The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1875-02-04
The Ill Nature of Wit.

When Lord Byron was once riding
with Capt. Trelawney, who still! sur
wives him, thu poet asked his friend
which was the ruling passion or feeling
in the human breast on which the
captain suggested several, such as am.
bition, love, power, love of praise, etc.
'fNo," said Byron, sententiously, I" it Is
none of these. It is malignity." A worse
character could not have been given Of
humanity by the devil himself but
happily it is only partially true. We
leave to those who believe in the heaven
" inspiration of genius to reconcile,
after eighteen hundred years of Christ
ian sacrifices and noble deeds, the gos-
peI preached in the Sermon on the
Mount and the gospel OF malignity In
the words and too many of the works of
Lord Byron. But here again Is the
savagery of wit. It existed In Homer's
time, no doubt. Thersites is q true
character, drawn from the life. It was
common with Ben JoDson and his con-
temporaries-though happily our gentle
Shakespeare gives no note of it-and t
burst into full flame in the days Of
Pope. The i'll nature Of some of the
wits of his day, the low, scurrilous,
cruel pictures of poverty, old age, sor-
row, want, and disease to be found IN
poems, in repartees, and on the stage,
are somewhat astounding. As for Pope
himself, he abounded in such license.
To praise his patrons and to give his
friends every virtue under heaven, and
TO attribute the meanest crimes and low
est vices to his antagonists, seemed to
be his rule. True wit, unless 1t is satire,
should never wound at all, but those Of
the school of Ill nature forget this, as
1 Al Al EE > 4
Albert Smith, feIlow-oontributOr to
Punch, wanting to conciliate Douglas
Jerrold, "we row In the same boat.
stA Ay, ay." reioined Jerrold-'tin in the
same boat, but not with the same SOULS. F"
Such self-assertion may be witty, bat it
is ill-natured Sc, too, is the wits
/ taking one poor butt, who was reading
an obscure poem to another, the author
/ 70 the book, and saying, Here, Mr.
Dash, behold your public !" . He
might just as well, Gays an able critic,
+" have knocked their two heads togeth-
er ;" iS would certainly have been less
| rude, In worse taste than this are mary
stories told of such wits and quiet
| people are tempted to exclaim, 6 II
| such be the conversation of literary men,
let me keep aloof." Friend or foe, it is
the same to these trenchant whipsters
/ who study TO say sharp things. Dne
stout gentleman, at a tavern dinner,
confdes to Jerrold that he " does love
calf's head dearly" Egotism 70 cries
Jerrold. Another favors a soup which
he recommends. What is it 2" asks
the wit. "CalPs tail. "Ah, I see,
is the response, with a meaning nod, as
his friend swallows a spoonful" ex
| tremes meet.
All thisn doubt illustrates the French
| proverb that " a good wit has a bad
heart :" at any rate it shows that to
ward each other wits are not only en-
viously inclined, but each, wishing K
shine, is very careless of what he says
whether it wounds or not. The bettel
breeding Of French wits and the better
education of French men of letter.
have prevented them at least from ex
hibiting the raw rudeness and too ofteI
brutal cruelty of the English jester, o
which we can hardly print the vors'
and grosser instances. In France, too
there is a wholesome dread of the due
which men of letters even now permit
Even the wits among the WoneI
have been as cruel as the men. Al
authoress IN pursuit of reputation
would, like Tu1Iia, drive over he
fathers corpse. Madame De Seyign