4. An emotion that ought to be important venting itself in frivolous language, or infipid behaviour, would no doubt make us fmile, if it did not occafion disappointment, or fome other powerful feeling fubverfive of laughter. When Blackmore, in his Paraphrafes of Holy Writ, fhows, by the meannefs of his words and figures, that, instead of having an adequate fense of the dignity of the fubject, his mind was wandering after the most paltry conceits; our laughter is prevented by our indignation. Or if ever we are betrayed into a fmile by fuch a couplet as the following, On thee, O Jacob, I thy jealous God it must be in fome unguarded moment, when, our difguft being lefs keen than it ought to be, the ludicrous emotion is permitted to operate. 5. Every body knows, that hyperbole is a fource of the fublime; and it is equally true, that amplification is a fource of humour. But as that which is intrinfically mean can "opportunities for the orke. Plefs my foul! To Shallow rivers, to whofe falls Melodious birds fing madrigals; " (finging) -To fballow Mercy on me! I have a great difpofition to cry. When as I fate in Pabilon," &c. Merry Wives of Windfor, at 3. Sc. 1. * Blackmore's Song of Mofes, not not be made great, fo neither can real ex- In vain to wipe his nofe old Proclus tries; Strobilus, * First part of King Henry IV. act 3. fc. 3. + This epigram appears to more advantage in the Greek, on account of the great fimplicity of the expreffion. Ου δύναται τῇ χειρὶ Προκλος την ῥιν ἀπομύσσειν, Οὐδε λέγει Ζεῦ σῶσον, ἐαν παρῇ· ε γαρ άκουει See Strada. Piftor Suburranus. Longinus gives this De Subl. fect. 37. "He Αγρον ἐσχ ̓ ἐλαττω γῆν ἐχοντ ̓ ἀρ' επιστολῆς Λακωνικής. Strobilus, in the play, ridicules the miser, by faying, "That he faved the parings of "his nails, and ufed to exclaim, that he was undone when he saw the smoke of his "fire escaping through the chimney *." But the most profligate wag that ever appeared in modern comedy could not make the moral or intellectual virtues of a good man ridiculous, merely by magnifying them; though, by mifreprefenting, or by connecting her with ludicrous imagery, he might no doubt raise a momentary fmile at the expence even of Virtue herself. Humorous Amplification will generally be found to imply a mixture of plausibility and abfurdity, or of likeness and diffimilitude. Butler's hero fpeaks in very hyperbolical terms of the acute feelings occafioned by kicking and cudgelling: Some have been beaten, till they know "He was owner of a field not fo large as a Lacedemo"nian epiftle;"- which fometimes confifted of no more than two or three words. Vide Quintil. Orat. Inft. lib. 8. cap. 3. & 6. Greek and Latin, we fee, may be quoted on trifling as well as important fubjects. * Plaut. Aulul. act 2. fc. 4. + Hudibras, part 2. canto 1. verf. 221. The The fact is impoffible; hence the want of relation between the cause and the prétended effect. Yet when we reflect, that the qualities of wood and leather are perceived by fenfe, and that fome of them may be perceived by the touch or feeling, there appears fomething like plaufibility in what is faid; and hence the feeming relation between the pretended effect and the caufe. And an additional incongruity prefents itfelf, when we compare the ferioufnefs of the speaker with the abfurdity of what is spoken. When Smollet, in one of his novels, defcribing violent fear, fays, "He ftared like "the gorgon's head, with his mouth wide open, and each particular hair crawling "and twining like an animated ferpent," he raises the portrait far above nature; but at the fame time gives it an apparent plausibility, from the effect which fear is fuppofed to have in making the hair ftand on end. It is, I confefs, an awkward thing, to comment upon thefe and the like paffages: and I am afraid, the reader may be tempted to fay of the ludicrous quality in the hands of one who thus analyses it, that, Like following life in creatures we diffect, But I hope it will be confidered, that I have no other way of explaining my fubject in a One cannot lay open fatisfactory manner. the the elementary parts of any animal or vegetable fyftem, without violating its outward beauty. As hyperboles are very common, being ufed by all perfons on almost all occafions * it might be fuppofed, that, by the frequency of this figure, mirth could easily be promoted in conversation, and a character for humour acquired, with little expence of thought, and without any powers of genius. But that would be a mistake. Familiar hyperboles excite neither laughter nor astonishment. All ludicrous and all fublime exaggeration, is characterised by an uncommonnefs of thought or language. And laughable appearances in general, whether exhibited to the fenfes or to the fancy, will for the most part be found to imply fomething unexpected, and to produce fome degree of furprise. III. Laughter often arifes from the difcovery of unexpected likeness between objects apparently diffimilar: and the greater the apparent diffimilitude, and new-difcovered refemblance, the greater will be the furprise attending the discovery, the more striking the oppofition of contrariety and relation, and the more lively the rifible emotion. All men, and all children, have a tendency to mark refemblances; hence the allegories, finiles, and metaphors, fo frequent in com *See Effay on Poetry, part 2. chap. 1. fect. 3. § 5. |