The Sources of Comic Effect Among the Uncultured: With Especial Reference to the Wakefield Cycle of English Miracle Plays |
Common terms and phrases
amusement Ancient Greece animals appears Appleton and Company Aristophanes Aristotle audiences Bell and Sons Bergson Berkeley Boston Cain Carion character Characteristics of Comedy church burlesques Clarendon Press clergy Cohan comedies of Aristophanes comic effect costumes Crile criticism function cultured cycle of English Dent and Company Distinguish the Comic dupe egoism English miracle plays Epidamnus Essay on Laughter Evolution of Humor farce Fool Gayley George Bell gods Green and Company Groos Harper's New Monthly Ibid indecent instinct J. M. Dent laugh Law and Technique Lionel D London Longmans Green ludicrous M. A. Thesis Macmillan and Company Menander miracle plays mirth Oxford Phormio Plutus popular Praxagora primitive rench Humorists ridiculous Robert Wilkes rogue Roman Rome satire savage scorn Second Shepherds sex conflict sources of comic Sully Thid thou tion translated by Cloudesley translated by Elizabeth Trench uncultured Wakefield cycle wife William Hazlitt Wolffe and Company word-play York
Popular passages
Page 12 - Sudden glory is the passion which maketh those grimaces called laughter; and is caused either by some sudden act of their own that pleaseth them; or by the apprehension of some deformed thing in another, by comparison whereof they suddenly applaud themselves.
Page 33 - Tis when with my fee in my wallet I come, returning home at the close of the day, O then what a welcome I get for its sake; my daughter, the darling, is foremost of all, And she washes my feet and anoints them with care, and above them she stoops, and a kiss lets fall, Till at last by the pretty Papas of her tongue she angles withal my three-obol away.
Page 8 - ... ridiculous, which is the highest degree of the laughable, is that which is contrary not only to custom, but to sense and reason, or is a voluntary departure from what we have a right to expect from those who are conscious of absurdity and propriety in words, looks, and actions.
Page 13 - for they laughed consumedly." Lord Foppington's insensibility to ridicule, and airs of ineffable self-conceit, are no less admirable ; and Joseph Surface's cant maxims of morality, when once disarmed of their power to do hurt, become sufficiently ludicrous. We laugh at that in others which is a serious matter to ourselves ; because our self-love is stronger than our sympathy, sooner takes the alarm, and instantly turns our heedless mirth into gravity, which only enhances the jest to others.
Page 34 - It is all that insane husband of mine. He has chosen to come out here to the end of the world and take a hole of a place — for a house it is not — on purpose that you and I might not be neighbors.
Page 10 - Laughter is an affection arising from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing.
Page 9 - Aristotle's definition is indeed still wanting in exactness ; for though the ludicrous is always incongruous, yet the incongruous (even limited as it is here) is not always ludicrous. Incongruity, in order to be ludicrous, requires a transition, a change of mood, resulting in the discovery either of an unexpected resemblance where there was unlikeness, or of an unexpected unlikeness where there was resemblance. There is always a blending of contrasted feelings. The pleasure of the ludicrous thus...
Page 68 - ... wille that thay wold synke Thare foes in a fyere stille ; bot not alle that I thynke Dar I say, Bot before hym he prase hym, Behynde he mys-sase hym, Thus dowbille he mase hym, Thus do thai today. Primus Daemon. Has thou oght writen there of the femynyn gender ? Secundus Damon. Yei, mo then I may here of rolles forto render ; Thai ar sharp as a spere if thai seme bot slender, Thai ar ever in were if thai be tender, Ylle fetyld ; She that is most meke, When she sewys fulle seke, She can raise...
Page 8 - The accidental contradiction between our expectations and the event can hardly be said, however, to amount to the ludicrous : it is merely laughable. The ludicrous is where there is the same contradiction between the object and our expectations, heightened by some deformity or inconvenience, that is, by its being contrary to what is customary or desirable ; as the ridiculous, which is the highest degree of the laughable, is that which is contrary not only to custom, but to sense and reason, or is...
Page 37 - ... part, selecting the best and the liveliest one. And then if a piper gain his cause, he pays us our price for the kindness done, By piping a tune with his mouth-band on, quick march as out of the Court we go. And what if a father by will to a friend his daughter and heiress bequeath and bestow, We care not a rap for the Will, or the cap ° which is there on the seal so grand and sedate, We bid them begone, and be hanged, and ourselves take charge of the girl and her worthy estate ; And we give...