Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-05-14
W HY w E L A U Oh
REFLECTIONS ON THE PsYCHoI
OGY OF MIRTH,
Sudden Liberation of Nervous Energ7
The Fundamental Principles
of Farce.
From the London Times.

FROM the London Times.
Darwin in his Expression of the Emo
tons notes that during the siege of Paris
the German soldiers, after an alarm or a
near shave" were given to loud bursts of
laughter over the most paltry jokes The
eaihe physlcal conditions. no doubt, explain
the laughter in court over triyialities
whlch the newspaper reader, not in court
nnds dull enough In that aspect, saws
Baln the comic is the reaction from the
serious That Is why the idea of the dig
| nitary in an undignified posture is at the
| bottom Of nearly every farce Further, as
the essence of laughter, physiologically
considered, is the sudden liberation of
nervous energy. We see why surprise must
be one of its elements, and why we do not
laugh at stale jokes
The recollection of 'Tartarin de Taras-
con" is nearly fatal to '"Tartarin sur les
Apes" and the TRADE on the nose in CIV
rano de Bergerac to the speech with the
refrain pas PRISONER mails in ''LAig-
lon" So Mr.. Gilbert's topsyturvydom Ia
naval captain obsequious to his crew; kings
backing their own boots; dukes two a
penny") or Oscar Wilde's inverted common
places c'the old-fashioned respect for the
young is gradually dying out'D, so soon as
the trick ceases to cause surprise cease to
amuse. 1t is the sudden surprise created
by the linking Of dissimilar ideas under
similarity Of sound which causes laughter
over puns or even simple assonances (e. q.
Voltaire's farewell to Holland-"adieu ca,
naux, canards, canaille). To the lement
OF surprise must be added the element of
social imitation or vogue" There is a
fashion In fun as we all know. Puns Cike
practical Jokes) are now hopelessly out of
ate-archaeological curiosities of the early
the stage with Mr.. ]. L. Toole If they
linger in Punch it is merely out of def
erence to historical tradition. They are like
the little slips Of paper inscribed with face
tla6 which Chinese gentleman co;d 70
exchange solemnly in the intervals of a
conversation. designed not to provoke
laughter. but to comply with long establish
ed etiquette.
Glasses Of Laughter.
Laughter implies both sympathy and an
tfpathy. We laugh with some people and
at others. But there is a middle term
laughing over other people, as. for exam
ple over Uncle Toby, or Mr. Pickwick, or
M. Bergeret. In other words, there is the
laughter Of satire or irony. and the laugh
ter Of the purely comic spirit Mr. Mere
dith draws the distinction.
You may estimate your capacity for
comic perception by being able to detect
the ridicule of them you love without low
ing them less If you detect the
ridtcule and your kindness Is chilled by it,
you are slipping into the grasp Of Satire.
If, instead of falling foul Of the ridiculous
person with a satiric rod, to make him
writhe and shrek aloud you prefer to- sting
him under Semt-careSS, by which he shall
in his anguish be rendered dubious whether
indeed anything has hurt him, you are an
engine of Irony"
Moliere is Mr.. Mesk lith's great exemplar
of the comic spirit But stendhal preferred
Regnard; and there Is something to be said
for his heresy, when one considers the in
variable bitterness of Moliere.s laughter.
Moliere must always have butt. Shakes
peare seldom makes a downright butt of his |
ridiculous characters. The Falstaf of ''The |
Merry Wives is the one notorious excep-
ton. Falstaff at his best generally con-
trfves to get the laughter on his side; |
Polonius. and even Malvolio are treated, |
In the long run. with some conjunction.
Element Of Surprise.
It is the element Of surprise in laughter |
that prompts the natural man to find the |
lucicrous in everything strange. The yokel |
laughs at a Frenchman because he is such |
a fool as to say nous for I'VE" Herein |
laughter must have acted a. binding |
force in early societies, contributing to /
what Walter Bagehot called the cake Of |
custom" The advance of civilization |
might be measured by the improvement in /
the quality of Its laughter. Primitive |
laughter goes with absence of sympathy |
and Imagination. Children laugh at the |
village idiot. Tant. Sannie, the Boer wo- |
man In 1.-THE Story OF an African Farm"