VI. CRITICAL PAPERS. 1. ON WIT, HUMOUR, AND TASTE. No. 351. On True and False Humour. Risu inepto res ineptior nulla est.-MART. Among all kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry than in Works of Humour, as there is none in which they are more ambitious to excell. It is not an Imagination that teems with Monsters, an Head that is filled with extravagant Conceptions, which is capable of furnishing the World with Diversions of this nature; and yet if we look into the Productions of several Writers, who set up for Men of Humour, what wild irregular Fancies, what unnatural Distortions of Thought, do we meet with? If they speak Nonsense, they believe they are 10 talking Humour; and when they have drawn together a scheme of absurd, inconsistent Idea's, they are not able to read it over to themselves without laughing. These poor Gentlemen endeavour to gain themselves the Reputation of Wits and Humourists, by such monstrous Conceits as almost qualify them for Bedlam; not considering that Humour should always lye under the Check of Reason, and that it requires the Direction of the nicest Judgment, by so much the more as it indulges itself in the most boundless Freedoms. There is a kind of Nature that is to be observed in this sort of Compositions, as well as in all other, and a certain regularity 20 of thought that must discover the Writer to be a Man of Sense, at the same time that he appears altogether given up to Caprice: For my part, when I read the delirious Mirth of an unskilful 1 As we announced at the end of the Introduction, this number is printed exactly as it was issued in the original sheet, under date April 10th, 1711. Author, I cannot be so barbarous as to divert myself with it, but am rather apt to pity the Man, than to laugh at any thing he writes. The deceased Mr. Shadwell, who had himself a great deal of the Talent, which I am treating of, represents an empty Rake, in one of his Plays o, as very much surprized to hear one say that breaking of Windows was not Humour; and I question not but several English Readers will be as much startled to hear me affirm, that many of those raving incoherent Pieces, which are often 10 spread among us, under odd chymerical Titles, are rather the Offsprings of a Distempered Brain, than Works of Humour. It is indeed much easier to describe what is not Humour, than what is; and very difficult to define it otherwise than as Cowley has done Wit", by Negatives. Were I to give my own Notions of it, I would deliver them after Plato's manner, in a kind of Allegory, and by supposing Humour to be a Person, deduce to him all his Qualifications, according to the following Genealogy. TRUTH was the Founder of the Family, and the Father of GOOD SENSE. GOOD SENSE was the Father of WIT, who married a 20 Lady of a Collateral Line cailed MIRTH, by whom he had Issue HUMOUR. HUMOUR therefore being the youngest of this Illustrious Family, and descended from Parents of such different Dispositions, is very various and unequal in his Temper; sometimes you see 'him putting on grave Looks and a solemn Habit, sometimes airy in his Behaviour and fantastick in his Dress: Insomuch that at different times he appears as serious as a Judge, and as jocular as a Merry-Andrew. But as he has a great deal of the Mother in his Constitution, whatever Mood he is in, he never fails to make his Company laugh. 30 But since there are several Impostors abroad, who take upon them the Name of this young Gentleman, and would willingly pass for him in the World; to the end that well-meaning Persons may not be imposed upon by Counterfeits, I would desire my Readers, when they meet with any of these Pretenders, to look into his Parentage, and to examine him strictly, whether or no he be remotely allied to TRUTH, and lineally descended from GOOD SENSE? if not, they may conclude him a Counterfeit. They may likewise distinguish him by a loud and excessive Laughter, in which he seldom gets his Company to join with him. For as TRUE HU40 MOUR generally looks serious, whilst every Body laughs that is about him; FALSE HUMOUR is always laughing, whilst every Body about him looks serious. I shall only add, if he has not in him a Mixture of both Parents, that is, if he would pass for the Offspring of WIT without MIRTH, or MIRTH without WIT, you may conclude him to be altogether Spurious, and a Cheat. The Impostor of whom I am speaking, descends Originally from FALSEHOOD, who was the mother of NONSENSE, who was brought to Bed of a Son called FRENZY, who Married one of the Daughters of FOLLY, commonly known by the Name of LAUGHTER, on 10 whom he begot that Monstrous Infant of which I have been here speaking. I shall set down at length the Genealogical Table of FALSE HUMOUR, and, at the same time, place under it the Genealogy of TRUE HUMOUR, that the Reader may at one View behold their different Pedigrees and Relations. 20 30 FALSEHOOD. NONSENSE. FRENZY.-LAUGHTER. FALSE HUMOUR. TRUTH. GOOD SENSE. I might extend the Allegory, by mentioning several of the Children of FALSE HUMOUR, who are more in Number than the Sands of the Sea, and might in particular enumerate the many Sons and Daughters which he has begot in this Island. But as this would be a very invidious Task, I shall only observe in general, that FALSE HUMOUR differs from the TRUE, as a Monkey does from a Man. First of all, He is exceedingly given to little Apish Tricks and Buffooneries. Secondly, He so much delights in Mimickry, that it is all one to him whether he exposes by it Vice and Folly, Luxury and Avarice; or, on the contrary, Virtue and Wisdom, Pain and Poverty. Thirdly, He is wonderfully unlucky, insomuch that he will bite the Hand that feeds him, and endeavour to ridicule both Friends and Foes indifferently. For having but small Talents, he must be merry where he can, not where he should. Fourthly, Being intirely void of Reason, he pursues no Point SMALL WITS. 319 either of Morality or Instruction, but is Ludicrous only for the sake of being so. Fifthly, Being incapable of having anything but Mock-Representations, his Ridicule is always Personal, and aimed at the Vicious Man, or the Writer; not at the Vice, or at the Writing. I have here only pointed at the whole Species of False Humourists, but as one of my principal Designs in this Paper is to beat down that malignant Spirit, which discovers itself in the Writings of the present Age, I shall not scruple, for the future, to 10 single out any of the small Wits, that infest the World with such Compositions as are ill-natured, immoral and absurd. This is the only Exception which I shall make to the General Rule I have prescribed myself, of attacking Multitudes. Since every honest Man ought to look upon himself as in a Natural State of War with the Libeller and Lampooner, and to annoy them where ever they fall in his way, this is but retaliating upon them and treating them as they treat others. Compleat Setts of this Paper, for the Month of March, are to be sold by Mr. Graves in St. James's Street; Mr. Lillie, Perfumer, the Cor20 ner of Beaufort Buildings; Mr. Sawyer at the Temple Gate, Mr. Knapton in St. Paul's Churchyard, Mr. Round in Exchange Ally, and Mrs. Baldwin in Warwick-Lane. 30 [Several advertisements follow; one of them is-] Just Published, and Printed very Correctly, with a neat Elzever Letter, in 12mo, for the Pocket, Paradise Lost, a Poem in twelve Books, written by Mr. John Milton. The Ninth Edition, adorned with Sculptures. Printed for Jacob Tonson, at Shakespear's Head, over against Catherine Street, in the Strand. LONDON: Printed for Sam. Buckley, at the Dolphin in LittleBritain; and sold by A. Baldwin in Warwick-Lane; where Advertisements are taken in; as also by Charles Lillie, Perfumer, at the Corner of Beaufort Buildings in the Strand. C. No. 58. On True and False Wit; pictorial poems; their bad taste. Ut pictura poesis erit ".-HOR. Ars. Poet, 361. Nothing is so much admired, and so little understood, as wit. No author that I know of has written professedly upon it; and as for those who make any mention of it, they only treat on the subject as it has accidentally fallen in their way, and that too in little short reflexions, or in general declamatory flourishes, without entering into the bottom of the matter. I hope therefore I shall perform an acceptable work to my countrymen, if I treat at large upon this subject; which I shall endeavour to do in a manner suitable to it, that I may not incur the censure which a famous critic bestows upon one who had written a treatise upon 10 the Sublime in a low grovelling style ". I intend to lay aside a whole week for this undertaking, that the scheme of my thoughts may not be broken and interrupted; and I dare promise myself, if my readers will give me a week's attention, that this great city will be very much changed for the better by next Saturday night. I shall endeavour to make what I say intelligible to ordinary capacities; but if my readers meet with any paper that in some parts of it may be a little out of their reach, I would not have them discouraged, for they may assure themselves the next shall be much clearer. 20 As the great and only end of these my speculations is to banish vice and ignorance out of the territories of Great Britain, I shall endeavour as much as possible to establish among us a taste of polite writing. It is with this view that I have endeavoured to set my readers right in several points relating to operas and tragedies 1; and shall from time to time impart my notions of comedy, as I think they may tend to its refinement and perfection. I find by my bookseller that these papers of criticism, with that upon humour, have met with a more kind reception than indeed I could have hoped for from such subjects; for 30 which reason I shall enter upon my present undertaking with greater chearfulness. In this, and one or two following papers, I shall trace out the history of false wit, and distinguish the several kinds of it as they have prevailed in different ages of the world. This I think the more necessary at present, because I observed there were attempts on foot last winter to revive some of those antiquated modes of wit that have been long exploded out of the commonwealth of letters. There were several satires and panegyrics handed about in acrostic, by which means some of the most 40 arrant undisputed blockheads about the town began to entertain |