CHAPTER II. OF THE RIDICULOUS. СНАР. culous. 1. DIAMETRICALLY opposite to the sublime and pathetic is the ridiculous: for laugh- Of the Riditer is an expression of joy and exultation; which arises not from sympathy but triumph; and which seems therefore to have its principle in malignity. Those vices, which are not sufficiently baneful and destructive to excite detestation; and those frailties and errors, which are not sufficiently serious and calamitous to excite pity, are generally such as excite laughter*: an involuntary convulsion communicated, in some unaccountable manner, from the mind to the features of the face, and the organs of respiration; which seems to be peculiar to τε αισχρα εστι το γελοίον μόριον το γας γελοίον εστιν ἁμαρ σημα τι και αισχος ανωδυνον, και 8 φθαρτικον.-ARIST. Poet f. xi. "Ea facillime luduntur, quæ neque odio magno, nec misericordia maxima digna sunt. Quamobrem materies omnis ridiculorum est in istis vitiis, quæ sunt in vita hominum neque clarorum neque calamitosorum, neque eorum qui ob facinus ad supplicium rapiendi videntur."Cic. de Orat. lib. ii. ὁ γελως παθος εν ηδονῃ. όντω και επι τ' ουλαττον. αι δ ̓ ὑπερβολαι καθαπερ επι το μείζον, CHAP. Of the Ridi- mankind; or, at least, to be only participated in a degree by some tribes of monkeys. 2. Hence, as tragedy displays its powers in heightening and embellishing the general energies of human nature, so does comedy in exposing and exaggerating its particular weaknesses and defects. The one exhibits only the genuine feelings and sentiments of nature, expressed in the glowing language of enthusiasm; while the other shows these feelings and sentiments weakened by the restraints, perverted by the habits, and modified by the rules of artificial society; and expressed in the language appropriated to it by the artificial manners of particular ages and countries. The one delights in unity and simplicity of character, such as all character is when under the dominion of enthusiastic passion but the other often produces its happiest effects by assembling and uniting those incongruities and inconsistencies, which, though neither incompatible nor unnatural, exhibit in their junction a perversion or degradation of the natural character of man': such as boasting and cowardice, ignorance and pedantry, dulness and conceit, rudeness and foppery; with all the ather heterogeneous combinations of impotent vanity, which generally affects excellence in that, which is most above its reach, because it is that, which it is most prone to admire. s. The jealousy of Othello, and the ambition of Lady Macbeth, are those passions operating as the poet, from his general observation of human nature, conceived that they must operate upon great and atrocious minds; but the jealousy of Ford or Kitely, and the ambition of Malvolio, are the same passions operating as the poet had seen them operate on individuals of his own age and country. In the one, the general characteristics of human nature are merely heightened and embellished: but, in the other, they are modified and debased to suit the peculiarities, either natural or acquired, of particular individuals or classes of men. 4. The same difference is observable, in the character and expression of attitude and countenance, between the pictures of Raphael, and those of Rembrandt. Both drew from nature; but the one drew the general energies and perfections of mankind, and the other their individual peculiarities and perversions: whence the compositions of the one are sublime, and those of the other ridiculous. Raphael raises us in our own estimation by showing us images of men, such as we think might exist; and Rembrandt degrades us by showing us such as we know do exist for the ridiculous, in whatsoever mode it be exhibited, will ever retain so much of its original principle, that the pleasure, CHAP. II. Of the Ridiculous. which it causes, will be in its nature a pleasure 5. It has been observed by Locke that wit consists in facility of combination, and judgment in accuracy of discrimination*: but wit in this sense means, not merely pleasantry, but the power of imagination in general; in which signification the word appears to have been universally employed till lately. As limited to that particular species of wit, which excites mirth or pleasantry, it is equally comprehended in this definition: for whether the combinations of imagery be sublime or ludicrous ;-be in. tended to excite admiration or laughter, a facility in discovering resemblances will equally constitute the power of producing them ; since invention itself is nothing but a prompt, vigorous, and extensive power of combination. 6. Sublime imagery is not less sublime for being obvious; but all ludicrous combinations must be new and uncommon, though just and natural for it is in the sudden display of unforeseen resemblances between things of different or opposite character; such as the grave and the gay; the pompous and the familiar; the exalted and the humble, &c. that what are called flashes of wit principally consist. In all, the principal feature or figure in the composi Essay on Understanding, book ii. c. xi. f. 2. 1 CHAP. II. tion is shown to the imagination, distorted or debased by being placed in an unfavourable light; or associated with degrading ideas; from Of the Ridithe influence of which, the air of ridicule, which it acquires, arises.. 7. Humour consists in similar coincidences of things generally dissimilar, displayed in manners instead of images and ideas as when the auctioneer considers himself as a public character in the state, and imagines that his profession requires the talents of a consummate orator and rhetorician or when a fishmonger, exalted to the rank of a major of militia, describes the moving of his regiment, from village to village, with all the pomp and pedantry of military diction, usually employed in describing the march of numerous armies from one kingdom to another. In all cases, this kind of mock heroic is among the most powerful sources of the ludicrous: as, by joining the forms of the most momentous of human affairs to the most trivial of human actions, it at once amuses the imagination with novelty and contrast, and flatters that innate principle of selfish vanity or malignity, which makes us naturally delight in the degradation of whatsoever is exalted. 8. Of the same kind are the burlesque imitations or parodies of serious compositions; which being the most easy of all the tricks, by EE culous. |