at
when they saw the dampers of the keys
jumping up and down they " fairly laughed aloud "} In
like manner the Indians of Hudson Bay took a compass for
example, the natives of Borneo were very
a piano, and
a toy and
laughed at
account of
its use.^
refusing to accept the owner's
it,
These are pretty clear examples of a
mirthful delight at something which
and appealing to the
port,
more expressive
of a
new, devoid of im-
play-appetite.
of the laughter at the lively
haps,
is
The
later stages
compass-toy were, per-
little
dim sense
of the absurdity of the
suggestion that a dear wee play-thing could do such marvels.
This gleeful greeting of what
is
at once
new and exhilarating
to sense answers in the case of these simple people to
in ourselves is joyous admiration.
African ladies, wives of a king,
Thus,
who
we read
what
of certain
expressed their delight
at European works of art by repeated loud
bursts
the
of
Our own children show us now and again how
new, when it not only captures the sense by its novelty,
laughter.'
1
Ling Roth,
'
Liohtenstein, Travels in Southern Africa,
op.
cit., i.,
p. 72.
^
Barrow, Hvdscm's Bay, p.
ii.,
p. 312.
32.
NEW AND ODD
GREETING OF THE
but holds
by
it
may
charm,
its
greeting, as free
from the
stiff
evoke
237
this purely mirthful
attitude of curiosity as
it is
from fearsomeness.^
good step from
It is a
fun of a
new
as foreign
this childish
abandonment
to the
toy-like thing to the recognition of something
and opposed
In these
to the tribal custom.
simple communities the unwritten laws of custom play a
most important
of
Violations of
part.
any tribesman are apt
them on the part
dealt with
to be
seriously.
This at once tends to limit the range of savage laughter
the pressure of custom
display of
is
too tyrannical to allow of a full
the odd and irregular in
human
behaviour.
These elements of the amusing have accordingly to be supplied
from without
;
and they are supplied in good measure,
partly by other neighbouring tribes whose manners are
by the Europeans
them with a virtuous intention to reform and
observable, and to a stiU larger extent
who
visit
civilise.
Let us
first
take a glance at the hilarious appreciation of
The
the other tribe's ways.
grow
particularly entertaining
doing something which
own
spectacle of the foreigner will
tribe.
The
is
when he seems
perfectly familiar to the observer's
Tahitians,
it
seems, are laughed at
dwellers in the neighbouring islands
a turtle
by pinching
its
to bungle in
throat.
when they
As may be
by the
try to kill
supposed, the
trick, so useful to the beast, of drawing in the head gives
a veritable look of the absurd to these attempts.
So, too,
the enlightened people of one island drew voluminous amusement from the news that those of another island who had
just
come into possession of the novelty, a pair of
them by baking them.^ These two
tried to sharpen
show a dim apprehension
tions
»
Compare above,
pp. 72, 73.
scissors,
illustra-
of the fitness of things as
" Ellis, op.
dt,
i.
,
p. 97.
THE LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
238
"my
determined, not by the relative standard of
way," but
by an objective standard.
The field in which they cull most of their facetious enjoyment of the doings of outsiders would seem to be the ways
There the difi'erences, the departure
from " our way " and the inability to acquire this are great
of their white visitors.
enough to appeal strongly to
They
ludicrous.
which
of things
useless.
If the
see the
strike
crude sense of the
their
odd white people do a number
them
as extraordinary
Englishman laughs
and quite
at the foreigner for not
taking his morning tub, the simple savage will turn the
tables by making merry over our elaborate washings.
Thus the Fuegians, though living much in the water, have
no idea of washing themselves; acccordingly "when Europeans first came among them, the sight of a man washing
his face seemed to them so irresistibly ludicrous that they
Here
burst into shrieks of laughter".^
is
an example of
a rather more complex feeling in presence of new-fangled
European ways.
It
seems that a South African Prince,
presumably as a compliment to the white man's custom,
wished to shave himself and, as our youths frequently do
on
his
first
attempting the
European
visitor to
natives present "stood
feat, cut himself.
He
then asked
him. The
mute with admiration during the
perform the
office for
whole performance, gazing with the utmost eagerness in
their countenances,
and bursting at length into a general
—
customary mode of ex-
peal of laughter
this being their
pressing delight, astonishment, nay even embarrassment and
fear."
as
^
The
we have
last part of this
seen, it
is
not so
barrassment, or the fear in
statement
much
itself,
is
a
little loose, since,
the astonishment, the em-
which laughter expresses,
as a relaxation of the strain involved in these attitudes.
'Wood,
o]i. cit., ii.,
p. 522.
^
Li(,]itangtgijj^ qp_ cj^
_
jj_^
p_ 303.
AMUSEMENT AT FOREIGN WAYS
The laughter excited
is
of a rather
-when the action of the white
not merely because
it
man
more
239
intellectual
kind
presents itself as absurd,
rudely diverges from the customs of
the natives, but because
involves something out of the
it
range of their comprehension, and so appears incredible.
It
is
then that the white
evoking laughter
:
man shows
—when like the
fears — are apt to
photographic camera they do not excite
A
evoke incredulous laughter.
had learned some sentences
traveller in
down and read them
laughed
"
South Africa
of the speech of a tribe (the
Sichuana language) from his man.
f eUow
superiority in
his
his arts, his apparatus
off before
most heartily
"
He
then wrote them
the man.
when
This simple
his white
him that it was the marks he had made
which showed him what he was to say.^ A
master
book
would
in the
told
child
pretty certainly join the savage in laughing at the idea
of getting sounds out of the inert, stupid-looking word-
symbols,
if
it
were suddenly introduced
him
to
in
this
way.
When the
may expose
white man's doings are not absolutely new, he
himself to the laughter of these merry folk
manner
of them.
One would like to know
by the odd
aU the jokes which the natives of South Africa, of Poly"
nesia, and the other abodes of the mirthful " Naturkind
have had over the dress, the gestures, and the speech of
their white visitors.
We
Yet
this
would be hard
to get at.
do know, however, how they are wont to greet some
of our highly civilised performances.
This
which some Tasmanian women
European manner of singing.
behaved on a
tion to the
attentively while
shouts
^
;
it
lasted
;
the
is
first
way
in
introduc-
They
listened
then some applauded by loud
others laughed to splitting, while the
Burohell, Travels in Southern Africa (1822), vol.
young
ii.,
p. 339.
girls,
THE LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
240
no doubt more timid, remained
silent.^
This laughter was,
presumably, more than the expression of a wild delight.
may
Those who laughed
be supposed to have been the most
susceptible to the absurdity of this
In the case of the closely
song.
are
distinctly told that
unheard of manner of
we
may
allied art of dancing,
our highly approved style
The Sumatrans,
writes one authority, have very slow dances which are
thought to be ludicrous by Europeans.
Yet, funnily
appear ridiculous to the savage onlooker.
enough, they think our customary dances
"
to the full as
They compared our minuets to the fighting
of two game cocks. ^
Did they also see a galop, one
wonders, and if so, what did the lovers of slow dances
say about this ? The " refinements " of the arts of civilised
ludicrous
men
are
".
ever apt to appear laughable to
lower
those
down.
The laughter
when
of these uninstructed people
the clever white
man
simple accomplishments.
fails to
More
grows loud
achieve one of their
pronounce the sounds of their language seems to be a
source of merriment.
we have quoted more than
pronounced them badly".'
"
once, often laughed to splitting
Another
" I
made mistakes or
traveller,
West Coast of Vancouver's
speaking of
Island, writes
That they had some standard of correct speech
from the readiness
is
evident
of the children to ridicule a stranger
mispronounces native words".*
from Borneo.
prolific
The Tasmanians, writes one whom
when, wishing to repeat their words,
the natives of the
The
own
particularly, his inability to
girls,
A
who
third example comes
a visitor reports,
made Europeans
repeat sentences of their language after them, and burst out
into loud laughter
1
'
Ling Both,
Ling Both,
(2nd
"
either at our pronunciation or at the
ed.), p. 134.
*
(^. cit. (2nd ed.), p. 36.
*
op. cit.
Marsden, History of Sumatra,
Sproat, Savage Life, p. 266.
p. 230.
THE OUTSIDER AS IGNORAMUS
comical things they had
more
made us
utter "}
241
Nothing, perhaps,
clearly exhibits the ludicrous value of the violation
of a perfectly uniform custom than a mispronunciation of
Nor
language.^
just as it does to
should
eflfort,
ing
to do
fail
is
this
It
all.
seems absurd to a savage,
an average English
what seems
to
child, that
him not merely
the foreigner
to require
no
but to be something one cannot help doing, like laugh-
itself
No
or crying.
doubt some feeling of superiority
to the foreign ignoramus enters into the enjoyment here.
Perhaps the children of Vancouver's Island
felt this superiority
we
are distinctly told
most of
all.
In some
cases,
however,
that the ineptitude of Europeans,
when it provokes
laughter,
out also the soothing accompaniment of kindly en-
calls
couragement.
The exhibition
thing
"
we
do,''
of another
kind of incompetence
to
do the
highly provoking to the hilarious mood,
breach of good manners
;
is
a
for here there comes in something
of the sense of social superiority, and something of the
joyous momentary
quette.
when
Just as
"
relief from the burden of rules of etiSociety " gets nearest to a genuine laugh
confronted with the vulgarities of Midas as he pushes
into her inner circle, so the savage keenly enjoys his oppor-
tunity of detecting gaucherie and want of savoir faire on
the side of his white
he
is
visitors.
Indeed, he seems ready,
when
sure of not offending, to treat these breaches of etiquette
with good-natured merriment.
A traveller tells
visiting the house of
an Indian chief
down on what he took
to be a bundle of
composure of mind proper to a guest of
us that on
Canada he sat
buffalo robes.
The
royalty must have
in
been slightly disturbed at the discovery that the robes began
move and undulate beneath him,
to
till
to his utter confusion
Quoted by Ling Roth, Sarawak and British North Borneo,
"Compare above, p. 104.
16
'
i.,
p. 93.
THB LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
242
he
felt
The
the embers.
chief, his three
wives and the other native
people in the tent " shrieked with laughter
The
trophe.
behind
among
himself projected into the middle of the tent
full
" at
the catas-
measure of the good humour that
this laughter revealed itself to the
lay-
white visitor when
he saw emerging from the heap of robes the fourth and
youngest wife of the
chief,
who, to her credit be
it
said,
joined in the hilarity.
Something
of the reflective element seems to peep out in
one variety of this laughter at the odd ways of the white
A
man.
missionary, one of the discerning ones as
seem, found the Sea
Dyaks
it
would
disposed to treat the idea of our
They were curious to learn
what was required of the religious worshipper, and particularly wanted to know whether he was forbidden to laugh;
and they explained their inquisitiveness by confessing that,
religious services as a joke.
like Mr. Barrie's " Humorist," they
being able to restrain themselves.^
were far from sure of
Solemn ceremony with
when
meaning
its
severe demands will be apt,
to
provoke in savages and in children alike a keen desire
its
is
hidden,
for the relief of a laugh.
A
palpable ingredient of
mind appears
in the laughter of
savages at the white man's ideas about the beginnings and
the endings of things.
The inquirer
into their beliefs
may
present himself to them as a quite unreasonable sceptic,
grubbing at the very roots of things which sensible
accept as self-explanatory.
The members
men
of a tribe in
Central Australia (Arunta tribe) were immensely tickled by
the question
how
The
idea, that
'
came by the sacred
had handed down to them.
their remote ancestors
stones or sticks which they
anything could have existed before these
Hind, Canadian Bed Biver Expedition, ii., p. 135.
Ling Roth, Sarawak and British North Borneo,
''See
i.,
p. 75.
ABSURDITY OF WHITE MAN'S IDEAS
original ancestors, struck
them
as ridiculous.
explanation of any custom of the tribe was,
it,
and therefore we do
was
The ultimate
Our fathers did
to go behind tradition
so to pub forward an
to challenge its sufficiency,
Here we have a mental attitude
absurd paradox.^
like
To try
and
it ".
"
and unlike that
of our children
243
at once
for the latter are con-
;
servative of tradition and disposed to accept authority, but
same time very energetic in pushing back inquiry
what came before ".
Intelligence would seem not merely to be stirring, but
at the
into "
to be capable of adroit play
when
the savage detects the
ridiculous in the white man's ideas of the future of his race.
How many
of the simple savages
who
are instructed in the
dogmas of the Christian religion accept them unquestioningly
it would be hard to say.
Many, perhaps, fail to put any
definite meaning into what they hear.
Now and again,
however, we meet with an instance of a daring laugh at
what
strikes the hearer as utterly absurd.
A
teacher of the
native Australians had once tried to explain to an intelligent
black the doctrine of the immateriality and immortality
He
of the soul.
away from
afterwards learned that his pupil had gone
the lesson to have a hearty
absurdity of the idea
without arms,
legs,
"
we
of laughter at the
and going about
The crass materialism
spiritual ideas was much
or mouth
to eat " .^
of this tyro's efibrt to assimilate
the same as
fit
of a man's living
observe in our children.
In this laughter at our ways and our ideas
we
superior
people are inclined to see merely the ignorance and narrowness of
mind
of the laughers.
savage may, once and again,
1
"
in
Yet
it is
possible that the
making merry
at our ex-
Spencer and Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Aust/ralia, pp. 136, 137.
Quoted from Gideon Lang by Bonwiok, Daily Life of the Tasmanians
p. 174.
THE LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
244
His good sense
pense show himself really our superior.
may
be equal to the detection of some of the huge
follies
the matter of dress and other customs to which the
in
And he
enlightened European so comically clings.
been
known
and
to strike the satirical note
down
self-satisfied
Europeans
so finely but practised so little
what they
upon and laugh "at the stupid
who preached
to look
has
preached "}
We may now
glance at the intra-tribal activity of the
That
mirthful impulse.
this
fills
some place
in the life of
savage communities has been illustrated in our account of
We
their teasings.
field for
the play of
must not expect to find here a large
what we call the comic spirit. As we
shall see presently, this spirit
when
the
movement
only begins to fly bravely
of civilisation introduces
more diversity
of class, and, further, a greater liberty of utterance
women
A pretty clear
tribesmen
is
accompany
tested.
illustration of laughter directed to fellow-
by the merriment that
supplied
athletic
Among
favourite
and other competitions
amusement
of the
are accompanied
by a good
ing that the older
men
that some eflbrt
made
is
is
the throwing of
trials of skill
to preserve discipline.^
It
is
This merri-
the expression of a keen
Greenland in 1728.
At the same time
(1878),
ii.,
Eskimos
to-
See Eskimo Life, pp.
106-7.
^Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria
and
of our schoolboys'
asserts this with respect to the attitude of the
settled in
is
deal of laughter, notwithstand-
enjoyment of the triumphs of the game.
wards the Danes who
said to
are informed, a
The
no doubt largely the counterpart
Nansen
is
which skiU
are present to instruct the boys
laughter in the playground.
'
in
we
young men is
the natives of Victoria,
the spear and other similar exercises.
ment
—for
as well as for men.
p. 278.
RIDICULING FELLOW-TRIBESMEN
if,
as one
may
assume,
it is
directed against blunders
a sociological significance.
which urges a youth
example
illustrates
becomes a
It
" social
do his best in the
to
A member
prepared.
of
asked to do the same
;
and the
Another
field.
is
totally un-
A native was
knowing what was
The man singled out
his ears.
others,
watched him attentively.
to be done,
has
European party which was
a
Weddas could move
visiting the
it
sanction,"
the impulse to laugh at a comrade's
accomplish a feat for which he
failure to
245
for the feat looked blankly towards the sky, his ears re" as if
maining
nailed to his head "
;
at this
moving
spectacle
one of the onlookers suddenly broke out into laughter, the
others at once joining
Here we have laughter
in.^
at a
fellow-tribesman, in face of Europeans too, exactly similar to
that which
make an
attempt
In
is
there
less,
is
directed against the European himself.
much
exhibition of their limitations, especially
is
too,
savage laughter has the ring of the
merriment of the playground and of the
circus.
of the first forms of a reciprocal mirthful attack or
bantering between classes
life
who
when the
preceded by a display of vanity and boastfulness.
this respect,
One
Doubt-
of this kind of laughter at those
is
that between the Sexes.
Savage
supplies us with clear cases of inter-sexual jocosity be-
sides that of the teasing which, as
sided game.
Africa
we find
we have
seen,
is
a two-
In a collection of sayings and stories of West
the following
:
look after a "pot-au-feu".
he had skimmed
off the
A woman
On
left
her husband to
returning she found that
bubbling foam and hidden
it
in a
was
She twits him with it and discovers to his slow wits
that the savory scum has melted into nothing.^ This recalabash, naively supposing that this
the cream of the
dish.
'Sarasin, op.
2
cit., iii., p.
540.
Burton, Wit and Wisdom of West Africa,
p. 52.
THE LAUGHTER OP SAVAGES
246
minds one of many a story of the Middle Ages, and shows
how wide-spread is the exposure of the male incompetence
to the lash of
woman's merry
wit.
These jocose thrusts at the opposite sex are interesting
as illustrating the
the male
differentiation
of class-standards.
If
laughed at for his bungling at the mysteries
is
how much more when he actually fails to keep
Mr. Ling
up with the women folk in his own domain
Roth, whose eye seems to have been specially focussed for
of cooking,
!
records of the mirthful utterances of savages,
a boat-load of
women who had
us that
tells
been gathering oysters
rowed a race with a visitors' crew and managed to beat
them whereupon there was a fine outburst of feminine
hilarity and much quizzing of the men who had allowed
themselves to be beaten by women. ^
Here, surely, was
a touch of a higher feeling, a dim perception at least
;
permanent and universal forms of the
of the
,
fitness of
things.
The
call
It
humour
to be found in the
concourse of
naming
properly
his
his,
chiefs
children.
we
work just
should
quoted.
to
deal
with
the problem
These, he contended, were not
but had been begotten by certain spirits (the
Antus or Hantus).
to
is
seems that a stupid old soothsayer once called together
a large
of
have met with, of what
clearest example, I
a dry
One
come many miles
of the chiefs did not enjoy having
to listen to this sort of stuff, so
"
he
pretended in the midst of the soothsayer's discourse to
faint
away, and
fell
back gasping for breath, kicking his
legs spasmodically in the
air
at
the same time
".
This
interruption brought the tedious proceedings to an end,
and so saved the
was not
1
all
:
chief
But
this
pay the
chief
from further boredom.
the disappointed
humbug had
to
Ling Both, Sarawak and British North Borneo,
i.,
p. 83.
EXAMPLE OF DRY HUMOUR
who had
ment
is
performance some fowls as a punish-
his
spoilt
247
The
for allowing the spirits to attack him.'
story-
instructive as illustrating the tendency, as soon as classes
begin to be marked
Perhaps, indeed,
off,
man
to score off a
we have
of another class.
in this jocose imposition on the
imposer a suggestion of the merry-making of kings and
marked
peoples at the expense of the clergy which was so
a feature in mediaeval hilarity.
A
word may well be expended on the
organisation
laughing
the
of
amusements among savage
a white
man
peoples
is
subject of the
propensity
One
tribes.
regular
into
of the things
which
can learn from these much-misunderstood
the
of
art
Without
entertainment.
social
luxurious salons, without plate and rare wines, without
the theatre and the concert
good deal
their
freely
A
much easy
they have
own
war and
feats in
and the laugh
social
conversation.
is
long
if
chase.
"Jokes pass
not loud."
standard dish in these social entertainments
off the
peculiarities
When,
they sing and chat, and older men
fires
and brag about
lie
they manage to obtain a
they are relieved of the presence
writes one traveller,
of strangers
Round
hall,
of genuine, unpretentious conviviality.
of
other
Mimicry, the basis of the
tribes
is
taking
and of Europeans.
actor's art, is often carried to a
high degree of perfection among these uncouth savages;
and
it is
highly prized.
tribes of the
When,
imitate the peculiarities of
tribe, it is
1
^
is
able to
some absent member
of the
very common to hear
with laughter.^
e.g.,
writes a missionary of the
remote part of Victoria, a native
The Indians
the beard, of other
all in
the
camp convulsed
of Brazil hold the peculiarities,
tribes
Ling Both, op cit., i., pp. 83-4.
Quoted by Darwin, Expression of
up
to laughter
^
Sproat, op.
the Emotions, p. 209.
by means
cit.,
p. 51.
THE LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
248
This mimicry, as might be ex-
of a lively pantomime.^
natives of
New
South Wales used to be so skilful in this
them " Their mimicking of the
that one wrote of
art
:
oddities, dress, walk, gait
whom
all
the Europeans
so exact as to be a kind of historic register
is
several
their
authority
tells
and
actions
characters".^
The same
us that the Tahitians are acute observers
and even looks
of the manners, actions,
if
and looks of
they have seen from the time of Governor PhiUips
downwards,
of
The
embraces the odd ways of the white man.
pected,
of strangers
;
and
they have any singular imperfections or oddities, they
will not fail to
Another
make
themselves merry at their expense.'
traveller certifies to the fact that the aborigines of
Victoria were splendid mimics, and would, after attending
the white man's church, "take a book and with
much
success imitate the clergyman in his manner, laughing
enjoying the applause which they received
mimicry
is
".*
A
and
turn for
found also among the North American Indians.
The Califomian Indians gave
name " Wo'hah," formed from
to the
"
American whites the
whoa-haw," the sound they
when they drove
heard the early emigrants produce
their
an American coming up the
There comes a wo'hah,'
road, and cry out to his fellows
"Let an Indian
oxen.
see
'
;
at the same time swinging his arm as
it will
produce convulsive laughter."
Along with
if
driving oxen, and
^
this skill in mimicry, savages
show
consider-
able readiness in the verbal arts of descriptive caricature,
In practising these, we are
witty sayings and repartee.
they
make ample
The possession
^
'>
'
Von den
Op.
of these rudiments of talent naturally leads
Steinen, op.
cit., p.
told,
use of the instrument of irony.
cit., p.
71.
372.
North American Ethnology
''
(J.
' TurubuU, op. cit.,
Brough Smyth, op. cit., i.,
W.
Powell), vol.
ill.,
p. 410.
p. 88.
p. 29.
MIMICRY AND CARICATURE
249
It is attested again
to a certain amount of specialisation.
and again that our uncultured savage communities possess
Indeed, we
their professional pantomists, jesters and wits.
read of crude forms of a comic art
among savages
so
the scale as the Australians and the Tasmanians.
low
in
Thus,
Lumholtz writes of the pantomimic dances of the Australian
blacks,^
and Ling Roth assures us that the Tasmanians have
and mountebanks, who exhibit the
their drolls
of individuals with considerable force.^
trans, again, are to be
found
"
peculiarities
Among
the
Suma-
characters of humour,"
who
by buffoonery, mimicry, punning, repartee and satire are
able to keep the company in laughter at intervals during a
night's entertainment.'
by a
In some cases jesters are appointed
chief, just as a fool
kings.
used to be selected by one of our
In Samoa every chief has his regular clown, a
privileged person who,
among
other liberties,
is
buffoon in Kanowit,
who had
allowed that
A privileged
of taking the food out of the chief's mouth.*
been given an old gun, told
the Resident that he had killed fourteen deer with one
bullet.
The Resident being
had cut the
puzzled, he explained that he
bullet out each time.^
Here we have the exact
counterpart to the trick of the European clown of the circus.
Among the Eskimo of Greenland, it seems, there is a regular
in which the aspiring " funny men " compete
performance
for popular favour.
After a repast they get up, one after the
other, each exhibiting his musical resources
and
by beating a drum
by making
singing, and adding a touch of the actor's art
comical gestures, and playing ridiculous tricks with the face,
head and limbs.^
1
Op.
cit.,
Much the same kind of contest
pp. 239, 291.
^Li^g Roth, Tasmania (2nd
'Marsden, op. cit., p. 230.
* Quoted by Waitz, Naturvolker, 6ter Theil, p. 102.
' Ling Both, Sarawak and British North Borneo, i.,
* Hans Bgede, Nat. Hist, of Greenlamd, pp. 156-7.
takes place
ed.), p. 38.
p. 84.
T»E LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
250
in connection
Each
by singing
one
who
with their peculiar ordeals, already referred
two
of the
litigants tries to
satirical
make
to.
the other ridiculous,
songs and relating misdeeds
;
and the
succeeds in getting the audience to laugh most at
his jibes or invectives is
Even
pronounced the conqueror.
such serious crimes as murder are often expiated in this
merry
fashion.^
In one or two eases
we
read of more elaborate entertain-
Thus, some of the natives of the Western Pacific
ments.
have a regular masquerade performed before the King, into
which may enter a
with his
sailor
histrionic representation of a British
by
cutlass, acted
role of a "
combines with the
a leading buffoon,
premier
"
the
of breaking through the strict laws of
to the
King and asking
amid shouts
ironically
if
" fool's "
who
privilege
decorum by pointing
was the King
that
of laughter.^
Other traces of a rudimentary art of the comic are to
be found in the amusing songs and stories which can be
The Australians had songs
Europeans were caricatured,
traced to savage invention.
which the
in
peculiarities of
the chorus being sung amid shouts of laughter.'
comic song, heard
among some
took off the bodily peculiarities of some
another tribe
—in the graceful
Another
of the aborigines of Australia,
lines
—presumably of
men
:
legs, oh, what legs
The Kangaroo-rumped fellows.
Oh, what legs, oh, what legs ^
Oh, wliat
1
I
In these crude forms of art we probably find traces of the
influence of European models.
Nans en, Eskmo
'
F.
2
Quoted from Jackson's Narrative
Life, p. 187
;
There
c/.
Egede,
(1840)
are,
however, stories
loc. cit.
by Brskine, Western
p. 468.
'Bonwiek,
*
Grey,
op. cit., p. 29.
Two Expeditions
in Australia (1841),
ii.,
pp. 307-8.
Pacific,
RUDIMENTS OF COMIC ART
251
which seem to be a perfectly spontaneous growth.
it is
of
enough to refer to the
Of these
originals of the delightful tales
Uncle Remus, the substance of which, as their author
tells
he obtained from the blacks in the American
us,
Miss Kingsley writes to
plantations.^
know
made
Lower Congo ".
the tales are not
Stories in the
baby
device of the tar
is
up.
It
me
of these
I struck the
may
''
:
I
Tar Baby
be added that the
to be found in its essentials in
a collection of African stories.^
Our study seems
own in
Much of it is
our
little girl
to tell us that savage laughter
representing
different
levels
is
like
of refinement.
just naive, unthinking gaiety, like that of the
spoken about in the preceding chapter.
ing with this infantile gaiety
we have
Co-exist-
the coarse brutal
forms of laughter which we associate with the rougher kind
of schoolboy.
ones, in
is
Along with these lower forms we find higher
which some amount of reference to
discoverable.
Lastly,
we may
the story of the
man
about sans arms,
legs, etc.,
detect here
social standards
and
there, as in
by the idea of dead men going
and of him who jocosely stripped a
tickled
humbug of his
disguise, germs of a more thoughtful laughter;,
and on the other hand, in the kindly tempering of the
laughter of the girls at the Englishwoman's inability to
movement towards sympathetic laughter. In
other words, we detect the dim beginnings of that complex
It seems probable
feeling or attitude which we call humour.
make
mats, a
that the quality,
if
not also the quantity, improves as
we pass
from the lowest and most degraded to the higher savage
tribes.^
J. Chandler Harris, Uncle Bemus and his Friends.
B. E. Dennett, Folklore of the Fjort, pp. 92-3.
^ Mr. Ling Roth has pointed out to me that the laughter of the Australian at the absurdity of the idea of a dead man going about without
'
2
THE LAUGHTER OF SAVAGES
252
Hence, no doubt, the
common
humour
of the West African
—
more feminine
it is
not child-like
it is
very broad or coarse.
it is
only say what seems to
''
others,
we
chuckle over, superior persons look
and would
call
bufToonery." ^
One practical reflection to close
community which has much to do in
lower races
"
I can
excellent joke seems so to
—there are many jokes neither of us can see
"
with
in quality, though
of
the
me
It is diflBcult to describe.
me an
by
It is peculiar,
:
him
:
felt
characteristics of the
Miss Kingsley writes to
hilarity of savage tribes.
respect to the
which has been
difficulty
travellers in describing the
the point
down on
Any civilised
way of managing
with.
the
would surely be wise to take some heed
And
of their love of fun.
this,
because
it
has been found
that appeals to this side have been more effective than the
harsher measures to which even a gentle Briton
An
himself sometimes driven.
may
think
African missionary, already
quoted, writes that in cases where a disposition to quarrel
shows
"one joke
itself
borne out by one
savages,
legs, etc.,
when he
occurs in
a.
who
worth ten arguments".'
is
race usually placed
The
we
generalisation in the text.
a high order
case
;
This
is
to tell of his
says of the East African that he delights
Yet this apparent exception does
of
much good
has not
and, further,
was an "intelligent"
among
the lowest in
tlie scale.
not, I think, affect the validity of the
intellect displayed in this ridicule is not
are distinctly told that the scofier in the
native, that is to say, one of
more than the
average intelligence of his tribe.
1
me
Mr. Ling Both writes
that he agrees with Miss Kingsley as to the
difference between the laughter of savages
quite ready to accept this view so far as
directions of the mirth.
The diSerenoes
it
and of children. I should be
concerns the special forms and
of capacity, experience
and habit
involved in the difference between the child and adult will, of course,
introduce
temper.
many
dissimilarities into their manifestations
I hold, however, that as regards the
cesses involved, the similarity
^Maodonald,
op. cit.,
i.,
is
real
p. 266.
and
of the mirthful
fundamental psychical pro-
great.
RULING THE SAVAGE BY JOKES
in a joke "
letter to
which manages him
me
like a Neapolitan
Miss Kingsley writes
:
" I
".'
In a
have always found
them into doing things that other people could
them to do, with blows I could laugh them out
things other people would have to blow out of them with
I could chaff
—
not get
of
253
a gun
".
^
Burton, op.
cit., ii.,
pp. 338-9.
254
CHAPTER
IX.
LAUGHTEE IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION.
In the two preceding chapters we have followed the
earlier
stages of the development of laughter in the individual
and have glanced
at its counterpart in the life of savage
communities.
now we try to push the
how the mirth of
If
inquiry farther, and ask
psychological
the child de-
velops into that complex sentiment which in these days
we
call
thing
is
humour, we find ourselves forced to pause.
however.
clear,
No
One
one of us would ever have
acquired this valuable endowment but for the educative
action of that advanced stage of social culture which
our
intellectual
that
we
and moral environment.
It
is
seems to follow
need to look for a moment at the movement
shall
of social culture itself, to consider the impulse of laughter
as one of the features in the life of a community,
inquire
how
it
and
to
has become transformed, almost beyond
by the movement of social progress.
To attempt to give an exhaustive account of these
recognition,
changes would
clearly lead us very far.
It
may
social
be argued
with force that every one of the great directions of
social
evolution, such as that of intellectual conceptions, of moral
sentiments, of political and social liberty, of wealth, of the
classes and ranks, has involved as its
some change in the intensity, the mode of distribuand the manner of expression in daily life and in
differentiation of
effect
tion,
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF MIRTH
But we do not need
the laughing impulse.
art, of
consider so deeply.
It will be
255
enough
if
we
to
briefly retrace
those phases of social evolution which appear to carry with
them
immediate accompaniments considerable modi-
as their
mirthful
fications of the
We
must in
spirit.
this inquiry begin
This was
aspect of laughter.
by defining the
chapter in connection with our study of the
savages.
One
We
of its
have now to examine
most obvious
social
touched on in the
it
more
last
mirth of
closely.
characteristics is its contagious-
The potent appeal
of laughter
to a mechanical imitativeness is significant in
more ways
ness, already referred to.^
than one.
is
how
It suggests
large a part of
human
hilarity
nothing but a kind of surface resonance, as empty of
yawn
ideas as the infectious
or cough.
But
also that laughter is social in the sense that it
A
choral and so uniting.
is
it
suggests
essentially
gathering of yokels at a fair
moment to become a
and the habit of laughing together will
laughing at a clown tends for the
coherent group
;
tend to consolidate the group.
When
property
still
of ideas
plays a part.
of others' laughter, the
the general roar,
one's personality.
To
is
It is as if the swift response
drowning of
one's
own
outburst in
for the time the boundaries of
efi'aced
of the laugh, though
together,
is less automatic and issues
and sentiments, the contagious
the conjoint laughter
from community
rejoice together in the full utterance
it
perhaps no
moves us
less
less
deeply than to weep
potent in cementing a lasting
comradeship.
The social side of laughter comprehends, however, much
more than this. It is commonly recognised that the feeling
expressed has something
human
1
for its object.
See p. 42.
Now
those
LAUGHTER
256
who directly or
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
IN
indirectly serve as the butt are all the world
over disposed,
till
the grace
of a
genial tolerance
has
been added, to dislike and resent the part thrust on them.
So
far, then,
laughter would seem to be anti-social and
dividing, and, alas, the history of literature will furnish the
student with notable illustrations.
laughter becomes one of
the despised Greenlanders
Yet
this hurtful
edge in
valuable social properties.
its
may
As
teach us, laughter supplies a
mode of punishment which combines with effectiveness,
economy and humanity, a good deal of enjoyment for the
In
onlookers.
fashion,
it
all societies, if
not exactly in the Greenland
has been accorded an important place among the
agencies which,
by castigating
and
vices
follies,
seek to
lower their vitality.
The sharp edge of laughter represents, however, only
one of its effects on the sensibilities of the butt. Savage life
has given us illustrations, not only of
its
disagreeable con-
sequences turned to judicial purposes, but of
its
agreeable
consequences in cajoling others out of attitudes of hostility
and stubbornness.
a
mode
This curious
of treatment
which
explained in the main by
stitute a
is
its
life
may
seem, of
is
to be
To subis,
like
up the playThe mutual teasings
and tends to
call
seen, as a training,
virtues, such as the
toleration,
above one's private
One
we have
and estimable
good temper,
of
it
playful function.
in the recipient of the challenge.
of savages serve, as
in simple
as
joke for argument or coercive pressure
tickling, to challenge to play,
mood
effect,
primarily hurtful
an
daKija-i';,
maintenance
and the setting of comradeship
feelings.
other social aspect of laughter illustrated by savage
needs to be touched on.
In the instinctive tendency of
the savage to ridicule the customs and ideas of outside folk
we have one
expression of the self-protective attitude of a
SOCIAL UTILITY OF LAUGHTER
257
community against insidious outside influences. Just as
the Hebrews ridiculed the religious ideas of the worshippers
of Baal and so helped to keep their national faith intact, so
these tribes
laughter at
low down in the culture
what
is
have in their
scale
any con-
foreign a prophylactic against
No
tamination from outside peoples.
doubt this tendency
in laughter will help to preserve once useful tribal characters
when
altered circumstances, introduced, for example,
coming of the white man, require new adaptations.
by the
In this
we
see the essentially conservative function of laughter in
the
life of societies.
On
and
delight.
the white
we
shall
need
social
consider very
to
which the mirthful
carefully the attitude
Now
by
In dealing with the connection between
progress and laughter,
towards
we have seen,
man may attract
the other hand, as
novelties in dress introduced
spirit takes
up
social changes.
these aspects of laughter point, as
As
to a social utility in laughter.
we have
seen,
offspring of the play-
impulse, it might, indeed, be expected to share in those benefits
made
which, as recent research has
In our study of
life of
its
progressive communities,
illustrate this utility
become a commonplace, at
belong to play.
shall
fully.
its
have occasion to
That laughing
is
individual subjects has
least to the student of literature.
shall be concerned
tages, such as the
we
much more
good, physically and morally, for
Here we
clear,
development and persistence in the
with
its distinctly social
advan-
maintenance of customs which from the
point of view of the community, or of some class of the
community, are to be regarded as good, the keeping down
of
vices
and
follies,
and the furtherance
of
far this utility extends
is
social
co-
operation.
The question how
cannot be answered simply.
It will be
17
one which
found that
societies,
LAUGHTER
258
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
IN
60 far from universally recognising laughter as a useful
have taken vast pains to restrain it. Indeed, our
study of the fortunes of mirth in the advance of social life
habit,
wUl show us that
it
has had throughout to struggle for
its
existence.
From what
has just been said
will be clear that
it
we
have to consider the history of laughter and the move-
shall
ment
Not only does
of social evolution as inter-connected.
a change in ideas, sentiments or institutions tend to modify
the expression of the mirthful mood, there
is
a reciprocal
upon ideas, sentiments and instituSuch interaction holds good generally between
influence of laughter
tions.
amusements and
community serve
the recreations of a
pursuits;
serious
in important
ways
to determine the
sure of the vigour thrown into serious activities.
case of laughter this reciprocal influence
is
mea-
In the
much more
marked, owing to the circumstance that mirth has been
wont
make
to play about serious things, to
now and
for its finely tipped shafts,
these the target
again going so far as
to shoot one into the midst of the solemnities of social
life.
In the savage tribe
The
perception of
we
what
find but little of class division.
is
unfit
and the laughter which
accompanies this are directed, for the most part, to
bers of other communities.
it is
join
The laughter
choral because
is
that in which the whole tribe joins or
;
Some
but for that very reason
it
mem-
is
prepared to
has a monotonous sound.
differentiation of groups within the
community seems
necessary, not merely for the constitution of a society, but
for
the free play of the laughing
thought and behaviour
is
a
spirit.
main condition
Diversity in
of the full flow
of social gaiety.
The germ
of
such diversity
is
present in the lowest
CLASS-DIVISION AND MIRTH
conceivable type of
human community.
male and female in which Nature, as
work with human,
if
The
to
it
institution of
combine divine
and puts asunder,
at once joins together
has been with us from the beginnings of
and
259
human
society;
might be an amusing pastime to speculate how the
our
males of
ancestors
ape-like
first
gurgled out their
and how the females managed
ridicule of female inferiority,
to use their first rudiment of speech-power in turning the
tables
on their lords and masters.
must have been found
rank, too,
societies in the contrast
Some
differentiation of
in the simplest
human
between the old and the young,
and the closely connected opposition of the rulers and the
ruled.
But
it
would be hazardous
to reason that, in the
much in the way of exchange of fun passed between those who were presumably
kept solemnly apart by the sense of their relative station.
It is only when we move on to a society with a con-
early stages of social evolution,
siderable
amount of class differentiation that its relation
and distribution of the spirit of mirth grows
to the nurture
In glancing at these divisions
apparent.
adopt M.
veniently
Tarde's
expression,
we may
con-
"social group".
Such a group may be either a class, the members of which
have like functions and a common character connected with
these, such as priests and traders; or it may be a set
constituted merely by community of knowledge and taste,
as the members of a society standing on a particular level
of culture.
Although
this
double
way
of dividing social
groups necessarily leads to overlapping, it seems desirable
to adopt
it
here, so as to give an adequate account of the
relation of group- formation to the particular directions of
social laughter.
The development
of distinct groups within a
community
influences the behaviour of the laughing impulse,
first
of
LAUGHTER
260
all,
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
IN
by introducing diversity
judgments
relative
way
In this
intelligence.
enlarges the field for those
competence and
about
and
of occupations, abilities
it
with
fitness
which, as savage laughter illustrates, simple forms of mirth
have so much to do.
Thus, the establishment of dis-
employment and mode
of
tinctions
of life between the
sexes has contributed copiously to that mirthful quizzing
by the other which seems
of each
human
ingredient in
The
culture.
to
have been a prime
jocosity from the lowest stages of
male at
slightly malicious laughter of the
female incompetence, which
treatment of his
of literature.
seen
is
in
the
schoolboy's
sister, is illustrated
throughout the course
And good examples
are not wanting of a
turning of the tables by the female on the male.
story of
King
which we have found the counterpart
example of the more
shrewish
is less
performance
fall to
of
When
—
the
— of
is
an
male
the sense of
keen, and the impression of the folly of the
fills
the soul, the shrewish note
the genial pitch of laughter.
of industrial
in savage life
criticism
ignoramus by the female expert.
injury
The
Alfred's misadventure with the cakes
The
is
apt to
difierentiation
and other employments, such as those of
countryman and townsman, of landsman and seaman, of
soldier
and
civilian, serve to
certed laughter, and
The formation
of
new
develop
new
social
groups further
material and the opportunities for laughter
noticeable
and
and impressive
speech.
In this
way
that which contradicts our
been made wide and
may
suffice to
centres of con-
points of attack.
enlarges the
by introducing
differences of behaviour,
dress
the field of the odd, the absurd,
own customs and
fertile.
A
mere
standards, has
difference of locality
generate such differences.
Not
so
many
years ago, one could hear in the West of England the
FUNCTIONS OP GROUP-LAUGHTER
which the people in one small town or
jibes
wont
We
to hurl at those in another.
261
were
district
read that in the
when local differences of dress and speech were
much more marked than now, satires on people of parthough probably
ticular localities were not uncommon
much more than a perception of the laughably odd was
Middle Ages,
so
—
involved in these rather fierce derisions.^
The immediate
sets
utility of this mirthful quizzing of other
would, like that carried out by one savage tribe on
another, consist in the preservation of the characteristics of
own
one's
set.
But the play
of laughter about class-dis-
When
tinctions illustrates another of its benefits.
gets used to the distinctive
ways
of another,
regard them as right and proper for the latter
carry
one set
tends to
it
and
;
it
mem-
inner sentiment of the other group by deriding those
bers
may
regard for their propriety so far as to support the
its
who do
ive customs
not conform to their group-customs.
Distinct-
—
have been conserved not only
to adopt ethical
terms having a somewhat different meaning
—by
" internal
sanctions" in the shape of serious penalties as well as
ridicule administered
'
by fellow-members
by
The
of the set, but
external sanctions " in the shape of outside mockery.
imposing soldierly attitude has perhaps been kept up quite
as
much by
the merry quizzing of civilians as by any
military discipline and esprit de corps.
A poor tottering hero
in uniform could, one opines, never have escaped the eye of
citizens lying in wait for the laughable.
The
men
occur
screwing up of
finer opportunities for this mirthful
of other groups to their proper moral height
when
the peculiarities of the
mode
a special rule of behaviour, and, particularly,
was a severe
1
one.
The hollow
would
of life imposed
when
hero, trying
Wright, History of Caricature amd Grotesque,
this rule
to hide the
p. 181.
LAUGHTER
262
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
IN
poverty of his courage in braggadocio, has been a favourite
figure in comic literature, classic
clergy
A
and modern.
illustration of this situation is the laughter
by the people during the Middle Ages.
catures of the
monk—representing
notable
heaped on the
The
cari-
him, for instance, as
Reynard in the pulpit with a cock below for clerk,
and the many Gontes which exposed his cunningly con-
a
trived
and
immoralities,
frequently
them with
visited
well-merited chastisement, show pretty plainly that the
popular laughter in this case had in it something of hate
and contempt, and was directed in part to the exposure and
punishment of the celibate class. This may be asserted,
even though
the holy
it
must not be forgotten that in these Gontes
infrequently emerges from his
man by no means
dangerous experiment unscathed
:
a fact which suggests that
in the popular sentiment there lurked, not merely some-
thing of the child's mirthful wonder at daring cunning, but
a certain sympathetic tolerance for a caste, on the shoulders
of
which was
laid a
The mental
and there
somewhat weighty yoke.
attitude of the narrator rather suggests here
that of an easy-going Englishman
when confronted with
the spectacle, say of a drunken sailor or soldier.^
Another
in for
class
much
physician.
having high pretensions, which has come
of the " screwing-up " kind of laughter,
Next
to the healer of the soul,
the most for mortals.
his pedantries
layman with mirthful
the
he undertakes
In Gil Bias, in the comedies of
Moliere, and in other works,
methods and
is
we may
were apt to
see
how
his ancient
affect the intelligent
ridicule.
' M. Jos. BMier in his interesting study, L'Esprit des Fabliaux, though
he argues that the fabliaux in general had no social aim (" port^e
sooiale "), has to admit that in the case of the treatment of the priests
these " contes k rire en vers " betray a genuine hatred, ai hatred which
(he adds) rune through other forms of literature of the Middle Ages.
SCREWING UP LAPSING SUPERIORS
So
far nothing has been said of the
263
rank of the groups
The differentiating of a higher from a lower
with more or less of authority on one side and
thus formed.
caste,
subserviance on the other, will turn out to be the most
important feature in social grouping in
bearing on the
its
As we have
forth of social laughter.
calling
seen, our
merriment has much to do with dignities, with the claims
on our respect made by things above us while, on the
;
other hand, the contemptuous laugh which has had volume
and duration implies a relation
if
of superior
and
inferior
only the fugitive one created by the situation of quizzer.
All stages of group-formation seem to involve something
of this distinction
between an upper and a lower
The
class.
simplest conceivable structure of society includes a head and
ruler of family, clan or tribe,
and
subjects.
significance of social grouping
as
a
Hence, the vast
condition of choral
laughter.
How
far persons in positions of authority have gratified
of superiority
their sense
below them,
power
is
real
by
derisive
laughter at those
would, of course, be hard to say.
When
and absolute there are other ways
of ex-
it
pressing contempt.
Literature undoubtedly furnishes ex-
amples of the ridicule by the social superior of the ways of
a lower
(o.
as in the Provencal
class,
poem
of Bertran de
Bom
1180) in which the villains are treated contemptuously.
Yet the
larger part of literature, not being produced for a
ruling caste, does not throw
One
much
light
on
this subject.
can only infer with some probability, from the relations
of parents
and
adults, generally, to children,
and
of white
1 B^dier points out iu the work quoted that the writers of the fabliaux,
which issue from the burgher class, and are written for this class, take
sides with the weak villains rather than with the strong knightly class
(see p. 291
ff.).
Cf.,
however, Wright, op.
cit.,
p. 114.
LAUGHTER
264
IN
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
masters to their coloured slaves, that power has always
been tempered by some admixture of good-nature, which
composition has
produced a certain amount of playful
and cementing.
jocosity, at once corrective
derisive laughter of the superior is particularly loud
The
in certain cases
might
where the authority
is
not so real as
it
Man's ridicule of his not too obedient spouse
be.
may be said
almost to shriek
Egypt
in papyri of
adown
the ages.
We may read
of the fourteenth or thirteenth century
of the misfortunes of a husband, named Anoupou.^
The Greek comedians thought no abuse of the sex too
B.C.
bitter or too coarse.^
In Latin literature we have
of different types
portraits
of
In mediaeval
figures of various brutes, a fox, a mare, etc.^
society, the
is
low opinion of
satirical
women, drawn under the
women
entertained by their lords
illustrated in the firm persuasion that the only
way
to
—
treat them was to beat them
watching them was quite
vain so that they might be occupied all the day with
—
Sometimes, as in the Arabian Nights, this con-
crying.*
tempt takes the form of bitter denunciation
most
part,
Even the
it
;
but, for the
has laughed in the brighter key of comedy.
satire here is
wont
to lose all trace of savageness,
and to assume the tone of a good-natured acceptance of the
incurable.
While the formation of
ranks has thus secured a
social
wide range for superciUous mocking of
inferiors, it has
guaranteed these ample opportunity of avenging themselves
by laughter
How
'
at the expense of the authorities.
soon in man's history any such laughter became
See Maapero, Les Contes populaires de I'^gypte, Introduction
("
des deux frdres").
^
Percy Gardner, Greek Antiquities,
'
Tyrrell, Latin, Poetry, p. 220.
p. 353.
*
B6dier, op. cit, p. 279
fi.
Oonte
TURNING ON MASTERS
possible, it
would be hard
In the simpler types of
to say.
community, the severe restraints
laid
of the tribe must, one supposes,
indulgence
as
is
by sons
265
on youths by the men
have been
fatal to
any
in laughter at the expense of fathers, such
comedy both ancient and modern. The
must have
any impulse of laughter, if it happened to arise.
illustrated in
penalties attached to breach of ceremonial rule
stifled
It is said that
when
the chief of a certain tribe chanced to
stumble, his subjects were
bound
order to cover up his defect.^
custom
may have
in
lain
its
to pretend to stumble in
The
utility of this quaint
effectual suppression of the
This theory, however, postulates a kind of
risible impulse.
removed from the modern, of whom it seems
might be trusted to see stumblings and
worse without feeling an over-mastering temptation to laugh.
One can only conjecture that men began to discern and
courtier widely
safe to say that he
enjoy the amusing side of authority and
asserting
from
itself,
its
solemn ways of
in their free moments, at a safe distance
tell-tale eyes.
What
is
known
of the
hard-worked slave of antiquity
suggestive not merely of play after
toil,
is
but of a safe turn-
When, as we read, the Egyptian
workman got fun " out of the smallest incident in the day's
work an awkward apprentice cutting his finger, a comrade
ing on task-masters.
—
sleeping over his task
him," and
so
forth,
whom
did
the overseer lashes to
not
something of a
malicious crowing over the overseer express
itself
awaken
spirit
too
?
of
The
analogy of the judiciously half-smothered laughter of the
English schoolboy in playground or dormitory suggests
the answer.
We
must not wonder
if
these dangerous ex-
cursions of the spirit of fun have failed to be recorded.
^H. Spencer, Princvples of
205, 206.
Sociology,
"Ceremonial Institutions," pp.
LAUGHTER
266
Still
more
IN
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
significant is another picture
from the same
representing a tussle between overseer and
which "the
hand,,
workmen
in
an
stick vainly interferes," so that "at least
hour elapses before quiet
is
re-established".^
This looks
like the rollicking laughter of schoolboys at the spectacle
ceremony suddenly turned
of an orderly
interpretation
is
The
to disorder.
borne out by the fact that these same-
Egyptians were able to enter into the fun of a
loss of
dignity in a solemn function, for example, the upsetting by
a collision of the richly supplied table in the funereal
and the
falling of a
of conveying
The return
it
of
mummy on a
priest during the
boat,-
ceremony
to its resting-place.^
contemptuous laughter from the slave to
his-
master was certainly allowed to some extent among the
Romans.
It
became a well-recognised privilege during
The
of the chief annual festivals (Saturnalia).
one-
slaves in
the plays of Plautus treat the tyranny under which they
live " in a spirit of
gay bravado ".^ Nor need we be sur
if we remember that the modern
prised at these liberties
schoolmaster must almost be perfect
if
he does not find
expedient, not merely to permit his pupils desipere in
but to allow them
expense.
The
now and
cajoling
Kingsley found so
African,
may
again to have a mild joke at
by means
serviceable
for
of
jokes,
which
it
loco,
his-
Miss^
managing the West
and its virtue
of course stop short of this,
in the substitution of a light, laughing treatment for
lie
bullying.
Yet genial laughter, when the contempt has been
vaporised out of
it,
necessarily tends at the
levelling of planes, as is seen in the
'
moment
Maspero, Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, chap.
i.
'Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians,
429.
"
Simcox, Hist, of Latim Liter.,
i.,
p. 46.
to a
immediate assertion of
iii.,
pp. 447,.
WOMAN'S RETORT
the right of reciprocity.
why
the schoolmaster
is,
the method of jocosity.
it
This
267
perhaps the main reason
is
in general, chary of introducing
His laughter
is
apt to sound as
if
held some of the gritty deposit of contempt.
The
really delightful illustration of the turning of the
on masters by those in subjection is to be found in
woman's retort on man's contemptuous treatment. She has
again and again managed to outwit him, as we have found
tables
him dolefully admitting, and has had her full laugh at his
to manage her.
The mediaeval fabliaux
are certainly disposed to award success in strategy to her,
cumbrous attempts
Her ways of befooling him, too,
have often been so simple as when she persuades him that
he has been dreaming what he fancies he has observed that
rather than to her lord.
—
—
the poor dupe ought, one supposes, to have died of chagrin.
And, when there has been a
call
for the finer sort
of
manoeuvring, she wins the unprejudiced reader to her side
by
displaying an admirable ingenuity and subtlety of in-
vention, qualities
which Mr. Herbert Spencer would probably
regard as secondary sexual characters evolved during ages
of marital tyranny.
latter
days there
is
Of her modes
him
The shout
of turning on
no need to speak.
in these
of con-
temptuous laughter seems to have passed from the one side
of the eternal fray to the other.
But
this hardly belongs
to the present division of our subject.
It
may
be added that the laughter of the laity at the
clergy illustrates, in addition to the impulse already dealt
with, the itching of spirited mortals to turn on oppressors.
The denunciations and anathemas
of this class, backed, as
they asseverate, by supernatural sanctions, have always
been trying to untamed
men and women.
of our ancestors for stories disgraceful to
drew some
of
its
And the appetite
monks and priests
keenness from this rebelliousness of
LAUGHTER
268
man
the natural
IN
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
Here
against spiritual tyrannies.
illustration of the feminine retort
with a gossip of hers in church
:
:
A woman was
is
an
chatting
bidden by the preaching
wonder which
friar to hold her peace she exclaimed, " I
babbles most of the two?"^
Still
another variety of social laughter springs out of this
and
distinction of superior
inferior groups.
The impulse
of exalted persons to assert themselves and to strike their
inferiors with
awe—an
impulse by the
way which
the pea-
cock and other birds will betray in the presence of their
inferior,
man
the display
—
by those
apt to be disallowed
is
is
whom
for
thing, they feel, to
It is one
intended.
acknowledge true authority, another to bow down to the
exaggeration of
its claim,
to the boastful exhibition of
mirthful eye for the entertainment latent in
The
power
Hence, perhaps, some of the quickness of the
and rank.
soldier
who
braggadocio.
all
needlessly emphasises the fact that he pos-
sesses the height
and
spirit of his calling
imposing vociferation and the
rest,
by
strutting,
by
has probably always
been a source of comic merriment, as the Miles
Plautus and the Bobadil of Ben Jonson
gloriosus of
may remind
us.
It will be evident that all this laughter of inferiors at
superiors,
own
whether these are so really or merely in their
opinion, must, so far as it has got home,
valuable corrective function.
If the derision of the lord
helps to keep in place his inferior
more does the laughter
to
what
have had a
dame or
vassal,
much
him
of his inferior serve to hold
befits his rank.
Noblesse oblige is a rule largely
maintained by the demands of those below
to
pay homage.
These, as
who are expected
we know, have been much em-
ployed in claiming modest rights from their
curbing of a king's tyrannies
^
may have
" betters ".
The
required a rebellion
Given in Hazlitt'a New London Jest Book, pp.
31, 32.
LAUGHTER OF INFERIORS
UTILITY OF
of his barons, or a riot of his people
269
yet a good deal of
:
checking of tyrannic propensities has been carried out by
the unalarming expedient of ridicule.
we may
enlightened country
now and again
Even
observe in
to inflate their dignity
in a free
officials
unduly
;
and
a tendency
so that one
infers that the restraining force of the laughter of inferiors
still
counts.
The
results of this spirited turning of the
The impish
been considerable.
worm have
mirth has taken
spirit of
up its abode with the common people, and instructed
them in the rich soiu-ces of the laughable which lie in
aU rank and dignity. On the other hand, the " high
and mighty " have, from a true instinct of self-preservation, waged fierce war with this irreverent attitude of
The struggles between the two will be
the multitude.
spoken of presently.
The scope
which, given the disposition,
for laughter
these divisions of group and of rank bring with
is
further
widened by the
vital
them
circumstance that, as
groups in the same community, they have to enter into
A
various relations with one another.
of opposition
and harmony of
judicious mixture
interest seems to be
favourable to a rich production of mirth.
This
is
most
illus-
trated even in such masterful relations as that of the
overseer and the
commanding
the compulsion of the rod
of the
officer,
who may
find that
inadequate to the extraction
is
required amount of work, and so have to cast
about for other instruments.
The good
efiect of
a skilful use of the cajoling laugh has
already been illustrated.
ness in the relation of
situation
and
is
It is seen
that, in spite of
inclination
with particular
husband and wife
;
clear-
for the fun of the
profound difierences of taste
and of a sharp antagonism, the necessity
of
LAUGHTER
270
common
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
IN
and ends holds them together in daily
interests
This necessity, ever present to the wiser of
association.
them, has tempered, the contempt and forced the derider to
humour.
at least a pretence of good
The same may be
The quality and
said of the relation of the sexes in general.
is wont to lighten a talk between
young man and a young woman on a first introduction
are pretty closely determined by the consciousness of sexual
range of the fun which
a
relation
on either
Shyness, a disposition to regard
side.
the other suspiciously as opponent, together with the instinct to please
and win admiration, and the desire to strike
on points of sympathy
—
all this
helps to bring about, and
reflected in the peculiar wrigglings in
spirit expresses itself
One
tility
of the best
and a desire
on such an occasion.
examples of the combined
to agree
The
the market place.
is
The
direct
buyer and
relation of
and sharply
felt
effect of hos-
found in the humours of
to be
to be pregnant with opportunities for
side.
is
which the mirthful
seller
merry fooling on
seems
either
opposition of interest
is
apt to beget a good deal of the rough sort of "taking
Not only
down".
will the
attack, the situation
may
tongue be stirred to derisive
even beget retaliations in the
The merchant,
shape of practical jokes.
as the expert, has
always had the upper hand in the contest of wits.
His
customer has had to find consolation in satires on the cheat,
such as those which were
On
common
in the
Middle Ages.^
the other hand, the need of coming to an agreement has
served to bring into the haggling process a good deal of the
conciliative
known
'
kind of laughter.
The vendor has always
the value of good-natured banter as an instrument
Wright,
op. cit., p. 133.
A
good story
serving him,
is
given by Bidier, op.
a retaliative practical joke,
spilt some wine on
p. 272 ff.
of
carried out by a bachelor on a tavern keeper
cit., iii.,
who had
HUMOURS OF MARKET-PLACE
of persuasion.
271
This overflow of the spirit of fun into the
may
channels of serious business
be seen as a faint
still
survival in front of a cheap-Jack's van.
George Eliot has
given us a charming picture of the play of this spirit in the
-south in her chapter on " The Peasants' Fair
in Bomola.
''
The same intrusion
of fun as an auxiliary into the busi-
ness relations of groups
is
opposition has to be toned
at, as in
and the
seen in
many
down and
that of opposed political parties, religious bodies
The appearance
like.
of the laughing imp, if only
he behaves himself, in these rather
^oups
warm
encounters of
serves to cool the atmosphere and to temper ani-
mosity by at
contact.
and
other cases where
a modus vivendi arrived
least
momentary experience
a
half-suspicious attitude
are apt to take
of
genial
much, indeed, to tone down the uneasy
It does
up on
first
which members of any group
having to do with those of a
strange group, especially one of higher rank.
We may now
summarise the chief
reciprocal laughter of classes at the
In the
at the
first place, it helps, like
ways
social utilities of the
ways
of other classes.
the laughter of the savage tribe
any tendency
of other tribes, to counteract
to
imitate the manners and customs of foreign groups.
What
we have laughed
is
at,
we
are not likely to adopt.
This
To laugh
at the
self -protective function of laughter.
of another group
is,
moreover, in most cases at
dulge in a feeling of our
own
superiority
;
and
would have a further conservative tendency,
it is
the laugh of the expert in his
the
ways
least, to in-
this attitude
especially
own department
when
at the
outside ignoramus.
Let us now glance at the
are being laughed
ridicule, especially
at.
efiect
on the group whose ways
To be the
when we have
object of another set's
the right of retort, so far
from necessarily weakening our hold on that which
is
LAUGHTER
272
ridiculed
may
strengthen
what we
we have
When we
are strongly at-
us cling the more firmly
Laughter in
cherish.
seen,
it.
may make
tached, others' laughter
to
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
IN
this case
is,
ing of others' ridicule, a training which has in
of a
moral
Yet
indeed, as
an excellent training in a good-natured
it
suffer-
the virtue
tonic.
this inter-groupal laughter is not
wholly subservient
to the maintenance of characteristic differences.
higher forms of society, at
.similative action as well.
least,
It
In
all
the
such ridicule has an as-
manages
to
some
extent,
by
inducing self-criticism, to get rid of useless excrescences.
Thus,
it
down
helps to keep
narrowness which
narrowness which
cries, "
is
class-vanity, the professional
!
There's nothing like leather " a
so delightfully satirised
by Moli^re
in
the wranglings of M. Jourdain's professors.
The
of a
correction of this exclusive feeling of self-importance
group by outside laughter has always been at work,
helping to keep groups in friendly touch, and hindering
the sectional or professional esprit de corps from overpower-
we
ing the larger social consciousness which
call
national
sentiment, and the common-sense of the community.
this last
So
more
far,
we have
laughter of what
societies.
Of
will be said presently.
illustrated the bearing
may
on the ways of
be called the structural features of
There has been no reference to the
effects of
meant by the successive
changes of fashion in manners, dress and so forth, and of
those more persistent movements which make up what we
The least reflection will show that in
call social progress.
social
movements, of
all
that
is
this continual flux of things social, the unceasing modifica-
tions of the head-covering
down
of old beliefs
of intellect,"
and
we have
and the
institutions
rest,
and the trampling
by the
resistless "
march
at least as large a field for the gambols
CHANGE AND FASHION
273
of the laughing spirit as in the distinctions
and oddly com-
bined relations of classes.
We may
fashion.
and so
by
best begin
may be
These
which are marked
forth,
movements of
manners
from the improvements
referring to the
defined as changes in dress,
off
by two circumstances
entering into progress
:
(1)
that they
are capricious, not the products of a rational choice of the
best
and
;
When we
(2)
that they are of comparatively short duration.
a
call
mode
of doing a thing a fashion,
we
imply,
unknowingly perhaps, that it has not the cachet of a
change for the better, and that as such it has no security
quite
of tenure.
J
A
fashion differs from a custom in being essentially com-
municable from one group to another, and even from one
nation to another.
Its
development thus belongs to a com-
paratively late period of social evolution.
and women
is
explained
by
the fact that
Its hold
it
on men
two
appeals to
of their strongest instincts, the craving for novelty
and the
impulse to imitate superiors.
Keeping to the intra-national
note that the
movement
diffusion of manners,
of fashion
is
we
normally from the
This movement may
commenced far back in the evolution of communities where class-distinctions were rigorously enforced.
The attitude of reverence towards superiors has for its psychohighest rank or ranks downwards.
well have
logical concomitant the impulse to imitate.
will
copy the voice and gestures of one
Just as children
whom
they look
up to, so savages will copy the ways of Europeans who
manage to make themselves respected. In the ceremonies of
primitive tribes and even of highly complex societies,
church
ritual,
of imitation.
a good deal of scope
We may
is
e.g.,
offered for this flattery
infer, indeed, that the
impulse to
adopt the ways of exalted personages must always have
18
LAUGHTER
274
IN
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
been at work. In the earlier stages of human history this
impulse was checked by the force of custom and of law, e.g.,
sumptuary laws.
This imitation from below must strike at
the root of those external differences, such as style of dress,
between group and group, observance of which has helped
greatly to maintain class-distinctions. It could only have
made way
So
against these barriers gradually.
in sooth, does the feat appear to
be,
difficult,
that Mr. Herbert
Spencer suggests that fashion, as the imitation of those of
high rank and authority, began in a change of custom
in the rule already alluded to that
when
;
as
the king slipped
the onlooking courtiers should at once imitate his
awkward-
ness.
It
is
probable that the imitation of what
fixed in the costume
is
distinctive
and manners of the higher
ceded by some interval the imitation of the changes
How
fashion.
quite clear.
and
class pre-
we
call
the two are connected does not seem to be
Did the
rulers
and those immediately about
them, piqued at the adoption of their ways by the vulgar,
try to steal a march on imitation
To judge from what takes
" yes
'
".
am
I
by changing their customs
place to-day, one
told that ladies strongly object to go on
wearing a fashionable hat as soon as
worn by factory
this be, it
?
would answer
girls,
it
becomes generally
or other inferior group.
seems certain that the
However
" leaders of society,"
while
they reserve for special ceremonial occasions a distinctive
dress,
mode
of speech
and the
rest,
choose to alter these from
Such alterations may be the
result of the caprices of a " leader," guided by some inventor,
or they may take the form of an assimilation of a foreign
time to time for other purposes.
mode.
Lastly, the leaders
Court people:
origination of
may
include others besides the
the universities are
many
accredited with the
of the pretty bits of slang, the use of
DESCENT OF FASHION
which
is
supposed to betoken a certain
" up-to-dateness
275
social altitude
and
".
In the midst of these changes of fashion something of
custom
may
woman
to-day,
be seen
we
still
to persist.
Taking the dress of
note that in spite of experiments like
those of the Bloomers, skirts continue to be a permanent
Fashions in respect of width, and
feature in female attire.
may come and
even of length,
go, but the slcirt as skirt
seems to go on for ever.
Even when the impulse
of the upper class
bably long before
keen
to adopt the dress
was allowed a
it
acted on
all
and behaviour
it was proEach rank, whilst
certain play,
ranks.
ways of the class above it,
any further descent of the imitative
in its imitation of the
would naturally
resist
movement.
In this descent of fashion from higher to lower ranks
we
see a mutual modification of fashion and permanent
custom.
In some cases imitation from below
may be stopped
pretty early through lack of means for giving efiect to
it.
The joy
of wearing pearls, or other precious stones in
fashion at the
Yet there are
moment,
denied the young seamstress.
solaces here in the shape of
Again, the lower middle
class,
are, for obvious reasons,
for the
is
Queen Anne
not to speak of the cottagers,
not likely to be affected by a craze
style in domestic architecture.
in the case of dress, fine limitations
might
find
it
hard to
define,
restrained
by lower ranks.
by class-custom.
which the
seem
example, on the architecture of the
assimilated
"imitations".
hat,
to
"
Even
mere male
"
be imposed, for
when
a
new
Here, again, fashion
is
style is
clearly
Ideas of neatness, of an un-
aggressive quietness appear to be valued, in theory at least,
in milliners, domestic servants,
and others who minister to
The very ex-
the wants of the titled and the wealthy.
LAUGHTER
276
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
IN
pression " the fashionable world " implies that the fuU
mag-
a monopoly.
and luxury of fashion is
The imitation of the manners of high life by the middle
class is in most cases a pretty clear acknowledgment of a
One of the most amusing examples
superior social quality.
nificence
snobbism
of this thinly- veiled
lately in vogue.
A
is
the elevated hand-shake
fashion like this easily reaches the eye
of the vulgar, focussed for the first appearance of a
characteristic of "
high
the illustrated paper.
new
by way of the theatre or of
point worth noting here is the
life,"
A
exaggeration of what the imitators regard as of the essence
of the
new ''mode".
symbolism
(if
It
any) those
hand-shake up to the
would be curious to hear what
who appeared
so eager to get the
level of the eyes assigned to this
fashionable rite.
This eager and almost simian mimicry of the ways of
society's leaders must, it is evident,
tend to the obliteration
of recognisable class-distinctions in ordinary
We
life.
only
need to compare the spectacle of a crowd in London to-day
with that of a mediaeval city crowd, as represented in a drawing of the time, to see what a depressing amount of assimilation in dress the forces of fashion have brought about.
The connections between
these
movements
of fashion
and
the spirit of laughter are numerous and pretty obvious.
Even the primal movement, the adoption
of a fashion
by
the head of a community from abroad, offers a rich spectacle
for those
How
who
lie in
wait for the coming of the ludicrous.
finely the folly that lurks in a slavish submission to
fashion grins out at us from the story of those
chiefs
who, goaded by the fashion
set
New
by others
Zealand
of giving
great feasts, would often push their feast-givings to the point
of causing a famine
'
among
their peoples
H. Spencer,
op. cit., p. 208.
!
^
The following
MERRY ASPECTS OF FASHION
of a foreign fashion
by
a court has in
it,
277
moreover, always
something to prick the spirit of malicious laughter in the
Not
subjects.
so terribly long since, the importation of
customs from one European court to another, and a reciprocation of the loan,
of
subject
by way
was the
of family connections,
malicious laughter in each of the
rather
a
countries affected.
It
is,
however, in the downward rush of fashion from
rank to rank, and the incidents which attend
it,
that the
The
seeker for the laughable will find his satisfaction.
movement
eagerness of persons to be in the van of the
will
of itself produce a crop of ludicrous aspects: for the first
sudden appearance of a large and capturing novelty, say in
manner
a high-branded bonnet or
of speech, brings to us
something of the delightful gaiety which the sight of the
clown brings to a
with the
full,
It is a
child.
huge
folly,
which we greet
unthinking roar of hilarity.
Never, indeed,
does the inherent non-rationality of a large part of
human
and so unmistakably as
when a fashion which has reigned long enough to become
behaviour reveal
itself
accepted as right
so directly
thus rudely thrust aside in favour
is
whence the laughing contempt poured on
new fashions by comic poets and satirists.^
Nor is this all, or the best. The behaviour of the ardent
The
aspirant has its absurd aspect even for dull souls.
of an interloper
:
which
consists in stepping out of one's
form of
self-assertion
rank
always viewed by those of the deserted rank with
is
an acidulated amusement
eager to appropriate a
as persons
who
;
new
and those who are too manifestly
fashion are
wont
to be regarded
are trying to get above their set.
If the
"It was primarily against
' Curtiua remarks of the Greek comic poets
the novel fashion of the day that they aimed their blows " (Hist, of Greece,
:
ii.,
p. 539).
LAUGHTER
278
fashionable cosmetic
will be
by those
IN
is laid
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
on thickly, as
it
pretty certainly
more vulgar form of social
wax still greater. The display in
seized with the
ambition, the fun will
this case adds to the delightful transformation of the
clown
a touch of the bombast of the mountebank.
New possibilities
of mirth arise out of the collision be-
tween the imitative impulse
and respect
to be fashionable,
An
for the customs of one's group.
exaggeration of some-
thing in dress or speech which savours of an attempt to
break through class-barriers cannot but amuse the onlooker
disposed to mirth.
wont
Middle-class house-wives are, one hears,
to enliven the dulness of their
Sunday afternoons by
a stealthy quizzing of their " maids " as they set out for their
The maid's
parade.
— could suc—would doubtless draw
village acquaintance
ceed in stifling envious admiration
^if
it
a more rollicking enjoyment from the spectacle.
any appearance
set is greeted
of craning one's
by a
slightly malicious laughter ;
donning of fashionable array
is
In general,
neck so as to overtop one's
and the bold
the most easily recognisable
manifestation of the craning impulse.
For a more purely
disinterested spectator, too, the situation has its entertain-
The str,uggle in the panting bosom of a young
woman, whether of white or of coloured race, as the
ing drollness.
—recom-
passionate longing for some bewitching novelty
mended,
too,
by the lead
of
her superiors
—
sharply
is
confronted with the sense of what befits her, and possibly a
vague fear of being plunged by a
fiery zeal into the
morass
of the laughable, has its comic pathos for the instructed eye.
One
further contribution to the fun of the world
this hob eagerness to
a reference.
pay homage
to
rank
is
made by
perhaps worth
Like the verbal kind, the flattery of imitation
When
the soul of
man
is
often visibly hollow.
is
held captive by the necessity of doing what
or
is
woman
done by
THE FUN OF FASHION'S DESCENT
others
—especially
by others higher up
for thought of sincerity
:
—there
whence, among
many
is
279
no room
results, this
him who can be pure spectator responsive
one, that for
to
the amusing aspects of things, the spectacle of a great
national demonstration of loyalty cannot fail to have its
diverting aspect.
No
doubt the pushing worshippers of fashion,
they
if
only wait long enough, get their chance of laughing back.
As soon
at
as the
first, settles
the
moment
new thing, so charged with rollicking gaiety
down to a commonplace habit, there comes
for ridiculing
the
popular figure on the stage, the
"
That
belated imitator.
old dowdy,"
is
commonly
represented as ridiculously behind the times in respect of
Yet the range of jocosity inspired by respect for
mere newness, on the value of which reason has had nothing
attire.
to say,
is
evidently limited.
We may now
turn to those deeper currents of change
which together make
distinct
up
progress
social
;
including
all
advance from lower to higher forms of intelligence,
sentiment and character, as well as from lower to higher
types of social
institutions in
We may
either
life
;
and, along with these, the growth of
which these changes express themselves.
assume that these progressive changes
from the adoption
capacity appearing in individuals
who
are
community, or from the propagation of
institutions
arise,
mental
of the products of superior
members
of the
ideas, inventions,
from one country to another.
To say precisely how the production and circulation of
a social improvement takes place
is
not easy.
Men
of
imaginative minds, with an exceptionally large mechanical,
legislative, or other insight, or
with a
fine feeling for the
subtle things of beauty or of the moral order, there
be.
Against
all
must
attempted innovation, however, whether
LAUGHTER
280
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
IN
from within or from without, the attitude
tism sets
itself as
to perceive the
a serious obstacle.
charm
conserva-
of
Here, too,
and influence of rank.
we seem
It is only
when some recognised authority proclaims the value of
the new discovery that the multitude, which was perhaps
a moment before doing its best to trample on it, turns
deferentially
A
The
and kneels.
commonly
or as good
follows
free adoption of it as true
much
later.
startlingly
new
idea,
whether in
the utilities of
life,
finds
in its intrinsic reasonableness
science, religion, or
The
when it laughs, just as when it is serious^
judges things by the standard of what is customary. What
violently jars with this is viewed as legitimate game for,
ridicule.
The history of ideas and of the social movements
no defence against the attacks of malicious mirth.
ordinary mind
growing out
The
of
them
is
one long illustration of this truth.
idea of a larger freedom
women was
treated
matter for wild
again after
this,
But
advocates.
the crowd.
hilarity.
and higher functions for
theatre of ancient Greece as
The idea came up again and
thanks to the zeal and courage of isolated
it
And
Mill advocated
by the
continued to excite the loud laughter of
less
the
than half a century ago, when
spiritual
women, the response was at
amusement.
Only to-day is
and
first
legal
J. S.
emancipation of
largely an expression of
a part of the civilised world
beginning to recognise the naturalness and fitness of the
idea that
women
should have their share, both in the in-
tellectual gains of the
larger
work
We may see
new
more advanced education, and in the
of the world.
by this
illustration
how mighty a
force every
idea of a large revolutionary character has to meet and
to overcome.
Darwin's idea of the evolution of
in the sixties to the
mass
man seemed
of Englishmen, including a bishop
NEW
RIDICULE OF
IDEAS
281
Oxford and many another high up in the
of
intellectual culture,
The
our missionaries strike a keen-witted savage.
the
monkey, which
of caricature,
scale of
very much as some of the teachings of
is,
by the way, one
rendered excellent
figure of
of the oldest
service
to
symbols
those who,
naturally enough, greeted the proposed topsy-turvyness of
Darwinism with boisterous cachinnations.
much
It is
wards the
first
the same with the attitude of the crowd to-
Much merriment
use of practical inventions.
accompanied the introduction from abroad by the gallants
of the Restoration of so simple
the fork
^
—a fact to
when he
abroad
is
an innovation as the use of
be remembered by the English tourist
disposed to laugh at the sight of a too
In such
lavish use of the knife.
the novelty are laughed at very
new
fashion.
The absurdity
cases, the first adopters of
much
as in the case of a
of the adoption in either case
turns on the delightful freshness and the glorious irregularity
of the proceeding.
On
we meet here, too, with a recoil
upon the laugher. Though a respect for the
customary prompts us at first to ridicule any sudden and
the other ' hand,
of laughter
impressive change in ideas or habits of
change
will
is
life,
urge us to
obstinate prejudice in favour of the old.
one of
its
beliefs that
of
life.
chief
when
the
Laughter
finds
functions in ridiculing worn-out ideas,
have been proved
Nowhere, perhaps,
illusory,
is
of survivals of the discarded
many examples
decaying and growing
ways
of this
effete.
and discarded habits
the elation of mirth more
distinctly audible than in this ridicule
gives us
yet,
way of becoming fixed, the same feeling
make merry over those who show an
in a fair
by an advancing age
of its predecessors.
Art
merriment over what
Every age
igee Ward, Engl. Dram. Poets,
ii.,
of stir
p. iOl.
is
and com-
LAUdHTER
282
IN
motion has probably had
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
its
satirical literature, striking
The
with boisterous mirth at the disappearing phantoms.
broad and genial comedy of Aristophanes pushed against
the tottering mythology of his time, and the
evoked
The great work of Cervantes
same period poked fun at
a large outflow of mirth.
and the
fall
satires (pasquins) of the
the sentimental clinging to the decaying order of chivalry
and feudalism.^
Merry-making over the death of outworn ideas and
institutions has frequently been reinforced by the deep and
refreshing expiration which accompanies relief from pres-
This elemental form of laughter has entered into
sure.
all
those
happy moments
of national life
when
the whole
people has become closely united in a joyous self-abandonPlautus, the comedian of the people, reflects in his
ment.
broad merriment the rebound of the
War from
Punic
spirit after the
second
a long continued state of tension, and
the craving of the masses for a more unrestrained enjoy-
ment
of the pleasures of life.^
The popular
art of
the
Middle Ages, in which the demons seem to play the
harmless part of the policeman in a modern pantomime,
illustrates
A
the rebound from
like relief of tension
an oppressive superstition.
and outburst of pent-up
spirits
are recognisable in the literature of the Reformation
and
of the English Restoration.
The same exhilarant aspect of the vanishing of the
outworn moves us in a quieter way when we ridicule
the survivals of customs and rites which have lost their
significance.
This form of hilarious enjoyment, which im-
plies a piercing
through of appearances and a searching into
meanings, will be more fully considered later on.
It
seems to follow from what has been said that laughter
1
Wright,
op.
cit.,
chap. xix.
'
Sellar,
Roman
Poets, p. 167.
MIRTH AS INFLUENCING CHANGE
manner upon changes
of social habit.
resists the wildness of the
craving for the
reacts in a double
First of
all, it
new (neomania).
comer,
As schoolboys
are
wont
to treat a new-
applies its lash vigorously to a proposed innovation,
it
in order to see
what
"
stuff"
In
justify its existence.
the
28?
movement
of change.
it is
made
way
this
On
of,
and whether it can
moderates the pace of
it
the other hand,
the process of throwing off an outworn habit
It thus
so to speak, the coup de grace.
it
completes
by giving
it,
combines the service
rendered to a herd of sheep on the march by the shepherd
who walks in front, with that rendered by the sheep-dog
which runs back again and again to the laggards.
It
seems to be enforcing Goethe's maxim
:
" Oline Hast
Aber ohne Bast."
We may now
glance at some of the workings of this
complex movement of
social sets,
social progress
and on their reciprocal
on the formation of
attitudes.
is evident that, by introducing much more subdivision
employment and exclusive knowledge of experts, progress
will tend to widen the area of mutual quizzing and chaffing,
already dealt with. It is of more importance to point out
that the advance of a community in knowledge and culture
It
of
will lead to the formation of
differences of rank.
division
shows
new groups
The importance
itself in classic
comedy.
the lively contempt of the urban
inferior,!
town
life
Juvenal expresses
citizen for his provincial
and our own comedy of the Restoration, taking
as
its
standard, pours ridicule on the country
It is illustrated also in the relation of the clergy
gentry.^
p. 52.
1
Tyrrell, op.
'
Ward, Engl. Dram.
made fun
involving certain
of this kind of group-
of
cit.,
the "
oit
Poets, ii., pp. 398-9.
" as the inferior of the
The Restoration comedy alsa
West-end gentleman.
LAUGHTER
284
as the learned
class,
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
IN
to the ignorant laity.
As the
contes
amusingly suggest, a large part of the authority of the
Dark Ages rested on this intellectual
we view culture widely we may speak of
clergy during the
superiority.
an
If
number
indefinite
tellectual dignity.
of levels composing a scale of in-
These levels are commonly supposed to
man
coincide with such groups as the professional class, the
of business (Kaufman), and the lower
coincidence can be assumed
a
common
class
A
possession.
—which
is
large
class.
But no such
education has become
portion of our "upper"
determined no longer by descent but to a
considerable extent
well-informed.
when once
A
by wealth
—
is
neither cultured nor even
clerk will often be found to have
more
general knowledge and literary taste than his well-dressed
employer, and a working man, in spite of the limitations
may know more about such subjects as philosophy and history than the great majority of the middle
of poverty,
class.
We
see then that the strata representing gradations
of culture are largely independent of
commonly recognised
These older distinctions may, indeed, be very
divisions.
much toned down by
line of division
the culture-movement.
The ancient
between the superior man and his inferior
spouse has been half effaced by the admission of
women
into
The culture divisions are real
social groups, each being bound together by a large community of ideas, tastes and interests and their importance
the higher culture
circle.
;
in the system of social grouping tends to increase.
The development
important change in the standards of
laughter
is,
new and
of culture groups introduces a
so to speak, tied.
When
to
fitness,
superiority
which
lacking
is
in a clearly recognisable basis of reason, its ridicule of inferiors can only
and often
is,
have
of the
its
most
source in a pride which
foolish.
When, however,
may
it
be,
resides
PROGRESS AND GROUP-FORMATION
more
in the possession of greater spiritual wealth,
ideas
and a more acute sense
shows a
ing,
As
and more penetrating.
that,
though
it is felt
refined
of the fitting, the laughter itself
It is less boisterous,
finer quality.
285
such,
to be irritating,
more
discern-
we need not wonder
it is
The nouveau riohe, whose vulgarity reveals
not understood.
itself as
appears in a society having refined manners,
soon as he
may wince under
the half-repressed smile, though he seems for the most part
by an
well protected
much
As Schopen-
insensitive tegument.
hauer has observed, the
man
of mediocre intelligence
dislikes encountering his intellectual superior
;
very
and
it
merry onlookers, perhaps,
so happens, for the gratification of
that social ambition not infrequently precipitates
into a sharp encounter with those
who have
its
possessor
a whole world
which he knows nothing.
of ideas of
Not but that
may now and again
The possession of ideas
the inferior here, too,
have his chance of laughing back.
and of an exacting taste is apt to appear affected to one
wanting in them. Midas, accustomed to measure values by
incomes, and to identify intelligence with the cleverness of
the money-maker, not unnaturally regards a habit of appeal-
ing to ideas as an eccentric superfluity
;
and so laughter
may come consolingly to him who is utterly beaten in the
The " common-sense " of the average
encounter of wits.
Briton scores
tion against
many
sphere of practical
A
a loud laugh in
is
confident self-asserof ideas into the
affairs.
further effect of the
formation
its
any proposed introduction
movement
seen in the divisions into
of culture on groupsects, a
phenomenon
which seems to be conspicuous in the communities built
by our
race.
This tendency to a minute subdivision of
religious, political
of relation.
up
We
and other bodies introduces a new kind
cannot
weU say
that one section surpasses
LAUGHTER
286
its rivals
This
in intelligence.
but the rules of the
question open.
On
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
IN
new
game
social
may not
or
be the
number
of particular creeds or
shade of opinion being often
fine, leads to
a
The
bifurcation of "higher" and "lower" groups.
mass or majority which naturally
Yet
tiny minorities as faddists and cranks.
"higher" here
laughs at
case,
require us to leave the
the other hand, this differentiation of
organised opinion into a
" views," the
may
is
the
again,
the fine impartiality of the god of laughter, to
whom,
since
mankind
for the greater part
wise, the difference of the
many and
is
the few
count, occasionally gives the despised minority
for minorities do sometimes represent ideas
other than
may
its
hardly
chance
which are born
for sovereignty.
While the progress of a nation in ideas and institutions
thus serves in a manner to multiply groups, and so to introduce
and
new
opportunities for the indulgence of group attack
retaliation, it tends
barriers.
It does this
on the whole to break down their
by means
of the pulpit, the press,
and the educational agencies which help to circulate new
These conduce, both directly
ideas through all classes.
and indirectly, to a certain assimilation of groups
and
;
assimilative action
have
is
seen, it leaves
going on rapidly to-day.
ample room for
culture, since natural differences of coarseness
in the intellectual fibre will
trast of the cultured
The spread
we
grades of
and fineness
always secure the broad con-
and the uncultured.
of knowledge
indirectly
acts
Yet, as
different
and culture through all classes
by throwing open
on group-distinctions
the occupations of one class to
members of others, and more
The workman's son who
particularly of " lower " ones.
has a brain and cultivates
his
way
to the university
it
may, as we are often
told, find
and take his place unchallenged
FUNNY ASPECT OP GROUP-CHANGING
among
the lawyers, the doctors, or the exalted
"
287
dons
themselves.
Now
all
sudden changes in
class, especially
elevation, are apt to appear laughable.
motion comes by royal favour, we
such as involve
Even when
feel the leap into a
pro-
higher
sphere to be anomalous, and are wont to examine the
grounds of the new
title
with some
care.
The conservative
men oppose themselves laughingly to the appearance of new dignitaries very much as they oppose
themselves to the appearance of new ideas, and some teminstincts of
porary unfitness in the person for his new social niche
to be expected.
In the comedy of the Restoration, we are
no measure
mushroom growths
"
told,
creation
is
is
of
kept in pouring contempt on the
yesterday, the knights of recent
".^
Something of
this impression of the incongruously
new
is
produced for a moment even in the case of a well-earned
rise in the social scale.
The young
aspirant's family
and
connections, living on in the less brilliant light, will perforce laugh,
though perhaps with something of sympathetic
admiration, at the oddity of the sudden elevation
and the
young man will be singularly fortunate if he does
not now and again betray an amusing unfamiliarity with
the ways of the company he has joined.
Yet the confusion of ranks due to the universalising of
education is small and unimpressive when compared with
that arising from another cause. The great destroyer of
fixed class-boundaries is the force which tends to transmute
a community into a plutocracy. This tendency may, no
;
rising
doubt, illustrate in a measure the
tion
;
for
efi'ect
of a difiused educa-
the successful fortune-builder will
have attained success by
1
Ward,
op.
scientific
cit., ii.,
sometimes
knowledge
pp. 399, 400.
skilfully
LAUGHTER
288
applied.
ties
IN
Yet the presence
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
—or the absence — of other quali-
than the intellectual seems to have
much
to do in
these days with sudden elevations in the plutocratic scale.
As
man
the comedy of Moliere
"wistfully at its higher region
it
may
tell us,
the spectacle of a
standing at the foot of the social ladder and looking up
has something entertaining in
both for those on his actual level and for those on the
Later, when the wistful glance is
by actual climbing, the unrehearsed performances
may grow mirth-provoking even to the point of tearful
mistiness.
Nor does the attainment of the goal make an
level of his ambition.
followed
end of the fun, since the maintenance of a decorous equilibrium at the new altitude may turn out to be even more
precarious
than the climbing, especially when relatives
and other accidents
of the
humbler
state persist in their
attachment.
On the other hand, these climbings exhibit much in the
way of amusing imposture for men, as Schopenhauer tells
us, have been known to push their way, unqualified and
;
impious, even into literary
flected distinction
by
circles,
and snatch a kind of
re-
the use of arts at once ancient and
vulgar.
The
spectacle of changing one's class exhibits the
aspect of fraud in another way.
amusing
up in
the climbing money-
When
society "
leaders high
pay homage to the deity of
maker by betaking themselves to trade under assumed
"
names, the mirth of Midas and of his whole despised caste
may
find its opportune vent.
We may now
briefly indicate the general effect of the
(a)
upon the quality and the
moods of a people,
To begin with, the advance and wider spread of the
wave
of culture will clearly tend to effect a general raising
social
mode
movements
just sketched
of distribution of the hilarious
IMPROVEMENT OP LAUGHTER
and
of the standard of taste,
by the development
educative influence,
is
and the extension of its
main the direct outcome of
of art
in the
and
intellectual progress
an appreciation of
This result, though effected in
the quality of the ludicrous.
part
to develop
289
of that increase in refinement of
this progress.
One may
by saying that the standard of ideas
tends gradually to gain ground, hemming in if not narrowing that of custom.
The primal laugh, void of intellectual
content, becomes less general, the laugh of the mind more
feeling
which seems to depend on
describe this change
frequent.
This
in the case of
effect of
members
an introduction of ideas holds good
of all classes in so far as
they enter
way
particular
into the higher culture group.
In
this
standards of locality and of social group begin to count
less
in our laughter.
This
expansion of the intellectual view
effect of
more
flected in all the
is re-
Any
refined varieties of comic art.
manifest insistance on dignity of rank, more especially
when
the group
not of imposing aspect, whether the
is
petite noblesse in a small "
Residency
"
town on the Con-
tinent or the families which compose " Society "
obscure town in England,
the ludicrous.
On
is
felt to
in
an
be on the verge of
the other hand, a magnifying of the
dignity of a person or a class
by those below, when
accompanied by a cringing demeanour,
is
apt to take on
the amusing aspect of flunkeyism, the due appreciation of
which presupposes a certain maturity
of the laughter of
the mind.
The general tendency
very imperfectly
of this advance of ideas
realised.
military marches,
is
The march
is
it is
some
not quite so uniformly triumphant
wont to be represented. A considerable part
laughter among what are called the educated classes
as
as yet
of mind, like
of the
is still
LAUGHTER
290
but
little
influenced
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
IN
by the
finer
and deeper perception
of ludicrous quality; while, as for the uneducated majority
of all social grades,
any
it
would be hard to find in their mirth
from the advance of the
distinct traces of a deposit
One might venture on the supposition
appreciation of the ludicrous shown to-day by
culture-stream.
that the
the frequenters of a
is,
both as to
its
"
high
class
intellectual
refinement of feeling, but
''
Music Hall in London
penetration and as to
its
anything, above that of
little, if
a mediaeval crowd which gathered to see and hear the
jokes of the
So slow a process
jonglev/r.
is
the infiltra-
tion of refining influence from the higher strata of culture
downwards.
(6) This change in the quality of social laughter through
an infusion of ideas has undoubtedly been accompanied by
a change in
its
quantity, as seen in a decline of the older,
voluminous merriment of the people.
collective outburst, already touched on,
all
students of the past,
is
This
fall in
largely due to a toning
down
the simpler and heartier utterances of the common
This change
is
the
and recognised by
of
people.
so important as to call for a short investi-
gation.
In simpler types of society, the more hearty and voluminous laughter probably came from the lowest strata. It
is enough to recall the mirth of the Egyptian and the
Roman
slave.
Later on, the large scope for indulgence in
laughter was supplied
by an
organisation of mirth in the
shape of shows and other popular entertainments.
was
possibly the
germ
of
There
such an organisation in the
annual celebration "in honour of the most jocund god of
laughter " referred to
by Apuleius.^
One may
merry-makings at the harvest and vintage
»
The Oolden Ass, Bk.
III., oh. 55.
instance the
festivals out of
DECLINE OF POPULAR MIRTH
which Greek comedy took
its rise,
and
of the multitude at fairs
291
and the rollicking fun
during the Middle
festivals
That the people were the true experts in the
Ages.
of laughter
is
further suggested
hy
secrets
the fact that slaves, both
Greek and Roman, were selected as jesters and wits by
The
well-to-do people.
bably from the same
courts
kept by Orientals were pro-
The
later " fools " of
were drawn from the simple
The
can be
fools
class.^
European
folk.
characteristics of this early type of popular
summed up
in the
word
The
childishness.
other oppressed worker could without
efi'ort
mirth
slave or
throw
ofl
and chastisement in his play hour. Towards
master and his treatment of him, his attitude seems to
ideas of toil
his
have been on the whole the resignation of a
He
life-long habit.
might, not improbably, enjoy a quiet joke at the expense
of his overseer, but he seems to have entertained towards
him none
of the deeper animosity.
way to a less
people " began to include
This naive form of popular laughter gave
when
goodly number
childish type
" the
a
of
common
free-men
who were
able
to
form
opinions of their own, and bold enough to assert the right
of expressing these.
It follows
from what has been said
above that the newly gained freedom would naturally give
rise
to
some laughter-bringing
criticism
mood
of
authorities.
crowd was
by the authorities who waged war
using the weapons of a repressive censor-
This tendency of the mirthful
of the
instantly perceived
against
ship.
it,
We
have an example of
this censorship in the police
regulations which hampered the introduction of
from Athens into Rome.
It
was required by the
comedy
authorities
that the scene of the play should always be laid outside
Rome
as
if
to
1
guard against a direct attack on Roman
Doran, History of Court Fools, pp.
18, 37, 75.
in-
LAUGHTER
292
stitutions
and
A like
persons.^
a free and quite
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
IN
hostility to the
pranks of
unfastidious mirth was shown by the
may
This
mediaeval church.
well have been in part the
outcome of honest moral reprobation of the scurriKties of
the songs, the contes and the
Yet
rest.
it
looks as
the
if
prohibitory enactments originated for the most part in the
alarm of the
mind
It was
the
laughter
its force.
ecclesiastics for the security of their hold
however, an easy matter to silence popular
not,
when
this
had once heard
itself
and recognised
Aristophanes and his laughing public were, for
a time at least, stronger than the
ridiculed.
on
of the people.
No
doubt the
civil
demagogue
and the
whom
ecclesiastical
they
power
have again and again succeeded in half-stifling for a time
Yet the complete
the ruder sort of laughter.
of
it
the Middle Ages, we are
rise
suffocation
communities has proved to be impossible.
in free
now and
told,
In
the atmosphere of fun would
men
again to a kindling heat, so that holy
themselves would join in the not too decent songs.^
modern history
of Political Satire
force of popular laughter.
abundantly
The
illustrates the
Thus, in the Stuart period, satires
were produced which were a popular protest against the
grievance of monopolies.'
ground
is
illustrated
by
they have failed to oust
to turn
has
it
now
'Tyrrell,
comedy
to their
own
How
firmly
it
maintained
the fact that the politicians,
it
its
when
from the stage, have endeavoured
ends.*
If the
been driven from the stage,
more
scurrilous sort
political
caricature
The scurrility of the early Greek
p. 43 ff.
being diaoountenanioed by Pisistratue.
As Prof. P.
Latin Poetry,
led to
its
Gardner reraarks, " Tyrantshave no sense
(Qreeh Antiquities,
of
humour, and dread
ridicule
"
p. 666).
Ward, Engl. Dram. Poets, ii., pp. 392-3.
Wright, op. cit, p. 44 ft.
CoUey Gibber's satire " Non-Juror " is said to have brought him a
pension and the office of Poet Laureate (Wright, op. cit., chap. xxii.).
2
*
•*
ATTEMPTS TO REPRESS LAUGHTER
flourishes vigorously
293
and has dared to attack royalty
itself
within a measurable period.^
The people has undoubtedly been the upholder of the
Taking the peasantry, the
wholesome custom of mirth.
workmen, and the lower middle
"
class as representing the
people " of to-day, one has to confess that its merry note
seems to have been
The
lost.
reservoir which in the past
supplied the stream of national gaiety has certainly fallen
and threatens even to dry up.
But of
this
more by-and-
by.
(c)
have
As
a
last
effect
underlying
the
composite attitude.
we
needing to be emphasised here,
laughter of
By
this I
a
people a curiously
mean an agglomeration
mental tendencies involving different maniires de
different standards of the
fit
voir,
of
and
and, consequently, of the laugh-
able.
In the preceding chapter
we saw how
the choral laughter
of the savage followed the directions of the self-conservative
tendencies of his tribe.
mood
the mirthful
through
all
This unconscious self-adaptation of
to the ends of the tribal life has persisted
the changes introduced
by the play
of fashion
and by the movements of social evolution. We of to-day
who travel so much more than our ancestors in foreign lands,
and
may
even learn to speak their languages, retain the
tendency to
English.
resist the importation of
In certain seasons, say
the blood and foreigners
is
what
strikes us as un-
when the war-temper
heats
feeling for
what
criticise, this
national grows distinct and vivid, and reflects itself un-
mistakably in the manifestations of such mirth as seems
to be compatible with the
mood
of the hour.
This point of view of the tribe has always coexisted with
'
George
III.
was caricatured again and again by Gillray (Wright,
op. cit., dhap. xxvii.).
LAUGHTER
294
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
IN
the narrower and more relative one of the group, illustrated
above, though
Has in ordinary circumstances been less
it
prominent in men's mirthful utterances.
laughter at the priest, one
may
conjecture,
The medieval
was now and
again directed from the national or patriotic point of view,
him the servant
as the people began to discern in
of a foreign
power.
it
Not only
so,
deems the
"
we may
which
of a people's laughter at
—the laughter of
what
"
—
the point of view of the tribe or society
call it
is still
much
but in
absurd
it is
"
common-sense," as
and this holds good of the larger
community in the van of the march of
When we smile at what appears to us a faradopted
:
part, at least, of a
civilisation.
fetched view, or a quaint habit of
by the
standard,
"
life,
we
are really guided
what people round about us say and do
and expect us to say and do".
This contented reference to
a vaguely formulated custom, without any scrutiny of
its
inherent reasonableness, holds good, indeed, of the judgments
passed by ordinary
men on
the laughable aspects of the
immoral.
Promptness in paying one's debts, for example,
will for
most men wear a reasonable or a foolish aspect
according to the custom of their tribe
class-standards
laugh
may
make themselves
—though
distinctly felt
;
here two
and so the
be turned, as the custom changes, from him
whose tardiness in discharging
means otherwise
liabilities
carefully concealed, to
an ungentlemanly haste
in
matters
suggests straitened
him who displays
of
a contemptible
smallness.
It
seems to follow that the adjustments of laughter to
more universal norms,
things, are a
kind of
to
ideas
artificial
instinctive
tendencies.
enjoys the
spectacle
of
an inherent
fitness in
addition to deeper and more
The ordinary man, even when he
some laughable folly or vice.
of
STANDARD OF POPULAR LAUGHTER
295
hardly transcends the point of view of custom, from which
what
men do
all
seen to be right.
is
made apparent
a higher culture has
It
is
only
when
the universality of the
laughable, as of
its
resort to ideas
becomes frequent.
This clarifjdng of our
infusion of ideas
in a special manner, the
by the
laughter
work
opposite the reasonable, that a conscious
is,
of experts, namely, the moralist, the literary critic, and,
most of
domain
the artist whose business
all,
it is
to illumine the
This function of art will form
of the ludicrous.
the subject of a later chapter.
In this chapter we have dealt merely with what I have
called choral laughter, that of
There
is,
individual
when
company
alone, or in the
This also has
friends.
groups, smaller or larger.
however, another kind, the private laughter of the
social evolution just
its
touched upon.
Such independent laughter would,
possible in the
of sympathetic
pre-conditions in the processes of
it is
evident, be im-
In the
lowest stages of this evolution.
savage or quasi-savage state an oddly constituted
of a tribe
—
if
seized with a
such a being were possible
spasm of
—
liable
to be
ridicule at the absurdities of tribal
ceremonies would certainly encounter serious risks.
needed ages of
member
It has
social progress to establish the conditions
of a safe individual liberty in the indulgence of the jocose
temper.
This freedom in choosing one's
own modes
a part of
has gradually asserted
itself as
by individual
Perhaps, indeed,
liberty.
as the highest phase
This
is
and completion of
not the place for a
full
it
all
of laughter
that
may
we mean
be regarded
this liberty.
inquiry into the complex
conditions on which the development of a freer individual
laughter depends.
It
may
be enough to point to the need
LAUGHTER
296
of
IN
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
an advance in ideas and the
least,
to
implies.
among
form individual judgments, which
A man who
would laugh
begin by developing his
A
capability,
fuller
own
his
the few at
this
advance
own laugh must
perceptions and ideas.
understanding of the pre-conditions of an inde-
pendent laughter will only be possible to one who has
carefully
examined
its
characteristics.
In the following
chapter I propose to analyse that variety of the laughing
temper which seems in a peculiar
the developed individual.
way
to be an attribute of
This attribute is what
designated in these days by the term humour.
is
specially
297
CHAPTER
X.
LAUGHTER OP THE INDIVIDUAL HUMOUR.
:
In the preceding chapter we have seen how the advance
of civiUsation has tended to
laughter.
still
take an aifronb too seriously.
he has
the louder choral voice of
Yet man's best friend
known how
not of the sort to
is
Driven out from the crowd,
to disguise himself and to steal back
and there a human
and perfectly safe enjoyThis new endowment, this last
into the haunts of men, touching here
spirit
and moving
ment
of things laughable.
it
to a quieter
inspiration of the mortal
by the god,
is
what we mean by
Humour.
—and seems to
—would be harder to define
Perhaps hardly a word in the language
be exclusively an English word
with
scientific precision
than this familiar one.
used with the greatest degree of looseness, as
it
It
is
when
a
often
man
endowed with humour because he laughs readily.^ Yet
any one who takes pains in using words knows how far
this is from being accurate.
A chronic garrulity of laughis
what Mr. Meredith calls the " hypergelast,"
marked contrast to what careful speech
As its etymology might teach us,
indicates by " humour ".
the term connotes, not so much the common endowment of
ter, typified
in
stands, indeed, in
' This has no doubt arisen in part from the fact that no other single
English word expresses directly and clearly the subjective feeling or
disposition which lies behind laughter.
298
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
as a
"risibility,"
certain
plexion of sentiment,
organisation.
We
kind of temperament, a commore,
nay,
a
mode
of
psychical
cannot, therefore, think of the race as
humorous, and should even find
difficult to generalise
it
endowment so far as to speak of humorists as a class.
The humorous man or woman is so, primarily and essentially, by the unpurchasable possession of an individual
the
mind.
This fact of a quite peculiar mixture of elements in
the humorous person
dooms
must never be
this person to a
expression
a feeling which
of
The idea
among humorous persons
communicative.
who
if
lost
sight of.
It
comparative solitude in the vocal
primarily social
is
and
of a large unison of utterance
not entertainable.
is
A man
has developed his humorous bent will be thankful
he finds in his
stand, and,
social circle
now and
who
one or two
can under-
again, join in his quiet chuckle.
Yet, though essentially in every individual case a unique
blend of elements, humour has certain
What
when we
sort of
agree to
call
Shakespeare, Cervantes, Goldsmith,
Lamb, Dickens, and George
Sterne,
One thing we can say
far
more
Again,
old brutal
its
It
and
Its laughter is not only quieter
but
farthest
person
:
it is
utterance
tones.
It
charged with a deeper
in
difi'ers
and contemptuous shout.
and almost tender
is
is
tone from the
It voices itself in
the
in it nothing of the
low
laughter altogether
removed from the standpoint
there
?
wanting
diffused laughter.
has a slower movement, and
meaning.
is
reflex gaiety of the child
removed from the swift
the unthinking adult.
Eliot humorists
confidently, that it
in certain characteristics of the
is
common characteristics.
temperament and mind are we thinking of
of
the interested
crowing over the van-
quished, hardly anything of a consciousness of the superior-
CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMOUR
ity to
may
which the uplifting of laughter
at the
make valid claim. Hence, one may hesitate
name humorist to a writer in whose laughter
commonly spoken of as humour a note of
tempt begins to grow prominent.
299
moment
to apply the
—though
—
it is
derisive con-
These contrasts point clearly enough to certain positive
moods of humour. A quiet survey of
characteristics of the
things, at once playful
and
reflective
amusing shows which seems in
its
;
mode
a
of greeting
moderation to be both an
indulgence in the sense of fun and an expiation for the
rudeness of such indulgence
ment
of the spirits
something
an outward, expansive move-
met and retarded by a
like kiiidly thoughtfulness
themselves as some of
At
;
first it
its
dominant
;
cross-current of
these clearly reveal
traits.
seems impossible to view this subtle and com-
plex mental attitude as a development of the naive and
Yet a
rather coarse merriment of earlier times.
slight
examination of the choicest examples of what the discerning
call
humour would
suffice to
show that
it
finds its pasturage
very much where the Greek or the mediaeval populace
found
fall
it.
Topsy-turvyness, especially
of things from a height
of all kinds
;
human
tive dimensions
;
oddities
;
when
it
involves the
stumbling and awkwardness
when they grow
all self-inflation
to provoca-
with a view to force a
reluctant notice; the manifold masqueradings of mortals;
the unfitnesses of things to the demands of circumstances
extravagances, perversities, and the multitudinous
men
;
these which
cachinnation
move
move
follies
of
man to his unconsidered
humorous man to his slower and
the rough
also the
sotto voce note.
As our great woman humorist has
genealogy
derful
and
may
it
:
"
Strange as the
seem, the original parentage of that won-
delicious
mixture of fun, fancy, philosophy and
LAUGHTER OP THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
300
modem
which constitutes
feeling,
humour, was probably
the cruel mockery of a savage at
suffering
enemy
—such
is
!
the better and more beautiful
"
^
In asserting that gentle humour has
such an uncouth ancestry,
imply that
we must
its
descent from
not be supposed to
genesis has been a sudden or a simple
its
As has been
process.
complex.
writhings of a
the
the tendency of things towards
suggested, the sentiment
is
highly
It presupposes in its possessor the presence of a
particular assemblage of qualities which
may
be expected to
be rare; and a study of the development both of the individual and of the race
qualities
is,
tells
us that this grouping of
of all the products of nature's laboratory, one of
the most delicate, one exacting from her a very special effort
of preparation.
Although humour
its
most apparent,
development
correctly described as a sentiment,
is
not most important condition,
if
of intelligence.
It is plainly
is
a
an example of
what Mr. Meredith calls " the laughter of the mind," an
expression which makes the large presupposition that we
have
Yet
It thrives best at the level of ideas.
this mind.
the element of
intellect
which
imply subtlety of mind,
is vital
still less
to
humour
does not
the presence of ideas
remote from the plane of ordinary men's understanding.
What
is
observes
needed
—
it
sufficient life
is
may
a
mind given
to
musing on what
be that of a shrewd housewife
it
— having a
and independence of movement to
rise
above
the dull mechanical acceptance of things, to pierce these with
the ray of a fresh criticism.
The distinguishing
contemplation
is
_
intellectual
element in humorous
a larger development of that
power
grasping things together, and in their relations, which
1
George Eliot, Essays, pp.
82, 83.
is
of
at
INTELLECTUAL BASE OP HUMOUR
301
More
the root of all the higher perceptions of the laughable.
particularly,
it is
a mental habit of projecting things against
viewing them in their complete
their backgrounds, of
tings
—80 far as
which, as
set-
this involves those relations of contrariety
we have
allowed, are of
the essence of the
This compre-
ludicrous, in the stricter sense of the term.
hension of the setting is dependent on a process of imaginative
reflection
;
for the
background which humour requires
is
not
the same as the visible background, but has, to a considerable extent, to be reinstated, or rather to be constructed
This introduction into humour of something in the nature
of a thinking process or reflection has this curious conse-
quence, that
it
does not merely play about the realm of the
and simpler laughter
serious, as the earlier
prehends, assimilates, and becomes toned
by something
does, but
com-
down into half-play
of the weightier import of things, of their
value and their bearing on our welfare.
This
is
the paradox,
the secret of the humour-loving soul, irritating at once to
the merely serious person and to the light-hearted
In order to understand
how
this is eflfected,
we
trifler.
shall, as will
be seen presently, need to look at other elements besides the
intellectual.
Yet we
shall
do well to note the fact that
the possibility of this meeting of the playful and the serious
in the
mood
of
humour has
its intellectual
condition in an
enlarged mental grasp of things.
Our
man
analysis of the objects which entice the laugh from
has suggested that the
risible aspect
nearly always
The kind of physical defect
amusing may also be wrong aesthetically or
coexists with other aspects.
which
is
hygienicaUy, and so on of the
rest.
And though
writers
from Aristotlp to Bain have been careful to point out that
the laughable defect or degradation must in
its
magnitude
be below the threshold of the painfully ugly, the blame-
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
302
worthy and so forth, it is perfectly clear that given a quick
and comprehensive perception, and a turn for musing on
what
is
perceived, the serious tendency in that
us will come into the margin of the
which amuses
field of vision.
who have developed
In this way, in the case of those
the requisite combining organ, a kind of binocular mental
vision has become possible.
sentation of
Don
We
enjoy pensively the pre-
Quixote, of Uncle Toby, and the other
great humorous characters, just because
in which, while giving ourselves
we
up
to
we
mood
are in a
an amusing spectacle,
nevertheless embrace in our reflective survey, and are
affected by,
A
full
would
something of
its
deeper meaning.
account of the humorous
way
of regarding things
trace out all the subtle interpenetrations of
merry
merry fancy
modes of com-
fooling and serious inspection, of a light and
A
and a sober reason.
hint, only,
on their
bination, can be given here.
A
finer appreciation of contrasts,
ally, will often
and of relations gener-
A
palpable instance of the laughable.
on the
falls
down
is
observer
fall
also,
by a
serve to enrich the impression given
floor
with sonorous
efl'ect
:
small
child
the sudden flopping
fraught with entertainment for
who can
plump
The
men.
all
contemplate thoughtfully, enjoys the
but more quietly and with a larger process of
mental assimilation.
His mind discerns in the
trivial
incident such things, perhaps, as the compact sturdiness
of nature re-establishing itself
by vigorous
duly
efibrts
announced by grunts, and the harmlessness of
when
falls
bones and joints are young, as compared with those of the
old, of
him.
which in many respects the
child's fall
It is a train of ideas of this kind,
consciously pursued, which gives to the
of its value for the
humorous observer.
may remind
though only
thumping
fall
half-
much
EXTENSION OF FIELD OF LAUGHABLE
303
Again, the development of the intelligence to a large and
varied activity will,
lations,
by quickening the faculty of
open up new and spacious
quiet contemplation.
for the
fields for
To one bringing
seizing re-
the humorist's
a mental eye focussed
amusing juxtaposition, and a temper disposed
on what he
itself in
sees,
common
how much
sights,
to
may
of the entertaining
muse
reveal
such as that of a thin wheezy
man
joining in shouts of a full-blooded Jingo crowd, or that of a
woman, whose head has just been pommelled by her rightful
lord, turning upon and "slanging " the bystander who has
foolishly tried to
rights.^
The
curb an excessive assertion of marital
man
possession of ideas, again, will help a
at
once sympathetically to realise and to transcend limited
points of view
when they come
into collision,
How
gather much ruminating amusement.
and so to
large a scope,
for example, for such quiet entertainment opens
rejoinder of Mrs. Flynn, an Irish lady
up
in the
who had been brought
before a magistrate for assaulting her husband, and com-
miserated by that compassionate functionary on her sad
plight with one eye closed and the head bandaged " Och,
:
yer worship, just wait
till
yez see Flynn
".
of the real proportions of a zest for battle
The recognition
and a taste for
compassion in the stalwart Irish dame, unsuspected by
kindly magistrates, at once gives us the point of view for a
half -serious, half-amusing contemplation of
/
human
ks, these illustrations suggest, the point of
humorous observer is not a
ness, the sense of liberation
will
come by applying a
fixed one.
of the
Sometimes the fresh-
from the stupidly commonplace,
rational idea to things which are
not accustomed to the treatment.
intelligence
relations.
view
At other
times,
when
the
happens to be more sprightly, the new point of
1 The opening scene of Le Midecin malgri lui shows that Moli^re had
observed this quaint form of wifely loyalty.
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
304
view
reached by a flight of fancy which loves to perch
on some outlook far from that of a rational criticism.
is
itself
The humorous
mind
sort of
delights in the play of inverting
ordinary arrangements, say, of making
and
son,
exchange
places, or, as in
man and beast, father
Lewis
Carroll's delightful
instance of an ideal experiment, of putting the sane people
in asylums
and allowing the lunatics to go at
It follows that
humorous contemplation
large.^
will
have
many
In some instances, the proportion
shades of seriousness.
of the rational element leads us to speak of
laughing, — " ridentem
verum
dieere
"
;
it
as
wisdom
in others, in
which
the predominance of a capricious fancy brings the expreswit, to describe it rather
sion near that of sportive
laughter sobered
by a word
said that in every state
of wisdom.
whu^e mind
on a
may
The humorous
it
as
may be
which we describe as one of humor-
ous enjoyment the rational element
alliance, puts
Yet
itself,
affected
by
its
half- festive attire, so that after all the
be said to join in the play.^
state
is,
however, much more than a peculiar
It cannot be
by a mere train of cold perceptions and ideas.
It means that the whole consciousness is for the time modified by the taking on of a new attitude or mood.
The play
of young fancy about the grave elderly form of reason^
which is half- coaxed to play too, comes from this new tone
modification of the processes of intelligence.
constituted
of the
whole mind.
This mental tone involves a peculiar modification of the
conative processes.
All laughing scrutiny of things, as a
play-attitude, is a sort of relaxation of the set concentration
Sylvie and Bruno, Part II., p. 132.
Hence Addiaon'B remark {Spectator, No. 38) that humour should always
be under the oheck of reason seems, In what one is tempted to call a char'
'
acteristic
way, to miss the mark.
HUMOUR
ANALYSIS OF
Whenever we
of a conative purpose.
305
laugh,
we
with a child at the jocosities of a clown,
be only
if it
are freed from
the constraining force of the practical and even of the
which commonly hold and confine our
theoretical interests
minds when we observe
In such moments
closely.
abandon ourselves to the tickling play
of the object
perceptions and ideational tendencies.
In humour this
abandonment takes on a shade
is
less complete,
that of a
is
even when
ally reflective that,
self-
of seriousness, not because
the relaxation of bhe conative effort
because the self-abandonment
we
on our
is
it
mind
at play,
but
so habitu-
it
does not
wholly lose sight of the serious import of the thoughts
which minister to
its
entertainment
;
because
cognises the worth of the standard ideas,
allusion to
of
which
it is
it
dimly
by the
re-
lightest
able to indulge in a playful criticism
what is presented.
The deeper secret of the mood
of
humour, however,
lies
in
a pecuHar modification of the feeling-tone of conscious-
In
ness.
this,
it
is
once
at
evident,
with a special example of complexity.
with something akin to sadness
tones
;
of tones, too,
we have
to
do
The laughter tinged
a mixture of feeling-
is
which seem directly opposed and likely
to be mutually repugnant.
The gaiety
of laughter begins to be complicated with
an undertone by the half-intrusion into consciousness of
To be aware, however
the serious import of things.
world has
distinctly, that the
its
the child's note of pure mirth,
serious side,
is
is
in-
to lose
to have a touch of
sadness added to our laughter.
The more
serious
complication comes, however,
the regrettable side of the laughable object makes
felt.
The
nothing in
effect
of
this
common with
when
itself
on the humorous person has
that of the exhibition of folly on
20
306
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
the contemptuous person.
feeling of one
who
It is the
very opposite to the
rejoices in another's discomfiture as such.
It is a sense of the implicated " pity of it
pletely
humane
humorous
is
".
A
person com-
essentially sympathetic, skilled in the
art of transporting himself to others' standpoints,
and words in the warnLlight
thrown by the human affections By some, indeed, sympathy is regarded as the great distinguishing characteristic
of comprehending men's doings
of humour.i
But it seems well to add that it is the infusion
amount of the sympathetic into our blithe
things which carries us far in the path of humorous
of a proportionate
survey^ of
appreciation.
of fun
to
A
sympathy
of a step too quick for the sense
keep abreast in friendly comradeship
Flaubert says happened in his case in later
life,^
will,
as
make an
end of laughter.
from
It is but a step
ness of
this recognition of the regrettable-
what amuses us
turn, tones
down
to a discernment of what, in its
the sadness of regret, of the fine threads
which attach the laughable
worth.
Humour,
defect
to
elements of real
of the richer kinds at least, certainly
includes something of consideration, of a detection, in the
laughable quality or
is
its
attachments, of suggestions of what
estimable and lovable.
The disposition to think well of what amuses us may
come in the first instance from an impulse of gratitude.
So ready are we in general to acknowledge another's entertainment of us that, even
is
known
to
when
the pleasure bestowed
have been given quite unwittingly, we cannot
quite check the impulse to tender thanks.
'
See, for example, Hoffding, Outlines of Psychology, pp. 294, 295.
^
Quoted by Dugas,
op. ciL, p. 98.
Flaubert here indicates, perhaps, one
great limiting condition of the growth of the composite sentiment of
humour.
HUMOUR AS FEELING
307
Again, that which amuses us will often,
fully considered,
show
estimable.
It
really
itself to
is
when thought-
be bound up with what
is
exaggerations of good qualities
which are so amusing, especially when through sheer
obstinacy they tend to become the whole man, and to
Comedy
provoke while they entertain.
in
will
sometimes
the figure of Moli^re's Alceste, for example
— exhibit
to us this clinging of the laughable to the skirts of excellence.
But
it
mood
only to the more reflective
is
humour, to which comedy, as we
of
shall see, does not appeal,
that this coexistence of the quality and
its
defects, fully
discloses itself.
Sometimes, too, even though
we
fail to discern its partial
redemption through an organic connection with a worthy
a laughable defect
trait,
may
take on the appearance of a
condonable and almost lovable blemish of character.
it is
Thus
with the small imperfections seen in men recognised
to be substantially good, imperfections
nearer to us and so
too, is it
make them
which bring them
comprehensible.
Thus,
with the ignorances and simplicities of children,
which, even while they bring the smile, disclose their worth
as pure expressions of child-nature.
By
speaking of a sentiment of humour
we imply
that the
kindly feeling somehow combines with the gaiety of laughter in a
new type
of emotional consciousness.
This com-
bination, again, seems to involve a simultaneous presence in
two elements, and not merely a rapid
two phases of feeling. It is this simultaneous
rise and partial fusion of a gay and a sad tone of feeling
which differentiates humour proper from the feeling of ages
to which the proximity of the laughable and the pathetic in
consciousness of the
alternation of
things was familiar enough, as
from Pope's
lines
on Addison
:
we may
see, for
example,
LAUGHTER OP THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
308
Who but must laugh if such a man there be ?
Who would not weep, if Attious were he ?
Again, as a harmonious blending of elements the sentiment
humour
of
contrasts with that
mere mixture of pleasurable
and painful ingredients which Plato thought he detected
all
in
laughter.!
The psychology
state,
One
of the emotions
and we know very
little
is
backward
in a
still
about the laws of their fusion.*
two points may, however, be touched on.
must be remembered that two feelings simultaneously
excited may clash and refuse to combine in a peaceful
whole.
This commonly happens, indeed, when they are
or
It
repugnant in kind,
e.g.,
pride and tenderness, and
this
repugnance
is
somehow overcome,
emotive processes combine in some
that the constituent
new
current of con-
Not that the elements need be wholly sub-
sciousness.
merged
when
Emotional fusion means that
both are powerfully excited.
in the product
;
they
in a chord, half-disclosed,
may remain
as tones remain
though profoundly modified by
Such a state of partial fusion may be
our moods of memory, in which delight in the
their concomitants.
illustrated in
recovery of lost experiences
The
is
tempered with
regret.
conditions of such a peaceful, harmonious confluence
The
of dissimilar feelings are various.
by
thered
elements;
objects,
effect
may
the presence of points of aflBnity
whence
such
the
as love
sentiments
be fur-
among
which dignify
the
their
and admiration, readily combine.
This holds good to some extent of the constituents of
humour, since amusement and something
gard for him
who amuses
^PMlebus, Jowett's translation,
'One
us are plainly
iv., p.
94
like tender re-
allied.
Yet
this
ft.
the best recent discussions of this subject will be found in the
work of A. Lehmann, already referred to see pp. 247-261 and 259.
of
;
FUSION OF FEELINGTONES
309
consideration does not seem to help us in understanding
how
the
two polar moods
of hilarity
and sadness should be
able to combine.
We may
be helped here by setting out from the fact of a
simultaneous appeal to the dissimilar feelings by the same
presentation.
When
this
again and again,
occiu-s
probable that organic modifications
may
it
is
be effected by the
Nobody
simultaneous action of the double stimulus.
begins
by feeling amused and sorry at the same moment. The
boy and the savage may have a moment of mild pity
for an ugly piece of deformity
;
but this
moment comes
is over.
The co-presentation of the sad
and the amusing had, we may be sure, to be repeated during
many generations of men before the two currents could
join in one smooth flow.
Those who find the core of an emotion in a widely difiiised
after the laughing
may
organic process
reason that such repetitions of a com-
plex emotional stimulation
in
some way, so
may modify
the nervous system
as to allow of the combination of
some
parts at least of the bodily resonances characteristic of the
For one thing, the
emotional constituents.
fact,
already
community of physiological
process in the case of laughter and of the expression of
grief, may help us, to some extent, to understand the combination.^
Yet mutual inhibition by the two sets of organic
alluded
to,
that there
is
a certain
processes involved seems to be the principal agency in the
case.
The more
energetic
movements
of laughter are with-
out doubt restrained by an admixture of sympathy.
Perhaps
understood the physics of organic processes,
we might
if \fre
speak here of an
" interference," or, at least,
of
some anta-
gonistic action between the motor-impulses of the laugh
of the sigh.
1
Of. above, p. 70.
and
310
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
One
Where
other condition seems to be important.
emotions are widely dissimilar and likely to be antagonistic,
it is
necessary that they should not both be excited in
We may succeed
a high degree.
in getting a blend between
a gentle laugh and a mild pity, though certainly not between
r
a state of mirthful excitement and one of deep compassion.
The moods
of
humour run
low keys, laughter and kindly
in
down
sentiment being each toned
as
for
if
smoother con-
This need of a reduction of the force of consorting
fluence.
emotions may, too, find
explanation in the conditions
its
which have to be combined.
of the organic processes
This
does not imply, however, that the two feelings which unite
in
humour
As hinted
are of equal strength.
above,
humour
seems always, even when an almost poignant sadness pierces
it,
to maintain itself at the level of a quiet enjoyment.
It
answers to the mood which has been called the luxury of
which the sense of pain has shrunk away to a
pity, in
scarcely heard over-tone, while the ground-tone of allevi-
ating tenderness sounds out clear and
This analysis
may
full.
help us to understand
dith has called the laughter of Shakespeare
why
Mr. Mere-
and Cervantes
"the richer laugh of heart and mind in one".^
help us, too, to interpret some things said by the
It
may
German
Kant, for instance, redeems
metaphysicians about laughter.
the poverty of his general theory by a memorable passage
on the amusing aspect of a
know how
does not
case there
is
to hide
the
customary
spect, as
we
He
behaviour which
allows that in this
mingled with the laughter
poses to arise from
of
naivetfe of
itself.
—something
reflect
—which he
sup-
an annihilation of the expectation
that
of earnestness
what
is
and
of
infinitely better
re-
than
accepted codes of manners (Sitte), namely, purity of natural
1
Op.
cit.,
p. 95.
^
COMPLEXITY OF HUMOUR
disposition (Denkungsart),
not wholly extinguished in
is
human nature.^
Our analysis of humour may
well-recognised facts.
311
help us to understand some
It teaches us that a sentiment, at
once complex and implying a mature reflection, must not be
looked for in the young
;
the prerogative of the years
it is
which have hoarded experiences and learned to
Nor, as implied in what was said above,
for in the
and
youth of the world. That humour is
fullest utterance at least
times, the period ushered in
trio,
Rabelais, Cervantes
saying that, like music,
new
—the
—in
its clearest
modern
possession of
by the appearance
and Shakespeare,
it fits itself
reflect.
to be sought
is it
is
of the great
explained by
into the
ways
of our
spirit.
The apprehension
complex basis of humour helps
of this
us, further, to
understand somewhat the curious variations
of the attitude
among
races
and
peoples.
There are regions
of civilisation where, so far as literary expression gives us
the key, laughter seems to remain
little
at,
or at most only a
above, the level of the child's simple merriment.
appears to be true of certain
This
portions of the East, where a
considerable love of fun coexists with a predominant gravity
mind without
of
Among
interpenetration, almost without contact.^
certain races of Southern Europe, too,
which have
produced a rich literature of amusement, the blending of the
serious
and the
playful,
which
is
of the essence of
humour
The gaiety of
Frenchman
who,
the
seems to be but very imperfectly reached.
the mediaeval Conte
is
the gaiety of
Pbr the whole passage, written perhaps with an unconscious reminiscence of the Bousseau period, see the KriUk 0/ Judgment, Dr. Bernard's
1
translation, p. 227.
^
in the East of the comic spirit as expressing itself in the
comedy, a point noted by Mr. Meredith, is of course not conclusive
The absence
art of
with respect to the existence
of
the humorous disposition.
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
312
two
in spite of one or
keep his
literary exceptions, likes to
thinking and his mirth
distinct, in their original purity
Frenchmen, such as M. Taine and M. Scherer,
netteti}
have fully recognised the fact that what we mean by
and
humour
a
is
characteristics
region,
it
may
product of
the
triste
may
germ
hypothesis that a vigorous
racial
in this
of
be found in the
laughter fertilised
disposition to brooding melancholy always tends to
by a
generate something of the nature of
we
growth
Perhaps, the closest
not be easy to say.
approximation to an explanation
What
nord.
to further its
have served
shall presently see, utility does
humour
;
and
something for
that, as
its
preser-
vation.
of the complexity of the sentiment
The consideration
may throw
light, further,
on
its
modifications
among
the
peoples which are correctly spoken of as endowed with
These differences are roughly accounted for by saying
it.
that the proportions of gravity and gaiety, of serious reflection and playful fancy vary indefinitely.
different, let us say,
They are
American, the Scotchman and the Irishman.
sideration does not account for
humour
is
many
all
Yet
this con-
the dissimilarity.
Since
playfulness modified by the whole serious temper
man, we should expect
of a
certainly
in the case of the Englishman, the
it
to differentiate itself into
shades according to the trend of the ideas, interests,
impulses and the rest which distinguishes one sort of mind
or character from another.
We
can only fully understand
the contrast between American and English, or between
Irish
'
and Scotch, humour, when we understand the
M. B^dier has a
Conies ; touching on
its
delicate characterisation of this
its
joyous good sense,
and
want
its
just, op, cit., p. 278.
French
differences.
spirit in the
depth and arrUre-pens4e, its spice of malice,
irony, which though a little coarse is yet precise
of
HUMOUR AS NATIONAL
An amusing
of character.
to say,
is
which
is
TRAIT
Irish or Scotch story, one, that
produced for home-consumption, seems
to be redolent of the whole temperament,
acter of the people.
How
by
mind and
char-
It is this complexity of the sentiment
which makes the amiable
of other peoples
313
effort to
the
illustrate
humour
published selections a pathetic futility.
can one expect, for example, the ordinary Englishman
to get into touch with that fine product of child's fun,
quick fancy, alert sympathy, open-heartedness, and a deep
brooding sentiment which meets him in the humour of the
Irishman
It is
?
enough to remember how he
laugh his superior laugh at an Irish
necessarily
an unconscious
"
is
to
bull, as if this
were
may
be, in
howler," whereas
it
charming expression of a most amiable
reality, a
wont
trait of
character.^
-A due recognition
discloses
to
of the complexity
of the sentiment
us a point of capital importance
:
humour,
in the sense of a perfect fusion of play and gravity, of
the aggressiveness of laughter and kindly consideration,
as
is,
already hinted, pre-eminently an endowment
individuals rather than of races.
of temperament which, though
certain racial
characters,
is
of
It presupposes a basis
it
may
be favoured by
only realised where nature
upon a particular proportion among the elements
by the mixing of which she produces an individual and
80 nice an operation is this mixture, that humour, of the
full rich quality at least, is perhaps less frequently handed
hits
;
down from
The
parent to child than specific forms of talent.
old writers treated
humour by
help of their general
1 This redeeming q^uality of the Irish bull is indistinctly perceived by the
Edgeworths in their essay on the subject, in which they speak of the
Irishman's habit of Using figurative and witty language. See The Booh of
Bulls, by G. E. Neilson (in which the Edgeworths' essay is included).
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
314
theory of temperaments as compounded of certain physical
The learned Burton,
elements.
for instance, in the chapter
already quoted, discourses agreeably of pleasant vapours
which break from the heart, and thinks that these
why
explain
melancholy
the
The passage
suggested.
are
witty,
valuable as indicating
is
may
Aristotle
as
that
antiquity recognised the connection between laughter and
Modern testimony might be
the melancholy disposition.
Thus
added.
humour,
as
Landor
Savage
well
as
true
wit,
remarks
genuine
that
sound
a
requires
mind, which is always a grave one
Tennyson notes that hiunour " is generally most
capacious
;
^
and
and
fruitful
and most solemn human spirits ". ^
The need of this deep and massive seriousness, if not
of a marked tendency to sombre reflection, seems to be
borne out by what we know of the great humorists.
in the highest
Sainte-Beuve regards Rabelais,
who was
a grave doctor,
and who worthily represented in his public lectures at
Lyons " the majesty of science," as writing with the quite
serious purpose of throwing out in advance certain ideas
of deep import {de grand sens) " dans
Much
the same
is
true of Cervantes,
the assertion has been challenged
his delightful
un
who
—to
rire
immense ".
said
is
—though
have conceived of
romance in the dreary surroundings of a
sponging-house.
^
The germination
of a mirthful sense in
the soil of a serious character has been noted, indeed, in the
case of
a fact
some who represent the
to seriousness
spoken of in an
^
Quoted by Meredith,
'
See his son's Life, chap.
'The question
Kelly.
lighter
which points to the more general
is left
op.
cit.,
moods
comedy
earlier chapter.
Thus
Sainte-
p. 87.
vii. (vol.
i.,
p. 167).
an open one by his biographer,
See Life of Cervantes,
of
relation of laughter
p. 207.
J.
Fitzmaurice-
THE HUMOROUS TEMPERAMENT
315
Beuve, writing of Moli^re, says that he was called
contemplative
(tristesse)
"
;
and was wont
"
the
to be taken with sadness
and melancholy when he was
alone.
Victor
^
has somewhere spoken of him as " ce moqueur pensif
Hugo
comme un
apotre
".
was remarked
It
other dealers in the mirthful
by
Sheridan and
of
who knew them
those
that they seldom even smiled.
It
is
easy to see that the transformation of laughter
which we find in humour will carry with
modification of the range of enjoyment.
it
a
large
While, as has
been admitted, the changes of feeling and mental attitude
involved will tend to restrain the earlier reckless merri-
ment, they will also add vast regions to the territory of
the amusing.
With regard
common
to restriction, one
must protest against the
misapprehension, that the development of
spoils the taste for simple
sad-looking humorists
modes
of mirth.
who were
valuable capability of joining in
humour
humour
have known
well endowed with the
children's
undoubtedly restrain
does
I
fun.
laughter which smacks of the brute and the bully in
On
the other hand, the
field of objects
What
any tendency
is
in
man.
over which humour
wanders bee-like gathering
its honey is vastly greater than
any region known to the rougher and more brutal merriment. The introduction of a reflective element and of
higher points of view expands the horizon to an incalculable
extent.
This change in point of view means at once that
we
penetrate below the surface of things, reaching the halfveiled realities,
relations.
and that we envisage them in a network of
The former
is
illustrated in the humorist's finer
contemplation of behaviour as a i-evelation of character.
'
Causeries
du Lundi,
vol.
iii.,
pp.
3, 4.
LAUGHTER OP THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
316
An
amplitude o£ enjoyment
that,
secured
is
even in the case of the
way
moral weaknesses have a
by the circumstance
self -vigilant, intellectual
of peeping out
convenient for a humorous onlooker
who
which
is
and
most
has his mental
When, for example, a young
by an examiner to explain " congenital
eye duly accommodated.
asked
teacher,
pleasant
ment
:
the tendency to be congenial and
" It is
tendency," wrote,
children vary in this characteristic," the entertain-
of the error for the reader lay in the naive disclosure
of the preoccupation of the writer's
Or
fortunes of her profession.
date from the same
a teacher, wrote
when another
candi-
class, in describing the qualifications of
He
"
:
mind with the chequered
again,
with the workings of a
should be as intimately acquainted
child's
mind
as the engine-driver
is
with the engine," the fun of the comparison for the reader
came from the detection
of an unscientific habit of mind,
natural enough in an over-zealous worker, intruding, unobserved, into theoretic reflection.
These innocent
self -revelations
the humorist everywhere
meet the watchful eye
in the haunts of
like hoar frost in the sun
men.
They
of
lie
on his surroundings, on which
he unwittingly casts a reflection of the habits of his mind
and
of the directions of his taste
;
as
when
in a large
town
bizarre juxtapositions of the vulgar heroic strike the observer's eye in the
names
of streets, or of loose engines on a
railway.
To
this finer penetration the
vision for relations
judgment.
What we
indeed, always to
implied above,
milieu
it is
humorous faculty adds a
which distinguishes the higher kind of
call
the ludicrous in character
is,
some extent a matter of relations. As
the view of some trait set in a particular
which brings the
entertain because of
its
smile.
The hidden weakness may
juxtaposition with something that
AMUSING REVELATIONS OF CHARACTER
is
worthy, or at least has an appearance of worth.
closes
In a
kind of impulsive person, for example, there
certain
dis-
humorous eye an almost admirable
to the
itself
317
consistency in the recurring inconsistencies
;
while, on the
other hand, in another sort of character, that eye will rather
spy an inconsistency within the limits of a quality, as
when
a person, on the whole generous, lapses into a kind of
niggardliness in certain small particulars of expenditure,
show that even a moral
as if to
quality, firmly planted,
In
needs the sunlight of intelligence.
many
cases
entertainment in observing character comes, not so
the
much
through a perception of the juxtaposition of something
worthy and something
unworthy, as through a
slightly
some discrepancy between the character and
assumed at the moment, as when a self-assertive
detection of
the rdle
sense of justice, in " a child of larger growth," reveals itself
in the quaint exaggeration of doing
No
oneself.
imperfectly
of persons
Perhaps
masked
who
it is
will be
found than that of the manners
a certain kind
of
woman who shows
humorous reading
life,
the
of character, as
sets herself to decipher the palimpsest of
in one educated rather late in
earlier
justice to
are quite above suspicion of serious fault.
greatest skill in this
when she
more than
better terrain, indeed, for a chase after the
manners
detecting traces of the
cramped hand below the thin caligraphy of a
later
culture.
To a
finer perception of relations, again,
must we ascribe
the readiness to enjoy the large and variegated presentment
of
unsuitabilities
situations in
of
men
to
their circumstances.
which the merry god, who seems
The
to arrange
the puppet show, often chooses to place us are pregnant of
humour.
what nature never intended
ironical suggestion to the contemplative eye of
The
necessity of confronting
318
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
that
we
should confront makes us an amusing spectacle to
the twinkling eyes above us.
is
How
delightful for example
the variety of social juxtaposition which brings embarrass-
ment
to the encounterers.
When
it is
not accident but a
man's foolish impulse, unmindful of limitations of capability,
which pushes him into the awkward
situation, as
when
his
plunges him into discourse in a foreign language
civility
with a fellow-traveller, or when the most undecided of
attempts to
make
situation for the
men
a proposal of marriage, the value of the
humorous observer
is
greatly enhanced.
As with the topsy-turvyness of momentary situation, so
with more permanent incongruities between character and
surroundings.
In this case a more special gift of humorous insight is needed for to the many what lasts grows
seemingly right by its mere durability. You may make a
;
highly unsuitable person a bishop, or the editor of a comic
journal,
and you
will find that, for
most onlookers, time
will soon begin to invest the position with a sort of suitability.
Even an
ill-matched connubial pair will take on
something of mutual appropriateness through this influence
of the
customary on human judgments.
the humorous onlooker, guided
with stripping
by
But the eye
of
ideas, entertains itself
off the trappings of convention
and
use.
This humorous quizzing of the characters and of the
revealed mental processes of those about us has grown, in
the ease of a few, into a chief pastime.
The development
in these days of a keener interest in character,
which is
modern fiction,
has led these few to something like a sustained and methodical
survey of their acquaintances and their friends, in which
partly reflected
in,
partly the product of,
the quiet laughter of the humorist
A
may
find
ample room.
part of the temperate mirth in this case springs out of the
delightful surprises
—the result of the complexity of organic
CHARACTER-STUDY AS PASTIME
319
products and of the limitations of our powers of prediction.
The appearance
of
moral metamorphosis when a
a
comes under the influence of some new
the invasion of his social world
force,
man
say a wife, or
by a war-craze, may amuse
much
as the semblance of a physical
transformation amuses him.
In this habitual contemplation
a humorous observer
by a humorous person of those he knows, there is,
a blending of amusement with kindly interest.
indeed, the note of
much
"
of the
evidently,
That
is,
psychologising " at which
many, instructed by the best fiction, now try their hand.
The combination of the playful with the respectful attitude
is
nowhere more plainly seen than in our new estimates of
diversity of character
and
of individuality.
The contem-
new experiment of nature
human type, will always bring
plation of the result of some
in the variation of the
something of the gaiety which is provoked by the sight of
yet our new regard for individuality, as
a fresh oddity
discriminated from eccentricity, brings down the mirthful
utterance to the low tones of humour.
There is another way in which the development of the
;
humorous faculty enlarges the sphere
In
of the risible.
the simple nature of children and uncultured adults, fun
and seriousness tend
to dwell apart.
serious element into the
mood
The introduction
of amusement,
which
of a
is
at
the basis of humour, makes a breach in the dividing wall.
As
a consequence, the humorist, though a profoundly serious
person, will
show
a readiness in the midst of grave occupa-
tions to digress for a
suggestion.
women
Good
moment
talkers
at the prick of
and
some ludicrous
letter-writers,
including
with the quick ear for the bubblings of fun, are
thus given to momentary interruptions of serious discourse
by
side-glances at
amusing
aspects,
and many persons who
take themselves to be humorists are apt to be shocked at
LAUGHTER OP THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
320
making laughter permeate the sphere
succeeds in
serious,
is
is
without loosening
its
of the
deep-laid foundation of gravity,
one of the best measures of the vitality of his humour.
this
by humour which has made a good
Of this, more anon
the present to call attention to a work of
of the serious
deal of
modem
may
It
perfectly respectful invasion of the
resolute yet
domain
it
man
Yet, in truth, the extent to which a
the proceeding.
literature possible.
suffice for
mine dealing with a subject which might well
a friend of
seem to be dismally serious
— logic
a
itself,
work which
attempts with conspicuous success, while maintaining the
its heaviness by a good
number of amusing remarks and illustrations.^
Yet the expansion of the range of enjoyment when mindless mirth gives place to humour is not wholly due to the
One chief limitation of
absorption of a serious element.
the more common kind of laughter arises from the cir-
dignity of the science, to relieve
cumstance that
who
it is
apt to be disagreeable to the person
This dislike, again,
object.
is its
is
due, as
we have
seen, to a natural feeling of resentment at being
down and
treated as an inferior.
taken
So long as the laughter
retains a distinct vibration of the old note of contempt,
must
resist it
are ready to
;
but when
withdraw the
it
objection.
having fun poked at our
terrible in
our petty misfortunes, so long as
face
is
is
There
drowned
in a
way
is
nothing so
foibles, or
we know
hiding behind the laughing mask.
gives the assurance in his
we
grows mellow and kindly we
even at
that a friendly
If a person
of laughing that
only
contempt
more genial sentiment, he may laugh at his
when they grow old
children, aye at his parents, too, even
and
infirm.
Nor
is
a previous knowledge of friendly dis-
position always needed.
1
There are a few whose mellow
Logic Deductive mid Inductive, by Carveth Bead.
KINDLY LAUGHTER
321
—in
laughter will instantly disarm resistance in a stranger
the street boy, for example, though
and of the young.
sensitiveness of the poor
From
frank acceptance of others' overtures of a
this
friendly laughter to the practice of a
there
would seem to be but a step.
some degree
he has the double
If
humorous
self-criticism,
humour always involves
of sympathetic self-projection into the object of
contemplation,
should not be
it
ous glance upon one's
of various kinds,
and
turn the humor-
difficult to
own foibles.
Self -inspection
there are varieties of
it
is
a thing
(for example,
the performances of the "moi spectateur" in the case of
that curious
young
lady, Marie Bashkirtseff)
which are
re-
moved by
the amplitude of the sky from humorous self-
quizzing.
The
last is
perhaps the most rarely practised.
Before he can accomplish
developed a
"
higher ego
it,
"
a person must not only have
capable of criticism in the light
of ideas, but have learned to see himself as others
cially
humorous onlookers
difl5cult
—see
— espe-
him, a feat hardly
less
than that of getting a glimpse of the crown of
one's head.
That the doings
of the lower ego, or rather cluster of egos,
are fitted to afford an ample supply of the amusing goes
without saying.
Human
even in the best of
detect incongruity
nature
us, that it
is
so oddly compounded,
only needs the clear vision to
and the masking of the
real.
Thus,
it is
frequently easy to spy the stealthy advances of rudimentary
tendencies which seem hardly to belong to us, and which
we
more frequently, to light
inconsequences which are due to
are disposed to disown
on a whole crop of
little
;
still
the complexity of our soul's workings, and to the irremovable circumstance that,
however predominant some better
part of us seems to be for the moment, the suppressed forces
turn out to be only half -suppressed.
21
It is well
when such
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
322
on without any risk of encountering forms of ugliness and of ill omen, which would make
self-scrutiny can be carried
speedy end of the amusing exercise.
The quiet fun that may be enjoyed by
at ourselves is so palpable, that
occasional glances
hardly seems conceivable
it
how any true humorist should fail to pluck the tempting
Yet when one finds a man who is wholly incapable
fruit.
of
accepting another's playful laughter,
inference that he will be found
to
it
seems a fair
lacking in the disposition
amuse himself with conning
own
his
doings.
The
re-
sentment which a distinguished purveyor of mirthful entertainment will sometimes exhibit at being treated with a
humorous freedom, say by a lady interviewer whose overtures have been rejected with needless emphasis, suggests
mind may train itself in the detection of the ludicrous
the larger show outside, and yet remain blind to all the
that a
in
comic aspects of the microcosm within.
Perhaps every
humorous contemplator of things has some "blind spot,"
of the existence of which he
retinal blind-spot
;
and
is
just as ignorant as of his
if this failure
of sensibility chances
to render invisible the whole of the humorist's
the contraction of the field of vision
is
own behaviour,
certainly a considerable
one.
We
have seen that the
earlier
forms of
have their uses as contributing to the
human
laughter
stability or the im-
social group.
When, however,
we turn to the milder and more complex sentiment of
humour we appear to lose these social benefits. As has
been implied, the development of the sense of humour in
any vigorous and fruitful form is a rarity, so much so as to
provement of a society or
condemn
its
possessor in a large measure to a solitary kind
of satisfaction.
The change may be expected
to
efi'ect
a
transformation of the serviceable function of laughter, to
USES OF SELF-LAUGHTER
make
323
and
in the main, a thing wholesome, refreshing
it,
edifying of character, to the individual himself.
It is true,
no doubt, that a refined humour
is
capable of
being turned at times to the same social uses as
cestor, the
elemental laughter of the people.
an-
its
One may
the journalism and literature of the hour, foibles,
see, in
exaggerations and other amusing things dealt with in a
humorous or quasi-humorous temper.
The gentleness
which humour inclines allows, indeed, of attacks on
to
parties,
and personahties which would otherwise run the
Yet something of
risk of being condemned as " bad form ".
a serious practical purpose, namely, to hold up to ridicule,
schools
can always be detected in this kind of writing: whence
it is correctly designated, not as humour, but as " social
satire".
On
the other hand, the moods of humour are admirably
fitted
for
that indirect adaptation of the individual to
This
which we call self-criticism.
humorous self-quizzing may be started by the spectacle
yet this, as
of comedy, as Lessing and others suggest
social
conditions
;
we
shall see later, is not to be counted on.
wants promptly to detect the
first flecks
If
man
a
of dust on the
bright surface of character, he must be habitually ready
to note this surface.
This
in
office of
humour
in helping us to nip evil tendencies
the bud may be viewed,
in part, as the vicarious discharge
the critical self of the restraining function of the com-
by
munity on the
individual.
None
of us can safely
wander
far and long from the point of wholesome contact with
the community, that
is
to say,
with the good sense and
the right feeling embodied in a community.
the not
whose
too easy art of seeing ourselves as
judgment
we
should
care
—see
us
To master
others
is
—for
surely
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
324
eminently
is
fitting for those
who
desire to laugh
at
what
objectively laughable.
must not be supposed that in such
we are always at the social point
of view.
Humour is the outgrowth of a pronounced individuality
its possession seems always to imply that a
Nevertheless,
private
it
self- correction
;
own
person forms his
of course
by
ideas of the value of things, guided
the world's teachers, but caring
his views agree with those
^
little
whether
which happen to obtain in his
community at the moment. Here, again, in the high service
rendered by a vigilant humour, we find the work of reflection
carried out by the help of ideas or ideal conceptions, which
are in part a product of the individual mind.
The laughing
rebuke administered to some folly, which lifts its head once
more after many repressive blows, comes from the ideal
self
which, though it must have nourished itself in some
" communion of saints," becomes in the end free and self;
"
legislative.
Correction " seems too strong a
this prophylactic function
not readily lend
What
;
for, as
word
to use for
we have seen, humour does
an instrument to serious purposes.
itself as
the habit of a quick humorous perception does for
subject here
a pure
is
its
best described, perhaps, as the fostering of
and wholesome atmosphere in the
soul, in
which
disease-germs must perforce die of inanition.
We may now
turn to those uses of humour, into the con-
ception of which the thought of a practical aim can hardly
intrude.
cheering.
Humour as amusement is something agreeable and
It has the refreshing
laughter and
much more
;
for, as
a
properties of primitive
mood that
reflective contemplation, it is consolatory
a
feeds itself on
and sustaining
in
way in which mere gaiety, even when it persists as a temper
of mind, cannot
be.
Apropos of Voltaire's saying that
heaven had given us two things to counterbalance the
many
CORRECTION AND REFRESHMENT
miseries of
have added laughter,
able
men were
Kant remarks " He could
the means of exciting it in reason-
hope and
life,
if
325
sleep,
:
only as easily attainable, and the requisite
wit or originality of
humour were not
some
so rare" (as
other endowments).^
When
the humorous bent
will stand
its
is
lively
and
way, amid the toilings and moilings of
"original,"
it
more than one
possessor in good stead in
life.
Seeing that
always in a measure a throwing aside of serious
laughter
is
pressure,
we
should expect
to
it
come
to our aid in the
work-
aday hours. But it is only when the eye for the sparkling
of fun in things has been instructed by humorous reflection
that the alleviating service of mind-play
is
fully realised.
For one thing, the possession of a large humorous insight
will greatly extend the scope of the conciliative function
of laughter.
All cajoling must be good-natured, or at least
conceal the sting of laughter; but the finer disarming of
men by
banter requires the reflective penetration of the
humorist.
One may
easily see this in the art of conciliating
opponents, political and other.
The winning
force of a
manifested good-nature will sometimes act on those
who
are far from appreciating the play of mind involved.
The
by an awkward situation,^ the tendencies
make for loss of interest, for weariness, for a falling
away from a perfect sympathetic touch, in all human re-
gSne introduced
that
lations
—these things find their most
in occasional intrusions of the
here of one no longer
among
us,
with
privilege of co-operating in a long
public business
•
;
and
of
how
all
effective counteractive
humorous
and
I once
difiicult
I think
had the
piece of
weariness was kept out of
Bernard's translation of The Kritik of Judgment,
Good illustrations will be found in the story
The Lake of Wine, chap. ii. and chap, xxxii.
2
spirit.
whom
of
p. 226.
Mr. Bernard Capes,
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
326
by laughing
sight
side-glances at threatening absurdities,
frequent enough to have suggested a premeditated plan had
they not been so delightfully spontaneous.
Perhaps, the stoutest obstacle to the smooth flow of social
intercourse
some
men
the tendency in
is
The superior
personal importance.
much
to be as
on their
to lay stress
airs,
which seem with
de rigueur as their correct attire, are
sadly inimical to companionship,
whether the would-be
companion be a man's wife or a contributor to his journal.
The one sure safeguard against the stupid clogging of
the social wheels, which this chronic stiffening
figure
alert
introduces,
eye would at once note a possible laughableness of
One may
deportment for onlookers.
humour
see this function of
illustrated in that instinctive readiness of
has had a perfect
social training to dismiss
conversation the
first
and
the
of
the gift of a lively humour, whose
is
one
who
laughingly from
appearance of an allusion to himself
his claims.
In
all this,
an end,
because
though there
it
is
may
utility is not
social
be no conscious aiming at
wholly wanting.
Yet just
an individual temper, humour confers
chief benefits on its possessor in the privacy of
solacings and its refreshings
channel of a
new and
genial
life.
its
Its
come to him through the
manner of reflecting on his
mishaps and his troubles.
Most men who have developed any appreciable fund of
humour must know how the petty annoyances of life can
be laughed away, almost as soon as they are seen advancing.
When,
for example, your lost pencil
in its hiding-place
sulted book
;
or,
discovered
on the other hand, after endowing
various sorts of mischievous
close
is
between the leaves of a rarely con-
by you on the
desk,
flight,
where
you perceive
it
it
it
with
lying
has been dutifully
LAUGHING AWAY ANNOYANCES
complying with
its
proper law of inertia
327
you may snatch
;
a compensating laugh from a moment's reflection on the
small ironies of things, or on the
vast wastefulness of
Your vexation
the world in the matter of hypotheses.
who
at the children
are at play in the road in front of
your bicycle and refuse to
you sympathetically
retire
way
third time, instantly gives
till
your
the point of view
shift
bell rings a
to an agreeable smile as
by
recalling
The
now and
the fact that they are on their proper playground.
dreary ugliness of a London street in winter will
again be
lit
up
sunshine for you
as with
focussed for the amusing, as
when
if
your eye
is
the driver of a slow van
goes on nodding in blissful ignorance, while the driver of
your 'bus behind, justly proud of
him
mercilessly with the most
It is
much
his vehicle's speed, pelts
awakening of
epithets.
the same with the small vexations inflicted by
our social world.
moment when,
We may
at a concert,
no doubt
we
hurt just for a
feel
see a big hat thrust itself
betwixt our eyes and a face which has held them captive,
wearing a look of the tragic muse as
over the violin from which
to
draw the sobbing
we may
it
it
leans yearningly
seems, like a mother's face,
Yet, even as the nerve smarts,
tones.
half-seize the glorious absurdity of the hat
bobbings.
Or, again,
bit of nice thinking
smile for a
when an untimely
and leaves the nerves
moment
as
we
and
interrupts
tingling,
its
some
we may
catch a glimpse of the simple
supreme importance of the cause
faith of the visitor in the
he pleads, a glimpse
call
sufficient to
like "subjectivity" in our
own
make
us half-aware of a
estimation of selected tasks.
Social bores are vexations which, perhaps, ought not to be
called petty.
Humorous
persons, one suspects, are specially
exposed to their attacks, since they are a tolerant
folk, pre-
ferring on the whole to suffer rather than to hurt others
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
328
But here,
also,
the humorous have their remedies.
It suffices,
moment on
the droll
pathos of the circumstance that persons, between
whom and
for example, to reflect for a short
ourselves
we
find
no attaching sympathies, should
Even when
for their importunate attentions.
whom we
throw us together with men and women from
from creatures of a species
instinctively recoil, as
closely akin to ours yet sundered
reflective
The aggressive
self-assertion of a plutocrat,
a
" sort
and the
of stare,
moment; but
rest,
devise alleviations.
is
any
buy-
for half
a quiet pleasure in looking back
discovering the clumsy construction of the vulgar
in
"
with his
may wound
a laughing solace comes on the heels of
worry; for there
and
at once
from us by impassable
humour may
boundaries, a
you-up
select us
the destinies
"
and
snub
;
case a playful half -glance at higher measures of
worth restores the equanimity.
Even
close
greater troubles may, to the trained humorist, dis-
amusing aspects or accompaniments, so that refreshment
reaches us even while the blow
smile
may come by way
still
hurts.
ourselves as pitted against our mighty
stance;
for it is possible to find
fate,
which gives the
The readers
of Miss
of
superior, circum-
The idea
zest of life to
hearts, helps, too, to bring the reflective
play-mood.
relieving
something amusing, as
well as irritating, in the ironies of destiny.
a struggle with
The
of a playful contemplation
mind back
of
brave
to the
Kingsley's Travels need
not to be reminded of the fecundity of amusing reflection
which her humour showed
have depressed
many
which would
was with a like readi-
in circumstances
a man.^
It
ness to smile that Goldsmith's genial spirit faced the blows
of destiny, giving back, as his biographer has
1
("
See for one
The Rapids
among many
of the
it,
in cheerful
instances Travels in West Africa, chap.
Ogowe").
ix.
ALLEVIATING SERVICE OP HUMOUR
humour
or whimsical warning
what
329
received in morti-
it
In his celebrated character, Mark Tapley,
fication or grief.
Dickens has no doubt illustrated
how
in the
rough waters
draw humorous entertainment
It is this playful shimmer of a
of his youth he learned to
from massive troubles.
light
thrown by an entertaining idea on the surface of a
misfortune which rids
it
of the worst of its gloom.
By a line of humorous reflection
may in all cases of worry and moral
consolatory idea that the trouble has, in the
it,
been grossly exaggerated.
sensitive tissue
to dimensions
;
is
the
first
view
moment when
of
the
lacerated the shock of pain blinds us
our disappointment
fills
the outlook, like a
The healthy nervous organism
thunder-storm.
its vitality
At
we
already suggested,
disturbance reach the
this is often effected
by a quick turning
show
and
will
in the rapidity of the recuperative process
;
of the thoughts to
other and brighter parts of the scene which the trouble has
for a
moment
blotted out,
A
to the other.
storm
—begins
discern
its
and
to the proportions of the one
—like the
all-enveloping thunder-
to retire almost smilingly as
soon as
we
boundaries.
In much of
which
trouble
this alleviating service of
liberates us
from the thraldom
a laugh at ourselves.
Indeed, one
of
may
humour the laugh
the momentary is
safely say that the
benefits here alluded to presuppose a habit of reflective
The blessed
self-quizzing.
ment
relief
comes from the discern-
of a preposterousness in the forcing of our claims,
of a folly in yielding to the currents of sentiment which
difi"use their
mists over the realm of reality.
The coming
of the smile announces a shifting of the point of
moment ago seemed
our world, showing itself now
view
;
the
mal-adjustment, which a
to be wholly
on the side of
to be
side as well.
on our
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
330
How
humour will help a man in throwing off troubles,
Even when the flash of bright reflection
far
one cannot say.
fails
the darkness,
dispel
to
moment
When
of respite.
it
may
the trouble has real magnitude,
the dismissive smile grows hard for
Few
valuable
secure a
all
save the
elect.
of us, perhaps, could rise to the height of serene irony
attained
by
a
German musician whose wife had eloped with
his master.^
Many might
woman who,
after
illness,
remarked that
had kept her from
be disposed to think that the
nursing her husband through a fatal
it
was only a sense
failing,
was
less
of
humour which
than human.
Yet
it is
highly risky to infer, from the fact of an intrusion of the
humorous temper
into
calamity, the existence of
degree of moral sensibility.
who
this
suffer
It
may
a
low
rather be that those
most are beholden in an exceptional degree to
kind solacer of men's woes.
This service of humour, at once consolatory to suffering
and corrective of one-sidedness of view, is perfected by a
development of that larger comprehensive vision which is
when the standpoint of egoism is transcended.
Even the beginning of humour implies some getting away
reached
from the point of view of the individual, so far as
a
momentary comprehension
to gain
of others' points of view.
great educative value of being laughed at
is
that
it
compels
attention to the fact of a multiplicity of such points.
good a
lesson,
one thinks,
it
The
How
must have been for the Scotch
professor to hear his disgusted caddie
remark
can teach Greek, but gowf needs a heid
".
:
"
Anybody
There remains for brief illustration another service which
humour renders
its possessor,
though in truth
it
may
turn
out to be only a further development of the one just dealt
'
The
story of
Hans von
these circumstances
is
Billow's almost
superhuman behaviour under
told in the National Observer of 17th Feb., 1894.
CONTEMPLATION OF SOCIAL SCENE
331
Laughter at things, being primarily an accompani-
with.
ment of observation, remains in its highest forms chiefly
an amusement at outside spectacles.
The resources of a
mature faculty of humour
may lend themselves to
an enjoyable contemplation of one's
The value
and as a whole.
parts
social world,
the end of
both in
humour
when
of
dual can, indeed, only be rightly measured
possibilities of
its
to the indivi-
entertainment which
the large
in criticising one's
lie
surroundings are borne in mind.
The enjoyment which a humorous observer
is
able to
gather from the contemplation of the social scene implies
that he
make
his
own
standpoint, that he avoid the
more
turbulent part of the social world and seek the quiet back-
waters where he can survey things in the calm light of
ideas.
One who
lives
wholly in the giddy throng will never
be able to see things in the perspective which humorous
Nor
appreciation requires.
he
this all; if
is
move and
live,
have his being in the commotion, he will be forced to re-
and to show the hurrying figures
press mirthful impulses
about him a certain respect, since any generous indulgence
would be
in the joys of laughter
unpleasant
That there
is
much
in the social
only to the eye of one half -retired
" society,"
of
him
into
which
falls
likely to bring
collisions.
is
spectacle
certain.
The vagaries
in the conventional sense of the term, are
one of the traditional matters of laughter
;
our comic
journals have enlightened even dull minds on this point.
It is pleasant to a
humorous contemplation
high pretensions of the "fine
instance,
and
1
all
it
assumes that
it
the good talkers in
See, for example,
a,
letter
world"
holds
its
from a
all
service
titled
to note the
how naively, for
the men of brains
;
;
^
pleasant, that
is
lady in The Times of the Ist
June, 1894, in which this claim of " society " to the services of " the pick
of blood and brains " is prettily assumed.
LAUGHTER OP THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
332
who
to say, to one
bears in
mind some
of the characteristics
of this world, such as a certain emptiness in the matter of
with something of the readiness of a certain
ideas, together
kind of dog to follow any self-appointed leader, and an
amiable impartiality in crowning any sort of
trumpeted, whether potentate
happens to be
East or
to note
"
showman from the West. It
how enclosed it remains within
is
"
that
from
the
hero
entertaining, too,
purely arbitrary
its
standards, being rather shocked, for example, to find
when
travels that there can be such a thing as " society " in
it
Italy which
not a
is
"
dining society
This,
".
and much
more, will often draw the eye of humour, oddly enough,
in the same direction as that of an awe-struck flunkeyism.
It
is
an agreeable pastime,
too,
for our half-retired
observer to watch the fierce struggles of
men and women
in these days to gain a footing within the
charmed
circle.
Here, surely, the gyrations of the moral figure reach the
height of absurdity.
Nowhere
does there seem to reflec-
tion to be quite such a disproportion
its
between
efibrt
and
doubtful reward as in these labours of the hot and
panting to win a footing on the fashionable terrain.
What makes
the scene the more pathetically droll
that success never seems to satisfy
in
is
men
their
is
the necessity of getting
followed by a no less dire necessity of keeping one-
self visible in
of
;
the tightly-packed crowd.
The
sensitiveness
of high position to the least sign of neglect in
goddess
is
something that cannot
fail
to tickle a
It is said that high officials once
humorous fancy.
passed unhappy days and nights waiting for an invitaThe occasion was a national festival, when
tion to dinner.
some inventive dames, taking themselves apparently quite
seriously as representative
women
each to invite a representative male.
of the age, proceeded
So do the gods give
VAGARIES OF SOCIETY
333
us harvest of laughter by sowing vanity with
minds
spitefulneasea in the
men, and setting
of
its
"
small
society
"
them to her thraldom.
To the dispassionate eye of reason, no " society " which is
founded on birth or on a mixed basis of birth and wealth
has seemed quite worthy of this servile attitude. Certainly
to lure
when, as the Berlin Hofschneider
in these days,
have observed to Prince Bismarck at the Opera
is
mixed
rather
(ein bischen gemischt), rational
is
said to
Ball, society
men might
be expected to leave this kiad of homage to the weak-
No
minded.
doubt
men
been ready to admit this
when they
set
down
mind caught
of
;
yet
it
may be
in the snare have
questioned whether,
their endurance of the
boredom of the
diner-out to the social ambition of their wives, they evade
the laughter of the gods.
Pity
may
visits these
it
find a place at the side of laughter
has been
said,
show
when
peep behind the masks
she
will,
here, too, the thinnest pretence of
Dull with something of the dulness of death are
gaiety.
many
A
absurd scenes.
of the older faces, even
when they
force themselves to
produce grimaces and spasmodic cacklings, thin and anaemic
like themselves.
It looks as if it
and not
which these
pleasure,
are seeking
ment
itself
;
only to
has grown
find,
were a dram of excitement,
loyal worshippers of society
perhaps, that the hope of excite-
illusory.
Yet, in speaking of the entertaining aspects of the social
spectacle,
scene.
"
monopoly
one need not confine oneself to the fashionable
in the matter of the incongruities.
of the Great Middle Class
and even
of the Masses
their amusing aspects for the unprejudiced eye.
of social
who
is, has no
The doings
Society," charmingly irrational as she
life,
indeed,
may
have
All phases
yield rich entertainment to one
has the mental vision justly accommodated.
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
334
What
first
human
play of
vralue of
folly,
less violent
for its coveted
column seems hardly
is
show
to
Many and wonderful are
which
known
the
if
movements and sounds
children, feeling themselves overlooked,
to resort in order to compel notice
efforts of
Appar-
win the
only for an in-
yourself, to
pestered and rather jaded eye of a crowd,
to
fully alive to the
than that for the fashionable gathering.
the supreme necessity
stant.
-the fine dis-
perverted ingenuity, and uncontrollable
The struggle
vanity.
ently,
The newspaper,
oddities.
is
things new, gives welcome to the self-revelations
human
of
strikes the eye here, perhaps,
men and women
have been
yet the frantic
:
to advertise themselves to the
public eye are, surely, not less numerous or less strange.
Even when they have
tisers will
sometimes
still
you an autobiography,
account of
all
the social scene these self-adver-
left
try to seize your eye
consisting largely,
the dinner parties attended
for the historian, perhaps,
if
it
by sending
may
be, of
an
—a priceless thing
only the writer had happened to
be a politician.
The vanity
in this self-advertisement does not always lie
on
the surface, a partial self -blinding being of the
of
it.
A
person
may
humour
be pushed on to the advocacy of a
bottomless craze by a belief in a special mission so earnest,
as completely to hide
from him the
which lurks in the attitude
;
quiet onlooker, of this malicious
from men so large a part
the corners of the
The absurdity
inflated self -estimation
and the recognition, by the
way of Nature's, in hiding
own motives, draws back
of their
mouth yet
farther.
of this forcing of oneself on the notice of
the public, like that of pushing one's
grows
clearer
when we
object of pursuit.
opinion.
Yet
reflect
way
on the
It is the fashion just
into "society,"
real value of the
now
spite of the classical dictum,
to deify public
it is
not always
SELF-ADVERTISEMENT AS SHOW
A
the deity to identify the two voices.
to
flattering
335
modern democratic
the same plasticity
society
to the
much
apt to exhibit very
is
hand
of the crafty
moulder as
that on which the wise Greek sprinkled his dainty irony.
To be able to
demos " forms "
see through the pretty pretence that the
opinions,
its
men, generals and other
is
to
and that
have one chief qualification
How
show.
when an
its
verdicts
on
states-
notabilities are consequently sacred,
for enjoying the fun of the
entertaining, for instance,
is
the proceeding
editor invites a census of opinion on books, or
other things which postulate some discernment.
humour of it
who are lured
case, too, the
lies in
In this
the circumstance that the
good people
into the trap honestly think that
they are giving their own individual judgments. Still more
•delightful
with
do these performances become when an
his sense of the value of
celebrities,
and entertains
names
us, say,
editor,
fully awake, applies to
with a church dignitary's
conception of the ideal Music Hall, or with a popular jockey's
views on the proper dimensions of a
scientific
manual.
These exhibitions of authority for the. guidance of the
public sufficiently testify to
demos, assisted by
open
its
its
dociUty before any kind
The very bigness
of proffered leadership.
of the
modern
"holy simplicity" of mind, lays
to the wiles of the charlatan.
How
it
can one expect
the worthy tradesman reading in the solitude of his back
parlour to gauge the authority of his newspaper guide
is
more than he can
Sunday
instructor.
to entertain
him
in
do, perhaps, to take the
?
It
measure of his
He who reflects thus will find much
the way of make-believe, when he
examines the foundations of imposing reputations, or of
the proud boast of political leaders that they carry
"
the
Country'' with them.
The newspaper, highly
respectable institution as
it
un-
LAUGHTER OP THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
336
doubtedly
ment
news
is,
entertains those in search of
in other
ways
Its
too.
very standpoint as issuer of
amusing exaggeration
leads to an
anything which happens to thrust
of
An
moment.
aye and a fallacy
idea,
will secure attention if only
to bring
we
see
it
on
its
somebody with a name happen
the neomania which
Yet more exhilarating
rest.
to
humorous
the naive assumption of the newspaper and
everything happens in order to furnish
clients that
them with news.
I
seriously contending,
remember a paper, not
when
case, a
new
trial
of a
low
class,
a disagreeable cause cdebre had
to be re- tried, that, since everybody had
on the
head up at the
too, old as the ages,^
hands, the absurd exaltation of the latest
all
is
of the importance
its
Whence comes
up anew.
novel and the
inspection
humorous enjoy-
was most
made up his mind
The frank
regrettable.
suggestion that the proceedings of our law courts have their
final cause in the
satisfaction of a craving
for
news
readers of journals was, doubtless, an editorial slip;
the assumption
The point
of
often discoverable to a penetrating eye.
view reminds one of the joyous
Italian children
its
is
in
yet
antics of the
who follow the cavalcade of the diligence and
"supplements" as
it
descends southwards to the level
of the olive-groves, sure in their glee that the rattling procession,
and the "soldi"
too,
have come for their
delight.
In view of the entertainment afforded by the press in these
days, one
"
may
comic journal
Humour
will
sometimes wonder whether the expression
" is
not growing into a pleonasm.
keep at our elbow,
too, if
we push
deeper,
and, lifting the wrappings of convention, insist on seeing the
realities.
The involutions
of public utterance
when, say, a
dubious appointment has to be defended, are in themselves
no
less
entertaining
an
exhibition of naivete disclosed
through elaborate wrappings than the romancings of a
THE SOCIAL SPECTACLE OF TO-DAY
naughty child beating about
spectacle, perhaps, is
more
No
an excuse.
for
337
kind of
uplifting to a spirit given to
the right sort of reflection, none too which has a larger
promise of unwearying variation, than the wrigglings of
the
human mind when
tangled in
awkward
and forced to find something which looks
appearances,
way
like a
of
logical escape.
As
all
who read are aware, the vagaries of "society" and the
no new spectacle. Other times
drolleries of public life are
and patterns of society have had their entertaining aspects
fixed for us
much
by the
half-retired chronicler.
Yet there
is
to suggest that the social scene of to-day bears the
palm, as illustrator of the volume and the many-sidedness
The bigness
of the laughable.
instability
and other
and
"
go-aheadness,"
of our social scheme, its
its
—these
reckless activity
by the eagerness of people to gain
doings and a corresponding readiness of
features, aided
publicity for their
journals to accord
it,
appear to secure for the quiet onlooker
to-day the enjoyment of an exuberant crop of personal
oddities, pushful pretences, disparities
qualification,
between position and
and the other amusing features
of the social
scene.
Much
on
of the drollery of the social spectacle here touched
may be
enjoyed with a certain detachment, and even with
a soupgon of the malice which characterises the laughter of
those outside the social group, within which the merry show-
man
is
erecting his stage.
The kindlier note
of
humour
enters here only as a subordinate element, as a good-natured
toleration of folly, supported
comprehension of
sadly perverted.
it
It
by a more
or less distinct
under the head of worthy qualities
must be otherwise
if
the bizarre and
provocative spectacle of folly's head obtrudes
itself into a
season of national storm and stress, say of war-commotion,
22
LAUGHTER OP THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
338
things cannot, unless he be an unsocial
when the observer of
any longer consent
cynic,
bility of a laugh, or
The very
to be detached.
possi-
even of a smile, might seem to be
excluded as a desecration.
If
it is
only be
possible, it can
through the discovery of a modus vivendi between the mirth-
and some of the deepest and most absorbing of
ful impulse
Our
our feelings and impulses.
analysis of
humour has
prepared us for a considerable penetration of the mellowed
kind of mirth into the heart of the serious, for a
fine
and
rapid detection by the practised eye of amusing aspects of
and experiences which appeal directly and power-
situations
fully to the acuter feelings
and
to the sterner attitudes.
may, perhaps, find the crowning
We
illustration of this inter-
penetration of the serious and the playful in the possibility
of a
humorous glance
depths of every
The
much
at things
truth, that a state of
that
is
which must
stir
the heart-
true citizen.
war
good and admirable,
ciently recognised
will develop in citizens
has, perhaps,
been
suffi-
while, on the other hand, its ravages
;
and its sufierings have been a frequent theme of the eloquent
Less attention has, for pretty obvious reasons,
lip and pen.
been paid to those aspects and accompaniments of the state
which seem
to some,
when regarded from
the point of view
of the normal type of consciousness, to illustrate
folly in one of its
which,
when
seen
if
larger manifestations.
human
These aspects
only for an instant by the qualified
may be said to grow in distinctness
community rises in the scale of civilisation. Since,
moreover, the humorous person has trained himself in the
swift detection of the accompaniments and the relations of
the objects which he inspects, and has a habit of looking at
observer,
must
entertain,
as a
the neglected sides of things,
be found
now and
again
it
may
among
be expected that he will
those
who
in the troubled
THE WAR-TEMPER AS SPECTACLE
preserve something
atmosphere
of
339
the faculty of clear
observation.
The fundamental
observer
is
humorous
factor in the situation for a
the temporary hypertrophy of the most powerful
of man's instincts, having its roots deeply seated in the
primal impulse of self-conservation, appearing in the organic
milieu of a higher type of social consciousness with its fixed
habits of estimating
hypertrophy gives
and judging things.
rise to a
The
state of
group of extravagances which
have something of the dimensions of a burlesque.
many
exaggerated forms of hatred, with
denunciations and
vilifications,
and of a correlative
credulity,
its
brood of suspicions
the swollen dimensions of
incredulity, with regard to
things which touch the patriotic passion
more
is
—
and much
this
probably an inseparable accompaniment of the
national psychosis, certainly so
is
The
expansions of the boastful, self-sufficing temper, the
challenged,
if
the dignity of
"
our cause
"
whether from within or from without.
In these larger manifestations of the war-temper such
organic milieu as the surviving normal consciousness can
supply takes but a small
part.
What movements
gence are observable are pretty plainly of an
of intelli-
intelligence
subjugated by the dominant passion, and made to work for
it
by foraging
far
and wide for
food-stufFs to satisfy its
appetite for provocatives and solaces.
Yet this
is
but a small part of the humorous aspect of the
between the new temper and
and judging nursed into vigour and
endurance by a long course of civilisation which introduces
the really amusing feature. For the quaint thing is that
drowsy intelligence will now and again try to sit up and
situation.
It is the collision
the habit of feeling
give a nudge to
its
rather noisy bed-fellow.
position and interaction
of
two tendencies
It is the juxta-
of widely
removed
340
LAUGHTER OP THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
moral
levels,
and quite disproportionate in their strength
In this
which supplies the rich variety of the entertaining.
way, for example, we obtain the droll spectacle of an overconfident advocate of the cause suddenly brought to silence
by
a foggy suspicion that his hearer
not responsive
is
enough, a suspicion which instantly brings to light the
residuum of the normal man's desire 'for others' support.
Or
—
enemy older
runs away with
again, the powerful impulse to belittle the
than the age of Goliath
him
a patriot, carry
—may,
when
to the point
it
from which he dimly
discerns the edge of a dialectic precipice, the fatal concession
that victory
of the
is
enemy
robbed of
—
all its glory.
Or the fancy
preferred to a study from
—may bring
so dear to the war-temper
quandary that he
its
life
portrait
because
it is
possessor into the
finds himself quite incapable of carrying
out the necessary business of understanding that enemy's
aims and methods.
A
slight examination will
illustrate
most
show that the
previous chapter.
the look of a
vainly seek to
when
wUl
big "mess," from which the participators
extricate
themselves.
emotional and conative attitude
as
spectacle
forms of the laughable recognised in a
The whole situation may tend to assume
of the
is
The high-strung
certain to lead to futilities,
confident predictions strike against the hard sub-
stance of fact.
contradictions,
The
situation will, further, be prolific of
including, not
only the fundamental one
already dealt with, but the discrepancies of statement which
arise as the ratio of the intensities of the
normal and the
abnormal varies within the limits indicated above.
That the psychological situation will give rise to a large
display of
pretence,
has been already suggested.
The
survival of a partially stupefied intelligence in the bellicose
patriot will, indeed, be chiefly manifested in the
somewhat
FOLLIES OF THE WAR-ATTITUDE
341
onerous task of covering the unsightly faces of things with
bespangled ones
veils,
and the methods
show themselves
of the war.
aims
in dignifiying the
if possible,
These
efforts will plainly
calm observation, for the most part,
to
at least, not as conscious hypocrisies, but as self-deceptions
following from the interaction of the two selves so strangely
forced to consort.
It is hardly needful to say thatdisorder, topsy-turvyness,
confusions of_rdZer_and,- generally-j
form an
relations,
inversions of
_es^ential. feature of the
men
world so altered from the normal pattern that
to a golden silence take to a speech
that " leaders
"
assume the
onwards by unruly
flocks
inconsistency appears to
virtues
;
orderly.
is
hardly silver
;
that a certain kind of moral
have won
its
place
among
and that those versed in the divine have
fail to
A
given
droll aspect of shepherds forced
the inverted part of justifying the
cannot
which
normal
spectacle.
ways
to
men
of
the
assume
to God,
look disordered to a calm eye trained by the
There would seem to be no room in such a scene,
where men are wont
to divest themselves of their individual
characteristics, for a display of personal oddity.
observation will
dencies which
show
make
that, in spite of the
Yet a
closer
powerful ten-
for uniformity of behaviour, shreds
The prevailing temper seizes on
men, as a fever seizes on them, according to their individual
of individuality survive.
constitutions
;
and one may watch the process of assimilation
of parties, sects,
much
as a
and individuals
to the type of the hour,
shrewd physician might watch the quaint modifi-
cations of a
malady
in a case of strongly
marked family
or
individual peculiarities.
It
was
said above that the possibility of this
humorous
observation implied the discovery of a modus vivendi with
the serious and more sensitive part of us.
This means that
342
LAUGHTER OF THE INDIVIDUAL: HUMOUR
the observation can be no quiet, prolonged pastime, but must
rather resemble the
side of things,
momentary
amusing
intuitions of the
which help us when we battle with
worries and encounter
its
tion of the laughable as
greater troubles.
is
life's
Such apprecia-
possible in the case
is
rightly
humorous when it accompanies a complex serious
attitude which, on the one hand, discerns both the hurtcalled
fulness
and the
pitifulness of
and on the
smile,
other,
the folly that brings the
makes an
effort to
which repels and to descry estimable
under
The smile
it.
will bring a
strain, as in other cases
The humorist
hold fast to that
qualities hidden
momentary
away
relaxation of
where mental and moral tension
is
upon him because
reflection enables him, in a sense, to comprehend, by recalling, for example, what Plato, Montaigne and others tell us
high.
will suffer it to steal
happen when men are captured by a
more inclined to be tolerant, if history
comes to his aid, as the history of a patient may come to
that of an anxious physician, assuring him of recovery and
as to
what
crowd.
is
He
likely to
will be
resumption of normal functions
civic
division, lacerating
brought him near
to the
;
still
social
more,
part
men and women whose
to sweeten the ferment of the hour,
if
a time of
of him, has
gentleness seems
and whose
henceforth appear to him in comforting vision
faces
—
wiU
earth's
angel faces whose smile comes not with the brightening
mom
but with the deepening blackness of night.
343
CHAPTER
XI.
THE LAUGHABLE IN ART: COMEDY.
We
have traced the development of laughter in the
dividual and in the
community with
It has been
as possible to the influence of Art.
that the feelings which
move
in-
as little reference
assumed
and
us to laughter are primal,
capable of expanding and deepening independently of this
At the same time,
influence.
it is
We
human development.
of
life
the figure of the
"
certain that the educative
work from
lead of the artist has been at
a very early stage
have found even in savage
funny man," the expert in lifting
by means of jest and
the sluice gates of social laughter
pantomime.
Within the
historical period, the practice of
engaging jesters for banquets, and
social
entertainments
generally, appears to go back to remote times
The
simple social conditions.^
exercise of men's gift of laughter
must have been a potent
may now
comic
by
factor in
and very
and more methodical
finer
these skilled choragi
its
We
development.
glance at the evolution of art on
its
amusing and
side.
This
is
no occasion for probing to
its
dark bottom the
1 On the employment of buffoons and dwarfs in the palace of the Egyptian
king see Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation, pp. 278, 279, On the Greek and
Boman jesters {yeXioroirowl, iipeTa\6yot, mimi, sourrse) see P. Gardner, Greek
Antiquities, p. 335; [c/. Doran, Court Fools]. On the mediaeval jester or
fool see Wright, op.
cit.,
chap.
vii.
;
Laoroix, Middle Ages,
Jusserand, English Wayfaring Life, p. 187.
p.
233
ff.
;
and
THE LAUGHABLE
344
COMEDY
IN ART:
problem of the function of
art.
If
we keep
to the be-
ginnings of the art of ministering to men's laughter, as
we may study them among
savages and our
own
children,
the theories which look to art for the expression of an
even of an emotion seeking for resonance, seem
idea, or
to have but
It looks as if the
relevance.
little
of that simple social act
which
a play- challenge, as illustrated in the
game
art
grew out
of reciprocal
Hence, the play-theory of art serves particularly
tickling.
The quality
well for our present purpose.
productivity which
to
amusing
have called
I
have grown
an
is
distinct, as
of beneficent
may
essential of art
be supposed
soon as an individual of superior
cunning in playing on the mirthful organ found himself
with an audience.
vis-d-vis
No
impulse of an art-
social
like character strikes out its visible
and audible
effect
more
and more impressively than the desire to
directly
raise
a laugh.
Taking
we
this view,
see that the art
which moves us
to mirth illustrates the conative process in art-production.
To amuse men,
to raise their spirits to the treble pitch of
gaiety, pre-supposes the desire
to please.
In
all
simple
art-performance, this essentially social motive works consciously
"
and directly
:
the partly unconscious art of the
fool " being here, of course, overlooked.
the will to
move men merrily
in normal cases,
it
may
is,
In higher forms,
I believe,
and controls the whole
always present
art-process,
though
not be consciously realised at every moment.
In
the case of the comic actor, at any rate, a volitional control
of his
own
necessity.
aspect
to
feeling
This
and
is
expression seems to be a prime
sufficiently illustrated
commonly assumed by the popular
add to the mirthful
It
its
in
the solemn
jester, in order
effect of his utterance.
would be an interesting inquiry,
if
our limits allowed
SCOPE OF LAUGHTER
of
it,
for
to
examine the means which
moving us
IN
art, as
ART
345
a whole, possesses
This would open up the curious
to laughter.
question of the symbolism of colours and tones, and of their
combinations, as expressive of
mirthful
and of
feeling
jocose intention.
That laughter has for
its
men and
proper excitant
their
doings, at once suggests that only those arts which represent
human
field
ideas
and actions on a large
for the
exhibition
apart from sculpture,
as the expressive art
Architecture,
heavily handicapped here.
is
excellence,
'pa/r
narrowly limited range of
rhythms,
characteristic
have a considerable
scale
the ludicrous.
of
as
effect,
such
may
be seen in the
combinations
as
Music,
has a certain though
of
light
staccato with deep-pitched notes, incompleted phrases and
so forth, which
tickling effect
Some
do duty in comic opera.
due, not to
certainly
is
of this
an expression of
jocose feeling, but to the bizarre aspect of the combination
And
of sounds.
amusing
are
the same
effects of
common
probably true of the slightly
is
such grotesque combinations of colour as
in the
costume of the harlequin, of the prince
of mockers, and of other
more or
less
comic
figures.
The
grotesque and amusing in dress, that of the clown for
example,
is
manifestly based on
its
suggestions, especially
wrong sex, wrong age and the like.
Passing by the comic directions of pictorial art, including
the highly developed process of modern political and other
those of
caricature, the great rdle in stimulating men's laughing susceptibilities falls to literature,
literature
and
the procession of
human
variegated amplitude.
fain laugh our
and pre-eminently to dramatic
its interpreter,
fill
the stage.
follies
Here, only, can
display something of its
Hither must
we
come,
if
we would
and know what resources art possesses
for playing on the whole
gamut
of our "risibility".
THE LAUGHABLE
346
would be well
It
literature.
may
It
if
COMEDY
IN ART:
we knew
the beginnings of jocose
be that the jest-books preserve for us
forms resembling those which these beginnings have taken.
A
short descriptive story of
smart bit of repartee,
some
practical joke, or of
may have grown
some
naturally enough
out of the evening fire-side talk and become fixed and
handed down
new
to
may
(fabliaux)
and fragments
stories
The Mediaeval
generations.
of talk.
This short anecdotal story
would allow a certain scope for mimicry and
A
elocution.
its rise in
its facetious dialogue,
by an acknowleast, would enforce
The bits of dialogue, at
amount of mimicry of tones and
The beginnings
of
The humble
Greek comedy was the village revel
harvest
home
was no
actor,
—of
gestures.
comedy, so far as we can get back to
them, bear out these conjectures.
of
its;
would naturally
the rehearsal of such a story
ledged expert.
a certain
a crude art of
rudimentary form of comic acting, with
mimic gestures and
take
Contes-
be viewed as a slight expansion of such
the vintagers.
only a leader
rilous
impromptus".^
farce
began with mocking
"who
At
—a
first,
we
merry
read, there
let off coarse
Or, as another writer has
songs and
birthplace,
sort of
ironical
and scurit,
Greek
speeches
during processions, the Greeks being quick to mimic and ta
improvise.^
The dawn
process.
It
of our
was
own comedy shows
a
somewhat similar
in an atmosphere of mirth that the child,
half-seriously quizzing things in order to laugh the more,^
was born. This may be seen by a reference to the mirthful
and their riotings which were a feature of mediaeval
English life. The " feast of fools " was the great occasion
societies
for satirical songs, and, later on, for
^
dramas in which tha
P. Gardner, Greek Antiquities, p. 666.
^Bergk, Oriech, Literaturgeseh.,
iv.,
pp.
9, 10.
ORIGIN OF COMEDY
more
clergy were
shall
see,
there
especially taken
existed
in
the
No
off.
old
347
doubt, as
we
and
miracle-plays
moralities a simple dramatic form capable of being trans-
formed into comedy.
possible
by
Yet
this transformation
was made
some
the spirit of mirth and revelry, which had
time before rudely broken into the solemnity of the miracleplay.i
The
full
of the
rise
comic drama has had
social
its
Mr. Meredith has pointed to some of them,
conditions.
particularly the existence of
the recognition of
woman's
an
intelligent middle class,
status
that of her conversational wit.^
;
to
and
which one may add,
To these
social conditions
might be added a national mood of gaiety, coming from
some new sense of lightened shoulders and a freer breathing.
The value
comedy as chief ministress to our laughter
be seen by a mere glance at its many resources. It
seems able to present to the eye and ear all varieties of the
amusing.
As a show, it carries on the fun of children's
of
may
make-believe play.
It can set before us the
most grotesque
aberrations of dress, carriage and manners.
figures,
again,
choosing the
character.
presents to us
it
full variety of
Lastly,
it
in
In
forms
its
of
human
own
its
laughable traits of mind and of
can exhibit in
its
plots the
"^
1
l
\
j
whole
j
gamut
men
of teasing
in real
We may
and
practical joke
which amuses ordinary
life.
defer illustration of the comic treatment
laughable traits of character, and look for a
moment
of
at the
ways
in which the incidents of comedy carry on the movements of primitive fun.
A
'
glance will
See Wright, op.
tell
cit.,
us that these incidents are woven out
chaps,
xii.
and
xiv.
Essay on Comedy, pp. 24-5 (on Molifere's audience); pp.
following (on the recognition of woman).
^
8,
47
and
THE LAUGHABLE
348
of the play
and the
IN
ART
COMEDY
:
merry youth.
practical jokes of
The
boisterous fun of the spectacle of a good beating, for which
the lower savages have a quick sense, and which
dish at the circus,
in the popular
is
is
a standing
a frequent incident in comedy, both
and boisterous variety of Aristophanes and
and more intellectual one of
Plautus, and in the quieter
Moli^re.^
Another variety of amusing incident drawn from childplay and the popular fun of the circus
is
words, gestures or other movements.
These repetitions
grow
particularly
a repetition of
funny when they take the form of
an alternate going and coming, or of ending and recommencing a discourse. Amusing already in their semblance
grow more
purposeless play, they sometimes
of
assuming a look of
irrepressibility, as
Pancrace in Le Mariage force
is
when the
droll
by
philosopher
again and again pushed
behind the coulisse and returns to renew his discourse.
It
has been pointed out that such movements have something
known
of the amusing character of the toy
the-box.
Another
tions,
also
manner
as Jack-in-
^
class of repetitions,
which we
may
call imita-
frequent on the comic stage, seems in
Hke
to reproduce easily recognisable features of child's
Nothing is more
young animals and in
the play-mood
play.
characteristic of
in
children alike than an imitative
•
A
Examples
will be
found in Le Midecin malgri
lui,
L'Avare and others.
delightful introduction of the all-round beating of the circus is that of
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.
M. Bergson, who gives a delightful account
bhe Professors in
^
to the eflect of comedy, seeks to connect
of these
mechanical aids
them with his theory that the
the monotony of the machine
laughable consists in the substitution of
for the variety of the organism {op. cit., p. 72 ff.).
I suspect, however,
that they owe much of the spell they cast over our laughing muscles
to suggestions of child's play.
COMEDY AND CHILD'S FUN
The
propagation of movement.
child's
The
an excellent example.
faces is
for these imitations
shows how closely
with primitive fun.
imitated
This
plain
is
of
making
it
o,
remains in touch
enough when the action
see in the rebuffs and
The repeated beatings of
counter-rebuffs of the circus.
the wife-beater in Le
game
liking of the stage
we may
disorderly, as
is
349
MMecin malgre
lui
have something
of this diverting effect.
The amusing repetitions wrought into the mechanism
of comedy are, as Moli^re may tell us, commonly far less
aggressive.
The reproduction of the series of exclamations of Cldonte on the perfidy of his mistress by his
Bov/rgeois
gentilhomme, and the
valet, Covielle, in Le
counterpart to
this,
the slightly varied repetitions of the
reproaches of Cleonte's mistress by her maid, are quite
delightfully suggestive of a plot on the part of
reduce his victims to one level of imbecility.
Comedy, both ancient and modern,
dupery.
A
whole play
may
is full
Love to
^
of trickery
and
^
be one big piece of fooling,
ending for the most part in a merry scene in which the
deluded victim or victims come to their senses again.
spectator,
who
is
The
in the secret, enjoys sympathetically the
laughter of the plot-maker.
One
of the simplest
outgrowth from
figures of
and
comedy towards
not gifted with
when
whom
it
our laughter
make
is
The
guided are
and a small amount of
meets and
complete deception.
of Shakespeare
comic devices, another
seems to be a disguise.
the finest of visions,
disguise, especially
suffices for
earliest
child's play,
flatters their desires,
Classic
comedy and that
large use of such trickery.
1 Compare the breezy fun of the scene in Le
Twrtuffe, where the
maid, Dorine, has to tackle in turn each of a pair of lovers urging the
same grievances in almost the same vyords (Act II., So. iv.).
L|-^
THE I.AUGHABLE
350
COMEDY
IN ART:
But a strange dress and other means of disguise are by
no means always necessary for the befooling. When the
credulous mood is on, the victim, whether fish or man, will
rise to the crudest of artificial imitations,
on
its
when they
victims
and comedy fastens
are in this mood, as in the case
M. Jourdain and the rest.
Sometimes the comedian prepares for the needed deception
of Malvolio,
by throwing
its
victim into a
fit
of absent-mindedness.
A
good example may be found in the scene between Arnolphe
and the notary in
Moliere's L'J^cole des Femmes,
tongues of the two
gether, while the
state of perfect
make
where the
a pretence of running on to-
two brain& that move them remain
mutual misunderstanding.
in a
It is another
kind of amusing self-deception when the comic
figure,
again showing his descent from the clown, undertakes to
do something, and instantly displays a complete inability
to carry out his undertaking.
This
is
illustrated in a less
obvious manner in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme by the be-
haviour of Cl^onte, who, after quarrelling with his mistress,
and begging
sustain his resolve to
love,
hand " to his spite and to
bear down any remains of his foolish
his valet to " lend a
instantly
afterwards protests against the obedient
servant's depreciations of the lady.
C,
The comic person must be mercilessly attacked now
and again,
if
the spectator
is
to get his
Moliere again gives us the illustration.
fill
of merriment.
The scene
in
which
the miser's son, Cl^ante, playfully holds the father as in
a vice, as he takes oS" the ring from the old gentleman's
finger
and
offers it as if in his behalf to the
lady they both
desire to wed, has the full flavour of the retaliative joke.
The laugh which
is
"malicieux" though not "amer"
comes in a large wave when the deception
of traces which have
become
galling.
is
a kicking over
The tricking
of the
SOME DEVICES OF COMEDY
351
by Terence
severe guardian, parental or other, illustrated
in
the Adelphi, and by Moli^re in L'Ecole des Femmes, L'^cole
des Maris
and other works, yields a lusty
A
gratification as a
an oppressor.
practical joke directed against
good deal of the fun of comedy
may
easily be seen to
flow from a bizarre placing of a person, especially the set-
ting of him in a situation where he has to do what he
not accustomed to
much
so
Tip,
do.
the better.
is
appearances have to be kept
If false
The
by which the sham
tricks
doctor Sganarelle tries to play up to his part in Le Mddecin
mif,gri
may
Im are
of the broadly comic.
A
diverting situation
lovers who have
and are in the most doleful of moods have to
The subjection of the arch -hypocrite TartufFe to the
be obtained in other ways, as
when
fallen out
meet.
watchful eye of Orgon's son
As already
social laughter
chapter.
hinted,
pregnant of comic
reflects those
which have been dealt with
The works
one who seeks
is
comedy
effect.
movements of
in a previous
of Aristophanes are a storehouse for
illustrations of the popular attitude
the new, when this
The comic stage is
towards
lends itself to a buflbonish inflation.
conservative in the sense that
it
is
ready to ridicule whatever wears the look of a bizarre
novelty.
The importation
of foreign dress
and manners has
been a well-recognised source of merriment in modern plays.
With grotesque innovations may be
set the affectations
of superior manners, fashions of speech and the rest, for
which the laughter-loving public has had a quick
eye.
The
exposure of an excessive fondness for using fine expressions,
especially foreign ones, has always, one suspects,
exhilarating effect on an educated audience.
of Moli^re's
of
"
dames
lives as the great
The
had an
preciosity
example of a culte
the fine shades," carried to the point of the irresistibly
droll.
^
THE LAUGHABLE
352
COMEDY
IN ART:
The well-recognised social antagonisms, again, lend to
comedy all their store of the amusing. The droll side of the
bloodless feud between man and woman comes into view
development of the
in all stages of the
vary in
course,
its
mode of presentment with the
conditions of the time
the status of woman.
it
represents,
and more especially with
is
a constant source of incidental
and a main motive of two plays. ^
by woman
in the
Greek assumption
ing frankness.
social
In the comedy of Aristophanes, the
mutual chaff of the sexes
effect
It will, of
art.
dialogue
is
Yet the part taken
of her inferiority meets us with a
The notion
The
exceedingly small. ^
charm-
of her rising to a higher place
handled with a buffoonish extravagance which
must have delighted conservative husbands.
When the
poet wishes to show up the folly of the Athenian war-party
in civic life is
he invents a revolt of the dames,
who by
certain effective
measures, connubial and other, manage to the lasting shame
The triumph
of their betters to bring about peace.
inferior here
the savage
reminds one of the hilarious victory
women in the art of
as a whole treated
abuse
^
;
rowing.
women, including
of the
won by
The Greek comedy
hetaerae, with copious
woman now
yet in Latin comedy, at any rate, the
and again gets the better of the man. In the Asitiaria of
Plautus, an amorous old man, one of the favourite figures of
comedy,
is
finely chastised
by the wife who
surprises his
secret.
it
The interminable
contest of
man and woman
the rivalry of the
home and
the tavern
say to-day, the Club.
In Plautus,
'
Moultou, Ancient Glass. Drama, p. 344.
"
" In Aristophanes the very few
(Neil,
^
—
who
carries
or, as
we
with
should
goes for a large
maiden figures that appear are dumh "
The Knights of Aristophanes, Introduction, p. xiv.).
P. Gardner, Greek Antigmties, p. 353.
REFLECTION OF LAUGHTER OF GROUPS
licence in pleasure, the opposition is emphasised.
353
Terence,
by introducing a more becoming conception of feminine
nature and married life, prepared the way for a more equal
intercourse between man and woman.
It is, however,
only under the improved conditions of modern family and
social
has
that the verbal duel of the sexes in
life
grown keen and
comedy
brilliant.
Another and primitive
and young,
amply displays
its possibilities of fun on the comic stage.
In the newer
Attic comedy, we are told, representations of the old became
frequent, now as austere and avaricious, now as fond and
"
tender-hearted.^ The contrast of the severe " Governor
"
and the fond Papa," which we have seen illustrated in
or, in its special
relation, that of old
form, of father and child,
Terence and Molifere, clearly points to the fact that comedy,
merry youth, favours the
and seeks to relax the paternal leading strings.
as play designed expressly for
son's case,
Just as the too weighty rule of a father
laughingly pushed
master.
The
aside
by comedy,
so
is
is
apt to be
that of the
comedy is
down to the
intriguing, cheating valet of Latin
many
the ancestor of
a domestic swindler,
Mr. Morgan whose sudden disappearance was regretted by
Major Pendennis.
husband,
is
The outwitted master, Uke the outwitted
a comic figure that excites but
little
haps, because the getting the better of one in
his subordinate
is
pity
;
per-
power by
never wanting in the agreeable look of \
Other
a merry equalising of things.
"
humours
" of__social
groups, that of^trader^_moijfiy-lender;-aiid-th©iK-clien.ts, for/
example, are, as suggested in an earlier chapter,
reflected'
in comedy.
The same flavour
is
of fun, the
same kinship
to child's play/\
recognisable in the speech of the comic stage.
1
Mommsen,
History of Borne, vol.
23
iii.,
p. 144.
Word/
THE LAUGHABLE
354
play here
has
much
IN ART:
COMEDY
merely the lighter interlude in what as a whole
is
of the character of a game, the contest of rapier-
comic dialogue.
like tongues in
Men have
written weightily on the nature of wit and
and
relation to intellect in general
courses seem hardly to capture
by
the discussion
humour.
to
Their
its
dis-
Locke started
its finer spirit.
well-known distinction between wit
his
and judgment, the former consisting in a bringing together
of ideas with quickness and variety wherein can be found
any resemblance or congruity
and separating
in the main,
is
;
the latter in discriminating
Addison,
ideas. ^
bound
to
add
who
that,
accepts this definition
though wit
produced by resemblance and congruity of
often produced
by
is
generally
ideas, it is
very
Hazlitt follows Addi-
their opposition.^
son in including likeness and opposition.
Wit, according
to him, "is an arbitrary juxtaposition of dissonant ideas,
for
some
lively purpose of assimilation or contrast, gener-
ally of both."
^
All this, though
it
hints at a distinctive
manner
of intellectual activity, misses the
itself in
the
main with the question
mark by busying
of a particular
kind of
relation of ideas.
The rather solemn treatment
writers
is characteristic.
the head of false wit,
of puns
by
these serious
Addison deals with them under
and bravely attacks the ages for
For thus spurning the humble
upholding the practice.*
by the god of laughter- to the
mode of intellectual play.
the word suggests, wit is not so
pun, he was rendered blind
real nature of wit, as essentially a
As the etymology
much
of
a special faculty concerned with a particular class of
relations,
an attitude or manner of behaviour of the
as
,
Bk.
II.,
ohap.
*
Spectator, No. 6.
2
xi.
'English Comic Writers, Leot.
I.,
"
Spectator, No. 62.
Wit and Humour",
ANALYSIS OF WIT
a whole.
intelligence as
and
and
agile gait,
is
355
her most lively
by readiness of mind,
illustrates
It
characterised
quickness of perception, ingenuity in following out hints
unexpected contrasts,
of quite
reasons,
tending to sportiveness,
own
similarities,
sake,
the whole
it
and revels in sudden
game
of verbal hide
especially developed
transitions, doublings,
and
seek.^
is
a talent
by a proper
and entertaining variety,
and
which has been
exercise of one of the chief
functions of the .social animal, conversation.
talk,
This has
which when
the perfection of an art becomes a kind of game.
is
As
idea.
loves an intellectual chase for its
According to this view, wit
light
aims, causes,
and the other apparent belongings of an
its
it
reaches
A
subject
tossed out like a ball and each side then tries to strike
in turn
and
so
keep the game going.
purpose
may
subject,
but the main interest
Something
it
of serious
be behind, as a half wish to illumine the
lies in
the
game
itself,
in
the exhilarating pleasure of crossing the intellectual foils
with a worthy opponent.
commonly carried on by persons
who are not merely fellow-players. As we have seen, witty
dialogue flourishes when some force of repulsion as well as of
Yet, though a game, talk
attraction
is
is
involved, as that between a would-"be seller and
needy yet stand-off buyer, or between a wooer and a
woman concerned not to make winning too easy. Where, as
his
between two
rivals,
wit will be apt to
the situation
conducive to warmth, the
As Addison reminds
us,
often developed in an unequal game, between a " butt
wit
is
and
his assailants, the butt
John
is
grow pungent.
Falstaff",
The
how
" to
knowing now and again,
art of witty exchange, like that of using
implies self-restraint
1
;
like Sir
get the laugh of his side".^
and
Cf. supra, pp. 112, 113.
foils,
clearly
in both cases the desirable cool^
Spectator, No. 47.
THE LAUGHABLE
356
ness
is
COMEDY
ART:
IN
by the presence of the impartial
that husband and wife first learned
greatly furthered
spectator.
It is possible
to spar jocosely
by having to carry on disputes in the presence
of outside hearers.
Taking
view of wit, we
this
inevitably comes into
it.
may
The pun
see
how
word-play
of childish years,
which
merely tricks the ear by an accidental doubleness of meanneed not be considered here.
ing,
guity has value for laughter,
merry purpose, that
it
It
when
is
it
only
when
"
art.
Word-
Some
of the
comes under the eye of
play clearly tends to run into thought-play.
best-known
the ambi-
can be turned to some
mots " will be found to involve the double-
sense of the pun, like the praise awarded
King
to one of his courtiers
never in the
way and
in the
by the witty
remark that he was
never out of the way.
It
is
the
deep sense discernible through the verbal appearance of a
self-contradiction
It
which charms and entertains
here.^
seems to follow that the laughter excited in spectator
or reader
by
a display of wit
something of the
is
new, rather startling, and
child's
is
slightly complex.
It has in
laughter of admiration at what
it
fine, of his
gay response
to a
play-challenge, and of a sympathetic rejoicing with the com-
batant who,
by showing
his skill, obtains
an advantage
over his antagonist.
The dialogue
of
comedy and
the comic point of view will
of the fiction
make
which adopts
use of these verbal
sports, these doublings of the intellectual chase, at the hint
of
ambiguous language.
They
are refreshing, they enlarge
the scope of the witty combat, and they help to maintain
the mirthful temper of the spectator.
Their use
may
1 An elaborate olasaifioation of the various kinds of word-play
found in an article by Dr. Emil Krapelin, in Wundt's Philosoph,
2er Band, s. 144 ff
may
he
be
Stiidien,
WIT
COMEDY
IN
357
throughout the history of comedy.
illustrated
find in the
comedy
sexes and punning.
merry comedy
of Aristophanes
The same
is
much
we
In the
true of Plautus.
we have
of Shakespeare
Thus,
chaffing of the
an abundance
still
of puns, also a great advance in the art of the verbal foils,
especially as crossed
on the side of the
by man and woman, more
Moliere's
latter.
thoughtful discourse, though
now and
particularly
quieter
then
and more
room
finds
it
for a pun, illustrates the finer art of witty combat, in
which
the foils seem to have been tipped with a softer button.
We have so far dwelt on those elements of comedy
which seem plainly derivable from simple forms of fun,
as seen in child's play
and the laughter
There remains what
in
is
of primitive folk.
some ways the most interesting
feature, the comic presentation of character in action
and
speech.
It is
cident,
must
customary to classify comedies into those of In-
Manners and
of
not,
present in every comedy.
Such a division
The three ingredients are
of Character.
however, mislead
us.
If Aristophanes
depends largely
on incident, he only gets his fun by choosing comic characters
—the
sophist, say, or the
commercial explorer endowed
with wings. In the so-called comedy of Manners of Congreve
and
his school, the persons, such as they are,
form a main support
undoubtedly
of the entertaining action.
Moli^re,
though he relies chiefly on character, can only give us comedy
by inventing situations in which his figures will have flashed
hat i s meant
on them the droll light of the comic stage.
by the above classification is pretty plainly that in some
comedies the characters are more central, are more finely
W
evolved, and attract a
much
larger attention.
That the evolution of comedy
an advance in the presentment
has, in
the main, been
of character,
as
judged
THE LAUGHABLE
358
IN ART:
COMEDY
both by the variety and the complexity of the person-
and by the fulness and definiteness of the
It
presentation, is just what we might have expected.
alities depicted,
seems certain that, with the progress of civilisation, men
and women have grown more complex and more varied,
both
and morally, and further that the
and the capability of understanding
intellectually
interest in character
it
have developed concurrently.
A word
on the general conditions of a presentation of
comedy. For one thing, dramatic construc-
character in
tion,
compared with that
as
of prose fiction, has certain
The
obvious limits set to the delineation of character.
art is too wise to attempt a full presentment of so com-
plex a group of traits as
It illustrates,
ality.
we
find in a developed individu-
however, degrees of fulness in the
may
presentation of personality, and the finer art of drama
much
produce its impression of a concrete person very
skilful painter does within the limits of a
rough sketch by
Yet without the actor's
few master strokes.
bodiment of the part, the full impression of
a
individual
would be
difficult
as a
visible
em-
a concrete
within the limits of dramatic
construction.
In the case of comedy, moreover, there
is
another reason
for the limitation of the art of developing individual char-
The
acter.
superlative aesthetic
value of the ludicrous
aspect of character imposes on the writer an unusual degree
of simplification, of something like a reduction of the concrete personality to
afibrded
by
an abstraction.
The comic entertainment
the presentation, say, of a swelling vanity, springs
from our keeping the mental eye fixed in merry expectation
of the
coming developments
of the laughable trait.
only this core of the character, as the
estimates
it, is
clearly presented
and
mood
If,
then,
of the spectator
sufficiently illustrated.
CHARACTER
both in
its
IN
COMEDY
359
immediate manifestations and in
the rest of the man, a very
remainder will
its effects
shadowy reinstatement
suffice.
This conclusion seems clearly borne out by the
way
common
of speaking of the great comic figures as " types "
view a character
to
for
on
of this
interested in the
as
typical
;
means that we are
person, less as a particular individual,
The
than as an example of a certain sort of person.
common practice of writers of comedy, ancient and modern,
marking
of
their
by appropriate names, the
characters
Braggadocio, the Miser, the Misanthrope, and so forth, shows
that authors recognise this typical function.
Such comic representation
it
of type will always have in
something of the nature of exaggeration.
trait,
height,
must
itself
the balancing forces of the normal
Yet, to say this
between a
is
lifeless
it
when
are greatly reduced.
common
distinction
abstraction and a living character has
There
the rigid abstractions of early
itself
is
a vast diflerence between
modern comedy, before the
from the leading strings of the
morality plays, and the relatively
figures
tends to assume
man
not to say that the
no meaning in comedy.
had extricated
full
its
be raised to a higher power and dis-
played .m the hypertrophic volume
art
The laughable
in order to raise the tide of merriment to
full
and freely moving
which we encounter in Moliere's
plays.
On
the
other side, the always controlled expansion of an amusing
trait in the
comic character
that forcing of expression
tortion
A
with
which
is
is
to be clearly
up
marked
off"
from
to the dimensions of a dis-
the essence of caricature.
glance at the history of comedy will show us how,
its
development, there has grown a finer recognition
of the comic value of character and a corresponding skill in
the presentation of
it.
THE LAUGHABLE
360
of Aristophanes illustrates the art of comic
The comedy
character-drawing in
muse has not yet
where the scene
to
mid-air,
Hades
;
COMEDY
IN ART:
now
its
left
is
Here, where the comic
infancy.
behind her the Bacchanalian rout
of
the gods, and
where the boisterous fun in
and where the
;
such a pass as to show us competitors for
Demos
the favour of
genial onslaught
its
spares neither deity, poet nor statesman
farcical reaches
now
now to
apt to be violently transported,
to the abode
offering to
blow that worthy's nose
there would seem to be no room for the portrayal of character.
was
And, in truth, the problem of constructing character
in a
way
obviated
by
calling in living or historical
Yet even
personages familiar to the spectators.
riotous atmosphere,
in
this
where the eyes of the spectator must
have been half-blinded by laughter, we
may
discern the
dim beginnings of the art of comic portraiture. Not only
have we now and again, as in the litigious old gentleman
in the Wasps, hints of a typical comic figure,
illustrated
in
we have
the historical figures themselves, Socrates,
Cleon, Euripides, a rude art of type-delineation.^
In the later Greek and the Latin comedy
selves in a less turbulent scene
where the
we
find our-
air is clearer,
things can be viewed with some steadiness.
and
In Plautus, the
poet of the masses and the taverns, the spirit of riotous
buffoonery proved
ment
itself to
be
still alive.
Yet the confine-
of the scene not only to earth but to its familiar
haunts, and the introduction of the love
though in
its
baser form, gave
new
of comic varieties of character.
-
motive,
even
scope for the exhibition
Even
sketches, not, indeed, of a moral type as
in Plautus
we
we
find
find elsewhere,
but of a representation of some social class or calling, with
^Bergk observes that these are at onoe individuals and types {Qriech.
iteraturgeschichte, Bd. IV.,
s.
91).
CHARACTER
characteristics
its
soldier,
An
IN
forcibly
CLASSIC COMEDY
set
forth,
as
the boastful
in
the cheating servant, and the stingy money-lender.
approximation to the illustration of a moral type may,
perhaps, be detected in the amorous old
It
361
is,
man
in the Asinaria.
however, in the work of Menander and his
adapter Terence that
we must
Roman
look for the real advance.
In the plays of Terence, written for the educated Romans,
Thus the
the figures assume something of respectability.
father ceases, as with Plautus, to be a sort of football for
filial
buffoons to kick about, and grows into a character
worthy
and the contrast
study;
of
between a foolish
excess of authority and a wise lenience, given us in the
two fathers
than one
model for more
in the Adelphi, has been the
modem
writer.
In Terence,
too,
the family
by its own in its tussle with the rowdyism
and this is no small gain for the comic delinea-
begins to come
of the tavern,
tion of character.^
The circumstance that modern comedy took
moralities,
with their personifications of
readily explains
were
how
evil
its rise in
and the
the
rest,
certain broad types of ignoble character
set in the forefront of its scene.
These appear already
in the later moralities, for example, ''Like will to Like".
In the work which marks the
full
transition
from the
Ralph
interlude of the didactic morality to the comedy, "
Roister Doister
"
(c.
1550),
we have
outlined one of the
valuable figures in the comic world, the vainglorious cowardly
man, the victim of the most entertaining of
delusions.^
In the comedy of the Elizabethans, Ben Jonson and
Massinger,
it is
easy to trace this influence, disguised though
' Mommsen observes that in Terence we have a more becoming, though
not yet moral, conception of feminine nature and of married life {Sist. of
Borne, Bk. IV., chap. xiii.).
'^Oourthope, Sist. of English Poetry, vol.
ii.,
pp. 345
ff.,
and 356,
THE LAUGHABLE
362
IN ART:
COMEDY
sometimes by that of classical comedy. In Jonson's
"Every Man in his own Humour," said to be the first
important comedy of character in our literature, the source
of entertainment is laid, not in a merry plot, but in the
it is
presentation of a variety of characters which display themselves in
odd fashions and novelties
of conduct.
It
may
be
roughly true, as Taine says, with Moli^re present to his
imagination, that the
method pursued
quality and put together
is
an abstract
to take
the actions to which
it
gives
In other words, the object-lesson of the morality
rise.i
still
all
too near, and the dramatist has not learned how
make
his comic characters
Yet,
tator's eye.
if
we may see
Plautus,
move and grow under the
we compare Bobadil with
is
to
spec-
a braggart of
that real progress has been
made
in the
comic grasp and manipulation of character.
In the
comedies
of
Shakespeare a superficial reader
might, so far as drawing of purely comic characters
concerned, suppose himself to be moving backwards.
glowing
air of
is
The
romance, the removal of the scene from the
workaday world, the
partial
poetry and dream- delight,
abandonment
all this
moods of
to the
would seem
to exclude
the setting up of well-defined figures fitted to entertain the
mood
of a
gay contemplation. The supposition would not
The " mixture of tones," which comes
be utterly wrong.
into the poet's comedies as well as into his tragedies, does
undoubtedly tend to limit the portrayal of purely comic
The romantic background cannot, like the fixed
traits.^
arrangements of homely society, throw the
versities
the figures into sharp
of
moment how
'
Eng,
2
On
p. 291.
Lit.,
this
Bk.
different
II.,
mixture
chap.
an
relief.
follies
and per-
Think
aesthetic significance
for a
and value
iii.
of tones see
Moulton, Shakespeare as Dramatic Artist,
COMIC CHARACTERS OF SHAKESPEARE
would have attached
if it
one of
Molifere's orderly
The mixture
melancholy Jaques,
to the figure of the
had been encountered, not
363
in the solitary forest, but in
homes.
of tones introduces a softening, transform-
ing influence which affects our attitude towards the queer
gently brought to reason by schooling
men who are
women have in their
very perversity something amiable.
Even Malvolio and
Benedick and the other
figures themselves.
the other figures, whose folly
exposed with something of
is
the unsparing extravagance of an older comedy, catch a
saving ray from the
We laugh
world.
warm glow which
heartily
;
diffused over their
is
yet the pre-dominant sentiment
the play moves us at the same time towards tender
of
condonation.
Must we then say that because he rarely allows us
to
look on folly and vice in the pure attitude of amused ob-
Shakespeare
servation,
gxeatly matter
reflect that in
is
no comic poet?
how we answer
does not
It
the question so long as
we
the world he has here created for us, at once
beautiful and touched with a tender melancholy,
charged with the
electric current of mirth,
we
and yet
possess some-
thing quite as delightful as the well-defined comic scenes
of a Moliere.
warmth
as in
we
"
see
of
Now
and again, moreover, where the rosy
romance gives place to the colder light of
The Merry Wives " and
how keen an
dialogue,
and
realities,
The Taming of the Shrew,"
eye our poet could turn to the comic
possibilities of character.
a contribution he
"
made
Nor must we
forget
how
great
to comic character-drawing in his
where the man and the woman, at once attracted
repelled, use their witty tongues
with excellent
and where woman, though now and then
large part assigned her in curing
developing what
is
best in him.
man
effect,
chastised, has a
of his follies
and
THE -LAUGHABLE
364
IN ART:
For the comedy of character, in
we
form,
are told,
and rightly
In his world, not only
comedy
of classic
with
its
disguises
is
highest and purest
to
go to Moliere,
the uproarious, dust-raising mirth
silenced,
and
its
told,
COMEDY
but the fun of extravagant plot
though not absent,
errors,
is
kept
It is the familiar domestic world, into
within measure.
which we can readily transport ourselves. It is peopled for
the most part with the sober and sensible.
Upon this
orderly scene
brought one or more of the great typical
is
.
representatives of
human
folly.
In some cases
it is
an old
entertaining figure revived, the exacting and anxious miser,
for example, or the voluble braggart.
also incarnates
as the faux divot
and
new
its
idea
forms, such
his victim, the critic of society
turns a sour face on
educator of
But the comic
a rich variety of
itself in
who
conventions, the wrong-headed
woman, the ready-tongued quack, the crazy
pedant and the others.
Nor
the enlargement of the gallery of portraits the
is
only or the chief advance in the comedy of Moliere.
fineness of the
drawing
what
is
fixes the eye.
the old rigid abstractions has disappeared.
remain, as
all
in a
way
Molifere's
first
of
large
is
their function
that satisfies
all,
all
Typical they
yet they are individualised
:
the conditions of the
art.^
supremacy in the comic use of character
in the selection of his types,
amusing aspect inherent
The
All trace of
is
seen,
which have each a
in the character itself,
and
capable of being set forth in a sufiicient variety of manifestation.
We
see this
at
once by comparing his best-
known characters with those of his predecessors. In Moliere
we have, what Coleridge tells us is wanting in Ben Jonson,
the presentation of the laughable defect as " a prominence
'
Mr. Meredith touches on the way in which Moliere developed his
characters out of persons
known
to
him
(op. cit., p. 53).
MOLIERE'S COMIC PORTRAITURE
growing out
365
and nourished by, the character which
of,
The simple-minded ambition
circulates in it".^
still
of the Bour-
geois gentilhomme, the pious over-confidence of Orgon, the
intractable misanthropy of Alceste
—
these, as traits broad-
based in the chax-acter, offer large possibilities of comic
development.
The next point
new
to be noted in this
of presentation of the character which
in
y/'
is
art is the
mode
to hold the eye
The pointing effect of contrast
what is noteworthy is the
the method of contrasting.
This
amused contemplation.
good
present, as in all
admirable simplicity of
is
is
art
;
rendered possible by the type selected and the point
of
To
view adopted.
Moli^re, the
man taken with
vain
conceit, the opinionated prig, the unsociable critic of society
and the
socially
are aberrations from
rest,
adapted
person.
The
a
normal type, the
Harpagons,
the
Orgons,
the Arnolphes, the Alcestes, the Sganarelles and the others,
have their amusing lop-sidedness, their characteristic tendency swollen to the ridiculous proportions of a tumor,
by the
the normal members of
defined from the
set to
first
antithesis in
society.
which they are
The orderly world,
pleading for a reasonable accommodation to the usages
of men,
e.g.,
is
sometimes represented by the judicious friend,
Arnolphe
Alceste,
Madame Jourdain
of Sganarelle
;
;
and,
and saucy maid,
;
not seldom by the
wife,
e.g.,
by the brother, e.g.,
even by the privileged
at other times
now and
e.g.,
again,
of Orgon, of M. Jourdain.
In this juxtaposition the comic poet exhibits clearly
enough the anti-social tendency of the inflated characThe outrage to woman in the rigorous treatment
teristic.
of their wards by Arnolphe and Sganarelle, the harshness
of
demands on the high-spirited
Alceste's
^
Lectv/res
and Notes on Shakespeare,
girl
p. 416.
he woos,
THE LAUGHABLE
366
COMEDY
IN ART:
the menace in Jourdain's craze to the stability of the
home, the cruel bearing of Harpagon's avarice on his son
—all this is made quite plain to the spectator; and the
exposure
of
tendency in
maleficent
this
somehow
attitude serves
the
perverse
to strengthen the comic
efiect..
In thus presentating the hypertrophy of a moral tendency, Molifere
movement
gives
The avarice of Harpagon renders
if this would ruin him.
He
other parts of the man.
him
fearful of
takes
that
a theft, as
as an insult that he should be called rich, asserting
it
"
embodiment by
to the
organic action of the disordered part on
disclosing the
nothing
is
more
false
".
This points to that
effect
of perverted passion which Moliere everywhere emphasises,
intellectual blindness, the result of a
by compulsory
ideas
(idees
mastery of the mind
The often-quoted
fixes).
in-
dication of mental deafness in Orgon, when, to the servant's
announcement that
illustrates the full
mind from the
he dreamily iterates the
"
and " Le pauvre homme
his wife
ejaculations " Et Tartuffe
is ill,
"
?
!
comic value of such a detachment of
realities
which are seen by others to be
rapping at the doors of sense.
This state of the intelligence reduced to something re"
sembling
mono-ideism " carries with
it
The
normally clear self-consciousness.
a loss
of
the
foolish Arnolphe,
who, in order to guard himself against the risk of a faithless
spouse, subjects the girl he
means
straints, has the delusion that
the hyper-pedagogic note
is
soft wax.i
when he
unaware
'
"
wed
to intolerable re-
a great reformer, striking
is
mind
made to
says that a woman's
is
acting like a somnambulist,
of the consequences of his actions.
Comme un morceau
Et
to
Here and elsewhere the spectator
see that the queer creature
quite
he
is
je lui
d.e
oire entre
puis donner la forme qui
mes mains
me
plait."
elle est,
It thus
HOW MOLIERE
AVOIDS ABSTRACTION
becomes an exhibition of human
folly,
367
and of the
and bombastic extravagance which are
obliquity
droll
folly's
inseparable concomitants.
There
is,
no doubt, somewhat of abstraction
and
a tendency complete dominance
To give
here.
to reduce intelligence
to the menial position of its servant is to destroy the organic
complexity of the man.
covering the drollness of moral obliquity
judged when
still lives,
it is
in Harpagon's inquiry of his
A
ing about him.
maid
his
may
abstract
is,
indeed,
naughty temper
striking approach to the
when M. Jourdain shows
off to his
wife and
newly acquired superiority through the
covery of the meaning of
It
lull of
coachman, what people are say-
more
still
There
child's.
something suggestive of the child in a
his
not adequately
The simplified mechanism
One might say that the mature mind
in a sense.
childish occurs
is
of un-
called abstract.
reduced to the level of the
is
method
All the same, this
"
prose
dis-
".
be added that an escape from the rigidity of the
is
secured by the development of the obliquity
As long as things are seen to grow, they are taken to
The expansion of the ridiculous ambition of M.
Jourdain endows him with a certain plenitude of life. It
may all be very one-sided, and, by comparison with the life
itself.
be alive.
of a
normal man, remind us of the
yet
it
is
still
machine
and not a
inflexibility of a
a deranged organism that acts,
mechanism.^
It is to
be noted,
too, that
though they resemble distinctly
morbid aberrations from the normal pattern, these characters
do not reach to the
full
height of mania.
M. Jourdain, no
doubt, gets near the boundary that separates sanity from
^M. Henri Bergson
(op. cit.,
chap,
iii.)
seems to
me
to
push
his helpful
idea of a mechanical rigidity (raideur) in Moli^re's characters a
far.
little
too
TH^ LAUGHABLE
368
IN ART:
COMEDY
insanity in the closing scenes of the play
intention
is
careful to
keep
the droll figure
;
^
but the comic
on the right
side
of the boundary.
A
frequent termination of the action in this comedy
is
a
climax, in which the folly of the comic character rises to an
outburst so voluminous and torrent-Hke as to throw the
onlookers in his world into uproarious mirth.
befooling of M. Jourdain
is
an example.
The
final
Moli^re was too
artist, and too wise a man, to try in every case
compass the end of " poetic justice " by giving to society
good an
to
in its struggle
with a mighty and obstinate perversion of
liumanity more of a victory than the laugh.
Unhappy
Alceste has to rush into the desert without his Celimene
amid the
hilarity of onlookers.
are no doubt found out
unmasked and
gets into trouble.
of a general intention to punish.
of his pious delusion
by
Arnolphe and Sganarelle
and disappointed; and TartufFe
Yet there
is
is
no evidence
Orgon, though he
is
cured
a rough surgical operation, receives
no more chastisement than M. Jourdain receives
for
having
brouo'ht alien interests and an alien master into the home.
Nor does even
that embodiment of an ugly vice, Harpagon,
get anything worthy of being called a trouncing.
In
all this,
the master shows us
keep at the point of view
comic.
how
well he
knew how
to
which he had selected as the
Let us try to define this after our study of his
plays.
When we
most
contrast the world, quiet
part, presented in these
scenes of a play of Aristophanes,
has been
1
an
we
are tempted to say, as
said, that Molifere sets before
everyday
of
The play
plus fou, je
life.
and orderly for the
comedies with the hurly-burly
our eyes the
Yet the comic figures blown out into
closes with the " aside " of Covielle
I'irai
dire
realities
A.
Rome ".
:
" Si
Ton en peut
voir
MOLlfeRE'S POINT OF
369
volume are certainly not taken straight out of
ridiculous
They
our familiar world.
are always transformations, to
they are the simplified embodiments of
this extent, that
fully
VIEW
developed tendencies which only show themselves
germ-form, and complicated more or less by balancing
in
which
tendencies, in the real world
here.
We
seem thus
thrown against a background
There
is
of the real.
In Molifere's plays, the source of laughter
very intrusion of the ill-shapen into a community
of well-rounded forms.
It
is
the intruder on
whose unpredictable
the eye, for
which he
imaged
said to be
no anomaly here when once we get at the comic
point of view.
lies in this
is
have an element of the unreal
to
not made our expectation
is
background
is
set.
fix
world for
The
serious
but does not take a strong hold of our
there,
is
whom we
antics in a
minds: we are not greatly moved, for example, by the
spectacle of the sufferings of the daughters
and the wards
of testy old gentlemen, or even of the wearing housewifely
Madame
anxieties of
which the absurdly
Jourdain.
ill-fitted is
The proper world,
here pitchforked,
is
into
but a
background, rendering the valuable service of backgrounds
by throwing
for
into relief
and
so sharply defining the
which the spectator's eye
It is hardly
is
an exaggeration to say that the whole plot of
one of these comedies consists in the
showing up of the
grotesque unsuitability of the comic character to
ment.
It
groups
its
persons and arranges
with the intention of demonstrating the
its
its
move about
understand
and again
mirth,
is
why
in our ordered world.
environ-
scenes as
futility of
attempt of this droll figure, lop-sided, and of an
gait, to
form
accommodated.
awkward
This helps us to
Moliere, though, as observed above, he
resorts to older
if
the
now
and more elemental sources of
able to be so economical in the use of disguises
24
THE LAUGHABLE
370
COMEDY
IN ART:
improbable encounters, and of the other mechanical
of
The
devices of the entertaining show.
seem to
selves as well as the action
mental
the
facts,
Thus, one
situations them-
arise out of the funda-
given characters
and
their relations.
hardly surprised to find Harpagon in the
is
ignoble part of a money-lender, to
whom
the son he has
pinched betakes himself.
The enjoyment
a trained faculty.
comedy here provided presupposes
of the
There must be the quick observant eye
that catches in side-glance
accommodated
mixed
a
all
tone, for a blend
The
sentiment.
the relations, and yet remains
for the laughable.
serious
is
There
no place for
is
of laughter with melancholy
envisaged
less
as the serious,
than as the framework within which the comic figure moves.
The mood is one of a purely gay observation, which has no
room for pity, indignation, or any other emotion which is
;
brightly and coldly intellectual
;
which
is
content with just
looking and being amused.
For a right understanding of the scope of laughter in
comedy, we need to glance at another of
In the so-called
"Comedy
its
developments.
of Manners," as illustrated in the
English plays of the Restoration,
we have undoubtedly
do with a very special trend of the comic
to
spirit.
In the art of Moli^re we have for the most part the
presentation of an individual grotesquely transformed from
the
common
social
type which surrounds him.
in a few comedies, as Les
ridicules,
that
we have
Femmes
savantes
"
sensible world, against
less
In
these, the
which the cultivation
the fine shades " looks so entertaining,
though, of course,
Pricieuses
spread out for mirthful contempla-
tion the characteristics of a set of persons.
moderate
It is only
and Les
immediately and
is still
of
indicated,
fully.
In the plays of Congreve and his contemporaries, we meet
THE COMEDY OF MANNERS
with a comic treatment of more widespread
The sources
the hour.
There
is
manners
"
of
of their fun are pretty obvious.
something of the utter abandonment to disorder
and revelry which we met with
phanes.^
"
371
The ordered world, with
works
in the
its
of Aristo-
interaction of
The
characters, seems blotted out of existence.
normal
plot
is,
as
with Plautus, a love-intrigue, and has much of the coarseness
and the degradation of situation which mark the popular
comedy.
Latin
feature that
Yet
frees
it
it
is
at
men from
least
marked
off
by
the
the sordid business of send-
ing menials to bid for the prize, and sets them face to face
with the
women they
again, are not
are bent on obtaining.
shy maids, but range from experienced wives
to the woxild-be simpletons fresh
are,
The women,
They
make good show
from the country.
moreover, while saucy and disposed to
untrammelled by any sentimental or other
of resistance,
attachment to their chains.
seems undeniable that this
It
make good
and
claims to be entertaining.
its
stirring
" artificial "
comedy can
It has vivacity
movement, the full frolicsomeness of the
and it abounds in scenes of voluminous
practical joke,
gaiety.
is
Its dialogue at its best has, along
an unmistakable
ness,
But how are we to
no ordered world
with
its
coarse-
brilliance of wit.
define the point of
as
background?
view where there
There seems no
question here of laughing at the affectations of a few,
who
are viewed as comic aberrations
type.
The whole world
is
affected
from a reasonable
with frolicsome
dis-
order.
We
the
are not
spectators
now
for
concerned with the mental attitude of
whom
these
comedies were written.
^Mr. Meredith remarks that it was "here and there Bacchanalian
beyond the Aristophanio example" (op. cit., p. 11).
THE'LAUGHABLE
372
To them, no
COMEDY
IN ART:
doubt, the spectacle
was a merry one
as
bringing a sense of relief from the gloom of the Puritan's
may, as Taine suggests, have been served up
as a kind of " Appetitsbischen " between meals, in order
reign.
It
the gallants
to stimulate the palates of
the theatre
to
;
though
it is difficult
who
frequented
to attribute this function
what by common consent was intended to provoke
What is of more importance is to get
the point of view of Charles Lamb and others who avow
mirthful laughter.
at
comedy
that they find a true
Lamb
here.
man
himself has told us what attitude a
He
bring to the appreciation of this comedy.
is
should
to regard
these " sports of a witty fancy " as " a world of themselves
much as fairyland ". His moral feelings are left
home with his morning suit. He goes to the play in
almost as
at
order "to escape from the pressure of reality".
For him
the figures that pursue one another across the stage have
no moral substance, and are proper subjects neither for
approval nor for disapproval.
In other words,
Lamb
us that the comedy of Congreve and his school
is
taken as a pure sjiow, holding no relations to the
tells
to be
real,
everyday world.
This view has been
Essay, as subversive
Restoration
is
and intention
spumed by Macaulay, in a well-known
of morals.
To him, the comedy of the
a thing that
;
is
inherently anti-moral in spirit
and he proceeds to pound
it
with weighty
invectives.
The argument would have been relevant
had
been a practical
one of this kind
:
if
shall
the question
we
put this
comedy on the stage to-day for our boys and girls to see
it ?
As against Lamb's plea it seems to me to be a curious
When, for example, Macaulay
case of missing the point.
complains that in these comedies the husbands are treated
VIEWS OF LAMB AND MACAULAY
as objects of contempt
373
and aversion, whereas the gallants
he might have
are decked out with all the graces,
re-
and bethought him that this
was an elementary condition of the artificial world, which
His answer to Lamb,
is created solely for amusement.
membered the old
Gontes
now and
that recollections of morality do steal
fantastic
this
contention,
creators
world,
does not touch the
and only shows
were not perfect
architects,
ground, dimly perceived, even here
is
:
Lamb says, a sense
which we know cannot
at bottom, as
from rules
real world.
we
But
and
this idea of
combine
tried to
is still
in the back-
the fun of the thing
of
momentary escape
be set aside in the
an escape implies that what
from must not be dragged into the show.
fly
Our study
of
comedy and
of the sources of laughter has
prepared us to accept Lamb's view.
appeals to the
may
main
(so far as it is just) that the
The moral order
incompatible styles.
then into
latter's
man
in the play-mood.
see the fun of the turbulent
Even when he
of Molifere he does not take the
waxing indignant,
is
When
spectacle
there, he
world of Aristophanes
and not be troubled by the thought
of its realisation.
The comic
of the undesirability
entertained
background quite
by a play
seriously,
sympathy with Harpagon's illused son, or with M. Jourdain's ill-used wife. The least
swerving from the point of view of comedy, a turn of
the mental " eye-glass," would spoil all.
He would begin,
say, in
with Rousseau, to protest against presenting so good a
man
Alceste in
as
comedy appeals
a ludicrous light.
to the
the temporary inhibition of
It
is,
The Restoration
simplified by
same playful mood
all
outside tendencies.
I conceive, a profound error to suppose that either
the writer of a
comedy or
his audience is at the
point of view, envisaging behaviour as morally
moral
commend-
^
THE LAUGHABLE
374
Possibly, the influence of the didactic
able or the opposite.
morality on early modern comedy
this error.
COMEDY
IN ART:
may have
helped to foster
It is true that Moliere finds his
Yet the
in certain defects of character.
comic material
made by
selections
comic art are not determined by
As hinted above, very small and comparatively harmless vices
degrees of
may
moral turpitude.
be preferred as having the drollest look on the stage.^
Vanity, the richest of
all
moral blemishes in
comic
its
and therefore greatly employed by comedy,
both ancient and modern, is not judged as heinously
possibilities,
immoral, like hatred and cruelty, for example.^
may
suflice to
show how wide an
This
interval separates the
point of view of the spectator of a
comedy from
that of
the moral judge.
It seems to
me
to be
much more
correct to say, with
M.
Bergson, that comedy takes up the social rather than the
By this
moral point of view.
I
mean
that the comic poet
is
thinking of the look of things to the trained apperceptive
organ of the
kind of person, according as
social
appear to be well or
ill
adapted to the
common
they
practices
and opinions of society as discerned and interpreted by
more
intelligent representatives.
social point of view, I
must not be taken to mean that either
the author or the spectator of the comic scene
judging of the behaviour of
social values.
There
is,
modem
variety, including
some plays
figures
by
is
seriously
a reference to
this,
not
comedy, but in the later serious
of Moliere; but the art-impulse
it is clear,
•
See above, p. 92
'^
Coleridge saw clearly enough
its basis.
of
where
its
undoubtedly, an approach to
only in the early
of the writer,
its
Yet, in speaking of the
prevents the approximation
f.
He remarks
that the
how far comedy is from making morality
new comedy of Menander and the whole
modern comedy (Shakespeare excepted) is based on rules of prudence
and Notes on Shakespeare, Bell's Edition, 1884, p. 191).
(Lectures
THE SOCIAL POINT OF VIEW
view from becoming a
of points of
Comedy
addresses itself to a
tion which,
though
mood
375
loss of distinctness
of esthetic contempla-
has room for keen penetration, and
it
even for a dim discernment of a serious import in the back-
ground of the puppet show, remains on the whole a playful
The spectator is agreeably occupied with the look
of things
and such social consciousness as is awake in him
serves merely to give to his perceptions a precise measure of
attitude.
;
the seemly, or at most to enable
him
to glimpse
of a sharply corrective expression in the
something
puckered visage of
the comic showman.^
In comedy, the moral comes into view as " mores," as a
part, and a principal part, of the customary, as we have it in
a civilised society. Yet it is not disengaged and held up as
moral. Moli^re, the Comedian of Society par excellence, shows
us clearly enough that he is not trying to distinguish the
more permanent and universal basis of society in morality
from the variable accidents which enter into the manners of
The "gushing" mode of
by mere acquaintances which irritates Alceste
a particular society at a given date.
accost adopted
is
accepted
by the poet
because as a fashion
as a standard of the fitting, just
it is
a social institution, to be good-
naturedly accepted by the social kind of person.
M.
Jourdain
tries to step
When
out of his bourgeois rank, the
laughter he provokes depends primarily on the unseemliness of his ambition.
Yet, at the end of the nineteenth
is so common
we have almost
century in Paris or London, such ambition
and meets with
so large a success that
forgotten to smile at
Moli^re as a
"
it.
Hence, when
Taine talks of
philosopher " illustrating " universal truths,"
he commits an error which
may
be pardoned, as due to the
natural inclination to stretch the achievement of a great
'
Cf. supra, p. 139.
THE LAUGHABLE
376
What
compatriot. 1
COMEDY
IN ART:
Molifere does is to secure for the rather
oddly formed group of customs and practices adopted by
the particular society he
depicting, adequate exponents,
is
who, in their advocacy of the
system against the
social
socially perverse, not
only disengage and give clearness to the
unwritten laws, but
may— so
long as they do not raise the
question of their deeper grounds
by
—seek to recommend them
the most enlightened presentment of the common-sense
attitude.
Now,
in substituting the social for the moral point of
view, the writer of
comedy
necessarily tends to slacken
Nothing comes out
the cords that bind us in society.
more plainly
in
accommodation of
The author
plays than the good-natured
Moliere's
social
human
requirements to
infirmities.
distinctly rejects the idea of going above this
standard, of
trying to
improve on
customs
social
—for
example, in the comic treatment of Alceste and of Arnolphe.
At
heart,
like
Roman
his
with indulgence against
all
large tolerance, the readiness to
of the easy
man
of the world.
years old
So
it
;
us into an easy frame of mind, in which
From
manners
this point of view,
is
character as
who
is
we
we may
it
It
may
adopt the social point of view.
'
twenty
are perfectly
see that the
comedy
of
from that of
breaks with the moral
order of stable societies, no doubt, and turns
Yet
" is
it is.
often maintained.
rudely on this order.
sides
has the
written to put
not, fundamentally, so different
is
He
excuse and to pass by,
must be for comedy
content with the world as
takes
C^lim^ne's coquetries, for
example, are accepted as natural in one
".
he
predecessors,
irksome restraint.
still,
That
its
back rather
in a sense, be said to
is
to say,
it
envisages
Mr. Meredith is nearer the mark
Hist, of Eng. Lit., Bk. III., ohap. i.
poet as being " in the narrow field, or enclosed
when he speaks of the oomio
square of the society he depicts "
(op. cit., p. 85).
SLACKENING OF SOCIAL CORDS
the seemly as that which
which happens
fitness
like that of the savage
is,
band, for
in this
whom
standard of
Its
of Moli^re, the customs
Macaulay expresses so droU a concern, who
becomes the
inverted world
The large indulgence
person.
and
sour-tempered and suspicious hus-
It is the
of the tribe.
with the code of manners
falls in
obtain at the time.
to
377
common
pansion of the indulgence
anti-social
of this society
to Terence
is
kind of
but an ex-
and to Moli^re.
A
sub-conscious awareness of the topsy-turvyness of things
is
with us as
inversion
—
we
look
to take serious views
In saying that
in
and the quaint fancifulness
;
only like
if
—
Lamb we
of the
moment
distinctly refreshing.
is
we go
can refuse for a
meet comedy in the play-mood,
to
which our habits of moral approbation and disapprobation,
and even of estimation
more or
of social values, are lulled to a sleep
profound,
less
is
it
not meant that these serious
tendencies in us can be ignored
by
the writer of comedy.
As
implied above, they mould our forms of the seemly, un-
knowingly to us perhaps, even as we
And
look.
more,
though inhibited by the play-like mood, they have force and
;
showman go
should the
too far, say in the direction of
stripping off the veil of decency, they
may wake up and
make an end
Just as tragic fear
of the comic enjoyment.
and pity
may
obtrudes
itself,
view
its
laughter.
give
way
so
when
to physical revulsion
in
when horror
comedy the unclean thrusts
ugly head, a sort of physical revulsion
The
may
latitude in these matters conceded
to time to comic art will,
it is
into
silence
from time
evident, vary greatly with the
particular ratio between the vigours of the mirthful and
moral tendencies.
The presentation
on the stage
us, a
is
of the comic aspects of men's behaviour
narrowly limited.
whole people
may
have a
As Sainte-Beuve reminds
fit
(acoes) of
mania.
If
THE LAUGHABLE
378
this
as
happen
to
situation
and
Indeed,
character.
"
if
a person
"
he will not
And
by numerous resemblances.
have given
elements of
Jingoism
will read Moliere's plays
figures
shall
above, unmistakable
been in the midst of a wild
head
we
be the war-fury
pointed out
COMEDY
IN ART:
who
us,
comic
has just
without losing his
fail to
be struck
here, as in comedy, the
have their comical contours and poses thrown into
by a social background, as much superior to any single
community at a particular moment, as a community to one
of its members. Yet no national comedy could in these days
foUow Aristophanes and use such promising material, nor are
we likely as yet to have a comedy for the civilised world.
relief
Before leaving comedy,
which seem
literature
we may
glance at other forms of
approach
to
point of view. Of
comedy of recent times
seems more important to
its
certain kinds of the so-called serious
I
do not propose to speak.
remark that prose
fiction
the comic point of view.
It
may now and
It
again draw near
sometimes presents us with a
texture of fantastic situations and adventures which reminds
us of the Aristophanean burlesque, as in the "Tartarin" series
of Alphonse Daudet.
This type of fiction gives us elemental
laughter, uncomplicated
reflection
may
— though
steal
by anything
in the nature of sad
humour
Or the tone of the story may approach
more sedate comedy, making, indeed, the one
a
little
of the tenderness of
in.
that of the
hardly distinguishable from the other, save through the
narrative
form.
This
novels of Miss Austen.
holds good, for example, of the
The
social point of
defined and steadily adhered
to,
and
view
critical
is
sharply
reflection
is
confined to the rdle of giving a fuller and more lucid interpretation of the standards of the society illustrated.
The comic point of view may intrude, too, and tend to
become supreme in fiction which has something of the
COMIC POINT OF VIEW
deeper and more thrilling import.
It
present, at times at least, to Balzac,
it is
employment
37&
seems to have been
But
new and
and to Thackeray.
we may study
in Mr. Meredith's novels that
a finer
IN FICTION
a
of the comic attitude in connection with
The very subjects
the more enthralling kind of interest.
—for
example, the egoist entangled in the situation which makes
large
demands
system of his
for consideration
own
soaring than his
concoction
client
quences to his family
;
;
;
the father with a pedagogic
the tailor more successful in
M. Jourdain, with certain conse-
the gallant cadet of an ancient house
with the zeal of radicalism
affected
—these
sound like the
And though the writer may allow the
humour to be heard now and again he gives
comedy.
titles of
reedy tone of
prominence to the fluty note of comedy, with
and
too.
clearness,
and something of
its
its
simplicity
sound of sharp correction,
Occasionally indeed, as in Beauchamp's Career, this
characteristic note will be distinctly
heard at the end of a
story which closes on a tragic disaster.
Yet a
closer inspection will
view of these writers
poet, it
remains
may
distinct.
show that though the point
of
approximate to that of the comic
This distinctness, moreover,
is
not
due merely to the presence of a large serious interest which
gives gravity to the story.
It arises out of the circumstance
that the writer of prose fiction, by addressing himself to the
reflective
mood of
a solitary reader, and not to the appercep-
tive attitude of a spectator, will, even in presenting the comic
aspects of his subject, unavoidably tend to transcend the
standards of fitness adopted by a particular community, substituting for these the ideal standards of a
community
of
the wise and good.
In comedy we have the appeal to laughter in
its
purity,
the child's laughter at the funny
show guided by an
gent grasp of social customs.
It addresses itself to the-
intelli-
THE LAUGHABLE
380
IN ART:
COMEDY
many, united by common modes of judgment and a common
standard of
The writer who amuses us may seem,
of another kind.
least, to
Literature gives us, however, appeals
fitness.
at
be very far from the social point of view, and the
mood he induces may be by no means that of pure gaiety.
After what has been said in the preceding chapter, a few
words must
suffice to indicate these
other literary expres-
sions of the laughing spirit.
We may
tone
(a)
:
distinguish
two main
varieties of this
mixed
the combination of laughter with the attitude of
serious attack, as illustrated in satire
;
(6)
its
combination
with meBjOwing feelings in what we have recognised as
modern humour.
The distinguishing note of satire is the angry one of reproHere vices and follies are no longer set before us as
bation.
a diverting spectacle, but emphasis
indignity.
judge
;
The
satirist is at
is
laid
on their moral
the point of view of the moral
only, instead of the calmness of the judge, he has
something of the
fierce attitude of the
prosecutor
who aims
at exposing and denouncing the turpitude of an ofience.
This being
so,
we
see that laughter enters into satire as
an expression of contempt and
ment.
It
assumes
its
ridicule or derision.
as
an instrument of punish-
most pungent and most dreaded form,
It is thus less a spontaneous feeling
than a
volitional process
satirist
he controls his personal indignation by an
:
the satirist wills to mock.
As
artistic
purpose, such a presentment of his victim as will excite
in his hearers or readers the full laughter of contempt.
Hence, the large license he takes, in the employment of
exaggeration
and
the devices of
caricature,
in
the in-
vention of degrading situations, and in the appropriation of
humiliating comparison, figure of speech and the other resources of his
art.
LAUGHTER
IN SATIRE
It is clear that the mirthful spirit
itself to
the purpose of
to the point of
or with Swift
it
thus lends
damaging attack becomes modified
To laugh with Juvenal
transformation.
to feel
is
more
of a bitter malignity than of
We may say that satire
gaiety.
when
381
takes us back to the brutal
laughter of the savage standing jubilant over his prostrate
Or we may
foe.
describe
the laughter as a feeling of
"sudden glory" deeply tinged by the dominant angry
attitude of the laugher.
Yet the intrusion of laughter into invective, just because
it is
the solvent of
all
serious moods, tends, as
we have
seen,
Hence
the gamut of dissimilar tones in satire, which at the one end
is furiously denunciatory, at the other almost playful and
to develop,
if
only for an instant, a lighter tone.
The early popular "farce" of
mocking and ironical speeches, and the
good-temperedly jocular.
the Greeks, with
satirical
its
songs of the Middle Ages were apparently pieces of
rollicking fun, like the
the satirical note
was
comedy
Where, however, the composition
serious purpose
may
which
of Aristophanes, in
half -drowned in buiFoonish laughter.
is
palpably a satire, the
be seen to dominate and to colour the
whole expression.
The
characteristics of satire, thus roughly indicated, hold
good alike whether the vices exposed be those of an
dividual, of a social class, of a society at a particular
or of
mankind
as a whole.
In any
case, the point of
clearly that of a supposed moral judge
in-
moment,
view
is
and sentencer.
The presence of a purpose of serious exposure is not by
any means equally clear in all cases whence the denotation
of the term satire is not sharply bounded.
Comedy itself
;
has been said to have a strong
satirical element,
and
this
seems certainly true of the compositions of Aristophanes,
which, as Bergk remarks, contain in their mixture of tones
THE LAUGHABLE
382
COMEDY
IN ART:
'
and a " bitter irony "} Romances, as pictures of men and their manners, are often described as
satirical, presumably because a free delineation of human
vices is taken to imply the condemnatory attitude and the
a " biting scorn
"
intention to castigate.
Yet here the castigation may be
of
the mildest, as in Gil Bias, which, according to Sainte-
Beuve, does not hold up
wicked and
M. Taine
dulness.^
men
in the
mass
to ridicule as
but rather exposes their meanness and
foolish,
finds the satirist's lash laid
on heavily
in the English school of fiction, even in the writings of
Thackeray.^
Yet judgments as to a
on the prevailing tone
seem subjective and
Satire proper,
is
of the world
where the purpose
whom
he portrays are apt to
capricious.
a very different thing.
Juvenal, of
writer's intention based
We
of ridicule
sit
He
is
works
satire the
its
of
always in a
strangely on his lips
more serious and poignant
a shrill note of malignity from
this
confessed,
see this in the
Prof. Tyrrell writes, "
rage and a laugh seems to
is
In
".*
laugh takes
mental entourage.
on-
The
virulence of the satire of antiquity has since been softened.
This
frequently effected by allegorical disguise.
is
mediaeval
satires,
the fable of the Fox, are examples.
and
The
such as that on cunning and treachery in
The
satires of Voltaire
of the English satirists, including the bitter
and un-
sparing Swift, illustrate the same tendency.
This throwing of a fierce attack, whether political or
moral, into the form of an allegory, though
the
veil
point.
blow
of
the
assault, really
it
gives
seems to
it
more
In the attacks of derision, at least, a back-handed
may
shoulder.
1
direction
often hurt more than one straight from the
The
reader's satisfaction includes
Op. cit; Bd. IV.,
B. 2.
'Hist, of Eng. Lit., vol.
2
no doubt an
See his " Notice " to Gil Bias, pp.
iv., p.
173.
*
Op.
cit.,
p. 240.
xii, xiii.
DEGREES OP VIRULENCE
SATIRE
IN
element of admiration for the finesse of art
383
yet more
:
Swift could not have shown us the
seems to be involved.
absurdities in our social and political institutions half as
well
by any
them
direct attack on
shown us by
The indignity of
as he has
the indirect attack in Gulliver's Travels.
made
a familiar vice or folly seems to be
is
thus ridiculed under the guise of some
Further, our laughter at the vice
new
it
semblance.
reinforced
is
when
palpable
by that
which comes from the detection of the make-believe of
The playful element probably takes on
the allegory.
something of malice from the prevailing tone of the
satire,
and in the end we may laugh yet more cruelly at the victim
who
ever being anew detected, so to speak, under the
is
literary mask.
Much
simile,
satire.
the same kind of remark applies to the effect of
innuendo, irony, and
We have
But
the head of Comedy.
word commonly
is
all
that
we mean by
wit in
touched on the playful side of wit under
this is only a part of
Even
implies.
what the
in comic dialogue there
women
something of attack, and the witty
of the Re-
tongue.
and other writers have now and again a rasping
Yet it is in satire that we see the deep malignity
of wit.
The witty sarcasms
storation
of Voltaire
to be imps of malice disguised as toys.
meaning out
verbal slip
of
and the rest seem
The sally of cruel
what looks harmless nonsense, or a mere
— as in the polished rebuke of a Master of Trinity
to a too confident Junior Fellow,
—has
the youngest of us"that of a direct
mode
"
we
are
all
fallible,
even
a wounding force greater than
of statement.
The
efiect is
still
greater where failure and disgrace are exhibited under a
thin ironical veil of glorious achievement, as in Pope's
lines
on the Lord Mayor's Show
be the finest piece of wit he
—said
knew
:
by Leigh Hunt
to
THE LAUGHABLE
384
Now night
But
In
all
COMEDY
IN ART:
descending the proud scene is o'er,
numbers one day more.
lives in Settle's
such ironical inversion the
satirist
manages by a
suggestion of the worthy and honourable to drive
with added force the humiliating truth
of Cicero, apropos of an elderly
but forty years old
"
:
I
;
dame who
must believe
her say so any time these ten years "}
as in the
home
remark
said that she
her, for I
was
have heard
The presentation
in
something hidden, immediately followed by an
uncovering, may evoke an echo of the " bo-peep" laugh of
this case of
infancy, which should, one supposes, tend to introduce a
milder and playful tone into the attack yet, owing to the
;
predominance of the attitude of fierce derision, this very
element of playfulness appears, somehow, to give a new
pungency
to the satirical thrust.
Nothing could be more unlike the laughter of virulent
satire than that provoked by the expression of humour
in literature.
As our analysis would lead us to expect, we
humorous writer the mellowing influences
find in the truly
of good nature
and sympathy, and a large understanding
and acceptance of that against which he pokes fun. While
satire,
sarcasm and their kind seem to be trying to push
things away, or at least to alter them, humour, curiously
enough, looks as
which
if it
entertains
illustrate
these
it.
tendencies, the
humour
quality of
were tenderly holding to the world
Yet while all humorous writings
is
subjective
and personal
seen in the circumstance that every
writer brings to bear on
what he
sees a
new temper and
attitude.
The contrast
view
may be
'
of the satirical
and the humorous point
of
conveniently studied by glancing at the current
Quoted hy Bacon, Essays, " Apothegms,"
181.
WIT AND HUMOUR
385
and much-discussed distinction between wit and humour.
That these do not logically make a pair of contrasting
Per-
species has been implied in our analysis of the two.
haps nowhere do
we
find the
more strangely misled by the
words than in
this case.
human mind
to have been
fact of the existence of
two
Wit, as essentially a manner of
deportment of the intelligence, can stand in no simple and
direct relation to
No
an emotional mood like humour.
doubt there are facts which give colour to the idea of
an opposition in
Thus,
this case.
it
is
indubitable that
whereas humour specially favours certain kinds of imaginative and reflective activity, wit seems always to prefer,
even in
its
play,
the distinction
wit which
is
something in the shape of an incisive
But
logical process.^
is
I suspect that the deeper ground of
to be found in the circumstance that the
most
effective in its stroke,
brilliant,
of keenest edge,
appears always to grow out
and most
of,
and so
becomes associated with, those moods of satire and mordant
mockery, to which humour as good-natured and tolerant
directly opposed.
So
it is
is
with the wit of Voltaire and of
others of his century.
A
closer
examination
will,
however, show that there
is
nothing incompatible between the humorous sentiment and
the witty
mode
of behaviour of the
intellect.
As play
indeed, wit quite naturally allies itself to the attitude of
humour.
It will be
found that much that
is
commonly
described as wit discloses the softening effect of humour,
and might, indeed, just as well be called an illustration of
Those who really know the Irish will sometimes
hesitate whether to speak of their wit or of their humour.
humour.
The same
1
This
is allied
is
applies, I feel sure, to a large
well illustrated by George Eliot,
to ratiocination {Essays, "
who
German Wit,"
25
number
of
Shake-
observes rightly that wit
p. 81).
THE LAUGHABLE
386
speare's " witticisms
".^
when, set in the fierce
In
mood
IN ART:
all
COMEDY
such cases, the wit, which
of the satirist has a nasty sting,
may take on omething of
tempered by an infusion of
not only becomes harmless, but
when
positive kindliness
"He
is
The remark apropos
genial humour.
person,
it
of a very correct
may
has not one redeeming vice,"
may even, in
illustrate the
come into a laugh
which tells against the humorist, as in the observation of an
idler, " I don't like working between my meals "?
point.
It
Yet though in
this harmless form,
their well-marked forms thus dissimilar,
the satirical and the humorous
the other in a
boundary
line.
way
mood may shade one
makes
Heine, in some
that
it
difficult to
into
draw the
of his writings,
e.g.,
the
poem Deutschland, tempers his mockery with sentiment
and humour in such a way that one finds it hard to think
of
it
In places, indeed, this genius, so simple-
as a satire.
looking yet really so profound, seems to become a con-
summate humorist, bringing out with a
the laughter and
a satirist
when he threw behind
single touch all
Was Lewis
Carroll
the fun of his children's
this
playful
child's
II
the tears of things.
some deeper meaning which for ever eludes us ? or
semblance of a meaning a part of his fun, his
stories
was
all
way
book
of punishing the "
grown up
" for
reading a
?
—
late Henry Sidgwiok
no
admitted that several quotations which he had
proffered as examples of wit might with equal appropriateness be described
as humorous. The germ of the view put forward in the text is contained
in some pithy remarks by the late Professor Minto (English Prose Literature,
mean
remember disoussing the point with the
authority
—^who
Introduction, p. 23).
humour and wit, regarded as subjective,
Considered objectively as an attribute of a
character, wit of a kind may become one ingredient in a humorous presentation, as in the homely and rather born4 wit of the countryfolk in the
novels of George Eliot and Mr. Hardy.
^
The
reference in the text
as elements in the writer.
is to
HUMOUR
SATIRE AND
In modern
387
literature, the interesting point to note is the
growing interpenetration of the laughing and the serious
attitude, and the coalescence of the mirthful spirit with
sentiment.
The two
processes,
may
on together, as we
though
distinct,
may run
The
see in Shakespeare's plays.
humorous element introduced by the fool in "Lear" and
where
at once
relieves
else-
the tragic tension, and gives a
moment's play to that disposition towards a lighter laughing criticism which
is
always active when we survey colossal
even though the mental eye
folly,
for its
is
at the
moment
The laughter
catastrophic effects.
is
focussed
controlled and
kept tenderly humorous and half -sad by a large reflection,
which does not
lose sight,
the lamentable ruin.
the " fun " and the " pity
genial
humour
follower
of
when
way
of combining
the master brings a
so merrily entertains us.
seen, prose-fiction
and something of the
laughter comes into
modate
it
into
who
As we have
plot
"
comedy and makes us, with his faithful
Bardolph, half-love and more than half-pity the
faulty knight
spirit
even at the relieving moment, of
It is only another
itself to
it
may
fiercer
illustrate the
temper of
satire.
Yet
It has to accom-
in another form.
the presence of serious interests, and of a
which involves sympathetic fear and
strain.
appears in stories which have a mixed tone, as
indeed in comedy
"
comic
when
this is not
heroic comedy," as illustrated
the guise of humour.
That
is
pure
— for
Hence
it
it
does
example,
—
by M. Rostand's Cyrano
to say, its gay treble note
in
is
complicated by an undertone, a resonance of the sadness of
its milieu.
One needs only
to think
how
one laughs at
Moses and his purchase of spectacles in the Vicar of Wakefield,
A
in
or at the disfigurement of the hero in Cyrano.
novel may, of course, present the grave and the gay
mere juxtaposition, so that the interaction and modi-
THE LAUGHABLE
388
COMEDY
spoken of are only very imperfectly
fieation here
The notion
IN ART:
good story entertained by many
of a
realised.
is
of one
that bears the imagination of the reader swiftly through a
series of diverse scenes,
A
and mirthful
need.
are
now grave and
modem
large part of
pathetic,
Stories of wild adventure from Gil Bias to
"humorous"
now gay
fiction satisfies this
to the multitude in this sense.
Tom Jones
Even in
the case of a real humorist like Dickens, whose amusing
figures are there to touch the heart as well as to enter-
tain the imagination, the perfect harmonising of tones
A
sometimes seem to be wanting.
may
humorist of another
complexion, Laurence Sterne, seems to have missed the
judicious mixture of laughter and sentiment in his Senti-
mental Joit/rney}
The
art of
humorous writing
characters, incidents
hibit the intimate connections
and that which touches the
pity; and to develop the
sustains the
mood
consists in part in selecting
and the rest in such a
is
as to ex-
between that which amuses
serious sentiments, respect
reflective
of humour.
Vicar and his family
way
and
consciousness which
Goldsmith's history of the
one of the best examples.
Scott's
Antiquary and Fielding's Parson Adams are characters which
and win
at once entertain
volve, as Leigh
Hunt has
within the characters,
Parson
Adams
;^
e.g.,
us.
Such humorous types
in-
pointed out, a striking contrast
the gUuible and the manly in
and the sharpness
of this contrast turns
on that of the feelings excited by the constituents.
The
by humorous fiction may be consciously
the manner of the Merry Knight, or wholly
characters selected
amusing, after
unconscious of their laughter-provoking power.
A valuable
part of this amusing portraiture consists in bringing out
1
See Mr. Traill's criticism, Sterne, p. 156
"
Wit and Himuywr,
p. 11.
fi.
HUMOUR
the fresh
and odd-looking
dividuals, but of classes
IN FICTION
389
characteristics
not only of in-
and even of
races.
In addition to this objective presentation of the humorous
and its relations, the writer may further
by striking now and again undertones of quaint
and so introducing an element of subjective
The notion that such reflection is out of place
aspects of character
the effect
reflection
humour.
in narrative art
of literature.
seems strange to a student of the history
If there
was room
comments
for the
of the
onlooking chorus in Greek drama, and for the yet deeper
by the acting onlookers in Shakespeare's
room for it in a prose narrative. In
reflections supplied
plays, there should be
truth,
some of the best writers of
fiction, Fielding,
Thackeray
and George Eliot among others, make excellent use of
reflective
named
accompaniment.
writer
In the best works of the
we have something
this
last-
of Shakespeare's art of
adding a pregnant observation which, so far from disturbthe
ing, rather furthers
mood needed
for a
due appreciation
of the action.
In the great humorous writings, those of Rabelais, Cervantes and
—removed by an interval
no doubt
—Sterne, we
appear to find presented a largeness of subject and of
treatment which makes direct appeal as
as to perception.
You must know
much
to reflection
the Middle Ages, which
you will even
you must envisage Don Quixote and
two individuals or even as two types of
are being laughingly kicked aside, before
care for Gargantua
his squire, not as
;
as embodiments of two remote levels of
and more, of two opposed ways of looking at the
world, before you will begin to feel all the humour of these
And so of the great contrast between Mr.
juxtapositions.
Shandy and his brother, the Captain. There is no need
character, but
culture,
for the interpolation of reflection:
the scale, the breadth
THE LAUGHABLE
390
COMEDY
IN ART:
of treatment, the wealth of ideas poured out, these compel
us to
The laughter which comes from the percep-
reflect.
tions of the utter incongruity of the
and attached
structures thus juxtaposed
And
this reflection.
even
is
mental and moral
is
saturated with
more, so right, so likeable, so estimable
each of these contrasting characters, with
marked temper and maniere de
go out towards both. Thus we
voir,
its
well-
that our sympathies
leave the perceptual level
and the relative point of view of comedy far behind us,
reaching a standpoint near that of the thinker
who embraces
and yet may manage to have
When, as in Jean Paul's
the end.
particular points of view,
all
his
own laugh
Siebenkds,
in
and yet more
clearly in Carlyle's Sartor Besartus,
the contrast seems to open
up the great
collision in
human
experience between sentiment and prosaic reality, idealism
and the earth-binding instincts of practical life, we stand,
indeed, on the border-line between the humour of fiction and
that of philosophy.
Humour
has
its place,
a respectable one too, in essays
and
other forms of literature which deal directly with reality
and are products not
so
much
of imagination as of thought.
In these, the contrast between the serious and the playful
appears in transitions from a perfectly grave to a humorous
kind of
Marked difierences of tone are observThe humorous remark may be but a momen-
reflection.
able here also.
tary diversion of the attention, a playful side-glance, in a
serious argument.
Browne and
of
In some writings,
e.g.,
those of Sir Thos.
Lamb, the humorous element hardly amounts
momentary interruption, but is
to a digression, or even to a
fused into and half lost to sight in the serious argument.^
Among more
living,
^
recent writers,
too,
we have admirable examples
including
some
yet
of historical narrative
See Canon Ainger's Introduction to The Essays of Elia, p.
8.
HUMOUR
may
of
GRAVER WRITINGS
391
up here and there with soft glow-worm
humour. In other cases, the humorous feature
and criticism
points
IN
lit
be so large as to modify the colour of the whole,
as in Miss Kingsley's
again,
may
Travels in West Africa.
be as a whole a
jett d'esprit
An
Essay,
and the fun seem
manner is throughout that
more subtle work, as some
to preponderate, while the
of
grave argument
of
Charles Lamb's,
or,
;
it
in
may
be best described as fun sand-
wiched in between a look of seriousness on the surface,
and a
who
writers
A
meaning below.
real seriousness of
tones leaves
much
to be
The
desired in the case
fusion of
of
many
are popularly regarded as skilled humorists.
mere interruption of serious thought by a sort of playful
" aside "
which
does not prove the existence of the gift of humour,
is
essentially the
power
of
playing on moods not
only dissimilar but usually antagonistic in a
avoids
all
shock and sense of discontinuity.
way
that
392
CHAPTER
XII.
ULTIMATE VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OP LAUGHTER.
Our
study has taken us through various regions of research.
In looking for the germ of laughter we found ourselves in
In
the wide and misty plains of biological speculation.
we took
tracing its development
a dip into the pleasant
and anthropology, and then tried
Having
to climb the winding paths of social evolution.
reached in this way the heights of modern civilisation, we
vales of child-psychology
made
a special investigation into the social organisation of
laughter, as represented in the art of comedy,
gradual appearance of a
new type
and into the
of laughter, essentially
individual and independent of the social standard, to which
is
given the name of humour.
discovery
we have kept
Throughout
this
voyage of
view the question of the function
in
of the laughing spirit in the life of the individual
the community.
more
It
remains to determine this function
precisely.
In order to assign
its
proper place and
its
large spiritual tendency such as runs through
we must
more
is
and of
for a
diflScult
moment push our
value to a
human
mirth,
investigation into a yet
and obscure region, that of philosophy.
To
necessary for more than one reason.
begin,
we
This
can
hardly hope to reach a clear view of the worth of the
laughing impulse without the help of some clearly thought
view of
life
as a whole
;
and such a
"
Weltanschauung
PHILOSOPHIC POINT OF VIEW
393
seems only to be attainable at the level of philosophic
There
reflection.
is,
however, a second reason for entering
more remote and private domain
this
sophy
a carrying forward to
is
its
of knowledge.
velopment of that individual criticism of
as
we
far
It
would thus seem
to be desirable to inquire
along the road of philosophic speculation this
companionship of the mirthful
is
with which,
life,
have seen, the quieter tones of laughter associate
themselves.
how
Philo-
highest point of de-
may
This inquiry
possible.
spirit in
her quieter
mood
conveniently be pursued at
once as supplementary to our discussion of humour.
As pointed out in the chapter on the subject, reflective
humour grows out of a mutual approximation of two tendencies
w^ch seem to
the unexamining person to be directly
namely, the wholly serious turn
antagonistic,
for
wise
and the playful bent towards laughter. In philosophic humour, touched on in our survey of the laughable
reflexion
in literature, this antagonism seems at first sight to be
particularly sharp.
The
plain man, to
whom
philosophic
speculation presents itself as something remote from
human
a shock
interests as he conceives of them,
when he
hears that
at least, if not of a laugh
it
may
all
well receive
holds potentialities of a smile
—for the person who
engages in
and not merely for him who
looks on. It seems to be incumbent on us, therefore, to
try to make this drawing together of impulses which look
the occupation, that
so hostile a
little
The humorist,
is
more
as
to say,
intelligible.
we have viewed him,
is
able through
the development of his individuality to detach himself
many
of the
common judgments and much
of the
laughter of the particular community of which he
member.
tion,
He
develops his
own amusing mode of
from
common
is
a
contempla-
which involves a large substitution for the standards
VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OF LAUGHTER
394
of custom
of
reason.
to
and " common-sense," of the ideal standards
The habit of philosophic thought may be said
complete this uplifting of the individual to ideal heights^
and
concomitant process, the expansion of the view of
its
A
the irrational, the essentially unfitting, the amusing.
word must
suffice
way
to indicate the
in
which
it
doe&
this.
Philosophy, as
sciences,
we know, going
boldly beyond the special
pushes on to a deeper knowledge of things, and of
what we
these in their totality, of
call
has to envisage things in a
effort it
the universe.
way
sopher
may do
of things
by a
essentially different
The
from that of everyday observation.
In this
modem
philo-
his best to reach his conception of the reality
careful analysis of experience; yet in the
end his theory seems to have transformed our familiar
world beyond the possibility of recognition.
In
this philosophic re-construction of the real world,
his relation to nature,
and
It illustrates a powerful tendency to
sidered.
man,
have to be re-con-
his history
view human
and experience as a phase of a larger cosmic movement
determined by an ideal end. The introduction of ideal con-
life
ceptions,
by
lifting us
above the actual, seems to throw upon
the latter an aspect of littleness, of futility, of something
like the dishonour of failure.
The ideal requirement proves
hopelessly inapplicable to much, at least, of our everyday
world
;
so that, as long as
familiar things
with,
—say the
and a good deal
we remain at its point of view,
we happen to be thrown
persons
in ourselves, social experiments
even long
— take
periods
of
history
grow-
popular thought," and
ing out of some passing trend
of "
on the aspect
of
contradictions, of futile things that at least do not count,
if
they do not actually delay the fruition of the
So, too,
when philosophy becomes
ideal.
distinctly practical.
IDEAS AS BELITTLING THINGS
395
Whether we take happiness or moral perfection
realisation as the ideal
which unfolds
of the conduct
much
cluding
shows
Much
under our eyes,
we
venture
in-
and
apply an
seriously to
what men
doubtful value, and
at least of
to be of
itself
itself
of our own, begins to look sadly poor
shabby, as soon as
ideal as test.
or self-
end of men's conduct, a large part
praise as virtue
any
at
rate to
have received a laudation quite disproportionate to
its
true
worth.
Lastly, this belittling effect of ideas on everyday realities
is
seen
when philosophy
human
of which,
constructs for us the ideal type of
and of that confederacy
society,
now and
again,
it
has had
its
of civilised states
Under the
common-
dream.
searching rays of these ideal conceptions even the "
sense" to which "advanced" communities hold so tenaciously
may
begin to look something compacted rather of darkness
than of
The
those
light.
situation
would seem to
offer
room
modes of transforming the aspects
we have found
for
some of
of things
to be excitants of laughter.
which
If philoso-
phic contemplation effects a reduction of great things to
littleness, of
substances to illusory shadows, of the elevated
men to the level of barely passable dignities, it
Yet the fact
should, one may reason, help men to laugh.
that a philosopher has been known to the ages as the
laughing one suggests that mirth has not been a common
glories of
characteristic of his kind.
In order to understand
facts.
a taste
this,
we must
recall
one or two
For one thing, though seriousness may combine with
for the laughable, it is and remains fundamentally
opposed to the playfulness of mirth.
serious persons
arduous of
:
Philosophers are
their constructive thought
human
activities,
is
of the
most
and imposes on those who
\
VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OF LAUGHTER
396
undertake
tion.
an exceptional amount of serious concentra-
it
Little wonder, then, if
marked fondness for the
we
playful.
so rarely find in
them
a
The great and ineradicable
gravity of the philosopher has been sufliciently illustrated
in his theoretic treatment of our subject.
In addition to this general reason, there are others and
variable ones, differing with the kind of philosophic creed
adopted, and with the temperamental attitude of the indi-
vidual towards it. To begin with differences of creed, we
must remember that a philosopher's doctrine, while it may
invest our common world and our common life with an
may at the same time reduce these to
mere semblances by setting them in contrast to the ideal
region which it regards as the sphere of the veritable reahties.
aspect of indignity,
In this way, as in Plato's Idealism, we
gious tendency to
seeming
lift
evils of the
a doctrine,
if
the
may
see a quasi-reli-
follies,
world to the sublime
deceptions and
Such
verities.
consistently held, reserves but a small place
—save
for laughter
or escape.
men above
perhaps for the happy smile of release
Plato, the thinker of
many
moods, was able to
adapt his doctrine to attitudes widely different from the
half-poetic, half-religious
one to which on the whole he
leaned; and some of these proved to be compatible with
a delicate vein of mirth.
Perhaps one
munion with whom
erring mortals
height,
:
banter.
the serene indifference of those on the
and a mild good-natured
What
is
itself
interest in
little difficult
is
seen
to reconcile with their
remote altitude and the detachment of
;
what
to the softer kind of ironical
told us of the laughter of the deities
always, perhaps, a
proper to this
find in Plato a
the gods
his spirit aspired
below, which lends
is
may
—to com—towards luckless and
reflection of the different attitudes of
being, either in its
spirit
which seems
mocking
virulence, or
HIGH SPECULATION AND LAUGHTER
in its
close
397
good-natured familiarity, rather too suggestive of a
attachment to our race
;
for
which reason, by the way,
and still to
philosophers, if they wish to soar god-wards
keep a laughing down-glance on their fellows, should beware
they soar too high.
lest
How
high-pitched speculation tends to silence laughter
by withdrawing the philosopher too far from the human
scene may easily be seen by a glance at the historical
schools.
The Stoic and the Epicurean alike, widely dissimilar as were their views of the good and their moral
tempers,
took
Aristotle
had
into seclusion
them
bidden
the philosophic
combine
them
participation in the social life about
own manner,
in his
much
discreet
who remained
with
its
in
and
much on
the crowd.
its
the
Yet
striving after a passionless
excluded the idea of a laughing, quite
imperturbability,
as
a
to realise its self-sufficiency
of the unwise
the Stoical temper,
which
life
seeking, each
;
There, no doubt, they reflected
consolations.
follies
with
as of a pitying, survey.
Epicurean, though his theory of
On
life
the other hand, the
accentuated the value
of the tranquil pleasures, did not apparently find in his
Garden a corner for the quiet amusement
of a laughter-
bringing contemplation.
In this
mode
way
philosophy,
of thought
to dismiss
it
and
a new and ideal
common mode, is apt
by substituting
life
for the
and unreal, and so
humanity just because
as void of significance
to be unable to laugh at ordinary
has ceased to be interested in it. Yet all philosophising
does not thus belittle the realm of reality, as common
it
men regard
as
realities
temned
as
as rational
it.
Philosophers have been
known
to regard
the same particular things that Plato
mere shadows, and
what the
plain
man
to reconstruct
con-
and to justify
accepts as his world.
When
VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OP LAUGHTER
398
this goes so far
as
to
on the goodness of things
insist
human, and to say that the world as a whole is as perfect
as it can be, and thus in a new way, as it would seem,
to break
away from
common view, it
the
way
seriously threatens
Nothing, indeed, in the
the locus standi of the laugher.
would appear to be more fatal to
mind than an out-and-out optim-
of a theory of life
a mirthful temper of the
At most, laughter would take on the
ism.
aspect of the
serene gaiety of a happy and thoughtless girl
I suspect, in the case of
Abraham Tucker,
Leslie Stephen claims the character
humorist "}
;
for
as
it
does,
whom
Sir
a "metaphysical
of
have elsewhere shown,^ that a
It is true, as I
genial and tolerant laughter
may
predispose a man, should
he begin to philosophise, to adopt an optimistic theory of
the world.
Nevertheless, I believe that a firm grasp of
such a theory would tend to reduce very considerably the
scope of his laughter.
Stevenson
It is just as well, perhaps, that R. L.
—whose predominant
cheerful view of things
every
man
is
inclination to a hopeful
shown
clearly
carries his ideal hidden
away, as the Scotch boys
used to carry lanterns in a silent ecstasy
than his
letters
show him
to
and
in his idea that
—did not go farther
have gone, along the path of
philosophic construction.
If,
on the other hand, the manner of philosophic specula-
tion at once accepts the
common
facts of life as real,
yet as inherently and hopelessly bad, laughter
effectually excluded.
There may,
it
is
is
and
even more
true, be
room
in
the pessimist's creed for a grim irony, of which, indeed,
we
find a trace
now and
hauer and his followers
;
again in the writings of Schopen-
but for laughter pure and simple,
or even for laughter mellowed
by the compassion which
'English Thoiight in the Eighteenth Centv/ry,
'
See
my work on Pessimism,
p. 428.
vol.
ii.,
p. 110.
the
PHILOSOPHIC CREEDS AND LAUGHTER
399
pessimist bids us cultivate, there seems to be no breathing-
The
space.
state of things
is
too tragic to allow even of
a smile.
It
remains to determine the relation of one other tendency
in this
high thinking to the
philosophic scepticism, with
In
possibilities of laughter.
its insistence
on the relativity
of our knowledge and on the impossibility of attaining to
rational certainty,
we seem
to find a denial of
rather than a particular species of
Mstory of the subject shows,
it is
it
;
all
philosophy
nevertheless, as the
the outcome of a distinct
Now
and recurrent attitude of the philosophic mind.
scepticism does undoubtedly seem to
smile.
may
This smile
wear a rather malicious
be said to express an amusement
at the spectacle of illusions pricked,
which
tells at least
much against the high-soaring thinker as against the
man of common clay who relies on the intuitions of his
The sceptic's attitude leans, indeed,
"common -sense".
as
more towards that
of common-sense, in so far that, while
destroying the hope of absolute knowledge,
jpractical sufficiency of
it
urges the
we
such conjectural opinion as
are
able to reach.
Scepticism thus introduces another standpoint for the\»
laugher and adds to the
sum
of laughable things.
This
is
the standpoint of the practical
man and
common-sense, so far as this
knowledge shaped for the
guidance of
men
common-sense, as
social
phenomenon.
what we
the ordinary affairs of
in
its
is
of
name
plainly tells us,
is
call
This
life.
essentially a
Here, then, within the group of ten-
—that
dencies underlying reflection
is
to say, the
kind of
intellectual activity which marks the highest development
of the individual point of view we encounter the contrast
—
between this and the
social point of view.
able in our philosophic
moments
to
"
So
far as
see the fun of
we
it,"
are
as R.
400
VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OF LAUGHTER
Stevenson says apropos of a modern philosopher,
L.
the choir of common-sense laughers
as distinguished
—the
from the laughing
we
joitt
laughing realists
From
idealists.^
their
comedy plainly illustrates,
all highly abstract speculation looks amusing because of its
quaint remoteness from their familiar realities and interests |
point of view, as the history of
because, too, of a
keen suspicion
of its being a vain attempt
common
to soar above the heads of
mortals.
To
pull
down
the speculative soarer to his proper footing on our humble
earthcrust
mirth.
is
always a gratifying occupation to the lovers of
Even the
soarers themselves will sometimes give-
man
one another a kick downwards, the
of science loving
to have his joke at the expense of the unverifiable conceptions of the metaphysician,
and the
latter being
science itself
may, by
its
abstract methods,
sometimes
how
physical
manage
to strip-
lucky enough to turn the tables by showing
material things, the properties and laws of which
it sets
out
to explain, of the last shreds of reality.^
A word may serve to define the relation of philosophic
humour to the tendencies just indicated. Humour, we have
found, is characterised by an inclination to reflect, and to take
the large views of things which embrace relations
by
;
further,
a mirthful caprice of fancy in choosing for play-ground
the confines of issues felt
grows
all
distinctly philosophic
the time to be serious.
It
when, as in Jean Paul or his
disciple, Carlyle, the
contemplation of things breaks through
the limitations of
the
surmounts
" relative "
viewer's particular world-comer,
points of view, and regards
humanity
as a whole, with oneself projected into the spectacle,
as
nearly as possible as disinterested spectator.
'
See Dugas, op. cit, pp. 109, 110.
^
See, for
an excellent example
ism and Agnosticism,
vol.
i.,
Part
of this retort,
I.
Dr. James Ward's JJatwral-
THE HUMOROUS PHILOSOPHER
We
need not look for the philosophic humorist among
In these, as elsewhere,
zealous adherents of the schools.
a fervid devotion tends, through
ideas
401
and
its rigid fixation of
humour, which even in
reserve of space
for
among
effect
on
the point of view, to shut out
most serious vein loves an ample
wanderings in search of new
free
The humorist
aspects of things.
be found
its
narrowing
its
students
is
much more
who
likely to
philosophy
of
a
retain
measure of scholarly impartiality in relation to the competing creeds.
A full
to
development of humour in the philosopher seems
be impossible, save where the amusing aspects of specula-
tive soaring are
dimly recognised.
This
a study of the history of the subject
smile at the spectacle of a
adding a
new handle
man
may come
for
;
it is
through
hard not to
refurbishing and possibly
to one of the " systems "
which have
had their day (and more, perhaps) and undertaking once
more
A
to;
use
it
as a deadly
dash of the sceptical
weapon against the adversary.
spirit,
also
again to see the pretentiousness of
an
it all,
now and
would appear to
ability
be needful for a large humorous enjoyment.
One should
have, too, at least a side-glance for the fun of the proceed-
ing
when
the
human pygmy
tries the giant's
stride
by
offering us a definition of the absolute.
would seem, then, as if the philosophic humorist needed
two opposed points of view that of the thinker
who criticises actual life in the light of ideas, and that of
the practical man who takes his stand on the fact of primal
It
to combine
human
;
needs and seeks an interpretation of things which
will satisfy these.
He
should be able to soar with the
Platonist to the realm of Ideas, so as to enjoy the droll
aspect which men's behaviour assumes as soon as a
of light
is
made
to fall
on
it
26
glimmer
from the Universal Forms
VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OF LAUGHTER
402
less capable of taking up the standpoint
and common-sense, so far as to discern
a practical irrationality which lurks in any
and he should be no
of everyday reality
the element of
undue
insistence on these Ideas.
This combination in philosophic
tendencies
is
humour
illustrated in its attitude
of the worth of
towards the question
Since a humorist
life.
characterised
is
a certain depth and range of sympathy, he
way
accept the optimist's easy
ings of humanity.
to the obstinate
At
and inexpugnable
will not sink into
He
much
human
will see
in
struggle,
that
which
to sadden a compassionate heart, begins to
wear the shimmer of a smile as soon
as
he will be alive
reality of our concrete
on his buoyant laughter, he
even the large spectacle of
is
by
not likely to
of getting rid of the suffer-
this point, at least,
the pessimist's depths of complaint.
there
is
Yet, just because he insists on never losing
experiences.
his hold
two opposed
of
game played by
a sort of
as
we
envisage
it
destiny against our race.
Just as a glimpse of the provoking, almost malicious aspects
of the circumstances
may
stifle
which
or even a sotto voce laugh
;
looks out upon the larger
starting sigh checked
things.
irritate us in
the rising imprecation,
The
our smaller world
by bringing up
a smile
when a philosophic humorist
human scene, he may find the
so,
by a glance at the playful irony
mind will indeed readily find
reflective
of
in
the scheme of the world traces of an impish spirit that
must have
fair
its
practical joke, cost
what
it
may.
With
a
appearance of wise purpose, the destinies have con-
trived to combine just the
amount
to convey an intention of playful
of
bungling needed
though slightly mali-
cious teasing.
Thus, in the final evaluation of the world,
find its place.
Perhaps
it is
not too
much
humour may
to say that the
HUMOUR
word on man and
last
humorous
VALUATION OF WORLD
IN
our world, that a humorist, for
must always count
new Theodicy and say
struct a
best possible for
We
"
we have
as
The world
amusing contemplation
seen, the
might almost con-
as much,
:
ir-
in the structure of
is
at least the
". ^
have spoken of philosophy as hovering aloof from
common
our
whom,
and the
rational
seem to be interwoven
rational elements
spectacle
an opening for the
his destiny leaves
So quaintly do the
smile.
403
humour.
to erect
and
life,
this idea
might seem to exclude
of a utility in the exercise of a philosophic
all possibility
Yet even when men philosophise and so appear
about them a new cosmos, they remain in their
human world and
are doing something towards shaping
their relations to it
so that, after
;
we may
all,
not un-
reasonably look here, too, for some self -corrective function
some aid rendered by it to that adjustment
which is enforced on us all
in laughter,
of the self to its surroundings,
the exalted thinker no
less, let
us say, than his faithful
quadruped, whose world his master's strange habits
make
sadly complex.
The
first
humour
service of such a philosophic
plete the process of a laughing self-correction.
when we
rise to the
reflection
and
see our
own
com-
figure projected into the larger
we
cerns with
some approximation
our
to
higher point of view of a philosophic
whole, that
down
is
It is only
are able to estimate omrselves and our con-
the vast time
flitting part
to justness.
perspective
in the world.
we
And
first
As we look
fully
discern
the glimpse of the
dwarfed figure we cut in the vast assemblage of things,
followed
^
of
M.
by the
Soiierer
may
reflection
possibly
how
well
mean something
it
can
like this
work out
its
when he speaks
the humorist's point of view as the justest from which a man's world
can be judged (Essays on English Literatwe,
p. 148).
404
VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OF LAUGHTER
hidden purpose whether or not
may
scene,
suflBee
we happen
to be on the
fully to reveal to us the absurdity in
the crude exaggerations of our dignity, of our usefulness
and of our
troubles,
even
if it fail
smile,
and bring to the lips the corrective
to evoke the yet more valuable self-
purifying laugh.
A like
helpfulness
is
when we contemplate
brought us by philosophic humour
the whole
human
lot.
our world as a dwelling-place for man, there
for the exaggeration
tion at
what hurts
In estimating
is
surely
from a natural impatience at
us, or
being able to do so
little
when we undertake
to pronounce on the moral
our species.
It
is,
know, our only one
after
to better our estate.
all,
suffice to
may
worth of
we
at the requirements
bring the smile which
instantly corrects a disposition to decry
a glance
Similarly,
our world, and, so far as
and a side-glance
;
wisdom may
of a practical
room
which comes from a natural indigna-
it
overmuch.
Such
save us alike from the sentimentalities of the
cultivator of Weltsohmerz, from the foolish bitterness of the
misanthrope, and from the sadly unbecoming vanity of the
"
who teaches that the world and the instituhuman society exist for the sake of the man of
A friend of Carlyle tells me that the gloomy
philosopher
tions of
genius.
"
sage would sometimes, after pouring out one of his long
and savage
tirades
against things in general,
hold breath, and then
wards
to
more familiar
let
suddenly
himself be swiftly borne down-
levels
on the rapid of a huge laugh,
almost as voluminous, perhaps, as that of Teufelsdrockh,
which he has
so vividly described for us.
one conjectures, there came to him a
lucidity, in
In this way,
moment
of perfect
which he saw the absurdity of the overstrained
attitude likely to be produced
by undue
violence of emotion,
aided by an irrepressible turn for preaching to one's fellows
SERVICE OF PHILOSOPHIC HUMOUR
405
moment when, perhaps, the stubborn realities, which his
words had made a show of demolishing, were seen securely
a
standing and ironically smiling at his impotent rage.
In the foregoing account of laughter and
we
uses,
its
have sharply separated the individual from the social point
Fifty years ago, such a distinction would have
of view.
required no justification.
It seems, however, just
now
to
be the fashion to think of the individual as merely an anatomical detail, too small to be really distinguished, of the
" social
organism," and of his part on the earthly scene as
consisting merely in
its
best
is
making a small
which at
contribution,
a negligible quantity, to the eflBciency of this
organism.
This
is
At
not the place to argue so serious a matter.
may venture to keep
human values we must
the risk of appearing unfashionable, one
to the old notion that in counting
assign a high one to individuality;
the
community
that, for the
a proper freedom for the
itself,
own mind,
velopment of a man's
tastes,
and
sake of
full de-
character,
something which should be secured even at great cost
that,
were
this not so, society's claims
have well-defined
the right, and owes
limits,
is
and
on the individual
beyond which every man has
to himself as a primal duty, to de-
it
velop himself in the
;
way which his
may suggest
enlightened by reflection
natural inclinations
to him.
To
insist
further on this point would almost be to cast a slur on our
literature,
which contains some of the masterly pleadings
for individual liberty.
This freedom for individual
self -development clearly in-
own view of one's
much amusement as one can from
cludes a perfect right to form one's
world, and to derive as
a humorous contemplation of
it.
It could only be
something
akin to an awe-struck flunkeyism which would make a
406
VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OF LAUGHTER
To one who has
person hesitate here.
cultivated the re-
two
congenial friends, the following of the tortuous movements
of the laughable in all domains of human industry and of
quisite observation and taste in the fellowship of one or
human
indolence
the fun
so quickly
fore
is
one of the crowning
always old in
is
;
yet
we go on
it is
always new in
relishing
The indulgence
its
:
we respond
embodiments, where-
with an unabated keenness.
it
in this
felicities of life
essence, wherefore
its
mode
amusing contemplation
of
I readily grant, in a sense anti-social, that
is
is,
to say, opposed
what the laugher's community at the moment accepts as
fitting and as good. [When a tranquil observer of his social
to
world laughs at the pretences, at the
feel half -terrified at the
or it may be
may not improbably
futilities,
at the vagaries of its high dignitaries, he
sound of his laugh
;
so firmly has
our early schooling set in us a tendency to regard as
when they challenge big
"cheeky" schoolboy standing up to his
insolent upstarts all small things
ones: whether a
big senior, or a small country confronting a big one, or a
"petty" anti-war minority facing a "practically unani-
mous "
Insolence
people.
of reason not
which great things are
their right.
dicts of the
it
may
be,
yet perhaps to the eye
more contemptible than the genuine v^pi^
It
is
wont
in
to indulge freely as well within
indisputable, as urged above, that the ver-
many, when they appear
to fix the
away some
permanent
demands
of social
fruit of
experience slowly maturing with the ages, are
life,
or to store
of the precious
and a wise man will not hastily dismiss
any popular opinion which promises to have persistence.
On the other hand, it is no less clear that the views of minwhether singular or plural in number are exposed
orities
entitled to respect
;
—
—
to special risks of their own.
affect the contention that
Yet
this,
and more, does not
popular opinion, just because
it is
THE CLAIM OF THE INDIVIDUAL
popular,
almost completely relieved of that necessity of
is
which presses heavily upon
finding reasons for its assertions
a minority
407
what
and,
;
is
more
serious, is subject to various
and potent influences which are just as likely to lead to
An
error as to truth.
opinion which
may
be seen to result
from a mental process palpably warped by prejudice does
not grow valid merely
who adopt
it
by multiplying the number
for the increase
;
either of the simultaneous
may
of those
easily be the result,
working of a
like prejudice, or of
the contagion which propagates psychical states, as well as
among
physical,
At the
members
perfectly inert
the individual
Judes
ing her affection.
The limbs
of the body poHtic which find
by under- feeding, while the belly
may
bloated with over-feeding,
for not joining in the paeans
organism.
of his
have no particular reason for bear-
''
themselves emaciated
themselves
to
a
with which we are
now
of
remark.
even
social
himself to such a calm retreat.
the garden of Epicurus
may
that
amusement must leave
failure.
game and
shrug of the shoulders, and at
approaches
Those who would enter
dealing.
grudging and sense of
having played the
glories of the social
this line
our Judes or our starvelings betaking
laughter which
the gateway of this haunt of quiet
all
perhaps be forgiven
on the
Yet one need not urge
Little chance, alas, of
outside
claims.
community would,
allow that she has her favourites, and that some
of the obscure "
is
must urge that
and the society have their reciprocal
The most extravagant adulator
perhaps,
of a crowd.
risk of appearing insolent, then, one
Happy he who
lost can,
with a merry
least half a laugh,
He
will find one into
betake
which
be said to open, where he can
gather about him, at any rate, the congenial friends
are always ready to hold sweet discourse with
their books
;
patient friends
whom
who
him through
he cannot offend by an
VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OP LAUGHTER
408
unwise interruption, though unhappily they are out of reach
Here
of the gratitude which he would fain tender them.
he
may now and
again glance through the loopholes in the
wall and see each
social scene to
frhe
new day enough
of the drolleries of the
deepen his content.
evolutionist has accustomed us to the idea of the
fit, and the elimination of the socially
But more forces are at work in the
world than our men of science dream of. There is, oddly
survival of the socially
unfit sort of person.
enough, a force which favours the survival of the
unfit,
widely different from that supplied by others' preservative
benevolence
:
the impulse to adapt one's environment to the
organism by turning the world into
peculiarities of one's
a plaything.
How many men
communities of to-day
in one of the highly civilised
may have
learned to keep their heads
above the water by the practice of a gentle laughter, no one
knows
or will ever know.
It is
enough
to say that there
are such, and that after fully cultivating their gift of
humour they have found a world worth coming back
to,
with their part in which they will be perfectly contented.
Some of these, who would probably be called social failures
by the faithful adherent to conventional standards, have
been known to me, and have been reckoned among the
most delightful of
my
Society's
friends.
companions and most valued of
my
neglect of them, or their neglect of
society, has at least permitted
them
to develop the gift of
a wise and entertaining discourse.
I
—d
am
far from suggesting, however, that this
deux, or A peu de gens
Even
—
is
gay
in our much-extolled age a philosopher will
be found
who
is
solitude
only for the social failure.
sometimes
perverse enough to hold with Plato that
the mass of society are wrongheaded, and that he will best
consult his well-being
by seeking a wall
for shelter
from the
THE HUMORIST AND THE RECLUSE
Such an one may do worse
hurricane of wind and dust.
And
than betake himaelf to our retreat.
may
himself
man who,
a wise
enough for others "
out the small remnant of life " for
like Montaigne, feels that
and desires to
409
" live
he has lived
draw towards
appropriately
minding the shouts of
"
"
Old fogey
!
"
its
entrance, not
which come from be-
Nay, more, as already hinted, a man who feels that
world may be advised now and again to
hind.
his place is in the
the retreat,
enter
haply he
if
may
admission as a
find
guest.
It
may, however, be objected that even when a
man
thus
detaches himself as spectator from his society he perforce
remains at the social point of view in this sense, that the
critical inspection
which brings the coveted laugh involves
a reference to an ideal community.
The
objector might
find colour for his statement in the fact that
men, that
races,
is
to say,
who have
members
chiefly dwelt
from the crowd.
I
with such an objector
am
;
of the
most
it is
French-
sociable of
modern
on the delights of retirement
not greatly concerned to dispute
it is
my
enough for
purpose to say
that the point of view of our supposed contemplator
is far-
removed from that habitually adopted in any community
which one could instance. As such, it stands clearly enough
marked
ofi'
as individualistic.
To
this it
may
be added that
in that kind of laughter at the social spectacle
which pre-
supposes philosophic reflection, the point of view
longer in any sense that of a particular
community
become that of a human being, and so a
system of communities which composes the
I do not
will
it
has
citizen of that
civilised world.
which at the moment he
enough to regard himself as a
feel
no
doubt that during this laughing contemplation
of the social whole, of
serious
:
is
society pulling
at
his
is
not
part, the individual
heels.
The detachment
VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OF LAUGHTER
410
from his community, though it fall far short of the
abandonment of the recluse, will, as already hinted, be
felt to be a revolt.
When, glancing back at the crowd
wreathing
a dust-cloud, he laughs with his large
itself in
from rancour, he
laugh free
may
catch
a glimpse
absurdity of his critical performances.
the
we meet
the
encounter
when the
between
contradiction
final
and obdurate everyday
ceptions
facts.
of
Here, again,
It
con-
ideal
is
a
foot of pure intellect, just as
droll
it
is
parting from the solid earth, strikes against the sturdy
frame of philistine common-sense, of
of
is
"
that which subdues us
The individualism
philosophers included.
all,"
view in a laughing contemplation of one's
when
only surmounted
draws the laugher's
We may now
a large philosophic
self into
of the point
social
world
humour thus
the amusing scene.
better define the attitude of the humorist
in its relation to that of the comedian and of the satirist.
The comic
projects
spirit,
placing itself at the social point of view,
group of individuals.
of
an
into
age,
may
an object of
it
is
Satire,
eccentric
when
it
individual,
attacks the
derision.
like,
Humour,
though in
its
as
we have
may
it
seen,
laughter at the social
neither passionately vindictive nor concerned
with the practical problem of reforming a world.
this
or
manners
be said to project the society, turning
sometimes does the
scene
show an
laughable
as
be
by sympathy
now added
it
tends,
width of dontemplation
To
that as a sentiment nourished
when something
is
of
philosophic
reached, to combine the social
and the individual mode of projection by taking up the
self into
the spectacle of the whole.
Enough has been
said, perhaps,
on the developments of
individual laughter.
Its point of
view seems on inquiry
SUMMARY OF USES OP LAUGHTER
to justify itself as a distinct
some idea
of the
ways
411
and a legitimate one.
With
of this, as well as of the larger
we
laughter of societies and groups,
form an estimate of the
should be able to
final significance
and
utility of
the laughing impulse.
Laughter, born of play, has been seen above to possess
Throughout the evolution of communi-
a social character.
from the
ties,
observed
taking a considerable part in the
it
we have
common life,
savage-like tribes upwards,
first
helping to smooth over difficulties of intercourse, to main-
what
tain
to ask
valued, and to correct defects.
is
under
what
this head,
as a social force,
is
its
and what indications of the future can
be discovered in the tendencies which
social
remains
It
whole value to-day
we
note in
its later
developments.
These questions appear to be best approached by a reference to the results of our study of comedy.
higher forms, has
shown
of the attitude of a
something in
though
a
it
its
may
members which
not regard
is
it
This, in its
be the clear expression
community, when
more violent mode
dismissed
itself to
it
it
would laugh away
sees to be
as serious
unfitting,
enough to
That which
call for
is
thus lightly
always something which looks
anti-social,
whether or not
it
of ejection.
takes on for moral reflection the aspect of
a vice.
A common
claim for
to
it
it
tendency among writers on comedy
is
to
the value of a moral purgative, to attribute
the power of effecting directly a process of self-
correction in the spectator.
Even Congreve and Vanbrugh,
Jeremy Collier, pre-
in their defence of their plays against
tended that they were reformers of the world.
This agreeable supposition will not, one fears, bear critical
inspection.
One
objection, just touched on, is that
comedy
412
VALUE. AND LIMITATIONS OP LAUGHTER
does not deal a blow straight at the immoral, as the language
of Aristotle
and
of
some
of his citers appears to suggest.
This circumstance seems to stand seriously in the
its effecting
Nor does
a moral purification.
merry contemplation
far from the customary
to
of correction behind.
of the
tendency of
way
of
the holding up
men
to stray too
imply a serious purpose
social type,
Though she may wear a shrewishly
Comic Muse is at heart too gay
corrective expression, the
to insist on
any
direct instruction of her audience.
A glance
at her stem-eyed sister. Satire, will convince us of this.
On
the other side,
show makes
fatal
extremely unlikely that he should at the
it
moment apply
the object-lesson so as to discern the laugh-
own
able side of his
that a
we meet with another and more
the mental pose of the spectator at the comic
objection:
man
is all
One remembers here
making such a self-application
shortcomings.
too slow in
even in the serious surroundings of a church, where a
remark, pointed perhaps with a significant turn of the finger
speak of ruder times),
(I
is
recognised
by
all
but himself
we expect
as specially aimed at him; and if so, how
a spectator at a comedy, in the playful mood which has no
room for any serious thought, to rub in the moral medicament supplied him ?
can
Such
purification as is possible can,
/When
indirect.
it is
plain, be
only
Lessing writes "the whole of morality
has no more powerful and efiective preservative than the
laughable " he seems to imply this indirectness.
the provocative lurks in the immoral,
laughter at the comic exhibition
phylactic.
By
may
we
So
far as
can say that our
serve as a useful pro-
tracing out, with the guidance of the comic
poet, the unsuspected developments
and
effects of a failing,
we
may be furthering our moral salvation through the setting
up
of a
new
internal safeguard.
If the tendencies should
MORAL CORRECTION
IN
COMEDY
413
on thrust up their ugly forms in ourselves, the fact
having laughed at them may make a considerable
later
of our
and energy
difference in the swiftness
The
repression.
movement
of the
fear of becoming ridiculous,
of
which grows
and so more serviceable in one who has made
acquaintance with comedy, is a valuable side-support of what
better defined
we
is
call
moderation and reasonableness in
entitled to her
may
Yet we
men and comedy
;
modest meed as one of our health-preservers.
go wrong here, doing an offence to
by taking her words too seriously.
any rate, as if she wanted much more to
easily
our gay enchantress
She
looks, at
please us than to
improve
us.
In considering her aim one
is
reminded, through a relation of contrast, of what Aristotle
between pleasure and virtue.
said about the connection
The good man, he
tells us,
the more satisfied
if
though aiming at virtue, will be
pleasure comes
by the way, giving
a kind of unexpected finish to the virtuous achievement..
The
art of
comedy merely reverses the order
directly at pleasure,
but
is
wise to object to furthering virtue
collateral result of
The comedy,
:
she aims
far too good-natured
if
and too
comes as a
this
her entertainment.^
at once wise
and gay, of a past age seems
to have parted from us
and one would look in vain to
newer developments of the art for any considerable in;
struction
in
the
lesser
be carried on by such
obligations.
Nor is the
communal laughter likely to
social
corrective function of a large
new forms
satire," in so far as these
of art as our " social
can be said to keep at the point
of view of the good sense of a community.
The tendency
to-day seems to be rather to force a laugh from us at some
bizarre extravagance of
1
On
manners, which
we
the moral function of comedy see Bergson, op.
and Dugas,
op.
cit.,
pp. 149-159.
could never
cit.,
pp. 201, 202,
VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OP LAUGHTER
414
think of as a possibility for ourselves
;
or,
on the other hand,
to bring us near a cynical point of view, at which the current
and
of our laughter becomes shallow
point of view which has
little, if
slightly acidulated, a
any, promise of a moral
stiffening of the self against insidious attack.
In
spite
of
this,
laughter,
remains a social
force.
that
even
to
believe
A
or the potentiality of
a
political
checked by the fear of laughter
is
probable that the
men
of
now
"
dread laugh
of a conspiracy
leader
—on
sometimes
is
the other side.
It
good sense in every community
are kept right more than they
echo of the
it,
measure of faith enables one
".
know by
If there
the faintly heard
is
a danger just
between a half-affected over-serious-
ness on the one side and an ignorant pretentiousness on
the other, in order to banish the full genial laugh of other
days,
We
we may
be allowed to pray fervently for
its failure.
have seen a tendency to claim too much in the way
of serious function for the laughter of comedy.
desire to emphasise its practical
utility,
which
This
to
is
be
looked for perhaps in a people too pragmatic to seize
the value of light things,
is
illustrated in a curious
mostly forgotten dispute as to the
and
fitness of ridicule to
The debate was opened by Shaftesbury, who maintained its fitness, and was carried on by
Warburton, Karnes and others. Much of it reads quaintly
be a test of truth.
naive to-day.
a
Shaftesbury's paradox almost sounds like
malicious attempt
to
caricature
the
theory
of
Prof.
W. James, referred to in an earlier chapter of this work.
To suggest that we know a piece of folly, say that
of Malvolio, to be folly because we laugh at it, is surely
to be thrusting on our laughter a dignity
unmerited, and, one
may
which
add, does not become
is
it.
quite
This
point was not held to in the discussion, which, as I have
EXAGGERATION OF USES OF LAUGHTER
shown elsewhere, soon became a contest about the
and the
There
restraints of laughter.
rights
^
a like risk of exaggerating the useful function
is
the service of laughter to the individual.
in estimating
deep penetration of mind
No
415
is
needed for perceiving
that a lively sensibility to the touch of the ludicrous will
man
expose a
3,3
we have
dull, are likely to
take offence,
the fine shades, a quick eye for drolleries
Hkely to bring situations of danger.
must be considered in appraising the
to a
This drawback
total value of laughter
man.
With respect
a,
so far
not with those who, like Mr. Meredith's entertaining
ladies, cultivate
is
all of us,
world and consort with those
who, being both solemn and
if
To
to considerable loss.
to live in the
to its function as aiding the individual in
healthy self-correction, enough has been said.
truth, no small advantage to be able to blow
carking care with a good explosion of mirth.
world
is
much with
now and again
us,
we
shall be likely to
as a protection
It
is,
in
away some
And
if
the
need laughter
from contact with much
and much that is unwholesome. Yet, in this
case, too, the chief value seems to reside in its immediate
result, the gladdening and refreshing influence on the
that
is silly
laugher, which has in
consolatory.
aside
This
now and
have to
"
it
a virtue at once conciliatory
it
which makes
is
it
and
so good to step
again from the throng, in which
we
too
may
swink and sweat," so as to secure the gleeful
pastime of turning our tiresome world for the nonce into
an entertaining
spectacle
;
amusing
ourselves, not
merely as
^The reference is to an article, "Ridicule and Truth," in the Gornhill
Mctgaeme, 1877, pp. 580-95. Leaaing's plea, in his JSambwrg. Dramatn/rgie
(Stiioke 28 and 29), on behalf of a corrective virtue in comedy owed something, I suspect, to the reading of Shaftesbury and the other English
writers.
VALUE .AND LIMITATIONS OP LAUGHTER
416
Aristotle teaches,^ in order that
we may be
because our chosen form of amusement has
and
serious,
its
own
but
value
excellence.
It
is
one thing to assign to laughter a definite ethical
or logical function, another to ask whether
among
the worthier
human
some have denounced
as a thing irreverent
it
how
it
We
not come further into the present discussion.
only to ask what kind of dignity
place
would seem,
That view does
not unclean.
if
its
have seen
indiscriminately as
it,
has
it
We
qualities.
have
has.
It is assumed here that we exclude the more malignant
and the coarser sorts of laughter. A considerable capacity
for the pure
may
mirth which the child loves
man who
be said to provide for the
of the child
in
— supplemented
him
humorous contemplation
of things
is,
by
—and
comedy
keeps something
a turn for the
I venture to think,
not merely compatible with the recognised virtues, but, in
and in the tendencies which
itself
human
This
excellences.
saying of Carlyle
it
implies,
among the
by the
certainly suggested
No man who
"
:
is
has once heartily and
wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad "}
may
We
not be able to rise to the point of view of R. L.
when he wrote, " As laborare so joculari est
orare
yet we may be inclined to think that it is impossible to construct the idea of a man who can be described
as decently complete without endowing him with a measure
Stevenson,
;
" ^
humour.
of
men
Whatever our view
of the " Good," reasonable
of all schools appear to allow
some value
among which
for pleasure, especially the social pleasures,
laughter, even
when
On
jf^
i
*
iSartor Besarius, loc.
seems to retire into solitude, always
it
keeps a high place.
^
cit.
to a capacity
its intellectual side,
Ethics, Bk.
^
again, as the
X., 6.
Letters, vol.
ii.,
p. 302.
LAUGHTER AS WORTHY QUALITY
417^^
play of mind, the mirthful disposition has an intimate
relation to such valuable qualities as quickness of insight
and
In the light entertaining form of witty
versatility.^
talk it takes
Best of
on a
social quality of
no mean value.
laughter of the genial sort carries with
all,
it,
and helps to develop, kindly feeling and the desire to
It
please.
though
is
He who
too often forgotten that a mirthful spirit,
may
it
offend, is a large source of
^world for those
qualify a
and
it
joy to others.
produces a laugh of pure gladness brightens the
man
who
to
hear him.
become one
Fertility in jests
of the
human
may
benefactors;
has been claimed for Falstaff, with some reason,
that he " has done an
immense deal
and promote positive happiness
to entertain
".^
to alleviate
which gives to laughter much of
an educator of the sympathies.
misery
It is this implied
its
wish
value as
Nothing, indeed, seems
promote sympathy more than the practice of laughing
to
Family
together.
reasonable freedom
affection
is
mishaps and blunders.
grows in a new way when a
allowed to laugh at one another's
One reason
for this, perhaps,
is
that
the consciousness of our having laughed at our friends and
been laughed at by them, without injury to friendship,
gives us the highest sense of the security of our attach-
ments.
When
a friend laughs "as love does laugh"
quote Mr. Meredith's
Rosamund — with
—to
the laugh which
only half-hides a kindly sentiment, say, a wish to help
you
more
laughter at
^
away what wiU vex or harm you, it binds
securely.
Even our comparatively soKtary
things, when no appreciative sharer is at hand.
to laugh
hearts yet
See what Aristotle says about the witty {eirpdweXoi,
turning, nimble-minded), Ethics, Bk.
^Mr. Radford, in an
article
on
literally,
the easy
iv., 8.
Falstaff, in
(First Series).
27
Mr.
Birrell's Obiter dicta
418
VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OF LAUGHTER
may,
if
itself
with and bring into play the sympathetic side of
only
has the tolerant good-natured tone, connect
it
If there is in laughter this element of a deeper
we
shall
do well to view jealously any undue imposition of
The
restraints.
dangers of
history of popular mirth points to the
this.
That some regulation
social pressure
of the impulse, both external
and internal by a man's own
required, does not need to be argued.
is
impulse,
forms.
us.
humanity,
by
self-restraint,
The laughing
when unchecked, has taken on ugly and deadly
If men have endowed their deities with mirth
they have also endowed their
Society
fiends.
is
right in
her intuitive feeling that an unbridled laughter threatens
her order and her laws. Specific injuries done by ribald
jests,
by
e.g.,
may have to be dealt with
men know, as also that society
to religious convictions,
the magistrate.
This
all
when she seeks to maintain the dignity of social
by putting down with a gentler hand all unworthy and unbecoming laughter, and to observe vigilantly
acts wisely
converse
the " hypergelast "
Aristotle's
—a
low jesters
species that includes others besides
(^co/j.o'X.oxot)
—who,
if
he does not,
either maliciously, or through sheer heaviness and awk-
wardness of
gait,
will at least
kick sharply against some sensitive place,
weary decent men with
all
the weariness of
the bore and something more.
well to bear in mind that such imposition of reby external authority should be also self-restraining.
If laughter has its uses, not only for him who laughs but
for him who is laughed at, these should be borne in mind
in determining the amount of restriction desirable.
This
Yet
it is
straint
wise caution
is
especially needed
authority seeks to repress
itself.
It
would never
is
when
the laughter which
likely to be directed against
do, for
example,
if
the fine world
CONTROL OF LAUGHTER BY SOCIETY
were at liberty to put down satires on
its
419
vulnerable man-
Divines of the solemnity of Barrow and Warburton
ners.
might do
much harm,
if
they could succeed in silencing
the ridicule of the half -believers and the sceptics.
Those in
authority hav^ a special reason for remembering here the
maxim
"
noblesse oblige
''
;
and even should they be lacking
commonwealth, a
in a wise care for the well-being of the
measure of shrewdness will advise them that they will
do well to pass a self-denying ordinance.
Let them not
more afraid of laughter than their predecessors, but
welcome it, not merely as a symptom of vitality in
be
rather
those
who
indulge in
against surprise
story of the
it,
but as a sign of alertness in citizens
by stealthy-footed
modem
written, it will be
"
evil.
emancipation of
Perhaps when the
women " comes
to be
found that the most helpful feature of the
movement was the laughing criticism poured upon it; a
criticism which seems not unnatural when one remembers
how many times
like it
;
before
droll aspects
laughed at something
of the spectacle of a sex setting
assert itself chiefly
A
men have
and not so unreasonable to one who perceives the
by aping the ways
about to
of the rival sex.
statesman, having a large majority behind him,
would
probably best show his wisdom by discouraging the laughter of his
own
side
and instructing it how to welcome that
Yet the quaint look of such a
of the despised minority.
suggestion reminds one that the idea of adding
statesmanship
is
wisdom
to
as far from realisation to-day as in the
time of the Greek philosophers.
I
have spoken of a community's
controlling its
peoples
own mirth
who seem
in
self-restraint in relation
Of the duty of
view of the feelings of other
to the laughter of its individual
members.
to have a right to their slices of the planet
there should be no need to speak.
It
may be enough
to hint
VALUE-AND LIMITATIONS OP LAUGHTER
420
when touching on
that a comic journal will do well,
delicacy, to exclude
some
ternational matters of
drawings irritating details, such as the figure of a
not only
but
in
lest
lest
from
inits
monkey
the foreigner consider himself to be insulted,
one of the very gentlemen for whom
some old-fashioned impulse
writes, stung
it
of chivalry, feel tempted to
give a too violent expression to his indignation.
Of the
control of laughter as a part of the self-government
of a wise
man,
little
especially one's
hearted
man
own,
in a
need be
may
mesh
A
said.
the appetite of wit in
is
meals.
There are the
relish for jokes,
of cruel consequences.
have been found to be trying to their
ate
keen
entangle the feet even of a kind-
its
families, so importun-
demand
for regularity of
duplicities of laughter
sometimes impose even on one
who
The witty
is
which may
in general a kindly
laugher, the note of malice stealing in unnoticed.
It is
only when the lively tendency to mirthful utterance
is
found in a sympathetic nature, side by side with a cultured
an adequate
susceptibility to the pain of giving pain, that
self -regulation
has
known
a laugher in
may
of one
Each of
be counted on.
man, at
least,
us,
perhaps,
deserving to be called
whose mirthful utterances one would look in
who seemed never to be
vain for a trace of malice, and
surprised
I
by the temptation
to risk a touch on sore places.
cannot but recall here one already alluded to
seemed to embody the
only as the just man,
ideal of his teacher Aristotle
who
it
were a law
not
of set purpose acts justly, but as
the refined and gentlemanly
being as
—one who
man who
to himself
regulates his wit,
—from
behind whose
wistful eyes a laugh seemed always ready to break.
If
no such kindly laugher, one may study
the characteristics of the species in the Essays of Mia.
one knows
A
of
perfect self-control in the matter of laughter pre-sup-
SELF-CONTROL
poses
much more than
IN
LAUGHTER
421
a dread of inflicting pain upon the
whether he be the object of the laughter or ready to
identify himself with that object.
It calls for a fine sense
hearer,
what
of the seemly, of
one whose rSle
is
It is not too
is fair.
much
the detection of the unseemly in others
that he should himself avoid unseemliness.
well to
remember that nothing
wrong moment
is
He
will
do
worse than a jibe at the
:
Risu iuepto res ineptior nulla
When
to ask of
est.
serious things are being discussed the attempt to
what might flatteringly
argumentum ad risum " is one of the actions
hide poverty of argument under
be called an
which
''
belittle
men.
The wariness proper
to one
who
bears so keen-edged a
weapon wiU go farther and prompt him to ask whether
the thing
which entertains the eye
is
meet for laughter.
For example, our poor language being what
a form of words
which
dissection to hide
the use of
it is,
may be shown by another's
under
its
plain
elaborate
meaning a second meaning
derogatory to the speaker, does not, perhaps,
make
the latter
quite legitimate quarry for the former's ridicule.
a fine sense of justice to detect the line
is
fair
from what
A perfectly wise
is
for laughter
unfair in such a case.
direction of laughter will call for other
fine discriminations.
game
A word or action may be quite proper
when it smacks of conceit, though but
for this it should have been passed by.
is
conceit
among men,
so noxious
is it,
So rampant indeed
so low a degree
and
of sensitiveness in the moral integument does
that even the discreet laugher
may
indulgence in view of one of
its
On
It needs
which divides what
it
connote,
allow himself unstinted
unmistakable eruptions.
the other hand, a sense of the true values of things will
VALUE -AND LIMITATIONS OF LAUGHTER
422
some mani-
lead the wise to abstain from laughter where
festation of the beast in
mode
a less gentle
Nor
man
obtrudes
and requires
itself
of expulsion.
good man's self-regulation cease when there
will a
He will see how the habit of a reckless
may have a bad reflex eifect on his own nature how,
example, it may rob him in one moment of the perfection
are no hearers.
mirth
for
;
of an old reverence for something beautiful
sweetening the fountains of
drop of bitterness
;
how
it
afiection, it
;
how, instead
may
may smuggle
of
introduce a
in something of
that pride and that contempt which dissociate men.
I
have here emphasised the higher moral reasons which
will urge the good
man
to restrain his laughter.
add certain prudential reasons.
here, laughter is an escape
we keep
it
within
One might
as has been maintained
from the normal, serious attitude
which living well imposes on
that
If,
us, its
wise cultivation means
Only where there
limits.
is
a real
earnestness and good feeling at bottom, will our laughter be
in the full sense that of the
in this full
way
mind and the
at a collapse of dignity
retain a respect for the true dignities.
To laugh
heart.
means that we
If the laugh
grows
too frequent and habitual this respect will be undermined,
and, as one result of this moral loss, our laughter itself will
shrink into something void of meaning and mechanical.
The perpetual
giggler, to
whom
nothing
is
knows the flavour of a good laugh.
The impulse to laugh will always take
from the moral nidus in which
sacred, never
its
germinates
it
complexion
;
and the
good man, tender, and mindful
of the dues of reverence,
ennobles the mirthful temper.
It seems, indeed, in such
a moral milieu to become an expression, one of the most
beautiful,
of
goodness.
It
assures
genuineness of virtue, and brings
it
us
somehow
of the
nearer to us as some-
THE WORTHY TYPE OF LAUGHTER
human
thing
and malice,
made
without
touch of pride
and beneficent by expansive sympathies.
be maintained, then, not only that a
may
that
but
all
takes on the look of a child's joyousness
it
large
It is to
laughter
Free from
to be loved.
423
thrive in the soil of a good
soul
this
will
full rich
man's soul,
remain incompletely developed
This doctrine seems flatly to contradict great
it.
Pascal and the rest.
authorities,
that there
really
is
Yet
no contradiction
it
here.
may
be shown
The laughter
which Pascal, Addison, and the others denounce,
sorts, and,
what
output of
"
men
to
may
be claimed to be one of the posses-
which they should jealously
posed to say what Walpole
fashionable
aesthetes
at
said of the
as
youth and
still
more
bright
R
and
L.
it
may
with a few,
Stevenson,
comrade on the sick-bed.
which good fellowship loves to
was any-
It supplies diversion
".
in age,
did with Heine and
it
doings of the
" there never
Bath,
thing so entertaining or so dull
in
It
cling.
what is always tending to grow a
which at times the onlooker is dis-
world, and of
dull
mind ".
the vacant
gaiety into
brings
not
hardly a jot more sufferable, the reckless
is
Laughter, then,
sions of
is
humorous kind, but the coarse and brutal
the genial and
It
feed.
is
the
remain
a
manna on
And, so many-sided
may be recommended as a planer for moral ridges,
and it may add the last touch to the character-picture which
every man is engaged in painting.
It will graciously
accompany us when we visit the nursery and try our
is
it, it
cumbrous hand
will
we betake
If
at the art of entertaining childhood
not forsake us
it
if
we
care for
its
;
and
—when
company
ourselves to the graver occupations.
this is true it
to put
—
would seem as
if,
instead of trying
down, we should seek to promote the laughing
VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OP LAUGHTER
424
Yet here one must be
habit in ourselves and in others.
For one thing, the
careful.
man
whom
to
expected to assist in an effort to render
which
believe and of self-inflation, on
implies
lack of
a
men
an
of
better
the spectacle of folly, of make-
that
else
hardly be
He knows
equal quickness in mirthful response.
than any one
all
counts as
it
can
happiness
of
ingredient
considerable
a
his laughter is fed,
the finer laughter of the mind in
all
the great majority of his fellows.
on his
of suicidal madness, then,
would be an
It
act
transform
part, to try to
his social world into a body of laughter-loving men and
women. Happily for the " gelast," such a transformation is
beyond the powers of any conceivable society of laughterHumorous men must continue with perfect
promoters.
serenity of mind to put up with being a " contemptible
minority
".
Not only
it
in the interests of the lover of laughter
well that he cannot impose his merry habit
men
The wise man
alike.
sorts
all
ability
to
of
make our
on
remember that it takes
and that the desir-
will
social world,
the laughing capacity varies
greatly with a
man's disposition, habits of mind and circumstances.
those, for example,
who
perception, especially
dull
life, or,
if
are of sensitive feeling
called
be a real need
appreciation of
Some
to all the notes of
hearts of
life's
with circumstance,
many
On
chords, resonant
music, might break but for the
the other hand,
only do very well without
it,
be true of
many
excellent
her transform-
many worthy
people not
but might be at a
advantage by possessing the endowment.
to
may
laughable
the
timely comings of the laughter-fay with
ing wand.
To
and keen
on to lead an oppressively
like Goldsmith, to wrestle
a broad and quick
is
all
This
dis-
seems
men and women whose
CLAIMS OP THE AGELAST
special
bent
is
and
thought
towards
moral
rigorous
a
on
energy
425
some
to the world.
half
shadow
of
they bear about with them a special kind
;
self-consciousness,
of
Such
mission.
persons appear ever to dwell in the subduing
their cause
of
concentration
sense
a
Laughter
Nor can
a sigh.
of
their
indispensableness
not for these,
is
we say with
one supposes, find the needed
it,
and sunlight in persons who hold imposing rank or
office, and have to be daily concerned with maintaining
air
a proper
awe
in others
;
or in those
who have
a deep-
and imperturbable self-complacency, or those who
solemnly preoccupied with the momentous business
placed
are
of raising
their social
Probably nobody, save
dignity.
perhaps a waiter, has to be set more securely above the
temptation to laugh than a
man
qualifjang for his
first
dinner parties.
The
"
case of these hopelessly confirmed
very strong one.
Those of us who prize the free circulation
of laughter as that of a sea-air,
to the closeness of
agelasts " is a
and are disposed
to object
mental atmosphere which seems to enfold
the devoted, shall do well
to
remember how much the
world owes to a lack of humour in
its citizens.
If Rousseau
had been a great laugher we should certainly never have
had his picturesque and instructive attack on civilisation
and all that flowed from it. Would Dante and Milton and
the other builders of the vast and sombre architecture of
verse have achieved their task if the laughing imp had
been pulling vigorously at their coat
tails
?
How many
our valuable social institutions would have been built up
of
if
the beginners had been keenly alive to the absurd aspects
of
the bunglings which
attempts
?
Let those
are
who
only from an enlightened
wont
to
characterise
first
laugh, therefore, be ready, not
self-interest,
but from a becoming
VALUE AND LIMITATIONS OF LAUGHTER
426
"
esteem for alien virtues, to allow the
agelasts " their place-
in the world.
in
The foregoing considerations suggest that
any
may
waste much precious time in trying the experiment
on a member of
and
if
effort
A man
to promote laughter we should move cautiously.
A
his family.
waggish schoolmaster, too
—
he
is to be found
may,
meet with nothing but
Perhaps some good "tests of humour'''
to the credit of the profession
he experiment in
disappointment.
this direction,
would be helpful here
;
but the daily papers have not yet
succeeded in inventing a satisfactory one, and the psychological laboratories have, wisely perhaps, avoided the problem.
the business of testing would comprise some
Moreover,
examination of the quality of the
humour "
"
expressed, lest
the pedagogue should be fostering in a boy a kind of growth
which he
much
is
for
more
possible, should be
it
serious purposes
:
a person's laughter are one
may
of the best clues to his character,
being allowed
for,
undertaken
the saying of Goethe„
since
by
that the directions taken
differences
Perhaps, indeed, this
better without.
testing of quality, were
be found to apply,,
raw
the
to
stripling.
In
undertaking any such investigation of youthful mirth, the
investigator
would need
sounds themselves
it is full
may suspect that
young laugh,
early sophistication a
as
to note the quality of the expressive
for one
;
and unhindered,
at gauging a boy's
do worse than
remark of one
humour
is
as pure
a rarity.
in these days of
and
For a
attempt
the schoolmaster might, perhaps,
select the following test, suggested
of
my
his case, excites the
call,
by a
most learned and most respected
one which, in
friends, that the situation referred to is the
you made a
clear of tone
first
most hearty merriment
:
"
Supposing
and having placed your hat on a
inadvertently proceeded to
sit
on
it
;
how would you
chair
feel
?
TESTING CAPACITY OF LAUGHTER
427
A
more manageable problem for the pedagogue would
try, now and again, to force back the bolts
discipline and approach the boy with a judicious over-
seem to be to
of
It is refreshing to find that this has recently
ture of fun.
been recommended by a highly respectable journal of the
profession
which writes
by a
" It is
"}
be to encourage boys to
Next
to this, the
below the moral level of the
This part of the schoolmaster's business
estimable savage.
certainly not neglected in our country,
little
many
aim would
bear the discipline of others'
laughter, so that they fall not
even been a
work
dislike to
bit of fun, that is accountable for
a difficulty in discipline
is
no inherent
but the absolute necessity of relieving
or to the teacher,
a dull lesson
:
and perhaps has
overdone.
The gift of humour will save a man from many follies,
among others that of attempting the office of prophet. This
has
its
proper domain, for example in astronomy, though
even in certain ambitious departments of physical science
begins to look like presumption.
of
human
affairs
To bring
it
it
into the region
smacks of a juvenile confidence which has
not begun to define
its logical
not risk the illustrating of
Hence I
boundaries.
my subject
by a
shall
forecast of the
future of laughter.
It
may
be enough to say that, at the fraction of a second
of the cosmic clock at
which we happen to
live, certain
tendencies are observable which appear to have some bearing
on
this question.
hardly
call
The most
cheerful of
men would
the present a mirthful moment.
We
perhaps
seem to
have travelled during a century or more very far from the
serene optimism which dwelt fondly on the perfectibility
1
Tlte
Journal of plication, Nov. 1901, p. 687.
VALUE, AND LIMITATIONS OP LAUGHTER
428
of
mankind.
at
all,
we
we grow
If
enthusiastic about man's future
our minds run on the perfectibility of his
This fact in itself suggests that we are not
let
machines.
likely to find an exceptional exuberance of the mirthful
Writers, too, have emphasised the fact that the
spirit.
dull, is certainly not gay.
An essayist, not long
taken from us, has written sadly about the decline of the
old frank social laughter i and another, writing of FalstafF
age,
not
if
;
says that, though
by laughter man
beasts, the cares
and sorrows
him "
is
distinguished from the
of life
have
all
of this distinguishing grace, degrading
solemnity
but deprived
him
to a brutal
". ^
That the old merry laughter of the people has lost its full
resonance has been remarked above, and it may be possible,
while avoiding youthful dogmatism, to conjecture to some
extent
To
how
come about.
this loss has
begin,
it
popular mirth
is
seems fairly certain that the decline of
only a part of a larger change, the gradual
disappearance of the spirit of play, of a
to the
mood
of light enjoyment.
full
self-abandonment
We may see
in the rather forced gaiety supplied
this
not only
" upby
pantomime and other shows. It is illustrated in
the change that has come over our out-of-door sports.
the gorgeous
to-date "
Where
is
the fun, where
is
the gaiety, in the football and
the cricket matches of to-day
an " amusement
moment an
"
?
Could anything be
than a match at Lord's
Australian team, forgetful of
less like
—save when for a
its
surroundings,
Even the clapping of hands by the
solemn-looking spectators sounds stiff and mechanical.
bounds into the
field
?
This reduction of the
past age to a meagre
due altogether
to a
'Traill, loc.
cit.,
full
rillet
stream of choral laughter of a
may
readily be supposed to be
growing refinement
p. 147.
of
manners
^Mr. Radford,
loc, cit.
in all
POPULAR MIRTH OF TO-DAY
Leaders of the "high society"
classes.
that loud laughter
The middle
prohibited
is
by
tell us, as
its
grows into a solemn
from the upper class
oulte,
:
we have seen,
code of proprieties.
which the imitation of
class, in
429
social superiors
has naturally adopted this idea
and the
classes
below
may be
disposed
on public occasions to consider Mother Grundy so far as
to curb the
be
to
froward
spirit of fun.
much more than any such
conclusion that, even
when
laugh long and loud as
is
it
unfettered, the people does not
once did.
may
is
perhaps too recent to be easily explained.
hazard the suggestion that
other recent social tendencies
tive.
it is
connected with
which seem to be
still
opera-
It iSjvprobably one phase of a whole alteration of
temper in the mass of the people.
more
solid material interests
sport
had to have
while
would
not the place to attempt an explanation of a
change which
Yet we
the decline seems
The evidence available certainly favours the
account for.
This
Still,
artificial restraint
its
It looks as if only the
now moved
comedy must angle
may
if
for popularity with scenic splen-
dours which are seen to cost money.
equally deep
the miud, as
substantial bait in the shape of stakes,
Other forces lying
not improbably co-operate.
The mirth
Merry England was the outgoing of a people welded in
The escape from the priest, and later from
brotherhood.
his Spanish champion, had begotten a common sense of
No such welding pressure
relief and joyous expansion.
of
has come in these latter days pushing
common
of the
service
mirth.
hour, especially that
leave but
of a
of
little
all
ranks into a
The sharp class-antagonisms
of employer and employed,
hope of the revival of such a choral laughter
whole people.
This decline of the larger choral laughter, including the
reciprocal laughter of social groups, appears to have for one
430
VALUE, AND LIMITATIONS OF LAUGHTER
of
consequences a falling off in the part played by mirth
its
as a tempering
and conciliatory element in authority.
government
into our
neutralised
of the
of the
young
is,
Any
humouring spirit
one fears, more than
"
gain arising from the introduction of a
by the loss which ensues from the banishment
laugh from the relations of master and
cajoling
workman and
mistress and maid.
terribly serious purpose
world-wide empire upon reluctant
incorporation
into
peoples of
degrees of inferiority,
all
a
Perhaps, too, in our
of conferring the blessing of an
we
are losing sight
of the conciliatory virtue of that spirit of amicable jocosity,
the value of which, as
who had
to
to
we have
seen,
was known
to
some
do with savage peoples.
The seriousness of to-day, which
pay a long visit, may be found
looks as
if it
had come
to have its roots in the
move
up in the scale of wealth and comfort, together with the
temper which this begets, the discontent
greater pushfulness of men, the fiercer eagerness to
The weariness, the
which
kill
fever,
and the
fret
the capacity for a whole-hearted abandonment to
simple pleasures.
So far as
this is the case,
what laughter survives may be
expected to take on the tone of a forced utterance with
something of a sigh of weariness behind
men had no
you
will
time to laugh.
find
Even
it.
It is as
though
at a social entertainment
men and women who meet your
playful
challenge only with a niggardly giggle which they instantly
suppress
:
poor distracted souls unable for a
moment
to free
themselves from the chaos of social claims which haunts
them.
A
yet more sinister characteristic of this later social
laughter, reflected
more or
less clearly
even in much
of
FUTURE OF LAUGHTER
431
what now passes for comedy, is its cynicism. By
meant more than the hoUowness of the laughter
world-weary:
this is
of the
new sort
new way. Thus,
implies a readiness to laugh at a
it
of thing, or at least at the old sorts in a
we may hear the unscrupulous member of a profession
laughing at some "amusing" bit of conscientiousness in
another member. The laughter has its readily distinguishable tones
:
now
the thin wiry note of contempt which issues
from the superior person,
now
the rough brazen sound
Such laughter
burred by the bolder lips of the roue.
the case of an individual, of a class
the revelation of the attitude of a
its
too,
how much more
old obligations.
illustrate
moral forces encompass our laughter,
termine its key and the depth of
is in
of a nation alike,
mind which has not yet
completed the process of discarding
The tendencies here touched on
and
how
how
closely the
directly they de-
its sincerity.
They suggest,
the evil inclinations menace the healthy
vigour of our mirth than the good, even though these should
up
be cultivated
These signs
There
the
is
to the confines of the saintly.
may
well
make
the friend of laughter sad.
nothing unreasonable in the idea of a death of
more joyous and refreshing mirth.
which, perhaps, I have insisted too
of a final survival of the
it.
A
utilities
all
—on
—give us no pledge
However conwe have examples of highly
merry impulse.
siderable its benefit to a society,
efficient
much
The
communities which seem to do very well without
And- the
like is probably true of individual laughter.
few persons may, as
persistence
I
have suggested, owe to
on the human scene
of this utility
is
;
it
their
yet the evolutional efficacy
probably very narrowly circumscribed.
In spite of these sinister indications, an eye patient in
search
may
descry others which point to the persistence of
a wholesome laughter.
Even
if
comedy and
satire
seem
VALUE.AND LIMITATIONS OF LAUGHTER
432
aad slumbering, the humorous
tired
productive.
We
spirit is
awake and
have in the literature of more than one
new
country the promise of a development of
quiet, reflective laughter.
The growth
own
tion of other literatures than our
tones of
of a wider apprecia-
overcoming the
is
touched on, to an international apprecia-
obstacles, already
tion of flavours, so far at least as to allow of a rapprochement
of
the larger-minded members of civilised nations in a
reciprocal enjoyment of their
of
humorous writings.
For the
rest,
we may put our trust in
what
have
called private laughter.
I
men who
that in the future,
more
like gay-hearted children
If so,
They
morn-given
light,
not unlikely
they will become
than they
have to brighten the chamber of
blithe
is
alive to the ludicrous
consequences which these introduce.
will
It
think will grow at once more
tenacious of their ideals, and
still less
the growing volume
now
as
life,
it
are,
with the genial glow of humour.
will be able to keep the flame alive with fuel
from the storehouse
serving
human
and
loses the
of literature.
drawn
In this work of con-
laughter they will do well, while developing
the thoughtfulness of the humorist, to keep in touch with
the healthiest types of social laughter, the simple mirth of
the people preserved in the contes and the
enduring comedies.
C If
a few
men
rest,
and the
will cultivate their
own
laughter in-this-:way and do their best to make their private
amusement that
that
it
of
will not die
less terrible to face
by a few
their
faithful
an inner
circle of friends,
—though the death
than
its
we may hope
of
what we love were
debasement
—but be preserved
hands for a happier
age.
They
will
have
reward in advance, since pure and honest laughter,
him that gives, and him that takes.
like mercy, blesses
433
INDEX.
Abstraction, in representation of Barrie, J. M., 242.
character in comedy, 358, 359, Barrow, Isaac, 419.
John, 236 note.
867.
Absurd, the, as laughable, 110, 152, Bashkirtsefl, M., 821.
—
Bates, H. W., 223.
Beating, as comic incident, 348.
Beddard, P. E., 171.
Bedier, Jos., 262 note, 263 note, 264,
270 note, 312 note.
Belittling of idea, as cause of laugh-
216, 217, 239, 294.
Addison, Jos., 30 note, 95, 304 note,
354, 355, 423.
Afieotation, in comedy, 351.
" Agelasts," 2, 425.
Ainger, Alfred, 390 note.
Allin, A.
See Hall, G. S.
Analogy of feeling, 191.
Angas, G. ¥., 224, 228.
Angell, J. R., 83 note, 86 note.
Animals ticklishness
of,
;
ter, 9.
Benevolent, mirthfulness as, 417.
Bergk, Th., 846, 360 note, 381.
Bergson, H., 7, 8 note, 104, 114, 140
note, 848 note, 367 note, 874, 413
57, 162, 163,
laughter of, 156, 161, 170,
tricks of, 157 sense
172, 177
of fun in, 158, 160 play of, 158 fi.
Apes. See Animals.
Apperception, 14, 59, 127, 130, 131,
177
note.
;
;
;
;
135.
Bonwick, Jas., 224, 243,-250.
Born, Bertran de, 263.
Bosanquet, B., 6 note.
Bridgman, Laura, 170.
Browne, Thomas, 390.
Apprehension, dissolved, as cause of Brutal laughter, 89, 97, 143, 231-283,
315, 381.
laughter.
See Fear.
" Bulls," 111, 318.
Billow, H. von, 330 note.
Aristophanes, 282, 292, 348, 852, 357, Burchell, W. J., 239.
Burton, R. P., 229, 245, 253.
360, 371, 878.
Robert, 34, 314.
Aristotle, 120, 412, 413, 416, 417 note,
Butler, Samuel, 115.
418, 420.
Art, amusing function of, 343 (Chapter Butt, of wit, 355.
XI.) ; origin of, 844 scope for Buyer and seller, laughter between,
270.
exhibition of laughable in, 345
humour in essays, etc., 890, 891
Campbell, Harry, 85 note.
(see Fiction, Comedy).
Apuleius, 290.
Arabian Nights, 264.
—
;
;
comedy, 371
comedy, 373, 377.
Artificial,
;
world of Capes, B., 325 note.
Assimilation in social evolution, 276,
286.
Assimilative force of laughter, 272.
Austen, Jane, 378.
Carlyle, T., 86, 49, 299, 390, 400, 404,
416.
Carroll, Lewis, 304, 386.
Carus, Paul, 12 note.
Cervantes, S. M. de, 282, 310, 314,
Champneys, F. H., 165.
22.
Bain, Alexander, his theory of the Character, the laughable in, 133, 307,
315, 321 ; incongruity between
ludicrous, 121-124, 140, 143 on
circumstances and, 318, 369
cruelty of savage laughter, 232
interest in, 318, 358; presentanote.
tion of, in comedy, 357-370,
Balzac, H. de, 879.
Bacon, Francis, on laughter,
;
28
INDEX
434
Ohauoer, G., 30 note.
Chesterfield, Earl of,
Comic
1.
Child, development of laughter in
(Chapter VII.) first laughter of
—
210
sayings of, as laughable, 106;
degradation theory applied to
laughter of, 123, 124, 137 beginnings of smile and laugh in, 164168, 188; spontaneous laughter
of, 187, 207 extension of field of
laughable, for, 191, 192 growth
of self-feeling in laughter of, 192,
203, 205; growing complication of
laughter of, 192, 193; early laughter of joy, 194-198 early laughter
of play, 194, 198-207, 211, 212;
early laughter of teasing, 201-203;
83, 198, 200, 204,
;
;
;
;
early defiance of order, 203, 204,
211, 213 first roguish laughter,
206, 206 early appreciation of the
laughable, 207-217; first laughter
at sounds, 209-212 early feeling
of propriety, 211- 215.
Choral laughter, 247, 258, 295; decline of, 429.
Cibber, CoUey, 292 note.
Cicero, 384.
Class, difierentiation of, 247, 258, 259
changes in, as laughable; 287.
Clergy, laughter at the, 109, 262,
267, 294, 346; laughter of the,
283.
Coleridge, S. T., 364, 374 note.
Collier, Jeremy, 411.
Combat, playful, as origin of laughter of tickling, 179-181.
Comedy (Chapter XI.), Greek, 264,
291, 346, 353, 361, 389 (see also
Aristophanes)
of the Eestoration, 283, 287,
370-373, 383;
;
in savage
See Point of View.
Concept, function of the, in laughter,
Common-sense.
130-133, 135.
7, 13,
Congreve, W., 357, 370, 372, 411.
Conservative force of laughter, 257,
261.
See Progress.
Contagiousness of laughter, 42, 186,
255.
Gonte, the mediaeval, 34, 86, 91,
262, 267, 284, 292, 311, 346, 373.
Contempt, laughter
of, 78, 83, 89, 97,
118, 142, 205, 234, 299, 320,
380.
Contests, laughter in, 78, 83 laughter at the sight of, 117; of the
sexes, see Woman, Laughter of
;
Man
;
and.
Contrariety, theory
of.
See Incon-
gruity.
;
;
of,
250.
the, distinguished from the laughable, 86.
;
triumph,
rudiments
art,
life,
Contrast, effect
of,
in comic charac-
ters, 365.
Coquelin, B. C, ain^, 109.
cadet, 86 note.
Corrective function of laughter.
—
See
Laughter.
Counteractives of laughter, 84, 88,
Value
of
90, 93, 96, 98, 101, 102, 111.
Courdaveaux, V., 130 note.
Courthope, W., 361 note.
Cruickshank, B., 225, 226, 235.
Culture, gradations of, 284; spread
of, 286, 288.
Curtius, Ernst, 277 note.
Custom, effect of, on laughter, 84,
294, 318.
Customary, the, as standard in
comedy, 375-377.
Eoman, 291, 376 (see also Plau- Cynicism in modern laughter, 431.
tus,
Terence) ;
conditions of
the rise of, 347; elements of Dante, Alighieri, 30, 425.
primitive laughter in, 348-357, Darwin, C, 26, 38, 40, 57, 60, 63, 70,
of
379;
Incident,
of
357;
71, 156, 159, 162, 163, 164, 169,
Manners, 357, 370-373, 376; of
170, 171, 172, 177, 224, 227, 280.
Character, 357-370; Elizabethan, Daudet, A., 378.
point
361
of view of, 368-377, David, Mrs. P. W. B., 229.
410 ; mood addressed by, 370, 373, Deformity, as laughable, 89, 231.
375, 377, 412; attitude of, towards
moral. See Vice.
morality, 372-377, 411 ; limits to, Degradation,
(moral
theory
of
377 ; approach to point of view of,
theory), 119-125, 128, 137, 153.
in fiction, 378 ; satirical element Dennett, E. E., 251,
in, 381 ; humour in, 387 ; correc- Descartes, E., 70.
tlvefunotion of, 411-414; Modern, Descending incongruity, 137.
413.
Desohamps, E., 222 note.
;
;
—
INDEX
435
Detaohment
in humorous observa- Fiction, prose, comic point of view
tion, 331, 337, 407-409
in, 378, 379
addressed to a reDickens, 0., 158, 329, 388.
flective mood, 879; humour in,
Difference, judgment of, 15 note.
387-390.
Digmty, loss of, as laughable, 99, Fielding, H., 388, 389.
119-125, 128, 136, 218, 214, 266.
Fitzmaurioe-Kelly, J., 314 note.
Discomfiture, the sight of, as laugh- Flaubert, G., 306.
^
able, 117.
Pools, 249, 250, 291, 343; "Feast
Disguise, in comedy, 349, 369.
of," 346.
Disorder, as laughable, 94, 266, 342
Pouill^e, A., 137.
in comedy, 371.
Fox, fable of the, 382.
Dog, the. See Animals.
French, the, gaiety of, 311.
Doran, John, 291.
Pun, sense of, in children, 64, 76, 77,
Dugas, L., 47 note, ISO note, lid note,
87, 112, 125, 137, 140, 169, 176,
306 note, 400 note, 413 note.
181, 194, 315; in savages, 234,
252; in comedy, 347-350, 353,
Edge WORTH, B. L. and M., 313 note.
357, 369.
Education, laughter in, 426.
Future of laughter, 427.
Egede, Hans, 223 note, 249.
Egyptians, 264, 265.
Gardner, P., 264, 292 note, 343 note,
Eliot, George, 109, 271, 298, 299, 385
346 note.
note, 386 note, 389.
Genetic method, necessity of, in
Ellis, W., 224, 235, 237.
studying the ludicrous, 154.
Embarrassment, relief from, produc- Gillen, F. J. See Spencer, B.
ing laughter, 228, 238.
GiUray, Jas., 293 note.
Emotions, James' theory of, 40 de- Gladness, as expressed in laughter,
velopment of, 189; fusion of,
See Pleasure.
71, 195.
308-310.
Goethe, J. W. von, 283, 426.
Epicureans, 397.
Goldsmith, 0., 298, 328, 387, 388,
Erskine, J. E., 224, 250.
424.
Estimable, the, in the laughable, Gratiolet, L. P., 31.
Grey, George, 250.
306, 310, 317.
Evolutional utility of laughter, 408, Grief, as causing laughter, 66, 67
;
;
resemblance of manifestation
431.
Excellence, laughter as an,
3,
416,
422, 423.
Expectation, annulled, as cause of
laughter,
9, 12, 18, 64,
of,
to laughter, 70, 309.
Groos, K., 146, 147 nots, 148 note, 158
note,
182 note.
125, 126-
effect of, on child's laughter,
188, 190 effect of, on emotional
reaction, 190.
See Custom.
Fabliau. See Oonte.
Fanciful world of comedy, 372, 373, Hall, G. Stanley, and AUiu, A., on
laughter,
28,
52,
66, 83 ; on tick377.
ling, 177, 178, 182.
Fantastic ideas, as laughable, 88.
Fashion, definition of, 273; move- Hardy, Thos., 103.
ments of, 273 as restrained by Harmful tendencies of laughter, 37,
46, 415, 418, 420, 422.
See
custom, 275 as laughable, 276-
Habit,
130.
;
;
;
Laughter.
279.
Father and child, relation of, in Harris, J. C, 251.
Hartshorne, B. P., 222.
comedy, 265, 353, 361.
Pear, relief from nascent, as element Hat, unsuitable, as instance of the
ludicrous, 9-17.
in tickling, 63 laughter as reaction from, 65, 176, 199 ; as in- Hazlitt, W. C, 137, 138 note, 268,
354.
88.
hibitory of laughter,
Feeling tone, of sensations of tick- Hecker, E., 184 note.
;
54 of humour, 305, 310
comic mood, 370, 376.
ling,
of
;
Hegel, G. W. P., 5.
Hegelians, on the comic,
4.
INDEX
436
Heine, H., 386, 423.
Heymaua,
G., 64.
Leonard, 57, 58, 61, 165 note,
169, 178, 179, 188.
Hind, H. Y., 225, 242.
Hobbes, T., his theory of the ludicrous, 120, 140, 143, 203.
HofEding, H., 306 note.
Hogan, Mrs. L. E., 188, 209, 212,
215, 217.
Homer, 89, 96, 97, 108.
Hugo, Victor, 315.
Human, things, as object of laughter, 86, 122, 128, 345.
Humour (Chapter X.), definitions of,
Hill,
Inferiority, feeling of, as inhibiting
laughter, 143, 320.
Intellectual theory, the. See Incongruity, also 153.
Inventions, as objects of ridicule,
281.
Irish, humour of the, 312, 813, 385.
Jackson, John, 250 note.
James, William, his theory of emotions, 40, 189.
Johnston, H. H., 227.
Jonsdn, Ben, 268, 361, 362, 364.
Joy, laughter of, 71 ff., 116, 168, 194
flE., 228.
See Pleasure.
297 as individual, 298, 313, 824, Jusserand, J. A. A., 348 note.
326; rarity of, 298, 311, 822, Juvenal, 283, 881, 382.
325; origin of, 299; reilection
in, 300-303, 324, 387, 393; as a Kames, H. H., 414.
sentiment, 300, 307
serious- Kant, I., his theory of the ludicrous,
ness in, 301-305, 314, 319, 338,
quoted, 125,
9, 18, 126-129, 131
342, 387, 393, 395, 400 blend of
134, 185, 310, 325.
sad and gay in, 305, 309, 387; Keats, John, 430.
kindly feeling in, 306, 307, 810, Kingsley, Miss M. H., 222, 225, 281,
342, 388 corrective function of,
251, 252, 253, 266, 328, 391.
323, 324, 403-405; consolatory Kipling, E., 98 note.
force of, 325-830, 342; relation of, Krapelin, B., 356 note.
to wit, 854, 385, 386 subjective Kiilpe, 0., 52 note, 54 note.
and objective, in literature, 386
note, 389 harmonising of tones Lack of humour, advantages of, 424,
in, 388, 391 (see also Philosophic
425.
Humour).
Lacroix, P., 343 note.
Hunt, J. H. Leigh, his theory of Lamb, C, humour of, 298, 390, 420;
laughter, 142 quoted, 383.
his view of Restoration comedy,
Husbands, treatment of, in comedy,
372, 378, 877.
373, 377.
Landor, W. Savage, 314.
Hypergelast, 297, 418.
Lang, Gideon, 243 note.
Lange, C, 67, 189.
Idealism and Realism, in relation Language, poetical use of " laugh "
to laughter, 394, 396, 400, 401.
and " smile," 80
terms for
Ignorance, as laughable, 102.
forms of laughter in French, 49
Imitation in fashion, 273-276, 278;
note; misuse of, as laughable,
in comedy, 348.
See Wit.
104, 240.
Incompetence, as laughable, 102, Laughable, the (Chapter IV.), de240, 245.
finition of, 82
universality of,
Incongruity, theory of, 7, 9, 13, 17,
relativity of, 84, 88, 93,
83, 295
125-135, 136, 141, 150, 317, 318; as
95, 98, 101, 102, 106, 111, 113;
laughable, 107-111, 152, 216, 236.
distinguished from the ludiIndecent, the, as laughable, 99, 151,
crous, 85 complexity of, 87, 114,
285.
153 groups of laughable objects,
Individual, the, laughter of, 295,
87; inhibitory concomitants of,
(Chapter
297
X.), 393; value of
90, 98, 96, 101, 111, 301, 306;
laughter to, 321, 323 ff., 403,
relation of, to laughter as a
justification of point of
415
whole, 153; field of, 260, 315,
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
view
Inferior,
of,
405.
laughter
819.
at
superior,
264, 265, 266, 267, 268.
of,
Laughter, estimates
tific
of, 1,
investigation
416
of,
3
;
scien-
ff.,
19,
INDEX
154;
physiologioal oharaoteris-
tios of, 22, 26-28,
30, 33-36, 69,
437
Malice in laughter,
78, 83, 89, 97,
118, 142, 143, 231, 283, 381.
227.
227, 309; varieties of, 22, 48,
188, 251 an intermittent manifestation, 26, 74; sounds of, 31,
174, 227 bad effects of, 87, 46,
415, 418, 420, 422 ; mechanically
produced, 42, 643., 74; occasions
of, 50 (Chapter III.) nervous, 65-
Man, B. H.,
counteractives to, 88, 90,
93, 96, 101, 102, 111, 377 as sign
of playful mood in animals, 183184
as instrument of punishment, 250, 256, 262, 380; antisocial tendency in, 256, 406; regulation of, 418 promotion of, 423
as branch of education, 426. See
Master and servant, relation
comedy, 353. See Slaves.
M^linaud, C, 8 note.
Menander, 361, 374 note.
;
;
;
70,
116
;
;
;
;
also
Mania, approach
to, of comic characa whole people, 377.
Manners, in comedy, 370.
Marsdeu, W., 240, 249.
Maspero, G., 264, 266, 343 note.
Massinger, P., 361.
ters,
Development
Child,
of;
Origin of Laughter;
Primitive Laughter
Savages,
Laughter of; Social Laughter;
;
;
of
of,
in
Meredith, G., 4, 99, 109, 297, 300, 310,
347, 364 note, 371 note, 376 note,
379, 415, 417.
;
Humour;
367
Merry England, mirth
of,
429.
Mill, J. S., 280.
Milton, J., 39, 425.
Minto, W., 386
note.
Mirthfulness, persistence of, 25, 73,
Value of Laughter.
223-226; effect of temperament
LePanu, W. B., Ul note.
on, 80 expression of, as element
Lehmann, A., 172 note, 308 note.
in the laughable, 116, 149, 211Le Sage, A. E., 262, 382.
213, 348 decline of, 428 fi.
Lessing, G. E., 323, 412, 415 note.
Misfortunes, small, as laughable, 96.
Lichtenstein, M. H. C, 236, 238.
Modern life, decline of choral laughLipps, Th., his theory of the luditer in, 427 seriousness of, 428
crous, 9-17 64, 137 quoted, 94.
growth of individual laughter
ff.
;
;
;
;
;
Literature.
in, 432.
See Art.
Locke, John, his definition of wit, Molifere, 3. B. P., 114, 272, 288, 303
354.
Loti, P., 197 note.
Lotze, H., 8 note, 18.
Loveday, T., 15 note.
Love-motive, in comedy, 360, 371.
Ludicrous,
Schopenhauer's
the,
theory of, 6, 13, 130-133; incongruity theory of, 7, 9, 13, 17,
125-136, 141, 150, 317, 318; as
consisting in the substitution of
rigidity for spontaneity, 7, 92,
348 note, 367 Lipps' theory of,
9-17, 64
as consisting in nullified expectation, 9, 12, 18, 64,
125-130; objectivity of, 83; distinguished from the laughable,
theories of, 119 (Chap85, 138
degradation theory of,
ter V.)
119-125, 128, 137; synthesis of
theories of, 136-139; no one
theory of, 139, 153.
;
;
;
;
note, 307, 315, 348, 349, 350, 351,
353, 357, 359, 364-370, 373-378.
Th., 353 note, 361 note.
Mommsen,
Mono-ideism in comic characters
366.
Montaigne, M. E. de, 342.
of humour,
ticklish, 62
addressed by comedy, 370,
addressed
by fic373, 375, 377
Mood, the
304
;
;
;
tion, 379, 380.
Moore, Mrs. K. C, 165, 188.
Moral deformity. See Vice.
—
—
sensitiveness, as inhibitory
laughter, 93, 101, 102.
;
— plays, 347, 359, 361, 362.
Lumholtz, Carl, 224, 249.
Morgan, C. Lloyd, 148 note, 160.
Moulton, B. G., 352 note, 362 note.
Macauday,
Muloaster, B., 35.
Musters, G. C, 226.
T. B., 372, 377.
Macdonald, Duff, 221, 252.
Majorities
and
minorities, 406.
of
See Degradation.
theory.
Morality, attitude of laughter towards, 92, 372-377; attitude of
comedy towards, 372-377 function of comedy in relation to,
411-414.
Mystery plays, 347.
INDEX
43S
NAiVETi!, as laughable, 104, 127,
336 ; children's, 105.
Nanaeu, F., 223 note, 2ii note, 250.
Philosophic humour, characteristics
utility
of, 390, 400-405, 407-410
anti-social tendency
of, 403-405
;
;
National feeling, 293.
of, 406.
Nationality. See Race.
Philosophy, theoretic treatment of
laughter by, 4-6, 19, 396 philoNeil, E. A., 352 note.
sophic speculation, as laughable,
Neilson, G. E., 313 note.
Nervous laughter, 65-70, 116.
5, 400, 401 connection of humour
Newspaper, struggle for the, 334, 336.
with, 390, 392-410 point of view
;
;
;
Novelty, as laughable, 87, 128, 150,
189, 208, 236, 281; in comedy,
351.
Obesity and laughter,
81.
Object of laughter, 82, 142; dislike
of being made the, 144, 232, 256,
320.
See Laughable, the.
Odd, the, as laughable, 87, 150, 237
comedy, 351.
and young, relation
in
Old
in
of,
comedy, 353.
and
of,
See
pessimism.
also Philosophy,
Order, breach
Worth
of Life.
as laughable, 94,
266, 342.
Organism,
36, 45,
standard
of,
humour
with, 396-399 ; idealism
optimism
laughter, 396
laughter, 398; pessimism
scepticism
laughter, 398
laughter, 399.
Physiological aspects of laughter.
and
and
and
and
;
;
See Laughter.
Old-fashioned, laughter at the, 281.
Optimism
ideal
394, 396, 397;
394, 395 ; change in
aspect of reality produced by,
394, 395, 397, 398; seriousness
of, 395; obstacles to union of
393,
of,
laughter on, 3369 resonance of, as factor
efiects of
;
in laughter, 44, 47.
Origin of laughter, 155 (Chapter VI.)
first appearance in child, 166,
170 early laughter as expression
of pleasure, 169; an inherited
;
tendency, 170; first appearance
in primitive man, 173 development oat of smile, 173-176 explosive vigour, explanation of,
176.
See also SmUe, Tickling.
;
;
Pity, as inhibitory of laughter, 90,
98.
Plato, 308, 342, 396, 408.
Plautus, 266, 268, 282, 348, 852, 357,
360, 371.
Play, tickling and, 68, 179, 182184 ; laughter as concomitant of
mood of, 76-78, 198-207 teasing
as form of, 77, 201, 229; connection with wit, 112, 355 relation of laughter and, 145-153,
194; utility of, 148, 181, 182;
of animals, 158 play-challenge,
;
;
;
rompish, 198, 199
atas make-believe, 201, 214
tacks as form of, 201 lawlessconnection with
ness of, 216
comedy, 348, 349, 353, 373, 375,
184, 256, 344
;
;
;
;
Pabadox, as laughable,
104, 106, 110.
377.
Parasites, laughter of tickling as de- Playfulness, expression of.
See
fensive against, 178, 179, 181.
Laughter and Mirthfulness.
Parnell, J., Ill note.
Pleasure, as antecedent of laughter,
Pascal, B., 1, 423.
interaction of laugh43, 71, 145
Peacock, T. L., 222.
ter and, 44 ff.
sudden accession
Perception of the ludicrous, moveof, as cause of laughter, 72, 74
ment of thought in, 11, 13 as
fi., 141, 145, 184.
perception of relations, 18, 107, Poetic justice, 868.
192, 300, 302, 316-318 necessity Point of view, relativity of. In laughof distinct imagery to, 14, 131
ter, 84, 88, 93, 95, 101, 102, 106,
as immediate, 15 as antecedent
111 of common-sense, 110, 294,
of laughter, 42, 50 as emotional,
876, 395, 399, 400; tribal and
43, 125 effect of subjective connational, 238, 256, 271, 293, 294;
ditions on, 84, 88; as intellecof humour, 303, 315, 324, 330,
tual, 125 connection with primi338, 341 403 note, 409, 410;
tive laughter, 116, 140, 142, 144,
social, 823, 374-377, 380, 399,
153.
405, 409, 410; of comedy, 372;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
INDEX
377, 410 ; of pUloaophy, 393, 894,
396, 397; individual, 399, 405,
409, 410 of satire, 410.
Pope, Alex., 307, 383.
439
Restoration, the, literature
comedy
of,
282;
of,
283, 287, 370.
Restraints on laughter, by the community, 418-420 by the indiviPowell, J. W., 248 note.
dual, 420-422.
Practical joking, 78, 129, 160, 229- Retaliative joke, among savages,
230
231.
See Teasing.
in comedy, 350.
Preciosity, in comedy, 351.
Retirement. See Detachment.
Pretence, as laughable, 101, 148, 151
Reverence, laughter as destructive
in play, 147, 158.
of, 422.
Prayer, W., 49, 160, 164-170, 178, 188, Bibot, Th., 171 note, 193 note.
205, 206 note, 209, 211, 212.
Riohet, Charles, 52 note, 53 note, 60.
Primitive laughter, necessity of con- Richter, J. P., 8 note, 390, 400.
sidering, 28 forms of, tickling, Ridiculous, the, distinguished from
etc., 50 (Chapter in.); elements
the ludicrous, 138.
of, in appreciation of the ludi- Robinson, Louis, 51, 53, 55, 57, 58,
crous, 140-146, 153 humour as
61, 68, 162, 177, 178, 179-182.
development of, 299 in comedy, Romanes, G. J., 161.
347 ff.
Rostand, Edmond, 10, 387.
Progress, as hindered and furthered Roth, H. Ling, 224, 227, 228, 230, 232
by laughter, 257, 279-283 social,
note, 236, 240, 241, 242, 246, 247,
279 as object of laughter, 280,
249, 251 note, 252 note.
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
Rousseau,
283.
Public opinion, deification
of,
J. J., 373, 425.
834.
Punning, in children, 112, 217
wit, 354 in comedy, 357.
and Sadness, as disposing to laughter,
70, 314; in humour, 305, 309,
;
;
387.
Eabelais, ¥., 299, 814, 389.
Sainte-Beuve, 0. A., 314, 377, 382.
Baces, diversities of laughter and Salutary effects of laughter.
See
humour of, 311-318.
Value.
Radford, G. H., 417, 428.
Sarasin, P., 222 note, 282, 245.
"Ralph Roister Doister," 361.
Satire, playful element in, 153, 383,
Raulin, J. M., 228.
384 among savages, 244 funcRead, Carveth, 320.
tion of, 282, 380 political, 292
Real, the, in comedy, 368, 369, 372.
social, 323, 413
point of view
Reflection, in laughter, 8, 251
in
of, 880, 410; laughter in, 380,
humour, 801, 302, 393; appeal
382, 383; mood of, 881; in
to, in humorous writing, 379,
comedy, 381
in fiction, 382
allegory in, 382
wit in, 383
389.
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
ironical inversion in, 383, 384.
Relations, as laughable, 13, 107, 300,
Savages, laughter of (Chapter VIII.),
302, 816.
difficulty of understand220
Relief from strain, in nervous laughlaughter on solemn
ing, 220; self-restraint of, 221;
ter, 65-70
amount of laughter of, 222-226
occasions as, 80, 118 in laughter
nature of laughter of, 227, 252
at the indecent, 118 in laughter
as
explainprimitive forms of laughter of,
degradation,
140
at
228-235
teasing and practical
ing explosiveness of laughter,
jokes of, 229-233; brutal ele176 in children's laughter, 196,
ments in laughter of, 231-233
198, 204 ; in laughter of savages,
dislike of laughter among, 232,
228; in laughter of art, 282.
233 appreciation of the laughEengger, 3. R., 226.
able
child's
laughby, 235 ff. ; laughter of, at
on
Repetition, eSeot of,
emothe
foreigner, 238-244 ; intraon
effect
of,
ter, 188, 190
tribal laughter of, 244 fi.
hutional reaction, 190; as comic
mour of, 246, 251 organisation
incident, 848.
of laughter among, 247-251 use
Respiration, laughter and, 30, 33-35,
of laughter by, in expiation of
42, 69, 142.
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
INDEX
440
crimes, 250; more thoughtful Social group, 259 ff., 288.
laughter, organisation of, 247-251,
laughter of, 251.
conciliating force of, 255,
Soherer, Edmond, on humour, 312,
290
development
256, 266, 269, 271
403 mte.
censorship of, 291
288-291
of,
Schopenhauer, A., his theory of the
attitude underforce of, 292
ludicrous, 6, 13, 130-133; relying, 293 reflected in comedy,
ferred to, 135, 285, 288.
351.
Sohutze, J. St., 19.
scene, the modern, 337.
Scott, Sir W., 388.
Self-advertisement, the humour of, Society, failure to comply with social
requirement as ludicrous, 139
334.
laughter in evolution of, 254
Self-criticism, humorous, 321-324,
(Chapter IX.) progress of, effect
329.
on laughter, 254 restraint of
Self-deception, in comedy, 350, 366.
laughter by, 258, 269 differentiaSelf, laughter at, 143, 272, 320-322,
tion of social groups in, 258 ff.
329 dislike of others' laughter
differentiation of ranks in, 263
at, 144, 232, 256, 320.
ways of, as laughable, 331-333;
Sellar, W. Y., 282.
Serious, the, as opposed to laughter,
permanent basis of, in comedy,
21, 395 in play, 153 in comedy,
375 individual and, 405-410.
369, 373, 375, 377 in fiction, 379, Solemn occasions, laughter on, 79,
141, 152, 242.
387 in satire, 381 in humour,
see Humour
Spectator of comedy, attitude of, 371,
Seriousness, the, of modern life,
See Comedy.
373, 412.
428 ff.
Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., 243
—
;
;
;
;
;
—
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
See Social Group.
Sex and laughter. See Woman.
Shaftesbury, third Earl of, 414, 415
Sets.
note.
Shakespeare, W.,
2,
32 note, 39 note,
67, 104, 298, 310, 311, 349, 357,
362, 363, 386, 387, 389, 417.
Shelley, P. B., 46.
Shinn, Miss Milicent, 165, 167, 168,
173, 175, 195, 211, 218.
Shooter, Jos., 225, 230.
Shyness, recoil from,
producing
laughter, 205, 206, 228, 238.
Sidgwiok, H., 386 note.
Sigismund, B., 165.
Simoox, G. A., 266.
Situation, as laughable, 96-98, 117,
120, 317 in comedy, 351.
Slaves, laughter of, 265, 266, 291.
Smile, the, physiological aspects of,
relation of, to laughter,
26, 165
26,. 28, 29, 168, 170, 174, 175,
193; in animals, 161-163, 170,
177 first appearance of, in child,
164-166, 168; development of,
165, 188; as expression of pleasure, 168, 183
an inherited
tendency, 170; origin of, 171173.
Smyth, E. Brough, 244, 248.
Social failure, laughter as preservative of, 408.
;
;
;
;
—
note.
Herbert, 68, 137, 175, 265, 267,
274, 276.
Sproat, G. M., 233, 247.
Stanley, H. M., 159, 184.
Steinen, C. vonden,;223, 235note, 248.
Stephen, Leslie, 398.
Sterne, Laurence, 298, 388, 389.
Stevenson, E. L., 398, 400, 416, 423.
Stoics, 397.
Stout, G. F., 15 note.
Strain, relief from.
See Eelief.
Sturt, C. H., 224.
" Sudden glory," 74, 78, 116, 117, 120,
143, 198, 203, 210, 229, 381.
Superior, laughter of, at inferior, 263,
264.
See Inferior.
Superiority, feeling of, as cause of
laughter, 78, 118, 120, 121, 143
laughter as assertion of, 144, 241,
263, 320.
Surprise, as cause of laughter, 9, 12
18, 64, 125, 126-130, 142, 169, 197,
201.
Swift, Jonathan, 381, 382, 383.
Sympathy, laughter through, 117
118, 122, 149; in humour, 306;
laughter as promoting, 417.
Tainb, H., 312, 362, 372, 375, 382
Tarde, G., 259.
Tears, laughter and, 37, 67, 70.
INDEX
441
Teasing, 77, 157, 184, 201, 229. See Vanbrugh, Jnc, 411.
Praobioal Joking.
Vanity, as laughable spectacle, 92,
Temperament, as basis of laughing
374.
disposition, 80; as basis of hu- Vice, as laughable spectacle, 91-93,
mour, 313.
133 degrees of, in relation to
Tennyson, Alfred, 314.
comic value, 91, 374 attitude of
Terence, 351, 353, 361.
laughter towards, 92, 372-377.
Thackeray, W. M., 379, 382, 389.
Visoher, T., 19.
Thompson, H. B. See Angell, J. B. Voltaire, F. M. A. de, 324, 382, 383,
Tickling, as cause of laughter, 50 ff.,
385.
169, 177 sensations of, 51, 63
feeling tone of, 54-56, 58 motor
reactions to, 56-59, 163, 177, 180, Waitz, Th., 229, 249.
183 mental conditions of, 59-63, Walpole, Horace, 423.
War-temper, as laughable spectacle,
178, 181 as form of teasing, 77
child's first response to, by laugh338-341, 378.
ter, 178
origin of laughter of, Warburton, W., 414, 419.
Ward, A. W., 281, 283, 287, 292.
178-184 as playful, 179-184.
James, 400 note.
Ticklishness, relative, of parts of
body, 51-53, 57, 177, 178, 180- Wilkinson, J. G., 266.
182; of apes, 57, 162, 163, 177, Will, efiect of, on laughter, 48 control of laughter by, 420.
180 of other animals, 177, 180.
Tolerance, of humour, 337, -842 of Wit, as a form of the laughable, 111113 in children, 112, 217, 218
comedy, 376, 377.
as play, 112, 355 word-play in
Traill, H. D., 388 note, 428.
relation to, 112, 356; Bain's
350.
Trickery, in comedy, 349,
in
theory applied to, 124
Triumph, laughter of, 78, 83, 118,
relation of, to
savages, 248
143, 198, 200, 204, 210, 381;
humour, 354, 385, 386; anipresentation of, as laughable,
mosity in, 355, 383 in comedy,
117.
371 connection of, with satire,
Truth, ridicule as test of, 414.
subjective and objec383-385
Tucker A. 398.
tive, 386 note.
Turnbu'll, John', 224, 233, 248.
Types, characters of comedy as, 358- Woman, laughter between man and,
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
—
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
245, 246, 259, 260, 264, 267, 269,
352, 357, 363 treatment of, by
comedy, 264, 352, 361 note, 363,
371 wit of, 267, 347 status of,
280, 284, 347, 352.
Wood, J. G., 280, 233, 238.
361, 364.
Tyrrell, E. Y., 264, 283, 292, 382.
;
Unfaie laughter,
421.
See Value.
Utility of laughter.
Value
of laughter, as
;
;
an excellence, Word-play, as a form
able, 111-113
;
34-36; its social utility,
139, 244, 245, 257, 268, 271, 283,
419 as sign of playfulness, 183
its persuasive force, 252, 266, 269;
its corrective value to the individual, 323, 324, 403 ; its evolutional utility, 408, 431. See also
124
;
416,
422,
423;
its
plied to,
effects,
;
Comedy.
;
in comedy,
of the laugh-
Bain's theory apin children, 217
353, 356.
salutary
3,
Worth
of life, philosophic question
of, 398; relation of philosophic
humorist to, 402.
Wright, Thoa., 234, 261, 263 note,
270, 282, 292, 293, 343 note.
Wundt, W., on tickling, 52.
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