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    Analysis ofLaughter. 19

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    Analysis Of Laughter

    quisite . Such incongruities may arise , either by the discovery of the importance of supposed triviality , or by the detection of the triviality of what at first was apprehended as

    important . The surprise at dignity emerging from meanness is of a very different character from surprise at the emergence of meanness from dignity , ' and this last alone is the object of the ludicrous . Ulysses in the

    guise of the beggar , and Conrad throwing off the garb of a suppliant Dervish , are certainly no ludicrous images . The reduction of the blustering Parplles , the exposure of the

    turnip-head and sheeted-stake which usurped the terrors of the supernatural , produce the light revulsion , which is a case in point . It is no objection to this , that laughter is excited when we witness some

    surprises at circumstances which had been undervalued ; as the surprise of the _" beardless vain comparative / ' whose smooth pily advances meet with a snappish rebuff , or of the worthy Greek professor who laboured to secure his cellar from

    intruders , and nailed himself in . Here , it is true , the more important circumstance is the agent of the contrast ; but its importance is below serious estimation ; the elements of the

    contrast differ in degrees of _triviality , rather than in degrees of dignity or consequence . Where the rebuff a mortal blow , did ; the mistake of the D . D . cause his starvation , the alter-

    Analysis Of Laughter

    nations would fail to produce the ludicrous surprise , that is to say , being no jokes , they would not be laughable . True , indeed , it is , that in some circumstances of mis

    education—cases of the ill arrangement of associations—no contrast , which reaches not the individual immediately , is too serious for laughter ; a savage general laughs at the quivering limbs of his executed

    prisoners , and calls for music to these dancers ; a savage mob laughs loudly at the grimace of idiotcy or madness . But these contrasts , though laughed at , are not _therefore ludicrous ; their ultimate character is one

    and constant , though different minds take in but parts of their relations . The charges of immoderate affection for a quibble have been brought against Shakspeare on account of the jests which he puts into the mouths of some of his characters in

    their deepest distress ; and these charges have been sufficiently answered by the fact , that the distresses do give vent to such imaginations ; that the characteristic is true to nature

    observation vouches the fact , and it is curious to trace its origin in the laws of mind . That men on the scaffold , of iron nerves , who " go to their

    graves like beds , " should jest in undissembled gaiety ; that men less hard should jest in bravado , and others to mask agitation , are cases easily understood ; but if the prevalence of passion

    Analysis Oflaughter. 19

    Analysis ofLaughter . 19

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1837, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_01071837/page/17/