following: _Indian Antiquary_, vol. viii., p. 316; cf. E. Deschamps,
_Pays des Veddas_, pp. 378–9; _The Taprobanian_, vol. i., p. 192
ff. The German visitor, Sarasin, upholds the writer in the latter
periodical, and says that the Veddas “lachen gerne,” though some of
them are bad tempered, and laugh but little. _Naturforschungen auf
Ceylon_, pp. 378 and 540.
[141] Carl von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern
Zentral-Brasiliens_, p. 61.
[142] 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 cold-blooded creatures. See _Eskimo Life_, pp. 100, 101.
[143] _Expression of the Emotions_, p. 209.
[144] _Central Australia_ (1833), ii., p. 138.
[145] _Among Cannibals_ (1889), p. 291.
[146] Angas, _Australia and New Zealand_ (1847), ii., p. 11.
[147] Bonwick, _The Daily Life of the Tasmanians_ (1870), p. 174.
[148] Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_ (1832), i., p. 96.
[149] Turnbull, _A Voyage Round the World_ (1813), p. 372.
[150] Erskine, _The Western Pacific_ (1853), p. 159.
[151] _Natives of Sarawak and Brit. N. Borneo_, i., p. 84.
[152] Rev. Jos. Shooter, _The Kafirs of Natal_ (1857), p. 232.
[153] Cruickshank, _The Gold Coast of Africa_ (1853), ii., p. 253.
[154] Hind, _Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition_ (1860), ii., p.
135. Other examples of the mirthfulness of savages are given by Herbert
Spencer, _Descriptive Sociology_, Div. I., Pt. 2—A.
[155] Cruickshank, _Gold Coast of Africa_, _loc. cit._
[156] Musters, _At Home with the Patagonians_ (1873), p. 167.
[157] _Saugethiere von Paraguay_ (1830), s. 10.
[158] _Aborigines of Tasmania_ (2nd ed.), p. 38.
[159] Johnston, _British Central Africa_ (1897), p. 403.
[160] E. H. Man, “Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands,”
_Journal of Anthropol. Institute_, vol. xii., p. 88.
[161] See Raulin, _op. cit._, p. 94 ff.
[162] Angas, _loc. cit._
[163] Ling Roth, _Natives of Sarawak_, etc., i., p. 81.
[164] Burton, _Lake Regions of Central Africa_, ii., p. 331.
[165] Waitz, _Naturvölker_, 6ter Theil, s. 102.
[166] Mrs. Edgeworth David, _Funafuti_, p. 230.
[167] Shooter, _The Kafirs of Natal_ (1857), p. 232.
[168] Ling Roth, _Aborigines of Tasmania_ (2nd ed.), p. 29.
[169] Wood, _Natural History of Man_, i., p. 261.
[170] From an article, “West African Women,” contributed to the _Daily
Telegraph_.
[171] This is stated by Prof. Bain in his _English Composition and
Rhetoric_, p. 237. I have been unable to verify the statement; 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 save a hat!
[172] Sarasin, _Forschungen auf Ceylon_, s. 537.
[173] Sproat, _Scenes and Studies of Savage Life_ (1868), p. 51.
[174] Wood, _op. cit._, i., p. 261, and Shooter, _op. cit._, p. 233.
[175] Turnbull, _op. cit._, p. 372.
[176] Wright, _History of Caricature and Grotesque_, p. 2.
[177] Cruickshank, _loc. cit._
[178] Ellis, _op. cit._, i., p. 97.
[179] How 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. cit._, p. 65.
[180] Ling Roth, _op. cit._, i., p. 72.
[181] Barrow, _Hudson’s Bay_, p. 32.
[182] Lichtenstein, _Travels in Southern Africa_, ii., p. 312.
[183] Compare above, pp. 72, 73.
[184] Ellis, _op. cit._, i., p. 97.
[185] Wood, _op. cit._, ii., p. 522.
[186] Lichtenstein, _op. cit._, ii., p. 308.
[187] Burchell, _Travels in Southern Africa_ (1822), vol. ii., p. 339.
[188] Ling Roth, _op. cit._ (2nd ed.), p. 134.
[189] Marsden, _History of Sumatra_, p. 230.
[190] Ling Roth, _op. cit._ (2nd ed.), p. 36.
[191] Sproat, _Savage Life_, p. 266.
[192] Quoted by Ling Roth, _Sarawak and British North Borneo_, i., p.
93.
[193] Compare above, p. 104.
[194] Hind, _Canadian Red River Expedition_, ii., p. 135.
[195] See Ling Roth, _Sarawak and British North Borneo_, i., p. 75.
[196] Spencer and Gillen, _The Native Tribes of Central Australia_, pp.
136, 137.
[197] Quoted from Gideon Lang by Bonwick, _Daily Life of the
Tasmanians,_ p. 174.
[198] Nansen asserts this with respect to the attitude of the Eskimos
towards the Danes who settled in Greenland in 1728. See _Eskimo Life_,
pp. 106–7.
[199] Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_ (1878), ii., p. 278.
[200] Sarasin, _op. cit._, iii., p. 540.
[201] Burton, _Wit and Wisdom of West Africa_, p. 52.
[202] Ling Roth, _Sarawak and British North Borneo_, i., p. 83.
[203] Ling Roth, _op. cit._, i., pp. 83–4.
[204] Sproat, _op. cit._, p. 51.
[205] Quoted by Darwin, _Expression of the Emotions_, p. 209.
[206] Von den Steinen, _op. cit._, p. 71.
[207] Turnbull, _op. cit._, p. 88.
[208] _Op. cit._, p. 372.
[209] Brough Smyth, _op. cit._, i., p. 29.
[210] _North American Ethnology_ (J. W. Powell), vol. iii., p. 410.
[211] _Op. cit._, pp. 239, 291.
[212] Ling Roth, _Tasmania_ (2nd ed.), p. 38.
[213] Marsden, _op. cit._, p. 230.
[214] Quoted by Waitz, _Naturvölker_, 6ter Theil, p. 102.
[215] Ling Roth, _Sarawak and British North Borneo_, i., p. 84.
[216] Hans Egede, _Nat. Hist. of Greenland_, pp. 156–7.
[217] F. Nansen, _Eskimo Life_, p. 187; _cf._ Egede, _loc. cit._
[218] Quoted from Jackson’s Narrative (1840) by Erskine, _Western
Pacific_, p. 468.
[219] Bonwick, _op. cit._, p. 29.
[220] Grey, _Two Expeditions in Australia_ (1841), ii., pp. 307–8.
[221] J. Chandler Harris, _Uncle Remus and his Friends_.
[222] R. E. Dennett, _Folklore of the Fjort_, pp. 92–3.
[223] 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 legs, etc., occurs in a race usually placed among the lowest in
the scale. Yet this apparent exception does not, I think, affect the
validity of the generalisation in the text. The intellect displayed in
this ridicule is not of a high order; and, further, we are distinctly
told that the scoffer in the case was an “intelligent” native, that is
to say, one of more than the average intelligence of his tribe.
[224] Mr. Ling Roth writes me that he agrees with Miss Kingsley as
to the difference between the laughter of savages and of children. I
should be quite ready to accept this view so far as it concerns the
special forms and directions of the mirth. The differences of capacity,
experience and habit involved in the difference between the child
and adult will, of course, introduce many dissimilarities into their
manifestations of the mirthful temper. I hold, however, that as regards
the fundamental psychical processes involved, the similarity is real
and great.
[225] Macdonald, _op. cit._, i., p. 266.
[226] Burton, _op. cit._, ii., pp. 338–9.
[227] See p. 42.
[228] Wright, _History of Caricature and Grotesque_, p. 181.
[229] M. Jos. Bédier in his interesting study, _L’Esprit des Fabliaux_,
though he argues that the fabliaux in general had no social aim
(“portée sociale”), has to admit that in the case of the treatment of
the priests these “contes à rire en vers” betray a genuine hatred, a
hatred which (he adds) runs through other forms of literature of the
Middle Ages.
[230] Bédier points out in 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.
[231] See Maspero, _Les Contes populaires de l’Égypte_, Introduction
(“Conte des deux frères”).
[232] Percy Gardner, _Greek Antiquities_, p. 353.
[233] Tyrrell, _Latin Poetry_, p. 220.
[234] Bédier, _op. cit._, p. 279 ff.
[235] H. Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_, “Ceremonial Institutions,”
pp. 205, 206.
[236] Maspero, _Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria_, chap. i.
[237] Wilkinson, _Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians_, iii., pp.
447, 429.
[238] Simcox, _Hist. of Latin Liter._, i., p. 46.
[239] Given in Hazlitt’s _New London Jest Book_, pp. 31, 32.
[240] Wright, _op. cit._, p. 133. A good story of a retaliative
practical joke, carried out by a bachelor on a tavern keeper who had
spilt some wine on serving him, is given by Bédier, _op. cit._, iii.,
p. 272 ff.
[241] H. Spencer, _op. cit._, p. 208.
[242] Curtius remarks of the Greek comic poets: “It was primarily
against the novel fashion of the day that they aimed their blows”
(_Hist. of Greece_, ii., p. 539).
[243] See Ward, _Engl. Dram. Poets_, ii., p. 401.
[244] Wright, _op. cit._, chap. xix.
[245] Sellar, _Roman Poets_, p. 167.
[246] Tyrrell, _op. cit._, p. 52.
[247] Ward, _Engl. Dram. Poets_, ii., pp. 398–9. The Restoration comedy
also made fun of the “cit” as the inferior of the West-end gentleman.
[248] Ward, _op. cit._, ii., pp. 399, 400.
[249] _The Golden Ass_, Bk. III., ch. 55.
[250] Doran, _History of Court Fools_, pp. 18, 37, 75.
[251] Tyrrell, _Latin Poetry_, p. 43 ff. The scurrility of the early
Greek comedy led to its being discountenanced by Pisistratus. As
Prof. P. Gardner remarks, “Tyrants have no sense of humour, and dread
ridicule” (_Greek Antiquities_, p. 666).
[252] Wright, _op. cit._, p. 44 ff.
[253] Ward, _Engl. Dram. Poets_, ii., pp. 392–3.
[254] Colley Cibber’s satire “Non-Juror” is said to have brought him
a pension and the office of Poet Laureate (Wright, _op. cit._, chap.
xxii.).
[255] George III. was caricatured again and again by Gillray (Wright,
_op. cit._, chap. xxvii.).
[256] 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.
[257] George Eliot, _Essays_, pp. 82, 83.
[258] The opening scene of _Le Médecin malgré lui_ shows that Molière
had observed this quaint form of wifely loyalty.
[259] _Sylvie and Bruno_, Part II., p. 132.
[260] Hence Addison’s remark (_Spectator_, No. 35) that humour should
always be under the check of reason seems, in what one is tempted to
call a characteristic way, to miss the mark.
[261] See, for example, Höffding, _Outlines of Psychology_, pp. 294,
295.
[262] Quoted by Dugas, _op. cit._, p. 98. Flaubert here indicates,
perhaps, one great limiting condition of the growth of the composite
sentiment of humour.
[263] _Philebus_, Jowett’s translation, iv., p. 94 ff.
[264] One of the best recent discussions of this subject will be found
in the work of A. Lehmann, already referred to; _see_ pp. 247–251 and
259.
[265] _Cf._ above, p. 70.
[266] _Op. cit._, p. 95.
[267] For the whole passage, written perhaps with an unconscious
reminiscence of the Rousseau period, see the _Kritik of Judgment_, Dr.
Bernard’s translation, p. 227.
[268] The absence in the East of the comic spirit as expressing itself
in the art of comedy, a point noted by Mr. Meredith, is of course not
conclusive with respect to the existence of the humorous disposition.
[269] M. Bédier has a delicate characterisation of this French spirit
in the _Contes_; touching on its want of depth and _arrière-pensée_,
its spice of malice, its joyous good sense, its irony, which though a
little coarse is yet precise and just, _op. cit._, p. 278.
[270] This redeeming quality 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 Book of Bulls_, by G. R. Neilson (in which the
Edgeworths’ essay is included).
[271] Quoted by Meredith, _op. cit._, p. 87.
[272] See his son’s _Life_, chap. vii. (vol. i., p. 167).
[273] The question is left an open one by his biographer, J.
Fitzmaurice-Kelly. See _Life of Cervantes_, p. 207.
[274] _Causeries du Lundi_, vol. iii., pp. 3, 4.
[275] _Logic Deductive and Inductive_, by Carveth Read.
[276] Bernard’s translation of _The Kritik of Judgment_, p. 226.
[277] Good illustrations will be found in the story of Mr. Bernard
Capes, _The Lake of Wine_, chap. ii. and chap. xxxii.
[278] See for one among many instances _Travels in West Africa_, chap.
ix. (“The Rapids of the Ogowe”).
[279] The story of Hans von Bülow’s almost superhuman behaviour under
these circumstances is told in the _National Observer_ of 17th Feb.,
1894.
[280] See, for example, a letter from a titled lady in _The Times_ of
the 1st June, 1894, in which this claim of “society” to the services of
“the pick of blood and brains” is prettily assumed.
[281] 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 Roman jesters (γελωτοποιοί, ἀρεταλόγοι, mimi, scurræ) see P.
Gardner, _Greek Antiquities_, p. 835; [_cf._ Doran, _Court Fools_].
On the mediæval jester or fool see Wright, _op. cit._, chap. vii.;
Lacroix, _Middle Ages_, p. 238 ff.; and Jusserand, _English Wayfaring
Life_, p. 187.
[282] P. Gardner, _Greek Antiquities_, p. 666.
[283] Bergk, Griech. _Literaturgesch._, iv., pp. 9, 10.
[284] See Wright, _op. cit._, chaps. xii. and xiv.
[285] _Essay on Comedy_, pp. 24–5 (on Molière’s audience); pp. 8, 47
and following (on the recognition of woman).
[286] Examples will be found in _Le Médecin malgré lui_, _L’Avare_
and others. A delightful introduction of the all-round beating of the
circus is that of the Professors in _Le Bourgeois gentilhomme_.
[287] M. Bergson, who gives a delightful account of these mechanical
aids to the effect of comedy, seeks to connect them with his theory
that the laughable consists in the substitution of the monotony of the
machine 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.
[288] Compare the breezy fun of the scene in _Le Tartuffe_, where the
maid, Dorine, has to tackle in turn each of a pair of lovers urging the
same grievances in almost the same words (Act II., Sc. iv.).
[289] Moulton, _Ancient Class. Drama_, p. 344.
[290] “In Aristophanes the very few maiden figures that appear are
dumb” (Neil, _The Knights of Aristophanes_, Introduction, p. xiv.).
[291] P. Gardner, _Greek Antiquities_, p. 353.
[292] Mommsen, _History of Rome_, vol. iii., p. 144.
[293] _Essay_, Bk. II., chap. xi.
[294] _Spectator_, No. 62.
[295] _English Comic Writers_, Lect. I., “Wit and Humour”.
[296] _Spectator_, No. 6.
[297] _Cf. supra_, pp. 112, 113.
[298] _Spectator_, No. 47.
[299] An elaborate classification of the various kinds of word-play may
be found in an article by Dr. Emil Kräpelin, in Wundt’s _Philosoph.
Studien_, 2^{er} Band, s. 144 ff.
[300] Bergk observes that these are at once individuals and types
(_Griech. literaturgeschichte_, Bd. IV., s. 91).
[301] Mommsen observes that in Terence we have a more becoming, though
not yet moral, conception of feminine nature and of married life
(_Hist. of Rome_, Bk. IV., chap. xiii.).
[302] Courthope, _Hist. of English Poetry_, vol. ii., pp. 345 ff., and
356.
[303] _Eng. Lit._, Bk. II., chap. iii.
[304] On this mixture of tones see Moulton, _Shakespeare as Dramatic
Artist_, p. 291.
[305] Mr. Meredith touches on the way in which Molière developed his
characters out of persons known to him (_op. cit._, p. 53).
[306] _Lectures and Notes on Shakespeare_, p. 416.
[307]
“Comme un morceau de cire entre mes mains elle est,
Et je lui puis donner la forme qui me plaît.”
[308] M. Henri Bergson (_op. cit._, chap, iii.) seems to me to push
his helpful idea of a mechanical rigidity (_raideur_) in Molière’s
characters a little too far.
[309] The play closes with the “aside” of Covielle: “Si l’on en peut
voir un plus fou, je l’irai dire à Rome”.
[310] Mr. Meredith remarks that it was “here and there Bacchanalian
beyond the Aristophanic example” (_op. cit._, p. 11).
[311] See above, p. 92 f.
[312] Coleridge saw clearly enough how far comedy is from making
morality its basis. He remarks that the new comedy of Menander and the
whole of modern comedy (Shakespeare excepted) is based on rules of
prudence (_Lectures and Notes on Shakespeare_, Bell’s Edition, 1884, p.
191).
[313] _Cf. supra_, p. 139.
[314] _Hist. of Eng. Lit._, Bk. III., chap. i. Mr. Meredith is nearer
the mark when he speaks of the comic poet as being “in the narrow
field, or enclosed square of the society he depicts” (_op. cit._, p.
85).
[315] _Op. cit._, Bd. IV., s. 2.
[316] See his “Notice” to _Gil Blas_, pp. xii, xiii.
[317] _Hist. of Eng. Lit._, vol. iv., p. 173.
[318] _Op. cit._, p. 240.
[319] Quoted by Bacon, _Essays_, “Apothegms,” 181.
[320] This is well illustrated by George Eliot, who observes rightly
that wit is allied to ratiocination (_Essays_, “German Wit,” p. 81).
[321] I remember discussing the point with the late Henry Sidgwick—no
mean authority—who admitted that several quotations which he had
proffered as examples of wit might with equal appropriateness he
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_, Introduction, p. 23).
[322] The reference in the text is to humour and wit, regarded as
subjective, as elements in the writer. 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 borné wit of the
countryfolk in the novels of George Eliot and Mr. Hardy.
[323] See Mr. Traill’s criticism, _Sterne_, p. 156 ff.
[324] _Wit and Humour_, p. 11.
[325] See Canon Ainger’s Introduction to _The Essays of Elia_, p. 8.
[326] _English Thought in the Eighteenth Century_, vol. ii., p. 110.
[327] See my work on _Pessimism_, p. 428.
[328] See Dugas, _op. cit._, pp. 109, 110.
[329] See, for an excellent example of this retort, Dr. James Ward’s
_Naturalism and Agnosticism_, vol. i., Part I.
[330] M. Scherer may possibly mean something like this when he speaks
of the humorist’s point of view as the justest from which a man’s world
can be judged (_Essays on English Literature_, p. 148).
[331] On the moral function of comedy see Bergson, _op. cit._, pp. 201,
202, and Dugas, _op. cit._, pp. 149–159.
[332] The reference is to an article, “Ridicule and Truth” in the
_Cornhill Magazine_, 1877, pp. 580–95. Lessing’s plea, in his _Hamburg.
Dramaturgie_ (Stücke 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.
[333] _Ethics_, Bk. x., 6.
[334] _Sartor Resartus_, _loc. cit._
[335] _Letters_, vol. ii., p. 302.
[336] See what Aristotle says about the witty (εὐτράπελοι, literally,
the easy turning, nimble-minded), _Ethics_, Bk. iv., 8.
[337] Mr. Radford, in an article on _Falstaff_, in Mr. Birrell’s
_Obiter dicta_ (First Series).
[338] _The Journal of Education_, Nov. 1901, p. 687.
[339] Traill, _loc. cit._, p. 147.
[340] Mr. Radford, _loc. cit._
{433}
INDEX.
Abstraction, in representation of character in comedy, 358, 359, 367.
Absurd, the, as laughable, 110, 152, 216, 217, 239, 294.
Addison, Jos., 30 _note_, 95, 304 _note_, 354, 355, 423.
Affectation, in comedy, 351.
“Agelasts,” 2, 425.
Ainger, Alfred, 390 _note_.
Allin, A. See Hall, G. S.
Analogy of feeling, 191.
Angas, G. F., 224, 228.
Angell, J. R., 33 _note_, 36 _note_.
Animals; ticklishness of, 57 162, 163, 177; laughter of, 156, 161, 170,
172, 177; tricks of, 157; sense of fun in, 158, 160; play of, 158 ff.
Apes. See Animals.
Apperception, 14, 59, 127, 130, 131, 135.
Apprehension, dissolved, as cause of laughter. See Fear.
Apuleius, 290.
Arabian Nights, 264.
Aristophanes, 282, 292, 348, 352, 357, 360, 371, 378.
Aristotle, 120, 412, 413, 416, 417 _note_, 418, 420.
Art, amusing function of, 343 (Chapter XI.); origin of, 344; scope for
exhibition of laughable in, 345; humour in essays, etc., 390, 391 (see
Fiction, Comedy).
Artificial, comedy, 371; world of comedy, 373, 377.
Assimilation in social evolution, 276, 286.
Assimilative force of laughter, 272.
Austen, Jane, 378.
Bacon, Francis, on laughter, 22.
Bain, Alexander, his theory of the ludicrous, 121–124, 140, 143; on
cruelty of savage laughter, 232 _note_.
Balzac, H. de, 379. {434}
Barrie, J. M., 242.
Barrow, Isaac, 419.
— John, 236 _note_.
Bashkirtseff, M., 321.
Bates, H. W., 223.
Beating, as comic incident, 348.
Beddard, F. E., 171.
Bédier, Jos., 262 _note_, 263 _note_, 264, 270 _note_, 312 _note_.
Belittling of idea, as cause of laughter, 9.
Benevolent, mirthfulness as, 417.
Bergk, Th., 346, 360 _note_, 381.
Bergson, H., 7, 8 _note_, 104, 114, 140 _note_, 348 _note_, 367 _note_,
374, 413 _note_.
Bonwick, Jas., 224, 243, 250.
Born, Bertran de, 263.
Bosanquet, B., 6 _note_.
Bridgman, Laura, 170.
Browne, Thomas, 390.
Brutal laughter, 89, 97, 143, 231–233, 315, 381.
“Bulls,” 111, 313.
Bülow, H. von, 330 _note_.
Burchell, W. J., 239.
Burton, R. F., 229, 245, 253.
— Robert, 34, 314.
Butler, Samuel, 115.
Butt, of wit, 355.
Buyer and seller, laughter between, 270.
Campbell, Harry, 35 _note_.
Capes, B., 325 _note_.
Carlyle, T., 36, 49, 299, 390, 400, 404 416.
Carroll, Lewis, 304, 386.
Carus, Paul, 12 _note_.
Cervantes, S. M. de, 282, 310, 314, 389.
Champneys, F. H., 165.
Character, the laughable in, 133, 307, 315, 321; incongruity between
circumstances and, 318, 369; interest in, 318, 358; presentation of, in
comedy, 357–370. {434}
Chaucer, G., 30 _note_.
Chesterfield, Earl of, 1.
Child, development of laughter in (Chapter VII.); first laughter
of triumph, 83, 198, 200, 204, 210; sayings of, as laughable, 106;
degradation theory applied to laughter of, 123, 124, 137; beginnings of
smile and laugh in, 164–168, 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; early defiance
of order, 203, 204, 211, 213; first roguish laughter, 205, 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, Colley, 292 _note_.
Cicero, 384.
Class, differentiation 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 Restoration, 283, 287, 370–373, 383; Roman,
291, 376 (see also Plautus, Terence); conditions of the rise of, 347;
elements of primitive laughter in, 348–357, 379; of Incident, 357; of
Manners, 357, 370–373, 376; of Character, 357–370; Elizabethan, 361;
point of view of, 368–377, 410; mood addressed by, 370, 373, 375, 377,
412; attitude of, towards morality, 372–377, 411; limits to, 377;
approach to point of view of, in fiction, 378; satirical element in,
381; humour in, 387; corrective function of, 411–414; Modern, 413.
Comic art, rudiments of, in savage life, 250.
— the, distinguished from the laughable, 86.
Common-sense. See Point of View.
Concept, function of the, in laughter, 7, 13, 130–133, 135.
Congreve, W., 357, 370, 372, 411.
Conservative force of laughter, 257, 261. See Progress.
Contagiousness of laughter, 42, 186, 255.
_Conte_, the mediæval, 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 Incongruity.
Contrast, effect of, in comic characters, 365.
Coquelin, B. C., aîné, 109.
— cadet, 86 _note_.
Corrective function of laughter. See Value of Laughter.
Counteractives of laughter, 84, 88, 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.
Cynicism in modern laughter, 431.
Dante, Alighieri, 30, 425.
Darwin, C., 26, 38, 40, 57, 60, 63, 70, 71, 156, 159, 162, 163, 164,
169, 170, 171, 172, 177, 224, 227, 280.
Daudet, A., 378.
David, Mrs. F. W. E., 229.
Deformity, as laughable, 89, 231.
— moral. See Vice.
Degradation, theory of (moral theory), 119–125, 128, 137, 153.
Dennett, R. E., 251.
Descartes, R., 70.
Descending incongruity, 137.
Deschamps, E., 222 _note_. {435}
Detachment in humorous observation, 331, 337, 407–409.
Dickens, C., 158, 329, 388.
Difference, judgment of, 15 _note_.
Dignity, loss of, as laughable, 99, 119–125, 128, 136, 213, 214, 266.
Discomfiture, the sight of, as laughable, 117.
Disguise, in comedy, 349, 369.
Disorder, as laughable, 94, 266, 342; in comedy, 371.
Dog, the. See Animals.
Doran, John, 291.
Dugas, L., 47 _note_, 130 _note_, 149 _note_, 306 _note_, 400 _note_,
413 _note_.
Edgeworth, R. L. and M., 313 _note_.
Education, laughter in, 426.
Egede, Hans, 223 _note_, 249.
Egyptians, 264, 265.
Eliot, George, 109, 271, 298, 299, 385 _note_, 386 _note_, 389.
Ellis, W., 224, 235, 237.
Embarrassment, relief from, producing laughter, 228, 238.
Emotions, James’ theory of, 40; development of, 189; fusion of, 308–310.
Epicureans, 397.
Erskine, J. E., 224, 250.
Estimable, the, in the laughable, 306, 310, 317.
Evolutional utility of laughter, 408, 431.
Excellence, laughter as an, 3, 416, 422, 423.
Expectation, annulled, as cause of laughter, 9, 12, 18, 64, 125,
126–130.
_Fabliau_. See _Conte_.
Fanciful world of comedy, 372, 373, 377.
Fantastic ideas, as laughable, 88.
Fashion, definition of, 273; movements of, 273; as restrained by
custom, 275; as laughable, 276–279.
Father and child, relation of, in comedy, 265, 353, 361.
Fear, relief from nascent, as element in tickling, 63; laughter as
reaction from, 65, 176, 199; as inhibitory of laughter, 88.
Feeling tone, of sensations of tickling, 54; of humour, 305, 310; of
comic mood, 370, 376.
Fiction, prose, comic point of view in, 378, 379; addressed to a
reflective mood, 379; humour in, 387–390.
Fielding, H., 388, 389.
Fitzmaurice-Kelly, J., 314 _note_.
Flaubert, G., 306.
Fools, 249, 250, 291, 343; “Feast of,” 346.
Fouillée, A., 137.
Fox, fable of the, 382.
French, the, gaiety of, 311.
Fun, sense of, in children, 64, 76, 77, 87, 112, 125, 137, 140, 169,
176, 181, 194, 315; in savages, 234, 252; in comedy, 347–350, 353, 357,
369.
Future of laughter, 427.
Gardner, P., 264, 292 _note_, 343 _note_, 346 _note_.
Genetic method, necessity of, in studying the ludicrous, 154.
Gillen, F. J. See Spencer, B.
Gillray, Jas., 293 _note_.
Gladness, as expressed in laughter, 71, 195. See Pleasure.
Goethe, J. W. von, 283, 426.
Goldsmith, O., 298, 328, 387, 388, 424.
Gratiolet, L. P., 31.
Grey, George, 250.
Grief, as causing laughter, 66, 67; resemblance of manifestation of, to
laughter, 70, 309.
Groos, K., 146, 147 _note_, 148 _note_, 158 _note_, 182 _note_.
Habit, effect of, on child’s laughter, 188, 190; effect of, on
emotional reaction, 190. See Custom.
Hall, G. Stanley, and Allin, A., on laughter, 28, 52, 66, 83; on
tickling, 177, 178, 182.
Hardy, Thos., 103.
Harmful tendencies of laughter, 37, 46, 415, 418, 420, 422. See
Laughter.
Harris, J. C., 251.
Hartshorne, B. F., 222.
Hat, unsuitable, as instance of the ludicrous, 9–17.
Hazlitt, W. C., 137, 138 _note_, 268, 354.
Hecker, E., 184 _note_.
Hegel, G. W. F., 5.
Hegelians, on the comic, 4. {436}
Heine, H., 386, 423.
Heymans, G., 64.
Hill, 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.
Höffding, 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, 297; as individual, 298, 313,
324, 326; rarity of, 298, 311, 322, 325; origin of, 299; reflection
in, 300–303, 324, 387, 393; as a sentiment, 300, 307; seriousness
in, 301–305, 314, 319, 338, 342, 387, 393, 395, 400; blend of sad
and gay in, 305, 309, 387; kindly feeling in, 306, 307, 310, 342,
388; corrective function of, 323, 324, 403–405; consolatory force
of, 325–330, 342; relation of, to wit, 354, 385, 386; subjective and
objective, in literature, 386 _note_, 389; harmonising of tones in,
388, 391 (see also Philosophic Humour).
Hunt, J. H. Leigh, his theory of laughter, 142; quoted, 383.
Husbands, treatment of, in comedy, 373, 377.
Hypergelast, 297, 418.
Idealism and Realism, in relation to laughter, 394, 396, 400, 401.
Ignorance, as laughable, 102.
Imitation in fashion, 273–276, 278; in comedy, 348.
Incompetence, as laughable, 102, 240, 245.
Incongruity, theory of, 7, 9, 13, 17, 125–135, 136, 141, 150, 317, 318;
as laughable, 107–111, 152, 216, 236.
Indecent, the, as laughable, 99, 151, 235.
Individual, the, laughter of, 295, 297 (Chapter X.), 393; value of
laughter to, 321, 323 ff., 403, 415; justification of point of view of,
405.
Inferior, laughter of, at superior, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268.
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, 313, 385.
Jackson, John, 250 _note_.
James, William, his theory of emotions, 40, 189.
Johnston, H. H., 227.
Jonson, Ben, 268, 361, 362, 364.
Joy, laughter of, 71 ff., 116, 168, 194 ff., 228. See Pleasure.
Jusserand, J. A. A., 343 _note_.
Juvenal, 283, 381, 382.
Kames, H. H., 414.
Kant, I., his theory of the ludicrous, 9, 18, 126–129, 131; quoted,
125, 134, 135, 310, 325.
Keats, John, 430.
Kingsley, Miss M. H., 222, 225, 231, 251, 252, 253, 266, 328, 391.
Kipling, R., 98 _note_.
Kräpelin, E., 356 _note_.
Külpe, O., 52 _note_, 54 _note_.
Lack of humour, advantages of, 424, 425.
Lacroix, P., 343 _note_.
Lamb, C., humour of, 298, 390, 420; his view of Restoration comedy,
372, 373, 377.
Landor, W. Savage, 314.
Lang, Gideon, 243 _note_.
Lange, C., 67, 189.
Language, poetical use of “laugh” and “smile,” 30; terms for forms of
laughter in French, 49 _note_; misuse of, as laughable, 104, 240. See
Wit.
Laughable, the (Chapter IV.), definition of, 82; universality of,
83, 295; relativity of, 84, 88, 93, 95, 98, 101, 102, 106, 111, 113;
distinguished from the ludicrous, 85; complexity of, 87, 114, 153;
groups of laughable objects, 87; inhibitory concomitants of, 90, 93,
96, 101, 111, 301, 306; relation of, to laughter as a whole, 153; field
of, 260, 315, 319.
Laughter, estimates of, 1, 416; scientific investigation of, 3 ff.,
19, {437} 154; physiological characteristics of, 22, 26–28, 30,
33–36, 69, 227, 309; varieties of, 22, 48, 188, 251; an intermittent
manifestation, 26, 74; sounds of, 31, 174, 227; bad effects of, 37, 46,
415, 418, 420, 422; mechanically produced, 42, 64 ff., 74; occasions
of, 50 (Chapter III.); nervous, 65–70, 116; counteractives to, 88,
90, 93, 96, 101, 102, 111, 377; as sign of playful mood in animals,
183–184; as instrument of punishment, 250, 256, 262, 380; anti-social
tendency in, 256, 406; regulation of, 418; promotion of, 423; as branch
of education, 426. See also Child, Development of; Humour; Origin of
Laughter; Primitive Laughter; Savages, Laughter of; Social Laughter;
Value of Laughter.
Le Fanu, W. R., 111 _note_.
Lehmann, A., 172 _note_, 308 _note_.
Le Sage, A. R., 262, 382.
Lessing, G. E., 323, 412, 415 _note_.
Lichtenstein, M. H. C., 236, 238.
Lipps, Th., his theory of the ludicrous, 9–17, 64, 137; quoted, 94.
Literature. See Art.
Locke, John, his definition of wit, 354.
Loti, P., 197 _note_.
Lotze, H., 8 _note_, 18.
Loveday, T., 15 _note_.
Love-motive, in comedy, 360, 371.
Ludicrous, the, Schopenhauer’s 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, 85, 138; theories of, 119 (Chapter V.); degradation theory
of, 119–125, 128, 137; synthesis of theories of, 136–139; no one theory
of, 139, 153.
Lumholtz, Carl, 224, 249.
Macaulay, T. B., 372, 377.
Macdonald, Duff, 221, 252.
Majorities and minorities, 406.
Malice in laughter, 78, 83, 89, 97, 118, 142, 143, 231, 233, 381.
Man, E. H., 227.
Mania, approach to, of comic characters, 367; of a whole people, 377.
Manners, in comedy, 370.
Marsden, W., 240, 249.
Maspero, G., 264, 266, 343 _note_.
Massinger, P., 361.
Master and servant, relation of, in comedy, 353. See Slaves.
Mélinaud, C., 8 _note_.
Menander, 361, 374 _note_.
Meredith, G., 4, 99, 109, 297, 300, 310, 347, 364 _note_, 371 _note_,
376 _note_, 379, 415, 417.
Merry England, mirth of, 429.
Mill, J. S., 280.
Milton, J., 39, 425.
Minto, W., 386 _note_.
Mirthfulness, persistence of, 25, 73, 223–226; effect of temperament
on, 80; expression of, as element in the laughable, 116, 149, 211–213,
348; decline of, 428 ff.
Misfortunes, small, as laughable, 96.
Modern life, decline of choral laughter in, 427; seriousness of, 428
ff.; growth of individual laughter in, 432.
Molière, J. B. P., 114, 272, 288, 303 _note_, 307, 315, 348, 349, 350,
351, 353, 357, 359, 364–370, 373–378.
Mommsen, Th., 353 _note_, 361 _note_.
Mono-ideism in comic characters, 366.
Montaigne, M. E. de, 342.
Mood, the ticklish, 62; of humour, 304; addressed by comedy, 370, 373,
375, 377; addressed by fiction, 379, 380.
Moore, Mrs. K. C., 165, 188.
Moral deformity. See Vice.
— sensitiveness, as inhibitory of laughter, 93, 101, 102.
— theory. See Degradation.
Morality, attitude of laughter towards, 92, 372–377; attitude of comedy
towards, 372–377; function of comedy in relation to, 411–414.
— plays, 347, 359, 361, 362.
Morgan, C. Lloyd, 148 _note_, 160.
Moulton, R. G., 352 _note_, 362 _note_.
Mulcaster, R., 35.
Musters, G. C., 226.
Mystery plays, 347. {438}
Naïveté, as laughable, 104, 127, 336; children’s, 105.
Nansen, F., 223 _note_, 244 _note_, 250.
National feeling, 293.
Nationality. See Race.
Neil, R. A., 352 _note_.
Neilson, G. R., 313 _note_.
Nervous laughter, 65–70, 116.
Newspaper, struggle for the, 334, 336.
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; in comedy, 351.
Old and young, relation of, in comedy, 353.
Old-fashioned, laughter at the, 281.
Optimism and pessimism. See also Philosophy, Worth of Life.
Order, breach of, as laughable, 94, 266, 342.
Organism, effects of laughter on, 33–36, 45, 69; resonance of, as
factor 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 out
of smile, 173–176; explosive vigour, explanation of, 176. See also
Smile, Tickling.
Paradox, as laughable, 104, 106, 110.
Parasites, laughter of tickling as defensive against, 178, 179, 181.
Parnell, J., 111 _note_.
Pascal, B., 1, 423.
Peacock, T. L., 222.
Perception of the ludicrous, movement of thought in, 11, 13; as
perception of relations, 13, 107, 192, 300, 302, 316–318; necessity
of distinct imagery to, 14, 131; as immediate, 15; as antecedent
of laughter, 42, 50; as emotional, 43, 125; effect of subjective
conditions on, 84, 88; as intellectual, 125; connection with primitive
laughter, 116, 140, 142, 144, 153.
Philosophic humour, characteristics of, 390, 400–405, 407–410; utility
of, 403–405; anti-social tendency of, 406.
Philosophy, theoretic treatment of laughter by, 4–6, 19, 396;
philosophic speculation, as laughable, 5, 400, 401; connection of
humour with, 390, 392–410; point of view of, 393, 394, 396, 397;
ideal standard of, 394, 395; change in aspect of reality produced by,
394, 395, 397, 398; seriousness of, 395; obstacles to union of humour
with, 396–399; idealism and laughter, 396; optimism and laughter, 398;
pessimism and laughter, 398; scepticism and laughter, 399.
Physiological aspects of laughter. See Laughter.
Pity, as inhibitory of laughter, 90, 98.
Plato, 308, 342, 396, 408.
Plautus, 266, 268, 282, 348, 352, 357, 360, 371.
Play, tickling and, 63, 179, 182–184; 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, 184, 256, 344; rompish, 198,
199; as make-believe, 201, 214; attacks as form of, 201; lawlessness
of, 216; connection with comedy, 348, 349, 353, 373, 375, 377.
Playfulness, expression of. See Laughter and Mirthfulness.
Pleasure, as antecedent of laughter, 43, 71, 145; interaction of
laughter and, 44 ff.; sudden accession of, as cause of laughter, 72, 74
ff., 141, 145, 184.
Poetic justice, 368.
Point of view, relativity of, in laughter, 84, 88, 93, 95, 101, 102,
106, 111; of common-sense, 110, 294, 376, 395, 399, 400; tribal and
national, 238, 256, 271, 293, 294; of humour, 303, 315, 324, 330, 338,
341, 403 _note_, 409, 410; social, 323, 374–377, 380, 399, 405, 409,
410; of comedy, {439} 372–377, 410; of philosophy, 393, 394, 396, 397;
individual, 399, 405, 409, 410; of satire, 410.
Pope, Alex., 307, 383.
Powell, J. W., 248 _note_.
Practical joking, 78, 129, 160, 229–231. See Teasing.
Preciosity, in comedy, 351.
Pretence, as laughable, 101, 148, 151; in play, 147, 158.
Preyer, W., 49, 160, 164–170, 178, 188, 205, 206 _note_, 209, 211, 212.
Primitive laughter, necessity of considering, 23; forms of, tickling,
etc., 50 (Chapter III.); elements of, in appreciation of the ludicrous,
140–145, 153; humour as development of, 299; in comedy, 347 ff.
Progress, as hindered and furthered by laughter, 257, 279–283; social,
279; as object of laughter, 280, 283.
Public opinion, deification of, 334.
Punning, in children, 112, 217; and wit, 354; in comedy, 357.
Rabelais, F., 299, 314, 389.
Races, diversities of laughter and humour of, 311–313.
Radford, G. H., 417, 428.
“Ralph Roister Doister,” 361.
Raulin, J. M., 228.
Read, Carveth, 320.
Real, the, in comedy, 368, 369, 372.
Reflection, in laughter, 8, 251; in humour, 301, 302, 393; appeal to,
in humorous writing, 379, 389.
Relations, as laughable, 13, 107, 300, 302, 316.
Relief from strain, in nervous laughter, 65–70; laughter on solemn
occasions as, 80, 118; in laughter at the indecent, 118; in laughter
at degradation, 140; as explaining explosiveness of laughter, 176; in
children’s laughter, 196, 198, 204; in laughter of savages, 228; in
laughter of art, 282.
Rengger, J. R., 226.
Repetition, effect of, on child’s laughter, 188, 190; effect of, on
emotional reaction, 190; as comic incident, 348.
Respiration, laughter and, 30, 33–35, 42, 69, 142.
Restoration, the, literature of, 282; comedy of, 283, 287, 370.
Restraints on laughter, by the community, 418–420; by the individual,
420–422.
Retaliative joke, among savages, 230; in comedy, 350.
Retirement. See Detachment.
Reverence, laughter as destructive of, 422.
Ribot, Th., 171 _note_, 193 _note_.
Richet, Charles, 52 _note_, 53 _note_, 60.
Richter, J. P., 8 _note_, 390, 400.
Ridiculous, the, distinguished from the ludicrous, 138.
Robinson, Louis, 51, 53, 55, 57, 58, 61, 63, 162, 177, 178, 179–182.
Romanes, G. J., 161.
Rostand, Edmond, 10, 387.
Roth, H. Ling, 224, 227, 228, 230, 232 _note_, 236, 240, 241, 242, 246,
247, 249, 251 _note_, 252 _note_.
Rousseau, J. J., 373, 425.
Sadness, as disposing to laughter, 70, 314; in humour, 305, 309, 387.
Sainte-Beuve, C. A., 314, 377, 382.
Salutary effects of laughter. See Value.
Sarasin, F., 222 _note_, 232, 245.
Satire, playful element in, 153, 383, 384; among savages, 244; function
of, 282, 380; political, 292; social, 323, 413; point of view of, 380,
410; laughter in, 380, 382, 383; mood of, 381; in comedy, 381; in
fiction, 382; allegory in, 382; wit in, 383; ironical inversion in,
383, 384.
Savages, laughter of (Chapter VIII.), 220; difficulty of understanding,
220; self-restraint of, 221; amount of laughter of, 222–226; nature
of laughter of, 227, 252; primitive forms of laughter of, 228–285;
teasing and practical jokes of, 229–233; brutal elements in laughter
of, 231–233; dislike of laughter among, 232, 233; appreciation of
the laughable by, 235 ff.; laughter of, at the foreigner, 238–244;
intra-tribal laughter of, 244 ff.; humour of, 246, 251; organisation
of laughter among, 247–251; use of laughter by, in expiation of {440}
crimes, 250; more thoughtful laughter of, 251.
Scherer, Edmond, on humour, 312, 403 _note_.
Schopenhauer, A., his theory of the ludicrous, 6, 13, 130–133; referred
to, 135, 285, 288.
Schütze, J. St., 19.
Scott, Sir W., 388.
Self-advertisement, the humour of, 334.
Self-criticism, humorous, 321–324, 329.
Self-deception, in comedy, 350, 366.
Self, laughter at, 143, 272, 320–322, 329; dislike of others’ laughter
at, 144, 232, 256, 320.
Sellar, W. Y., 282.
Serious, the, as opposed to laughter, 21, 395; in play, 153; in comedy,
369, 373, 375, 377; in fiction, 379, 387; in satire, 381; in humour,
see Humour.
Seriousness, the, of modern life, 428 ff.
Sets. See Social Group.
Sex and laughter. See Woman.
Shaftesbury, third Earl of, 414, 415 _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.
Sidgwick, H., 386 _note_.
Sigismund, B., 165.
Simcox, 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, 26, 165; relation of, to
laughter, 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, 171–173.
Smyth, R. Brough, 244, 248.
Social failure, laughter as preservative of, 408.
Social group, 259 ff., 283.
— laughter, organisation of, 247–251, 290; conciliating force of, 255,
256, 266, 269, 271; development of, 288–291; censorship of, 291; force
of, 292; attitude underlying, 293; reflected in comedy, 351.
— scene, the modern, 337.
Society, failure to comply with social requirement as ludicrous, 139;
laughter in evolution of, 254 (Chapter IX.); progress of, effect on
laughter, 254; restraint of laughter by, 258, 269; differentiation of
social groups in, 258 ff.; differentiation of ranks in, 263; ways of,
as laughable, 331–333; permanent basis of, in comedy, 375; individual
and, 405–410.
Solemn occasions, laughter on, 79, 141, 152, 242.
Spectator of comedy, attitude of, 371, 373, 412. See Comedy.
Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J., 243 _note_.
— Herbert, 68, 137, 175, 265, 267, 274, 276.
Sproat, G. M., 233, 247.
Stanley, H. M., 159, 184.
Steinen, C. von den, 223, 235 _note_, 248.
Stephen, Leslie, 398.
Sterne, Laurence, 298, 388, 389.
Stevenson, R. L., 398, 400, 416, 423.
Stoics, 397.
Stout, G. F., 15 _note_.
Strain, relief from. See Relief.
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.
Taine, H., 312, 362, 372, 375, 382.
Tarde, G., 259.
Tears, laughter and, 37, 67, 70. {441}
Teasing, 77, 157, 184, 201, 229. See Practical Joking.
Temperament, as basis of laughing disposition, 80; as basis of humour,
313.
Tennyson, Alfred, 314.
Terence, 351, 353, 361.
Thackeray, W. M., 379, 382, 389.
Thompson, H. B. See Angell, J. R.
Tickling, as cause of laughter, 50 ff., 169, 177; sensations of, 51,
53; feeling tone of, 54–56, 58; motor reactions to, 56–59, 163, 177,
180, 183; mental conditions of, 59–63, 178, 181; as form of teasing,
77; child’s first response to, by laughter, 178; origin of laughter of,
178–184; as playful, 179–184.
Ticklishness, relative, of parts of body, 51–53, 57, 177, 178, 180–182;
of apes, 57, 162, 163, 177, 180; of other animals, 177, 180.
Tolerance, of humour, 337, 342; of comedy, 376, 377.
Traill, H. D., 388 _note_, 428.
Trickery, in comedy, 349, 350.
Triumph, laughter of, 78, 83, 118, 143, 198, 200, 204, 210, 381;
presentation of, as laughable, 117.
Truth, ridicule as test of, 414.
Tucker, A., 398.
Turnbull, John, 224, 233, 248.
Types, characters of comedy as, 358–361, 364.
Tyrrell, R. Y., 264, 283, 292, 382.
Unfair laughter, 421.
Utility of laughter. See Value.
Value of laughter, as an excellence, 3, 416, 422, 423; its salutary
effects, 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 Comedy.
Vanbrugh, Jno., 411.
Vanity, as laughable spectacle, 92, 374.
Vice, as laughable spectacle, 91–93, 133; degrees of, in relation to
comic value, 91, 374; attitude of laughter towards, 92, 372–377.
Vischer, T., 19.
Voltaire, F. M. A. de, 324, 382, 383, 385.
Waitz, Th., 229, 249.
Walpole, Horace, 423.
War-temper, as laughable spectacle, 338–341, 378.
Warburton, W., 414, 419.
Ward, A. W., 281, 288, 287, 292.
— James, 400 _note_.
Wilkinson, J. G., 266.
Will, effect of, on laughter, 48; control of laughter by, 420.
Wit, as a form of the laughable, 111–113; in children, 112, 217, 218;
as play, 112, 355; word-play in relation to, 112, 356; Bain’s theory
applied to, 124; in savages, 248; relation of, to humour, 354, 385,
386; animosity in, 355, 383; in comedy, 371; connection of, with
satire, 383–385; subjective and objective, 386 _note_.
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., 230, 233, 238.
Word-play, as a form of the laughable, 111–113; Bain’s theory applied
to, 124; in children, 217; in comedy, 353, 356.
Worth of life, philosophic question of, 398; relation of philosophic
humorist to, 402.
Wright, Thos., 234, 261, 263 _note_, 270, 282, 292, 293, 343 _note_.
Wundt, W., on tickling, 52.
THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS LIMITED.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Original spelling and grammar have been generally retained, with
some exceptions noted below. Original printed page numbers are shown
like this: {52}. Original small caps are now uppercase. Italics
look _like this_. Superscripted ‹me› looks like this ‹^{me}›, on page
viii, in the Preface. Footnotes have been converted to endnotes,
relabeled 1–340, and moved to the end of the book, just before the
INDEX. The transcriber produced the cover image and hereby assigns
it to the public domain. Original page images are available from
archive.org—search for “essayonlaughteri00sulluoft”.
Page 161. The comma was removed from ‹we seem to, have a rudiment›.
Page 238. An extra _c_ was removed from ‹acccordingly›.
Page 306. Full stop was added after ‹human affections›.
Page 327. Full stop was added after ‹rather than to hurt others›.
Page 339. Comma was added after ‹brood of suspicions›.
Page 360n. The missing _l_ was restored in ‹Griech.
literaturgeschichte›.
Page 375. Full stop was added after ‹becoming a loss of distinctness›.
Page 386. The missing _s_ was restored to ‹take on omething of›.
Page 388. Changed ‹glluible› to ‹gullible›.