L Then flash'd the living lightn ng from her eyes, Ibid. Canto iii. 155. 327. Joining things that in appearance are opposite. As, for example, where Sir Roger de Coverly, in the Spectator, speaking of his widow, That he would have given her a coal-pit to have kept her in clean linen; and that her finger should have sparkled with one hundred of his richest acres. Premises that promise much and perform nothing. that article says, Cicero upon Sed scitis esse notissimum ridiculi genus, cum aliud expectamus, aliud dicitur: hic nobismetipsis noster error risum movet.—De Oratore, 1. ii. cap. 63. Beatrice.- -With a good leg and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in his purse, such a man would win any woman in the world, if he could get her good-will.-Much Ado about Nothing, Act II. Sc. 1. Beatrice. I have a good eye, uncle, I can see a church by daylight.—Ibid. Le médicin que l'on m'indique Mais je veux vivre encore un peu. [Example (adduced by Hazlitt) of lowering the tone of highwrought sentiment by introducing burlesque and familiar circumstances. Butler, in his "Hudibras," compares the change of night into day to the change of color in a boiled lobster: The sun had long since, in the lap Wit, or ludicrous invention, produces its effect oftenest by comparson, but not always. It frequently effects its purposes by unexpected and subtile distinctions. A happy instance of the kind of wit which consists in sudden retorts, in turns upon an idea, and diverting the train of your adversary's argument abruptly and adroitly into some other channel, may be seen in the sarcastic reply of Porson, who hearing some one observe, that "certain modern poets would be read and admired when Homer and Virgil were forgotten,” made answer "And not till then !" Voltaire's saying, in answer to a stranger who was observing how tall his trees grew" that they had nothing else to do," was a quaint 326. Ludicrous junction of small things with great as of equal importance. mixture of wit and humor, making it out as if they really led a lazy, laborious life; but there was here neither allusion nor metaphor. The same principle of nice distinction must be allowed to prevail in those lines of "Hudibras," where he is professing to expound the dreams of judicial astrology: There's but a twinkling of a star Hazlitt, Lect. I.] 328. Having discussed wit in the thought, we proceed to what is verbal only, commonly called a play of words. This sort of wit depends, for the most part, upon choosing a word that hath different significations by that artifice hocus-pocus tricks are played in language, and thoughts plain and simple take on a very different appearance. Play is necessary for man, in order to refresh him after labor; and, accordingly, man loves play, even so much as to relish a play of words: and it is happy for us, that words can be employed, not only for useful purposes, but also for our amusement. This amusement, though humble and low, unbends the mind; and is relished by some at all times, and by all at some times.*, It is remarkable, that this low species of wit has among all nations been a favorite entertainment, in a certain stage of their progress towards refinement of taste and manners, and has gradually gone into disrepute. As soon as a language is formed into a system, and the meaning of words is ascertained with tolerable accuracy, opportunity is afforded for expressions that, by the double meaning of some words, give a familiar thought the appearance of being new; and the penetration of the reader or hearer is gratified in detecting the true sense disguised under the double meaning. That this sort of wit was in England deemed a reputable amusement, during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., is vouched by the works of Shakspeare, and even by the writings of grave divines. But it cannot have any long endurance: for as language ripens, and the meaning [Hazlitt observes:-"Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for ne is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be. We weep at what thwarts or exceeds our desires in serious matters; we laugh at what only disappoints our expectations in trifles. We shed tears from sympathy with real and necessary distress; as we burst into laughter from want of sympathy with that which is unreasonable and unnecessary, the absurdity of which provokes our spleen or mirth, rather than any serious reflections on it."] 827. Joining things that in appearance are opposite. Example.-Premises that promise much and perform nothing.-Introducing burlesque circumstances.-Unexpected and sub. tile distinctions. 828. Play of words: its nature and advantage. When in repute. of words is more and more ascertained, words held to be synonymous diminish daily; and when those that remain have been more than once employed, the pleasure vanisheth with the novelty. 329. I proceed to examples, which, as in the former case, shall be distributed into different classes. A seeming resemblance from the double meaning of a word: A seeming contrast from the same cause, termed a verbal anti thesis, which hath no despicable effect in ludicrous subjects: Whilst Iris his cosmetic wash would try To make her bloom revive, and lovers die, Dispensary, Canto ii. Other seeming connections from the same cause: Rape of the Lock To break a fiddle, and your word?-Hudibras, Canto ii. Put off his hat to put his case.-Ibid. Part III. Canto iii. Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home; Rape of the Lock, Canto iii. 1. 5. O'er their quietus where fat judges dose, Speaking of Prince Eugene: Dispensary, Canto i. This general is a great taker of snuff as well as of towns. Pope, Key to the Lock. Exul mentisque domusque.-Metamorphosis, 1. ix. 409. A seeming opposition from the same cause: Again, Hic quiescit qui nunquam quievit. So like the chances are of love and war, That they alone in this distinguish'd are; In love the victors from the vanquish'd fly, They fly that wound, and they pursue that die.- Waller. What new-found witchcraft was in thee, With thine own cold to kindle me? Strange art; like him that should devise To make a burning-glass of ice.—Cowley. 330. Wit of this kind is unsuitable in a serious poem; witness the following line in Pope's Elegy to the memory of an unfortunate lady: 329. Examples of seeming resemblanco; seeming contrast; seeming connections; scom ing opposition. Cold is that breast which warm'd the world before. This sort of writing is finely burlesqued by Swift: Her hands the softest ever felt, Though cold would burn, though dry would melt. Strephon and Chloe. Taking a word in. a different sense from what is meant, comes under wit, because it occasions some slight degree of surprise: Beatrice. I may sit in a corner, and cry Heigh ho! for a husband. Beatrice. I would rather have one of your father's getting. Hath your grace ne'er a brother like you? Your father got excellent husbands, if a maid could come by them. Much Ado about Nothing, Act II. Sc. 5. Falstaff. My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about. Falstaff. No quips, now, Pistol; indeed I am in the waist two yards about; but I am now about no waste; I am about thrift. Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I. Sc. 7. 331. An assertion that bears a double meaning, one right, one wrong, but so introduced as to direct us to the wrong meaning, is a species of bastard wit, which is distinguished from all others by the name pun. For example: Paris. Troilus and Cressida, Act III. Sc. 2. The pun is in the close. The word disarm has a double meaning: it signifies to take off a man's armor, and also to subdue him in fight. We are directed to the latter sense by the context; but, with regard to Helen, the word holds only true in the former sense. I go on with other examples: Chief Justice. Well! the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy. Chief Justice. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great. 1 Celia. I pray you bear with me, I can go no further. Clown. For my part, I had rather bear with you than bear you; yet I should bear no cross if I did bear you; for I think you have no money in your purse. As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 4. He that imposes an oath makes it, Hudibras, Part II. Canto ii. [The greatest single production of wit, in England, is Butler's "Hudibras." It contains specimens of every variety of drollery and satire, and those specimens crowded together in almost every page. Butler is equally in the hands of the learned and the vulgar, for the 880. Wit of this kind, where unsuitable.-Taking a word in a different sense from what is meant. sense is generally as solid as the images are amusing and grotesque. Though his subject was local and temporary, his fame was not circumscribed within his own age. He was admired by Charles II., and has been rewarded by posterity. . . . . . He in general ridicules not persons, but things; not a party, but their principles, which may belong, as time and occasion serve, to one set of solemn pretenders or another. He has exhausted the moods and figures of satire and sophistry. It would be possible to deduce the different forms of syllogism in Aristotle, from the different violations or mock imitations of them in Butler. He makes you laugh or smile, by comparing the high to the low: No Indian prince has to his palace More followers than a thief to the gallows. Or, by pretending to raise the low to the lofty: And in his nose, like Indian king, He (Bruin) wore for ornament a ring. He succeeds equally in the familiarity of his illustrations : By thunder turned to vinegar. Or, their incredible extravagance, by comparing things that are alike or not alike: Replete with strange hermetic powder, That wounds nine miles point-blank would solder. He surprises equally by his coincidences or contradictions, by spinning out a long-winded flimsy excuse, or by turning short upon you with the point-blank truth. His rhymes are as witty as his reasons, equally remote from what common custom would suggest : That deals in destiny's dark counsels, And sage opinions of the moon sells. He startles you sometimes by an empty sound like a blow drum-head: The mighty Totipotimoy Sometimes, also, by a pun upon one word : For Hebrew roots, although they are found upon a Sometimes, by splitting another in two at the end of a verse, with the same alertness and power over the odd and unaccountable, in the combinations of sounds as of images: Those wholesale critics, that in coffee- There are as many shrewd aphorisms in his works, clenched by as many quaint and individual allusions, as perhaps in any author whatever. He makes none but palpable hits, that may be said to give one's understanding a rap on the knuckles: |