CHAP. II. Of the Ridiculous. cies of malignant temper. Good humour, on the contrary, is that prompt susceptibility of every kind of social or festive gratification, which a mind void of suffering or sorrow in itself; and incapable, through want of thought or sensibility, of feeling the sufferings or sorrows of others, ever enjoys. A certain degree of vanity, or light pride, is absolutely necessary to feed and support it; and, though it is never allied to dark envy or atrocious malignity, it is never, I believe, entirely free from a certain share of sordid selfishness: for, as the perpetual smile of gaiety can only flow from the heart, which is perpetually at ease, it can only flow from that, which carries the ingredients of perpetual ease always within itself; and these are affections, which never diverge far from its own centre. 12. There is, nevertheless, a certain degree of sympathy in joy, as well as in sorrow-in laughter, as well as in tears Ut ridentibus adrident, ita flentibus adflent But still, I think, the sympathy is weaker; and depend, in a great degree, on the respective constitutions of different individuals; for each will of course sympathize most with that passion, to which he is most prone' by nature or habit: but, nevertheless, in exciting laughter, sympathy seems, in all cases, to be less powerful than contrast; for the dry joker or grave buffoon is always more successful, in creating mirth, than the gay giggling one. What the poet says of sympathetic sorrow Si vis me flere dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi" is certainly not applicable to sympathetic merriment: for, in proportion as the wit laughs at his own joke, his audience are generally disposed to be serious *. 13. All the selfish passions, or those passions which peculiarly belong to self-preservation or self-gratification; such as fear, parsimony, avarice, vanity, gluttony, &c. are the most common and proper subjects of the ridiculous; and are consequently the leading characteristics. in the most prominent personages of comic fiction for, as they show vice without energy; and make human nature appear base without being atrocious, and vile without being destruc * "Quamquam gratiæ plurimum dictis severitas affert; fitque ridiculum id ipsum, quia qui dicit non ridet."QUINCTIL. Inst. 1. vi. c. iii. CHAP. Of the Ridi culous. CHAP. II. Of the Ridi culous. tive, they excite the laugh of scorn instead of the frown of indignation; and receive, from the insignificance of their effects, the ludicrous character of folly, instead of the serious one of wickedness. 14. Like all qualities, however, which are vicious only in their excess, and meritorious in their moderation, it is impossible to express or represent them so, as that the characters exhibited may not be liable to be misunderstood or misapplied for as the boundaries between the vicious excess and the virtuous moderation cannot be fixed by any geometrical admeasurement, or mathematical calculation, every individual fixes them according to his particular disposition, interest, or circumstances. That degree of fear, which, to the soldier or the seaman, may appear unmanly timidity, may, to the merchant or mechanic, seem only necessary caution; and that degree of parsimony, which the old and wary may think only laudable frugality, may, to the young and dissipated, appear the meanest penury; whence every rake or spendthrift, when he sees the comedy of the Miser, will be apt to apply the character of Harpagon to the father or guardian, by whose prudence he is restrained from ruining himself and his family; and conclude that it is equally meritorious to rob or defraud him. But would he not have made a similar application of what he saw in real life, and drawn a simi- 15. As exhibiting the particular weaknesses and follies of the human mind, the fictions of comedy, and the characters which it employs, must deviate from the common system, which common prudence marks out for the conduct of domestic life, equally with those of tragedy, which displays its general energies. The usual subject and principal action of all comedy is love, and its termination marriage: but if this union were to be, as it commonly is, or at least ought to be in real life, the slow result of calm and tried attachment-of deliberate and sober preference, sanctified by virtue and directed by CHAP. II. Of the Ridiculous. CHAP. Of the Ridi culous. prudence, how flat, tame, and insipid would be the progress of it; and how impossible for any powers of genius to make the representation of such scenes interesting or amusing! To produce this effect, there must be difficulties and embarrassments, obstacles and restrictions; which are to be eluded by intrigue, controlled by impudence, or surmounted by audacity. The credulity of the simple is to be duped and exposed by the artifice of the crafty; or the circumspection of the wary baffled and frustrated by the enterprise of the bold; so that the various peculiarities of manners, dispositions, and affections may be displayed in a variety of situations, and under the influence of a variety of circumstances, to amuse the fancies, and awaken the sympathies of the spectators. 16. These difficulties and embarrassments, obstacles and restrictions, of course, arise from guardians or parents; whose prudence or avarice, vanity or ambition, thwart the more disinterested inclinations of their wards and children. They are consequently the persons whose credulity is to be duped, whose circumspection is to be eluded, and whose characters are to be exposed to the scorn and ridicule of the spectators. Even where the plot of the piece does not admit of such characters; that scorn and ridicule are often pointed against the simple and inoffensive-the weak and well |