,,laughter ,,an ,,essay ,,on ,,the ,,meaning ,,of ,,the ,,comic ,,by ,,henri ,,bergson ,,member ,,of ,,the ,,institute ,,professor ,,at ,,the ,,college ,,de ,,france ,,authorised ,,translation ,,by ,,cloudesley ,,brereton ,l4 ,,es ,l4 7,,paris71 ,m4,a4 7,,cantab7 ,,and ,,fred ,,rothwell ,b4,a4 7,,london7 ,,translators' ,,preface ,this work1 by ,professor ,bergson1 has been revised in detail by the author himself1 and the present translation is the only authorised one4 ,for this ungrudging labour of revision1 for the thoroughness with which it has been carried out1 and for personal sympathy in many a difficulty of word and phrase1 we desire to offer our grateful acknowledgment to ,professor ,bergson4 ,it may be pointed out that the essay on ,laughter originally appeared in a series of three articles in one of the leading magazines in ,france1 the ,revue de ,paris4 ,this will account for the relatively simple form of the work and the comparative absence of technical terms4 ,it will also explain why the author has confined himself to exposing and illustrating his novel theory of the comic without entering into a detailed discussion of other explanations already in the field4 ,he none the less indicates1 when discussing sundry examples1 why the principal theories1 to which they have given rise1 appear to him inadequate4 ,to quote only a few1 one may mention those based on contrast1 exaggeration1 and degradation4 ,the book has been highly successful in ,france1 where it is in its seventh edition4 ,it has been translated into ,russian1 ,polish1 and ,swedish4 ,german and ,hungarian translations are under preparation4 ,its success is due partly to the novelty of the explanation offered of the comic1 and partly also to the fact that the author incidentally discusses questions of still greater interest and importance4 ,thus1 one of the best known and most frequently quoted passages of the book is that portion of the last chapter in which the author outlines a general theory of art4 ,c4 ,b4 ,f4 ,r4 ,,contents ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,comic ,,in ,,general--,,the ,,comic ,,element ,,in ,,forms ,,and ,,movements--,,expansive ,,force ,,of ,,the ,,comic ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,comic ,,element ,,in ,,situations ,,and ,,the ,,comic ,,element ,,in ,,words ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,comic ,,in ,,character ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,comic ,,in ,,general--,,the ,,comic ,,element ,,in ,,forms ,,and ,,movements--,,expansive ,,force ,,of ,,the ,,comic4 ,what does laughter mean8 ,what is the basal element in the laughable8 ,what common ground can we find between the grimace of a merry-andrew1 a play upon words1 an equivocal situation in a burlesque and a scene of high comedy8 ,what method of distillation will yield us invariably the same essence from which so many different products borrow either their obtrusive odour or their delicate perfume8 ,the greatest of thinkers1 from ,aristotle downwards1 have tackled this little problem1 which has a knack of baffling every effort1 of slipping away and escaping only to bob up again1 a pert challenge flung at philosophic speculation4 ,our excuse for attacking the problem in our turn must lie in the fact that we shall not aim at imprisoning the comic spirit within a definition4 ,we regard it1 above all1 as a living thing4 ,however trivial it may be1 we shall treat it with the respect due to life4 ,we shall confine ourselves to watching it grow and expand4 ,passing by imperceptible gradations from one form to another1 it will be seen to achieve the strangest metamorphoses4 ,we shall disdain nothing we have seen4 ,maybe we may gain from this prolonged contact1 for the matter of that1 something more flexible than an abstract definition1--a practical1 intimate acquaintance1 such as springs from a long companionship4 ,and maybe we may also find that1 unintentionally1 we have made an acquaintance that is useful4 ,for the comic spirit has a logic of its own1 even in its wildest eccentricities4 ,it has a method in its madness4 ,it dreams1 ,i admit1 but it conjures up1 in its dreams1 visions that are at once accepted and understood by the whole of a social group4 ,can it then fail to throw light for us on the way that human imagination works1 and more particularly social1 collective1 and popular imagination8 ,begotten of real life and akin to art1 should it not also have something of its own to tell us about art and life8 ,at the outset we shall put forward three observations which we look upon as fundamental4 ,they have less bearing on the actually comic than on the field within which it must be sought4 ,i ,the first point to which attention should be called is that the comic does not exist outside the pale of what is strictly ,,human4 ,a landscape may be beautiful1 charming and sublime1 or insignificant and ugly2 it will never be laughable4 ,you may laugh at an animal1 but only because you have detected in it some human attitude or expression4 ,you may laugh at a hat1 but what you are making fun of1 in this case1 is not the piece of felt or straw1 but the shape that men have given it1--the human caprice whose mould it has assumed4 ,it is strange that so important a fact1 and such a simple one too1 has not attracted to a greater degree the attention of philosophers4 ,several have defined man as an animal which laughs4 ,they might equally well have defined him as an animal which is laughed at2 for if any other animal1 or some lifeless object1 produces the same effect1 it is always because of some resemblance to man1 of the stamp he gives it or the use he puts it to4 ,here ,i would point out1 as a symptom equally worthy of notice1 the ,,absence ,,of ,,feeling which usually accompanies laughter4 ,it seems as though the comic could not produce its disturbing effect unless it fell1 so to say1 on the surface of a soul that is thoroughly calm and unruffled4 ,indifference is its natural environment1 for laughter has no greater foe than emotion4 ,i do not mean that we could not laugh at a person who inspires us with pity1 for instance1 or even with affection1 but in such a case we must1 for the moment1 put our affection out of court and impose silence upon our pity4 ,in a society composed of pure intelligences there would probably be no more tears1 though perhaps there would still be laughter2 whereas highly emotional souls1 in tune and unison with life1 in whom every event would be sentimentally prolonged and re-echoed1 would neither know nor understand laughter4 ,try1 for a moment1 to become interested in everything that is being said and done2 act1 in imagination1 with those who act1 and feel with those who feel2 in a word1 give your sympathy its widest expansion3 as though at the touch of a fairy wand you will see the flimsiest of objects assume importance1 and a gloomy hue spread over everything4 ,now step aside1 look upon life as a disinterested spectator3 many a drama will turn into a comedy4 ,it is enough for us to stop our ears to the sound of music1 in a room where dancing is going on1 for the dancers at once to appear ridiculous4 ,how many human actions would stand a similar test8 ,should we not see many of them suddenly pass from grave to gay1 on isolating them from the accompanying music of sentiment8 ,to produce the whole of its effect1 then1 the comic demands something like a momentary anesthesia of the heart4 ,its appeal is to intelligence1 pure and simple4 ,this intelligence1 however1 must always remain in touch with other intelligences4 ,and here is the third fact to which attention should be drawn4 ,you would hardly appreciate the comic if you felt yourself isolated from others4 ,laughter appears to stand in need of an echo1 ,listen to it carefully3 it is not an articulate1 clear1 well-defined sound2 it is something which would fain be prolonged by reverberating from one to another1 something beginning with a crash1 to continue in successive rumblings1 like thunder in a mountain4 ,still1 this reverberation cannot go on for ever4 ,it can travel within as wide a circle as you please3 the circle remains1 none the less1 a closed one4 ,our laughter is always the laughter of a group4 ,it may1 perchance1 have happened to you1 when seated in a railway carriage or at table d'hote1 to hear travellers relating to one another stories which must have been comic to them1 for they laughed heartily4 ,had you been one of their company1 you would have laughed like them2 but1 as you were not1 you had no desire whatever to do so4 ,a man who was once asked why he did not weep at a sermon1 when everybody else was shedding tears1 replied3 ,i don't belong to the parish6 ,what that man thought of tears would be still more true of laughter4 ,however spontaneous it seems1 laughter always implies a kind of secret freemasonry1 or even complicity1 with other laughers1 real or imaginary4 ,how often has it been said that the fuller the theatre1 the more uncontrolled the laughter of the audience6 ,on the other hand1 how often has the remark been made that many comic effects are incapable of translation from one language to another1 because they refer to the customs and ideas of a particular social group6 ,it is through not understanding the importance of this double fact that the comic has been looked upon as a mere curiosity in which the mind finds amusement1 and laughter itself as a strange1 isolated phenomenon1 without any bearing on the rest of human activity4 ,hence those definitions which tend to make the comic into an abstract relation between ideas3 an intellectual contrast1 a palpable absurdity1 etc41--definitions which1 even were they really suitable to every form of the comic1 would not in the least explain why the comic makes us laugh4 ,how1 indeed1 should it come about that this particular logical relation1 as soon as it is perceived1 contracts1 expands and shakes our limbs1 whilst all other relations leave the body unaffected8 ,it is not from this point of view that we shall approach the problem4 ,to understand laughter1 we must put it back into its natural environment1 which is society1 and above all must we determine the utility of its function1 which is a social one4 ,such1 let us say at once1 will be the leading idea of all our investigations4 ,laughter must answer to certain requirements of life in common4 ,it must have a ,,social signification4 ,let us clearly mark the point towards which our three preliminary observations are converging4 ,the comic will come into being1 it appears1 whenever a group of men concentrate their attention on one of their number1 imposing silence on their emotions and calling into play nothing but their intelligence4 ,what1 now1 is the particular point on which their attention will have to be concentrated1 and what will here be the function of intelligence8 ,to reply to these questions will be at once to come to closer grips with the problem4 ,but here a few examples have become indispensable4 ,,ii ,a man1 running along the street1 stumbles and falls2 the passers-by burst out laughing4 ,they would not laugh at him1 ,i imagine1 could they suppose that the whim had suddenly seized him to sit down on the ground4 ,they laugh because his sitting down is involuntary4 ,consequently1 it is not his sudden change of attitude that raises a laugh1 but rather the involuntary element in this change1--his clumsiness1 in fact4 ,perhaps there was a stone on the road4 ,he should have altered his pace or avoided the obstacle4 ,instead of that1 through lack of elasticity1 through absentmindedness and a kind of physical obstinacy1 ,,as ,a ,,result1 ,,in ,,fact1 ,,of ,,rigidity ,,or ,,of ,,momentum1 the muscles continued to perform the same movement when the circumstances of the case called for something else4 ,that is the reason of the man's fall1 and also of the people's laughter4 ,now1 take the case of a person who attends to the petty occupations of his everyday life with mathematical precision4 ,the objects around him1 however1 have all been tampered with by a mischievous wag1 the result being that when he dips his pen into the inkstand he draws it out all covered with mud1 when he fancies he is sitting down on a solid chair he finds himself sprawling on the floor1 in a word his actions are all topsy-turvy or mere beating the air1 while in every case the effect is invariably one of momentum4 ,habit has given the impulse3 what was wanted was to check the movement or deflect it4 ,he did nothing of the sort1 but continued like a machine in the same straight line4 ,the victim1 then1 of a practical joke is in a position similar to that of a runner who falls1--he is comic for the same reason4 ,the laughable element in both cases consists of a certain ,,mechanical ,,inelasticity1 just where one would expect to find the wide-awake adaptability and the living pliableness of a human being4 ,the only difference in the two cases is that the former happened of itself1 whilst the latter was obtained artificially4 ,in the first instance1 the passer-by does nothing but look on1 but in the second the mischievous wag intervenes4 ,all the same1 in both cases the result has been brought about by an external circumstance4 ,the comic is therefore accidental3 it remains1 so to speak1 in superficial contact with the person4 ,how is it to penetrate within8 ,the necessary conditions will be fulfilled when mechanical rigidity no longer requires for its manifestation a stumbling-block which either the hazard of circumstance or human knavery has set in its way1 but extracts by natural processes1 from its own store1 an inexhaustible series of opportunities for externally revealing its presence4 ,suppose1 then1 we imagine a mind always thinking of what it has just done and never of what it is doing1 like a song which lags behind its accompaniment4 ,let us try to picture to ourselves a certain inborn lack of elasticity of both senses and intelligence1 which brings it to pass that we continue to see what is no longer visible1 to hear what is no longer audible1 to say what is no longer to the point3 in short1 to adapt ourselves to a past and therefore imaginary situation1 when we ought to be shaping our conduct in accordance with the reality which is present4 ,this time the comic will take up its abode in the person himself2 it is the person who will supply it with everything--matter and form1 cause and opportunity4 ,is it then surprising that the absent-minded individual--for this is the character we have just been describing--has usually fired the imagination of comic authors8 ,when ,la ,bruyere came across this particular type1 he realised1 on analysing it1 that he had got hold of a recipe for the wholesale manufacture of comic effects4 ,as a matter of fact he overdid it1 and gave us far too lengthy and detailed a description of ,menalque1 coming back to his subject1 dwelling and expatiating on it beyond all bounds4 ,the very facility of the subject fascinated him4 ,absentmindedness1 indeed1 is not perhaps the actual fountain-head of the comic1 but surely it is contiguous to a certain stream of facts and fancies which flows straight from the fountain-head4 ,it is situated1 so to say1 on one of the great natural watersheds of laughter4 ,now1 the effect of absentmindedness may gather strength in its turn4 ,there is a general law1 the first example of which we have just encountered1 and which we will formulate in the following terms3 when a certain comic effect has its origin in a certain cause1 the more natural we regard the cause to be1 the more comic shall we find the effect4 ,even now we laugh at absentmindedness when presented to us as a simple fact4 ,still more laughable will be the absentmindedness we have seen springing up and growing before our very eyes1 with whose origin we are acquainted and whose life-history we can reconstruct4 ,to choose a definite example3 suppose a man has taken to reading nothing but romances of love and chivalry4 ,attracted and fascinated by his heroes1 his thoughts and intentions gradually turn more and more towards them1 till one fine day we find him walking among us like a somnambulist4 ,his actions are distractions4 ,but then his distractions can be traced back to a definite1 positive cause4 ,they are no longer cases of ,,absence of mind1 pure and simple2 they find their explanation in the ,,presence of the individual in quite definite1 though imaginary1 surroundings4 ,doubtless a fall is always a fall1 but it is one thing to tumble into a well because you were looking anywhere but in front of you1 it is quite another thing to fall into it because you were intent upon a star4 ,it was certainly a star at which ,don ,quixote was gazing4 ,how profound is the comic element in the over-romantic1 ,utopian bent of mind6 ,and yet1 if you reintroduce the idea of absentmindedness1 which acts as a go-between1 you will see this profound comic element uniting with the most superficial type4 ,yes1 indeed1 these whimsical wild enthusiasts1 these madmen who are yet so strangely reasonable1 excite us to laughter by playing on the same chords within ourselves1 by setting in motion the same inner mechanism1 as does the victim of a practical joke or the passer-by who slips down in the street4 ,they1 too1 are runners who fall and simple souls who are being hoaxed--runners after the ideal who stumble over realities1 child-like dreamers for whom life delights to lie in wait4 ,but1 above all1 they are past-masters in absentmindedness1 with this superiority over their fellows that their absentmindedness is systematic and organised around one central idea1 and that their mishaps are also quite coherent1 thanks to the inexorable logic which reality applies to the correction of dreams1 so that they kindle in those around them1 by a series of cumulative effects1 a hilarity capable of unlimited expansion4 ,now1 let us go a little further4 ,might not certain vices have the same relation to character that the rigidity of a fixed idea has to intellect8 ,whether as a moral kink or a crooked twist given to the will1 vice has often the appearance of a curvature of the soul4 ,doubtless there are vices into which the soul plunges deeply with all its pregnant potency1 which it rejuvenates and drags along with it into a moving circle of reincarnations4 ,those are tragic vices4 ,but the vice capable of making us comic is1 on the contrary1 that which is brought from without1 like a ready-made frame into which we are to step4 ,it lends us its own rigidity instead of borrowing from us our flexibility4 ,we do not render it more complicated2 on the contrary1 it simplifies us4 ,here1 as we shall see later on in the concluding section of this study1 lies the essential difference between comedy and drama4 ,a drama1 even when portraying passions or vices that bear a name1 so completely incorporates them in the person that their names are forgotten1 their general characteristics effaced1 and we no longer think of them at all1 but rather of the person in whom they are assimilated2 hence1 the title of a drama can seldom be anything else than a proper noun4 ,on the other hand1 many comedies have a common noun as their title3 l',avare1 le ,joueur1 etc4 ,were you asked to think of a play capable of being called le ,jaloux1 for instance1 you would find that ,sganarelle or ,george ,dandin would occur to your mind1 but not ,othello3 le ,jaloux could only be the title of a comedy4 ,the reason is that1 however intimately vice1 when comic1 is associated with persons1 it none the less retains its simple1 independent existence1 it remains the central character1 present though invisible1 to which the characters in flesh and blood on the stage are attached4 ,at times it delights in dragging them down with its own weight and making them share in its tumbles4 ,more frequently1 however1 it plays on them as on an instrument or pulls the strings as though they were puppets4 ,look closely3 you will find that the art of the comic poet consists in making us so well acquainted with the particular vice1 in introducing us1 the spectators1 to such a degree of intimacy with it1 that in the end we get hold of some of the strings of the marionette with which he is playing1 and actually work them ourselves2 this it is that explains part of the pleasure we feel4 ,here1 too1 it is really a kind of automatism that makes us laugh--an automatism1 as we have already remarked1 closely akin to mere absentmindedness4 ,to realise this more fully1 it need only be noted that a comic character is generally comic in proportion to his ignorance of himself4 ,the comic person is unconscious4 ,as though wearing the ring of ,gyges with reverse effect1 he becomes invisible to himself while remaining visible to all the world4 ,a character in a tragedy will make no change in his conduct because he will know how it is judged by us2 he may continue therein1 even though fully conscious of what he is and feeling keenly the horror he inspires in us4 ,but a defect that is ridiculous1 as soon as it feels itself to be so1 endeavours to modify itself1 or at least to appear as though it did4 ,were ,harpagon to see us laugh at his miserliness1 ,i do not say that he would get rid of it1 but he would either show it less or show it differently4 ,indeed1 it is in this sense only that laughter corrects men's manners4 ,it makes us at once endeavour to appear what we ought to be1 what some day we shall perhaps end in being4 ,it is unnecessary to carry this analysis any further4 ,from the runner who falls to the simpleton who is hoaxed1 from a state of being hoaxed to one of absentmindedness1 from absentmindedness to wild enthusiasm1 from wild enthusiasm to various distortions of character and will1 we have followed the line of progress along which the comic becomes more and more deeply imbedded in the person1 yet without ceasing1 in its subtler manifestations1 to recall to us some trace of what we noticed in its grosser forms1 an effect of automatism and of inelasticity4 ,now we can obtain a first glimpse--a distant one1 it is true1 and still hazy and confused--of the laughable side of human nature and of the ordinary function of laughter4 ,what life and society require of each of us is a constantly alert attention that discerns the outlines of the present situation1 together with a certain elasticity of mind and body to enable us to adapt ourselves in consequence4 ,,tension and ,,elasticity are two forces1 mutually complementary1 which life brings into play4 ,if these two forces are lacking in the body to any considerable extent1 we have sickness and infirmity and accidents of every kind4 ,if they are lacking in the mind1 we find every degree of mental deficiency1 every variety of insanity4 ,finally1 if they are lacking in the character1 we have cases of the gravest inadaptability to social life1 which are the sources of misery and at times the causes of crime4 ,once these elements of inferiority that affect the serious side of existence are removed--and they tend to eliminate themselves in what has been called the struggle for life--the person can live1 and that in common with other persons4 ,but society asks for something more2 it is not satisfied with simply living1 it insists on living well4 ,what it now has to dread is that each one of us1 content with paying attention to what affects the essentials of life1 will1 so far as the rest is concerned1 give way to the easy automatism of acquired habits4 ,another thing it must fear is that the members of whom it is made up1 instead of aiming after an increasingly delicate adjustment of wills which will fit more and more perfectly into one another1 will confine themselves to respecting simply the fundamental conditions of this adjustment3 a cut-and-dried agreement among the persons will not satisfy it1 it insists on a constant striving after reciprocal adaptation4 ,society will therefore be suspicious of all ,,inelasticity of character1 of mind and even of body1 because it is the possible sign of a slumbering activity as well as of an activity with separatist tendencies1 that inclines to swerve from the common centre round which society gravitates3 in short1 because it is the sign of an eccentricity4 ,and yet1 society cannot intervene at this stage by material repression1 since it is not affected in a material fashion4 ,it is confronted with something that makes it uneasy1 but only as a symptom--scarcely a threat1 at the very most a gesture4 ,a gesture1 therefore1 will be its reply4 ,laughter must be something of this kind1 a sort of ,,social ,,gesture4 ,by the fear which it inspires1 it restrains eccentricity1 keeps constantly awake and in mutual contact certain activities of a secondary order which might retire into their shell and go to sleep1 and1 in short1 softens down whatever the surface of the social body may retain of mechanical inelasticity4 ,laughter1 then1 does not belong to the province of esthetics alone1 since unconsciously 7and even immorally in many particular instances7 it pursues a utilitarian aim of general improvement4 ,and yet there is something esthetic about it1 since the comic comes into being just when society and the individual1 freed from the worry of self-preservation1 begin to regard themselves as works of art4 ,in a word1 if a circle be drawn round those actions and dispositions--implied in individual or social life--to which their natural consequences bring their own penalties1 there remains outside this sphere of emotion and struggle--and within a neutral zone in which man simply exposes himself to man's curiosity--a certain rigidity of body1 mind and character1 that society would still like to get rid of in order to obtain from its members the greatest possible degree of elasticity and sociability4 ,this rigidity is the comic1 and laughter is its corrective4 ,still1 we must not accept this formula as a definition of the comic4 ,it is suitable only for cases that are elementary1 theoretical and perfect1 in which the comic is free from all adulteration4 ,nor do we offer it1 either1 as an explanation4 ,we prefer to make it1 if you will1 the leitmotiv which is to accompany all our explanations4 ,we must ever keep it in mind1 though without dwelling on it too much1 somewhat as a skilful fencer must think of the discontinuous movements of the lesson whilst his body is given up to the continuity of the fencing-match4 ,we will now endeavour to reconstruct the sequence of comic forms1 taking up again the thread that leads from the horseplay of a clown up to the most refined effects of comedy1 following this thread in its often unforeseen windings1 halting at intervals to look around1 and finally getting back1 if possible1 to the point at which the thread is dangling and where we shall perhaps find--since the comic oscillates between life and art--the general relation that art bears to life4 ,,iii ,let us begin at the simplest point4 ,what is a comic physiognomy8 ,where does a ridiculous expression of the face come from8 ,and what is1 in this case1 the distinction between the comic and the ugly8 ,thus stated1 the question could scarcely be answered in any other than an arbitrary fashion4 ,simple though it may appear1 it is1 even now1 too subtle to allow of a direct attack4 ,we should have to begin with a definition of ugliness1 and then discover what addition the comic makes to it2 now1 ugliness is not much easier to analyse than is beauty4 ,however1 we will employ an artifice which will often stand us in good stead4 ,we will exaggerate the problem1 so to speak1 by magnifying the effect to the point of making the cause visible4 ,suppose1 then1 we intensify ugliness to the point of deformity1 and study the transition from the deformed to the ridiculous4 ,now1 certain deformities undoubtedly possess over others the sorry privilege of causing some persons to laugh2 some hunchbacks1 for instance1 will excite laughter4 ,without at this point entering into useless details1 we will simply ask the reader to think of a number of deformities1 and then to divide them into two groups3 on the one hand1 those which nature has directed towards the ridiculous2 and on the other1 those which absolutely diverge from it4 ,no doubt he will hit upon the following law3 ,a deformity that may become comic is a deformity that a normally built person1 could successfully imitate4 ,is it not1 then1 the case that the hunchback suggests the appearance of a person who holds himself badly8 ,his back seems to have contracted an ugly stoop4 ,by a kind of physical obstinacy1 by rigidity1 in a word1 it persists in the habit it has contracted4 ,try to see with your eyes alone4 ,avoid reflection1 and above all1 do not reason4 ,abandon all your prepossessions2 seek to recapture a fresh1 direct and primitive impression4 ,the vision you will reacquire will be one of this kind4 ,you will have before you a man bent on cultivating a certain rigid attitude--whose body1 if one may use the expression1 is one vast grin4 ,now1 let us go back to the point we wished to clear up4 ,by toning down a deformity that is laughable1 we ought to obtain an ugliness that is comic4 ,a laughable expression of the face1 then1 is one that will make us think of something rigid and1 so to speak1 coagulated1 in the wonted mobility of the face4 ,what we shall see will be an ingrained twitching or a fixed grimace4 ,it may be objected that every habitual expression of the face1 even when graceful and beautiful1 gives us this same impression of something stereotyped8 ,here an important distinction must be drawn4 ,when we speak of expressive beauty or even expressive ugliness1 when we say that a face possesses expression1 we mean expression that may be stable1 but which we conjecture to be mobile4 ,it maintains1 in the midst of its fixity1 a certain indecision in which are obscurely portrayed all possible shades of the state of mind it expresses1 just as the sunny promise of a warm day manifests itself in the haze of a spring morning4 ,but a comic expression of the face is one that promises nothing more than it gives4 ,it is a unique and permanent grimace4 ,one would say that the person's whole moral life has crystallised into this particular cast of features4 ,this is the reason why a face is all the more comic1 the more nearly it suggests to us the idea of some simple mechanical action in which its personality would for ever be absorbed4 ,some faces seem to be always engaged in weeping1 others in laughing or whistling1 others1 again1 in eternally blowing an imaginary trumpet1 and these are the most comic faces of all4 ,here again is exemplified the law according to which the more natural the explanation of the cause1 the more comic is the effect4 ,automatism1 inelasticity1 habit that has been contracted and maintained1 are clearly the causes why a face makes us laugh4 ,but this effect gains in intensity when we are able to connect these characteristics with some deep-seated cause1 a certain fundamental absentmindedness1 as though the soul had allowed itself to be fascinated and hypnotised by the materiality of a simple action4 ,we shall now understand the comic element in caricature4 ,however regular we may imagine a face to be1 however harmonious its lines and supple its movements1 their adjustment is never altogether perfect3 there will always be discoverable the signs of some impending bias1 the vague suggestion of a possible grimace1 in short some favourite distortion towards which nature seems to be particularly inclined4 ,the art of the caricaturist consists in detecting this1 at times1 imperceptible tendency1 and in rendering it visible to all eyes by magnifying it4 ,he makes his models grimace1 as they would do themselves if they went to the end of their tether4 ,beneath the skin-deep harmony of form1 he divines the deep-seated recalcitrance of matter4 ,he realises disproportions and deformations which must have existed in nature as mere inclinations1 but which have not succeeded in coming to a head1 being held in check by a higher force4 ,his art1 which has a touch of the diabolical1 raises up the demon who had been overthrown by the angel4 ,certainly1 it is an art that exaggerates1 and yet the definition would be very far from complete were exaggeration alone alleged to be its aim and object1 for there exist caricatures that are more lifelike than portraits1 caricatures in which the exaggeration is scarcely noticeable1 whilst1 inversely1 it is quite possible to exaggerate to excess without obtaining a real caricature4 ,for exaggeration to be comic1 it must not appear as an aim1 but rather as a means that the artist is using in order to make manifest to our eyes the distortions which he sees in embryo4 ,it is this process of distortion that is of moment and interest4 ,and that is precisely why we shall look for it even in those elements of the face that are incapable of movement1 in the curve of a nose or the shape of an ear4 ,for1 in our eyes1 form is always the outline of a movement4 ,the caricaturist who alters the size of a nose1 but respects its ground plan1 lengthening it1 for instance1 in the very direction in which it was being lengthened by nature1 is really making the nose indulge in a grin4 ,henceforth we shall always look upon the original as having determined to lengthen itself and start grinning4 ,in this sense1 one might say that ,nature herself often meets with the successes of a caricaturist4 ,in the movement through which she has slit that mouth1 curtailed that chin and bulged out that cheek1 she would appear to have succeeded in completing the intended grimace1 thus outwitting the restraining supervision of a more reasonable force4 ,in that case1 the face we laugh at is1 so to speak1 its own caricature4 ,to sum up1 whatever be the doctrine to which our reason assents1 our imagination has a very clear-cut philosophy of its own3 in every human form it sees the effort of a soul which is shaping matter1 a soul which is infinitely supple and perpetually in motion1 subject to no law of gravitation1 for it is not the earth that attracts it4 ,this soul imparts a portion of its winged lightness to the body it animates3 the immateriality which thus passes into matter is what is called gracefulness4 ,matter1 however1 is obstinate and resists4 ,it draws to itself the ever-alert activity of this higher principle1 would fain convert it to its own inertia and cause it to revert to mere automatism4 ,it would fain immobilise the intelligently varied movements of the body in stupidly contracted grooves1 stereotype in permanent grimaces the fleeting expressions of the face1 in short imprint on the whole person such an attitude as to make it appear immersed and absorbed in the materiality of some mechanical occupation instead of ceaselessly renewing its vitality by keeping in touch with a living ideal4 ,where matter thus succeeds in dulling the outward life of the soul1 in petrifying its movements and thwarting its gracefulness1 it achieves1 at the expense of the body1 an effect that is comic4 ,if1 then1 at this point we wished to define the comic by comparing it with its contrary1 we should have to contrast it with gracefulness even more than with beauty4 ,it partakes rather of the unsprightly than of the unsightly1 of ,,rigidness rather than of ,,ugliness4 ,,iv ,we will now pass from the comic element in ,,forms to that in ,,gestures and ,,movements4 ,let us at once state the law which seems to govern all the phenomena of this kind4 ,it may indeed be deduced without any difficulty from the considerations stated above4 ,,the ,,attitudes1 ,,gestures ,,and ,,movements ,,of ,,the ,,human ,,body ,,are ,,laughable ,,in ,,exact ,,proportion ,,as ,,that ,,body ,,reminds ,,us ,,of ,a ,,mere ,,machine4 ,there is no need to follow this law through the details of its immediate applications1 which are innumerable4 ,to verify it directly1 it would be sufficient to study closely the work of comic artists1 eliminating entirely the element of caricature1 and omitting that portion of the comic which is not inherent in the drawing itself4 ,for1 obviously1 the comic element in a drawing is often a borrowed one1 for which the text supplies all the stock-in-trade4 ,i mean that the artist may be his own understudy in the shape of a satirist1 or even a playwright1 and that then we laugh far less at the drawings themselves than at the satire or comic incident they represent4 ,but if we devote our whole attention to the drawing with the firm resolve to think of nothing else1 we shall probably find that it is generally comic in proportion to the clearness1 as well as the subtleness1 with which it enables us to see a man as a jointed puppet4 ,the suggestion must be a clear one1 for inside the person we must distinctly perceive1 as though through a glass1 a set-up mechanism4 ,but the suggestion must also be a subtle one1 for the general appearance of the person1 whose every limb has been made rigid as a machine1 must continue to give us the impression of a living being4 ,the more exactly these two images1 that of a person and that of a machine1 fit into each other1 the more striking is the comic effect1 and the more consummate the art of the draughtsman4 ,the originality of a comic artist is thus expressed in the special kind of life he imparts to a mere puppet4 ,we will1 however1 leave on one side the immediate application of the principle1 and at this point insist only on the more remote consequences4 ,the illusion of a machine working in the inside of the person is a thing that only crops up amid a host of amusing effects2 but for the most part it is a fleeting glimpse1 that is immediately lost in the laughter it provokes4 ,to render it permanent1 analysis and reflection must be called into play4 ,in a public speaker1 for instance1 we find that gesture vies with speech4 ,jealous of the latter1 gesture closely dogs the speaker's thought1 demanding also to act as interpreter4 ,well and good2 but then it must pledge itself to follow thought through all the phases of its development4 ,an idea is something that grows1 buds1 blossoms and ripens from the beginning to the end of a speech4 ,it never halts1 never repeats itself4 ,it must be changing every moment1 for to cease to change would be to cease to live4 ,then let gesture display a like animation6 ,let it accept the fundamental law of life1 which is the complete negation of repetition6 ,but ,i find that a certain movement of head or arm1 a movement always the same1 seems to return at regular intervals4 ,if ,i notice it and it succeeds in diverting my attention1 if ,i wait for it to occur and it occurs when ,i expect it1 then involuntarily ,i laugh4 ,why8 ,because ,i now have before me a machine that works automatically4 ,this is no longer life1 it is automatism established in life and imitating it4 ,it belongs to the comic4 ,this is also the reason why gestures1 at which we never dreamt of laughing1 become laughable when imitated by another individual4 ,the most elaborate explanations have been offered for this extremely simple fact4 ,a little reflection1 however1 will show that our mental state is ever changing1 and that if our gestures faithfully followed these inner movements1 if they were as fully alive as we1 they would never repeat themselves1 and so would keep imitation at bay4 ,we begin1 then1 to become imitable only when we cease to be ourselves4 ,i mean our gestures can only be imitated in their mechanical uniformity1 and therefore exactly in what is alien to our living personality4 ,to imitate any one is to bring out the element of automatism he has allowed to creep into his person4 ,and as this is the very essence of the ludicrous1 it is no wonder that imitation gives rise to laughter4 ,still1 if the imitation of gestures is intrinsically laughable1 it will become even more so when it busies itself in deflecting them1 though without altering their form1 towards some mechanical occupation1 such as sawing wood1 striking on an anvil1 or tugging away at an imaginary bell-rope4 ,not that vulgarity is the essence of the comic1--although certainly it is to some extent an ingredient1--but rather that the incriminated gesture seems more frankly mechanical when it can be connected with a simple operation1 as though it were intentionally mechanical4 ,to suggest this mechanical interpretation ought to be one of the favourite devices of parody4 ,we have reached this result through deduction1 but ,i imagine clowns have long had an intuition of the fact4 ,this seems to me the solution of the little riddle propounded by ,pascal in one passage of his ,thoughts3 ,two faces that are alike1 although neither of them excites laughter by itself1 make us laugh when together1 on account of their likeness4 ,it might just as well be said3 ,the gestures of a public speaker1 no one of which is laughable by itself1 excite laughter by their repetition4 ,the truth is that a really living life should never repeat itself4 ,wherever there is repetition or complete similarity1 we always suspect some mechanism at work behind the living4 ,analyse the impression you get from two faces that are too much alike1 and you will find that you are thinking of two copies cast in the same mould1 or two impressions of the same seal1 or two reproductions of the same negative1--in a word1 of some manufacturing process or other4 ,this deflection of life towards the mechanical is here the real cause of laughter4 ,and laughter will be more pronounced still1 if we find on the stage not merely two characters1 as in the example from ,pascal1 but several1 nay1 as great a number as possible1 the image of one another1 who come and go1 dance and gesticulate together1 simultaneously striking the same attitudes and tossing their arms about in the same manner4 ,this time1 we distinctly think of marionettes4 ,invisible threads seem to us to be joining arms to arms1 legs to legs1 each muscle in one face to its fellow-muscle in the other3 by reason of the absolute uniformity which prevails1 the very litheness of the bodies seems to stiffen as we gaze1 and the actors themselves seem transformed into automata4 ,such1 at least1 appears to be the artifice underlying this somewhat obvious form of amusement4 ,i daresay the performers have never read ,pascal1 but what they do is merely to realise to the full the suggestions contained in ,pascal's words4 ,if1 as is undoubtedly the case1 laughter is caused in the second instance by the hallucination of a mechanical effect1 it must already have been so1 though in more subtle fashion1 in the first4 ,continuing along this path1 we dimly perceive the increasingly important and far-reaching consequences of the law we have just stated4 ,we faintly catch still more fugitive glimpses of mechanical effects1 glimpses suggested by man's complex actions1 no longer merely by his gestures4 ,we instinctively feel that the usual devices of comedy1 the periodical repetition of a word or a scene1 the systematic inversion of the parts1 the geometrical development of a farcical misunderstanding1 and many other stage contrivances1 must derive their comic force from the same source1--the art of the playwright probably consisting in setting before us an obvious clockwork arrangement of human events1 while carefully preserving an outward aspect of probability and thereby retaining something of the suppleness of life4 ,but we must not forestall results which will be duly disclosed in the course of our analysis4 ,v ,before going further1 let us halt a moment and glance around4 ,as we hinted at the outset of this study1 it would be idle to attempt to derive every comic effect from one simple formula4 ,the formula exists well enough in a certain sense1 but its development does not follow a straightforward course4 ,what ,i mean is that the process of deduction ought from time to time to stop and study certain culminating effects1 and that these effects each appear as models round which new effects resembling them take their places in a circle4 ,these latter are not deductions from the formula1 but are comic through their relationship with those that are4 ,to quote ,pascal again1 ,i see no objection1 at this stage1 to defining the process by the curve which that geometrician studied under the name of roulette or cycloid1--the curve traced by a point in the circumference of a wheel when the carriage is advancing in a straight line3 this point turns like the wheel1 though it advances like the carriage4 ,or else we might think of an immense avenue such as are to be seen in the forest of ,fontainebleau1 with crosses at intervals to indicate the cross-ways3 at each of these we shall walk round the cross1 explore for a while the paths that open out before us1 and then return to our original course4 ,now1 we have just reached one of these mental crossways4 ,something mechanical encrusted on the living1 will represent a cross at which we must halt1 a central image from which the imagination branches off in different directions4 ,what are these directions8 ,there appear to be three main ones4 ,we will follow them one after the other1 and then continue our onward course4 #a4 ,in the first place1 this view of the mechanical and the living dovetailed into each other makes us incline towards the vaguer image of ,,some ,,rigidity ,,or ,,other applied to the mobility of life1 in an awkward attempt to follow its lines and counterfeit its suppleness4 ,here we perceive how easy it is for a garment to become ridiculous4 ,it might almost be said that every fashion is laughable in some respect4 ,only1 when we are dealing with the fashion of the day1 we are so accustomed to it that the garment seems1 in our mind1 to form one with the individual wearing it4 ,we do not separate them in imagination4 ,the idea no longer occurs to us to contrast the inert rigidity of the covering with the living suppleness of the object covered3 consequently1 the comic here remains in a latent condition4 ,it will only succeed in emerging when the natural incompatibility is so deep-seated between the covering and the covered that even an immemorial association fails to cement this union3 a case in point is our head and top hat4 ,suppose1 however1 some eccentric individual dresses himself in the fashion of former times3 our attention is immediately drawn to the clothes themselves1 we absolutely distinguish them from the individual1 we say that the latter ,,is ,,disguising ,,himself1--as though every article of clothing were not a disguise6--and the laughable aspect of fashion comes out of the shadow into the light4 ,here we are beginning to catch a faint glimpse of the highly intricate difficulties raised by this problem of the comic4 ,one of the reasons that must have given rise to many erroneous or unsatisfactory theories of laughter is that many things are comic de jure without being comic de facto1 the continuity of custom having deadened within them the comic quality4 ,a sudden dissolution of continuity is needed1 a break with fashion1 for this quality to revive4 ,hence the impression that this dissolution of continuity is the parent of the comic1 whereas all it does is to bring it to our notice4 ,hence1 again1 the explanation of laughter by surprise1 contrast1 etc41 definitions which would equally apply to a host of cases in which we have no inclination whatever to laugh4 ,the truth of the matter is far from being so simple4 ,but to return to our idea of disguise1 which1 as we have just shown1 has been entrusted with the special mandate of arousing laughter4 ,it will not be out of place to investigate the uses it makes of this power4 ,why do we laugh at a head of hair which has changed from dark to blond8 ,what is there comic about a rubicund nose8 ,and why does one laugh at a negro8 ,the question would appear to be an embarrassing one1 for it has been asked by successive psychologists such as ,hecker1 ,kraepelin and ,lipps1 and all have given different replies4 ,and yet ,i rather fancy the correct answer was suggested to me one day in the street by an ordinary cabby1 who applied the expression unwashed to the negro fare he was driving4 ,unwashed6 ,does not this mean that a black face1 in our imagination1 is one daubed over with ink or soot8 ,if so1 then a red nose can only be one which has received a coating of vermilion4 ,and so we see that the notion of disguise has passed on something of its comic quality to instances in which there is actually no disguise1 though there might be4 ,in the former set of examples1 although his usual dress was distinct from the individual1 it appeared in our mind to form one with him1 because we had become accustomed to the sight4 ,in the latter1 although the black or red colour is indeed inherent in the skin1 we look upon it as artificially laid on1 because it surprises us4 ,but here we meet with a fresh crop of difficulties in the theory of the comic4 ,such a proposition as the following3 ,my usual dress forms part of my body is absurd in the eyes of reason4 ,yet imagination looks upon it as true4 ,a red nose is a painted nose1 ,a negro is a white man in disguise1 are also absurd to the reason which rationalises2 but they are gospel truths to pure imagination4 ,so there is a logic of the imagination which is not the logic of reason1 one which at times is even opposed to the latter1--with which1 however1 philosophy must reckon1 not only in the study of the comic1 but in every other investigation of the same kind4 ,it is something like the logic of dreams1 though of dreams that have not been left to the whim of individual fancy1 being the dreams dreamt by the whole of society4 ,in order to reconstruct this hidden logic1 a special kind of effort is needed1 by which the outer crust of carefully stratified judgments and firmly established ideas will be lifted1 and we shall behold in the depths of our mind1 like a sheet of subterranean water1 the flow of an unbroken stream of images which pass from one into another4 ,this interpenetration of images does not come about by chance4 ,it obeys laws1 or rather habits1 which hold the same relation to imagination that logic does to thought4 ,let us then follow this logic of the imagination in the special case in hand4 ,a man in disguise is comic4 ,a man we regard as disguised is also comic4 ,so1 by analogy1 any disguise is seen to become comic1 not only that of a man1 but that of society also1 and even the disguise of nature4 ,let us start with nature4 ,you laugh at a dog that is half-clipped1 at a bed of artificially coloured flowers1 at a wood in which the trees are plastered over with election addresses1 etc4 ,look for the reason1 and you will see that you are once more thinking of a masquerade4 ,here1 however1 the comic element is very faint2 it is too far from its source4 ,if you wish to strengthen it1 you must go back to the source itself and contrast the derived image1 that of a masquerade1 with the original one1 which1 be it remembered1 was that of a mechanical tampering with life4 ,in a nature that is mechanically tampered with we possess a thoroughly comic theme1 on which fancy will be able to play ever so many variations with the certainty of successfully provoking the heartiest hilarity4 ,you may call to mind that amusing passage in ,tartarin ,sur ,les ,alpes1 in which ,bompard makes ,tartarin--and therefore also the reader to some slight extent--accept the idea of a ,switzerland choke-full of machinery like the basement of the opera1 and run by a company which maintains a series of waterfalls1 glaciers and artificial crevasses4 ,the same theme reappears1 though transposed in quite another key1 in the ,novel ,notes of the ,english humorist1 ,jerome ,k4 ,jerome4 ,an elderly ,lady ,bountiful1 who does not want her deeds of charity to take up too much of her time1 provides homes within easy hail of her mansion for the conversion of atheists who have been specially manufactured for her1 so to speak1 and for a number of honest folk who have been made into drunkards so that she may cure them of their failing1 etc4 ,there are comic phrases in which this theme is audible1 like a distant echo1 coupled with an ingenuousness1 whether sincere or affected1 which acts as accompaniment4 ,take1 as an instance1 the remark made by a lady whom ,cassini1 the astronomer1 had invited to see an eclipse of the moon4 ,arriving too late1 she said1 ,m4 de ,cassini1 ,i know1 will have the goodness to begin it all over again1 to please me4 ,or1 take again the exclamation of one of ,gondiinet's characters on arriving in a town and learning that there is an extinct volcano in the neighbourhood1 ,they had a volcano1 and they have let it go out6 ,let us go on to society4 ,as we are both in and of it1 we cannot help treating it as a living being4 ,any image1 then1 suggestive of the notion of a society disguising itself1 or of a social masquerade1 so to speak1 will be laughable4 ,now1 such a notion is formed when we perceive anything inert or stereotyped1 or simply ready-made1 on the surface of living society4 ,there we have rigidity over again1 clashing with the inner suppleness of life4 ,the ceremonial side of social life must1 therefore1 always include a latent comic element1 which is only waiting for an opportunity to burst into full view4 ,it might be said that ceremonies are to the social body what clothing is to the individual body3 they owe their seriousness to the fact that they are identified1 in our minds1 with the serious object with which custom associates them1 and when we isolate them in imagination1 they forthwith lose their seriousness4 ,for any ceremony1 then1 to become comic1 it is enough that our attention be fixed on the ceremonial element in it1 and that we neglect its matter1 as philosophers say1 and think only of its form4 ,every one knows how easily the comic spirit exercises its ingenuity on social actions of a stereotyped nature1 from an ordinary prize-distribution to the solemn sitting of a court of justice4 ,any form or formula is a ready-made frame into which the comic element may be fitted4 ,here1 again1 the comic will be emphasised by bringing it nearer to its source4 ,from the idea of travesty1 a derived one1 we must go back to the original idea1 that of a mechanism superposed upon life4 ,already1 the stiff and starched formality of any ceremonial suggests to us an image of this kind4 ,for1 as soon as we forget the serious object of a solemnity or a ceremony1 those taking part in it give us the impression of puppets in motion4 ,their mobility seems to adopt as a model the immobility of a formula4 ,it becomes automatism4 ,but complete automatism is only reached in the official1 for instance1 who performs his duty like a mere machine1 or again in the unconsciousness that marks an administrative regulation working with inexorable fatality1 and setting itself up for a law of nature4 ,quite by chance1 when reading the newspaper1 ,i came across a specimen of the comic of this type4 ,twenty years ago1 a large steamer was wrecked off the coast at ,dieppe4 ,with considerable difficulty some of the passengers were rescued in a boat4 ,a few custom-house officers1 who had courageously rushed to their assistance1 began by asking them if they had anything to declare4 ,we find something similar1 though the idea is a more subtle one1 in the remark of an ,m4,p4 when questioning the ,home ,secretary on the morrow of a terrible murder which took place in a railway carriage3 ,the assassin1 after despatching his victim1 must have got out the wrong side of the train1 thereby infringing the ,company's rules4 ,a mechanical element introduced into nature and an automatic regulation of society1 such1 then1 are the two types of laughable effects at which we have arrived4 ,it remains for us1 in conclusion1 to combine them and see what the result will be4 ,the result of the combination will evidently be a human regulation of affairs usurping the place of the laws of nature4 ,we may call to mind the answer ,sganarelle gave ,geronte when the latter remarked that the heart was on the left side and the liver on the right3 ,yes1 it was so formerly1 but we have altered all that2 now1 we practise medicine in quite a new way4 ,we may also recall the consultation between ,m4 de ,pourceaugnac's two doctors3 ,the arguments you have used are so erudite and elegant that it is impossible for the patient not to be hypochondriacally melancholic2 or1 even if he were not1 he must surely become so because of the elegance of the things you have said and the accuracy of your reasoning4 ,we might multiply examples1 for all we need do would be to call up ,moliere's doctors1 one after the other4 ,however far1 moreover1 comic fancy may seem to go1 reality at times undertakes to improve upon it4 ,it was suggested to a contemporary philosopher1 an out-and-out arguer1 that his arguments1 though irreproachable in their deductions1 had experience against them4 ,he put an end to the discussion by merely remarking1 ,experience is in the wrong4 ,the truth is1 this idea of regulating life as a matter of business routine is more widespread than might be imagined2 it is natural in its way1 although we have just obtained it by an artificial process of reconstruction4 ,one might say that it gives us the very quintessence of pedantry1 which1 at bottom1 is nothing else than art pretending to outdo nature4 ,to sum up1 then1 we have one and the same effect1 which assumes ever subtler forms as it passes from the idea of an artificial ,,mechanisation of the human body1 if such an expression is permissible1 to that of any substitution whatsoever of the artificial for the natural4 ,a less and less rigorous logic1 that more and more resembles the logic of dreamland1 transfers the same relationship into higher and higher spheres1 between increasingly immaterial terms1 till in the end we find a mere administrative enactment occupying the same relation to a natural or moral law that a ready-made garment1 for instance1 does to the living body4 ,we have now gone right to the end of the first of the three directions we had to follow4 ,let us turn to the second and see where it will lead us4 #b4 ,our starting-point is again something mechanical encrusted upon the living4 ,where did the comic come from in this case8 ,it came from the fact that the living body became rigid1 like a machine4 ,accordingly1 it seemed to us that the living body ought to be the perfection of suppleness1 the ever-alert activity of a principle always at work4 ,but this activity would really belong to the soul rather than to the body4 ,it would be the very flame of life1 kindled within us by a higher principle and perceived through the body1 as if through a glass4 ,when we see only gracefulness and suppleness in the living body1 it is because we disregard in it the elements of weight1 of resistance1 and1 in a word1 of matter2 we forget its materiality and think only of its vitality1 a vitality which we regard as derived from the very principle of intellectual and moral life1 ,let us suppose1 however1 that our attention is drawn to this material side of the body2 that1 so far from sharing in the lightness and subtlety of the principle with which it is animated1 the body is no more in our eyes than a heavy and cumbersome vesture1 a kind of irksome ballast which holds down to earth a soul eager to rise aloft4 ,then the body will become to the soul what1 as we have just seen1 the garment was to the body itself--inert matter dumped down upon living energy4 ,the impression of the comic will be produced as soon as we have a clear apprehension of this putting the one on the other4 ,and we shall experience it most strongly when we are shown the soul ,,tantalised by the needs of the body3 on the one hand1 the moral personality with its intelligently varied energy1 and1 on the other1 the stupidly monotonous body1 perpetually obstructing everything with its machine-like obstinacy4 ,the more paltry and uniformly repeated these claims of the body1 the more striking will be the result4 ,but that is only a matter of degree1 and the general law of these phenomena may be formulated as follows3 ,,any ,,incident ,,is ,,comic ,,that ,,calls ,,our ,,attention ,,to ,,the ,,physical ,,in ,a ,,person ,,when ,,it ,,is ,,the ,,moral ,,side ,,that ,,is ,,concerned4 ,why do we laugh at a public speaker who sneezes just at the most pathetic moment of his speech8 ,where lies the comic element in this sentence1 taken from a funeral speech and quoted by a ,german philosopher3 ,he was virtuous and plump8 ,it lies in the fact that our attention is suddenly recalled from the soul to the body4 ,similar instances abound in daily life1 but if you do not care to take the trouble to look for them1 you have only to open at random a volume of ,labiche1 and you will be almost certain to light upon an effect of this kind4 ,now1 we have a speaker whose most eloquent sentences are cut short by the twinges of a bad tooth2 now1 one of the characters who never begins to speak without stopping in the middle to complain of his shoes being too small1 or his belt too tight1 etc4 ,a ,,person ,,embarrassed ,,by ,,his ,,body is the image suggested to us in all these examples4 ,the reason that excessive stoutness is laughable is probably because it calls up an image of the same kind4 ,i almost think that this too is what sometime makes bashfulness somewhat ridiculous4 ,the bashful man rather gives the impression of a person embarrassed by his body1 looking round for some convenient cloak-room in which to deposit it4 ,this is just why the tragic poet is so careful to avoid anything calculated to attract attention to the material side of his heroes4 ,no sooner does anxiety about the body manifest itself than the intrusion of a comic element is to be feared4 ,on this account1 the hero in a tragedy does not eat or drink or warm himself4 ,he does not even sit down any more than can be helped4 ,to sit down in the middle of a fine speech would imply that you remembered you had a body4 ,napoleon1 who was a psychologist when he wished to be so1 had noticed that the transition from tragedy to comedy is effected simply by sitting down4 ,in the ,journal inedit of ,baron ,gourgaud--when speaking of an interview with the ,queen of ,prussia after the battle of ,iena--he expresses himself in the following terms3 ,she received me in tragic fashion like ,chimene3 ,justice6 ,sire1 ,justice6 ,magdeburg6 ,thus she continued in a way most embarrassing to me4 ,finally1 to make her change her style1 ,i requested her to take a seat4 ,this is the best method for cutting short a tragic scene1 for as soon as you are seated it all becomes comedy4 ,let us now give a wider scope to this image of ,,the ,,body ,,taking ,,precedence ,,of ,,the ,,soul4 ,we shall obtain something more general--,,the ,,manner ,,seeking ,,to ,,outdo ,,the ,,matter1 ,,the ,,letter ,,aiming ,,at ,,ousting ,,the ,,spirit4 ,is it not perchance this idea that comedy is trying to suggest to us when holding up a profession to ridicule8 ,it makes the lawyer1 the magistrate and the doctor speak as though health and justice were of little moment1--the main point being that we should have lawyers1 magistrates and doctors1 and that all outward formalities pertaining to these professions should be scrupulously respected4 ,and so we find the means substituted for the end1 the manner for the matter2 no longer is it the profession that is made for the public1 but rather the public for the profession4 ,constant attention to form and the mechanical application of rules here bring about a kind of professional automatism analogous to that imposed upon the soul by the habits of the body1 and equally laughable4 ,numerous are the examples of this on the stage4 ,without entering into details of the variations executed on this theme1 let us quote two or three passages in which the theme itself is set forth in all its simplicity4 ,you are only bound to treat people according to form1 says ,doctor ,diafoirus in the ,malade imaginaire4 ,again1 says ,doctor ,bahis1 in ,l',amour medecin3 ,it is better to die through following the rules than to recover through violating them4 ,in the same play1 ,desfonandres had previously said3 ,we must always observe the formalities of professional etiquette1 whatever may happen4 ,and the reason is given by ,tomes1 his colleague3 ,a dead man is but a dead man1 but the non-observance of a formality causes a notable prejudice to the whole faculty4 ,brid'oison's words1 though4 embodying a rather different idea1 are none the less significant3 ,f-form1 mind you1 f-form4 ,a man laughs at a judge in a morning coat1 and yet he would quake with dread at the mere sight of an attorney in his gown4 ,f-form1 all a matter of f-form4 ,here we have the first illustration of a law which will appear with increasing distinctness as we proceed with our task4 ,when a musician strikes a note on an instrument1 other notes start up of themselves1 not so loud as the first1 yet connected with it by certain definite relations1 which coalesce with it and determine its quality4 ,these are what are called in physics the overtones of the fundamental note4 ,it would seem that comic fancy1 even in its most far-fetched inventions1 obeys a similar law4 ,for instance1 consider this comic note3 appearance seeking to triumph over reality4 ,if our analysis is correct1 this note must have as its overtones the body tantalising the mind1 the body taking precedence of the mind4 ,no sooner1 then1 does the comic poet strike the first note than he will add the second on to it1 involuntarily and instinctively4 ,in other words1 ,,he ,,will ,,duplicate ,,what ,,is ,,ridiculous ,,professionally ,,with ,,something ,,that ,,is ,,ridiculous ,,physically4 ,when ,brid'oison the judge comes stammering on to the stage1 is he not actually preparing us1 by this very stammering1 to understand the phenomenon of intellectual ossification we are about to witness8 ,what bond of secret relationship can there be between the physical defect and the moral infirmity8 ,it is difficult to say2 yet we feel that the relationship is there1 though we cannot express it in words4 ,perhaps the situation required that this judging machine should also appear before us as a talking machine4 ,however it may be1 no other overtone could more perfectly have completed the fundamental note4 ,when ,moliere introduces to us the two ridiculous doctors1 ,bahis and ,macroton1 in ,l',amour medecin1 he makes one of them speak very slowly1 as though scanning his words syllable by syllable1 whilst the other stutters4 ,we find the same contrast between the two lawyers in ,monsieur de ,pourceaugnac4 ,in the rhythm of speech is generally to be found the physical peculiarity that is destined to complete the element of professional ridicule4 ,when the author has failed to suggest a defect of this kind1 it is seldom the case that the actor does not instinctively invent one4 ,consequently1 there is a natural relationship1 which we equally naturally recognise1 between the two images we have been comparing with each other1 the mind crystallising in certain grooves1 and the body losing its elasticity through the influence of certain defects4 ,whether or not our attention be diverted from the matter to the manner1 or from the moral to the physical1 in both cases the same sort of impression is conveyed to our imagination2 in both1 then1 the comic is of the same kind4 ,here1 once more1 it has been our aim to follow the natural trend of the movement of the imagination4 ,this trend or direction1 it may be remembered1 was the second of those offered to us1 starting from a central image4 ,a third and final path remains unexplored1 along which we will now proceed4 #c4 ,let us then return1 for the last time1 to our central image3 something mechanical encrusted on something living4 ,here1 the living being under discussion was a human being1 a person4 ,a mechanical arrangement1 on the other hand1 is a thing4 ,what1 therefore1 incited laughter was the momentary transformation of a person into a thing1 if one considers the image from this standpoint4 ,let us then pass from the exact idea of a machine to the vaguer one of a thing in general4 ,we shall have a fresh series of laughable images which will be obtained by taking a blurred impression1 so to speak1 of the outlines of the former and will bring us to this new law3 ,,we ,,laugh ,,every ,,time ,a ,,person ,,gives ,,us ,,the ,,impression ,,of ,,being ,a ,,thing4 ,we laugh at ,sancho ,panza tumbled into a bed-quilt and tossed into the air like a football4 ,we laugh at ,baron ,munchausen turned into a cannon-ball and travelling through space4 ,but certain tricks of circus clowns might afford a still more precise exemplification of the same law4 ,true1 we should have to eliminate the jokes1 mere interpolations by the clown into his main theme1 and keep in mind only the theme itself1 that is to say1 the divers attitudes1 capers and movements which form the strictly clownish element in the clown's art4 ,on two occasions only have ,i been able to observe this style of the comic in its unadulterated state1 and in both ,i received the same impression4 ,the first time1 the clowns came and went1 collided1 fell and jumped up again in a uniformly accelerated rhythm1 visibly intent upon affecting a ,,crescendo4 ,and it was more and more to the jumping up again1 the ,,rebound1 that the attention of the public was attracted4 ,gradually1 one lost sight of the fact that they were men of flesh and blood like ourselves2 one began to think of bundles of all sorts1 falling and knocking against each other4 ,then the vision assumed a more definite aspect4 ,the forms grew rounder1 the bodies rolled together and seemed to pick themselves up like balls4 ,then at last appeared the image towards which the whole of this scene had doubtless been unconsciously evolving--large rubber balls hurled against one another in every direction4 ,the second scene1 though even coarser than the first1 was no less instructive4 ,there came on the stage two men1 each with an enormous head1 bald as a billiard ball4 ,in their hands they carried large sticks which each1 in turn1 brought down on to the other's cranium4 ,here1 again1 a certain gradation was observable4 ,after each blow1 the bodies seemed to grow heavier and more unyielding1 overpowered by an increasing degree of rigidity4 ,then came the return blow1 in each case heavier and more resounding than the last1 coming1 too1 after a longer interval4 ,the skulls gave forth a formidable ring throughout the silent house4 ,at last the two bodies1 each quite rigid and as straight as an arrow1 slowly bent over towards each other1 the sticks came crashing down for the last time on to the two heads with a thud as of enormous mallets falling upon oaken beams1 and the pair lay prone upon the ground4 ,at that instant appeared in all its vividness the suggestion that the two artists had gradually driven into the imagination of the spectators3 ,we are about to become 444we have now become solid wooden dummies4 ,a kind of dim1 vague instinct may enable even an uncultured mind to get an inkling here of the subtler results of psychological science4 ,we know that it is possible to call up hallucinatory visions in a hypnotised subject by simple suggestion4 ,if he be told that a bird is perched on his hand1 he will see the bird and watch it fly away4 ,the idea suggested1 however1 is far from being always accepted with like docility4 ,not infrequently1 the mesmeriser only succeeds in getting an idea into his subject's head by slow degrees through a carefully graduated series of hints4 ,he will then start with objects really perceived by the subject1 and will endeavour to make the perception of these objects more and more indefinite2 then1 step by step1 he will bring out of this state of mental chaos the precise form of the object of which he wishes to create an hallucination4 ,something of the kind happens to many people when dropping off to sleep2 they see those coloured1 fluid1 shapeless masses1 which occupy the field of vision1 insensibly solidifying into distinct objects4 ,consequently1 the gradual passing from the dim and vague to the clear and distinct is the method of suggestion par excellence4 ,i fancy it might be found to be at the root of a good many comic suggestions1 especially in the coarser forms of the comic1 in which the transformation of a person into a thing seems to be taking place before our eyes4 ,but there are other and more subtle methods in use1 among poets1 for instance1 which perhaps unconsciously lead to the same end4 ,by a certain arrangement of rhythm1 rhyme and assonance1 it is possible to lull the imagination1 to rock it to and fro between like and like with a regular see-saw motion1 and thus prepare it submissively to accept the vision suggested4 ,listen to these few lines of ,regnard1 and see whether something like the fleeting image of a ,,doll does not cross the field of your imagination3 444 ,plus1 il doit a maints particuliers ,la somme de dix mil une livre une obole1 ,pour l'avoir sans relache un an sur sa parole ,habille1 voiture1 chauffe1 chausse1 gante1 ,alimente1 rase1 desaltere1 porte4 ,footnote3 ,further1 he owes to many an honest wight ,item-the sum two thousand pounds1 one farthing1 ,for having on his simple word of honour ,sans intermission for an entire year ,clothed him1 conveyed him1 warmed him1 shod him1 gloved him1 ,fed him and shaved him1 quenched his thirst and borne him4 ,is not something of the same kind found in the following sally of ,figaro's 7though here an attempt is perhaps made to suggest the image of an animal rather than that of a thing73 ,quel homme est-ce8--,c'est un beau1 gros1 court1 jeune vieillard1 gris pommele1 ruse1 rase1 blase1 qui guette et furette1 et gronde et geint tout a la fois4 ,footnote3 ,what sort of man is here8--,he is a handsome1 stout1 short1 youthful old gentleman1 iron-grey1 an artful knave1 clean shaved1 clean 'used up1' who spies and pries and growls and groans all in the same breath4 ,now1 between these coarse scenes and these subtle suggestions there is room for a countless number of amusing effects1 for all those that can be obtained by talking about persons as one would do about mere things4 ,we will only select one or two instances from the plays of ,labiche1 in which they are legion4 ,just as ,m4 ,perrichon is getting into the railway carriage1 he makes certain of not forgetting any of his parcels3 ,four1 five1 six1 my wife seven1 my daughter eight1 and myself nine4 ,in another play1 a fond father is boasting of his daughter's learning in the following terms3 ,she will tell you1 without faltering1 all the kings of ,france that have occurred4 ,this phrase1 that have occurred1 though not exactly transforming the kings into mere things1 likens them1 all the same1 to events of an impersonal nature4 ,as regards this latter example1 note that it is unnecessary to complete the identification of the person with the thing in order to ensure a comic effect4 ,it is sufficient for us to start in this direction by feigning1 for instance1 to confuse the person with the function he exercises4 ,i will only quote a sentence spoken by a village mayor in one of ,about's novels3 ,the prefect1 who has always shown us the same kindness1 though he has been changed several times since #ahdg444 ,all these witticisms are constructed on the same model4 ,we might make up any number of them1 when once we are in possession of the recipe4 ,but the art of the story-teller or the playwright does not merely consist in concocting jokes4 ,the difficulty lies in giving to a joke its power of suggestion1 i4e4 in making it acceptable4 ,and we only do accept it either because it seems to be the natural product of a particular state of mind or because it is in keeping with the circumstances of the case4 ,for instance1 we are aware that ,m4 ,perrichon is greatly excited on the occasion of his first railway journey4 ,the expression to occur is one that must have cropped up a good many times in the lessons repeated by the girl before her father2 it makes us think of such a repetition4 ,lastly1 admiration of the governmental machine might1 at a pinch1 be extended to the point of making us believe that no change takes place in the prefect when he changes his name1 and that the function gets carried on independently of the functionary4 ,we have now reached a point very far from the original cause of laughter4 ,many a comic form1 that cannot be explained by itself1 can indeed only be understood from its resemblance to another1 which only makes us laugh by reason of its relationship with a third1 and so on indefinitely1 so that psychological analysis1 however luminous and searching1 will go astray unless it holds the thread along which the comic impression has travelled from one end of the series to the other4 ,where does this progressive continuity come from8 ,what can be the driving force1 the strange impulse which causes the comic to glide thus from image to image1 farther and farther away from the starting-point1 until it is broken up and lost in infinitely remote analogies8 ,but what is that force which divides and subdivides the branches of a tree into smaller boughs and its roots into radicles8 ,an inexorable law dooms every living energy1 during the brief interval allotted to it in time1 to cover the widest possible extent in space4 ,now1 comic fancy is indeed a living energy1 a strange plant that has nourished on the stony portions of the social soil1 until such time as culture should allow it to vie with the most refined products of art4 ,true1 we are far from great art in the examples of the comic we have just been reviewing4 ,but we shall draw nearer to it1 though without attaining to it completely1 in the following chapter4 ,below art1 we find artifice1 and it is this zone of artifice1 midway between nature and art1 that we are now about to enter4 ,we are going to deal with the comic playwright and the wit4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,comic ,,element ,,in ,,situations ,,and ,,the ,,comic ,,element ,,in ,,words ,i ,we have studied the comic element in forms1 in attitudes1 and in movements generally2 now let us look for it in actions and in situations4 ,we encounter1 indeed1 this kind of comic readily enough in everyday life4 ,it is not here1 however1 that it best lends itself to analysis4 ,assuming that the stage is both a magnified and a simplified view of life1 we shall find that comedy is capable of furnishing us with more information than real life on this particular part of our subject4 ,perhaps we ought even to carry simplification still farther1 and1 going back to our earliest recollections1 try to discover1 in the games that amused us as children1 the first faint traces of the combinations that make us laugh as grown-up persons4 ,we are too apt to speak of our feelings of pleasure and of pain as though full grown at birth1 as though each one of them had not a history of its own4 ,above all1 we are too apt to ignore the childish element1 so to speak1 latent in most of our joyful emotions4 ,and yet1 how many of our present pleasures1 were we to examine them closely1 would shrink into nothing more than memories of past ones6 ,what would there be left of many of our emotions were we to reduce them to the exact quantum of pure feeling they contain1 by subtracting from them all that is merely reminiscence8 ,indeed1 it seems possible that1 after a certain age1 we become impervious to all fresh or novel forms of joy1 and the sweetest pleasures of the middle-aged man are perhaps nothing more than a revival of the sensations of childhood1 a balmy zephyr wafted in fainter and fainter breaths by a past that is ever receding4 ,in any case1 whatever reply we give to this broad question1 one thing is certain3 there can be no break in continuity between the child's delight in games and that of the grown-up person4 ,now1 comedy is a game1 a game that imitates life4 ,and since1 in the games of the child when working its dolls and puppets1 many of the movements are produced by strings1 ought we not to find those same strings1 somewhat frayed by wear1 reappearing as the threads that knot together the situations in a comedy8 ,let us1 then1 start with the games of a child1 and follow the imperceptible process by which1 as he grows himself1 he makes his puppets grow1 inspires them with life1 and finally brings them to an ambiguous state in which1 without ceasing to be puppets1 they have yet become human beings4 ,we thus obtain characters of a comedy type4 ,and upon them we can test the truth of the law of which all our preceding analyses gave an inkling1 a law in accordance with which we will define all broadly comic situations in general4 ,,any ,,arrangement ,,of ,,acts ,,and ,,events ,,is ,,comic ,,which ,,gives ,,us1 ,,in ,a ,,single ,,combination1 ,,the ,,illusion ,,of ,,life ,,and ,,the ,,distinct ,,impression ,,of ,a ,,mechanical ,,arrangement4 #a4 ,,the ,,jack-,,in-,,the-,,box4--,as children we have all played with the little man who springs out of his box4 ,you squeeze him flat1 he jumps up again4 ,push him lower1 and he shoots up still higher4 ,crush him down beneath the lid1 and often he will send everything flying4 ,it is hard to tell whether or no the toy itself is very ancient1 but the kind of amusement it affords belongs to all time4 ,it is a struggle between two stubborn elements1 one of which1 being simply mechanical1 generally ends by giving in to the other1 which treats it as a plaything4 ,a cat playing with a mouse1 which from time to time she releases like a spring1 only to pull it up short with a stroke of her paw1 indulges in the same kind of amusement4 ,we will now pass on to the theatre1 beginning with a ,punch and ,judy show4 ,no sooner does the policeman put in an appearance on the stage than1 naturally enough1 he receives a blow which fells him4 ,he springs to his feet1 a second blow lays him flat4 ,a repetition of the offence is followed by a repetition of the punishment4 ,up and down the constable flops and hops with the uniform rhythm of the bending and release of a spring1 whilst the spectators laugh louder and louder4 ,now1 let us think of a spring that is rather of a moral type1 an idea that is first expressed1 then repressed1 and then expressed again2 a stream of words that bursts forth1 is checked1 and keeps on starting afresh4 ,once more we have the vision of one stubborn force1 counteracted by another1 equally pertinacious4 ,this vision1 however1 will have discarded a portion of its materiality4 ,no longer is it ,punch and ,judy that we are watching1 but rather a real comedy4 ,many a comic scene may indeed be referred to this simple type4 ,for instance1 in the scene of the ,mariage force between ,sganarelle and ,pancrace1 the entire vis comica lies in the conflict set up between the idea of ,sganarelle1 who wishes to make the philosopher listen to him1 and the obstinacy of the philosopher1 a regular talking-machine working automatically4 ,as the scene progresses1 the image of the ,jack-in-the-box becomes more apparent1 so that at last the characters themselves adopt its movements1--,sganarelle pushing ,pancrace1 each time he shows himself1 back into the wings1 ,pancrace returning to the stage after each repulse to continue his patter4 ,and when ,sganarelle finally drives ,pancrace back and shuts him up inside the house--inside the box1 one is tempted to say--a window suddenly flies open1 and the head of the philosopher again appears as though it had burst open the lid of a box4 ,the same by-play occurs in the ,malade ,imaginaire4 ,through the mouth of ,monsieur ,purgon the outraged medical profession pours out its vials of wrath upon ,argan1 threatening him with every disease that flesh is heir to4 ,and every time ,argan rises from his seat1 as though to silence ,purgon1 the latter disappears for a moment1 being1 as it were1 thrust back into the wings2 then1 as though ,impelled by a spring1 he rebounds on to the stage with a fresh curse on his lips4 ,the self-same exclamation3 ,monsieur ,purgon6 recurs at regular beats1 and1 as it were1 marks the ,,tempo of this little scene4 ,let us scrutinise more closely the image of the spring which is bent1 released1 and bent again4 ,let us disentangle its central element1 and we shall hit upon one of the usual processes of classic comedy1--,,repetition4 ,why is it there is something comic in the repetition of a word on the stage8 ,no theory of the ludicrous seems to offer a satisfactory answer to this very simple question4 ,nor can an answer be found so long as we look for the explanation of an amusing word or phrase in the phrase or word itself1 apart from all it suggests to us4 ,nowhere will the usual method prove to be so inadequate as here4 ,with the exception1 however1 of a few special instances to which we shall recur later1 the repetition of a word is never laughable in itself4 ,it makes us laugh only because it symbolises a special play of moral elements1 this play itself being the symbol of an altogether material diversion4 ,it is the diversion of the cat with the mouse1 the diversion of the child pushing back the ,jack-in-the-box1 time after time1 to the bottom of his box1--but in a refined and spiritualised form1 transferred to the realm of feelings and ideas4 ,let us then state the law which1 we think1 defines the main comic varieties of word-repetition on the stage3 ,,in ,a ,,comic ,,repetition ,,of ,,words ,,we ,,generally ,,find ,,two ,,terms3 ,a ,,repressed ,,feeling ,,which ,,goes ,,off ,,like ,a ,,spring1 ,,and ,,an ,,idea ,,that ,,delights ,,in ,,repressing ,,the ,,feeling ,,anew4 ,when ,dorine is telling ,orgon of his wife's illness1 and the latter continually interrupts him with inquiries as to the health of ,tartuffe1 the question3 ,et tartuffe8 repeated every few moments1 affords us the distinct sensation of a spring being released4 ,this spring ,dorine delights in pushing back1 each time she resumes her account of ,elmire's illness4 ,and when ,scapin informs old ,geronte that his son has been taken prisoner on the famous galley1 and that a ransom must be paid without delay1 he is playing with the avarice of ,geronte exactly as ,dorine does with the infatuation of ,orgon4 ,the old man's avarice is no sooner repressed than up it springs again automatically1 and it is this automatism that ,moliere tries to indicate by the mechanical repetition of a sentence expressing regret at the money that would have to be forthcoming3 ,what the deuce did he want in that galley8 ,the same criticism is applicable to the scene in which ,valere points out to ,harpagon the wrong he would be doing in marrying his daughter to a man she did not love4 ,no dowry wanted6 interrupts the miserly ,harpagon every few moments4 ,behind this exclamation1 which recurs automatically1 we faintly discern a complete repeating-machine set going by a fixed idea4 ,at times this mechanism is less easy to detect1 and here we encounter a fresh difficulty in the theory of the comic4 ,sometimes the whole interest of a scene lies in one character playing a double part1 the intervening speaker acting as a mere prism1 so to speak1 through which the dual personality is developed4 ,we run the risk1 then1 of going astray if we look for the secret of the effect in what we see and hear1--in the external scene played by the characters1--and not in the altogether inner comedy of which this scene is no more than the outer refraction4 ,for instance1 when ,alceste stubbornly repeats the words1 ,i don't say that6 on ,oronte asking him if he thinks his poetry bad1 the repetition is laughable1 though evidently ,oronte is not now playing with ,alceste at the game we have just described4 ,we must be careful1 however1 for1 in reality1 we have two men in ,alceste3 on the one hand1 the misanthropist who has vowed henceforth to call a spade a spade1 and on the other the gentleman who cannot unlearn1 in a trice1 the usual forms of politeness1 or even1 it may be1 just the honest fellow who1 when called upon to put his words into practice1 shrinks from wounding another's self-esteem or hurting his feelings4 ,accordingly1 the real scene is not between ,alceste and ,oronte1 it is between ,alceste and himself4 ,the one ,alceste would fain blurt out the truth1 and the other stops his mouth just as he is on the point of telling everything4 ,each ,i don't say that6 reveals a growing effort to repress something that strives and struggles to get out4 ,and so the tone in which the phrase is uttered gets more and more violent1 ,alceste becoming more and more angry--not with ,oronte1 as he thinks--but with himself4 ,the tension of the spring is continually being renewed and reinforced until it at last goes off with a bang4 ,here1 as elsewhere1 we have the same identical mechanism of repetition4 ,for a man to make a resolution never henceforth to say what he does not think1 even though he openly defy the whole human race1 is not necessarily laughable2 it is only a phase of life at its highest and best4 ,for another man1 through amiability1 selfishness1 or disdain1 to prefer to flatter people is only another phase of life2 there is nothing in it to make us laugh4 ,you may even combine these two men into one1 and arrange that the individual waver between offensive frankness and delusive politeness1 this duel between two opposing feelings will not even then be comic1 rather it will appear the essence of seriousness if these two feelings through their very distinctness complete each other1 develop side by side1 and make up between them a composite mental condition1 adopting1 in short1 a modus vivendi which merely gives us the complex impression of life4 ,but imagine these two feelings as ,,inelastic and unvarying elements in a really living man1 make him oscillate from one to the other2 above all1 arrange that this oscillation becomes entirely mechanical by adopting the well-known form of some habitual1 simple1 childish contrivance3 then you will get the image we have so far found in all laughable objects1 ,,something ,,mechanical ,,in ,,something ,,living2 in fact1 something comic4 ,we have dwelt on this first image1 the ,jack-in-the-box1 sufficiently to show how comic fancy gradually converts a material mechanism into a moral one4 ,now we will consider one or two other games1 confining ourselves to their most striking aspects4 #b4 ,,the ,,dancing-,,jack4--,there are innumerable comedies in which one of the characters thinks he is speaking and acting freely1 and1 consequently1 retains all the essentials of life1 whereas1 viewed from a certain standpoint1 he appears as a mere toy in the hands of another who is playing with him4 ,the transition is easily made1 from the dancing-jack which a child works with a string1 to ,geronte and ,argante manipulated by ,scapin4 ,listen to ,scapin himself3 ,the ,,machine is all there2 and again3 ,providence has brought them into my net1 etc4 ,instinctively1 and because one would rather be a cheat than be cheated1 in imagination at all events1 the spectator sides with the knaves2 and for the rest of the time1 like a child who has persuaded his playmate to lend him his doll1 he takes hold of the strings himself and makes the marionette come and go on the stage as he pleases4 ,but this latter condition is not indispensable2 we can remain outside the pale of what is taking place if only we retain the distinct impression of a mechanical arrangement4 ,this is what happens whenever one of the characters vacillates between two contrary opinions1 each in turn appealing to him1 as when ,panurge asks ,tom1 ,dick1 and ,harry whether or no he ought to get married4 ,note that1 in such a case1 a comic author is always careful to ,,personify the two opposing decisions4 ,for1 if there is no spectator1 there must at all events be actors to hold the strings4 ,all that is serious in life comes from our freedom4 ,the feelings we have matured1 the passions we have brooded over1 the actions we have weighed1 decided upon1 and carried through1 in short1 all that comes from us and is our very own1 these are the things that give life its ofttimes dramatic and generally grave aspect4 ,what1 then1 is requisite to transform all this into a comedy8 ,merely to fancy that our seeming1 freedom conceals the strings of a dancing-,jack1 and that we are1 as the poet says1 444 humble marionettes ,the wires of which are pulled by ,fate4 ,footnote3 444 d'humbles marionnettes ,dont le fil est aux mains de la ,necessite4 ,,sully-,,prudhomme4 ,so there is not a real1 a serious1 or even a dramatic scene that fancy cannot render comic by simply calling forth this image4 ,nor is there a game for which a wider field lies open4 #c4 ,,the ,,snow-,,ball4--,the farther we proceed in this investigation into the methods of comedy1 the more clearly we see the part played by childhood's memories4 ,these memories refer1 perhaps1 less to any special game than to the mechanical device of which that game is a particular instance4 ,the same general device1 moreover1 may be met with in widely different games1 just as the same operatic air is found in many different arrangements and variations4 ,what is here of importance and is retained in the mind1 what passes by imperceptible stages from the games of a child to those of a man1 is the mental diagram1 the skeleton outline of the combination1 or1 if you like1 the abstract formula of which these games are particular illustrations4 ,take1 for instance1 the rolling snow-ball1 which increases in size as it moves along4 ,we might just as well think of toy soldiers standing behind one another4 ,push the first and it tumbles down on the second1 this latter knocks down the third1 and the state of things goes from bad to worse until they all lie prone on the floor4 ,or again1 take a house of cards that has been built up with infinite care3 the first you touch seems uncertain whether to move or not1 its tottering neighbour comes to a quicker decision1 and the work of destruction1 gathering momentum as it goes on1 rushes headlong to the final collapse4 ,these instances are all different1 but they suggest the same abstract vision1 that of an effect which grows by arithmetical progression1 so that the cause1 insignificant at the outset1 culminates by a necessary evolution in a result as important as it is unexpected4 ,now let us open a children's picture-book2 we shall find this arrangement already on the high road to becoming comic4 ,here1 for instance--in one of the comic chap-books picked up by chance--we have a caller rushing violently into a drawing-room2 he knocks against a lady1 who upsets her cup of tea over an old gentleman1 who slips against a glass window which falls in the street on to the head of a constable1 who sets the whole police force agog1 etc4 ,the same arrangement reappears in many a picture intended for grownup persons4 ,in the stories without words sketched by humorous artists we are often shown an object which moves from place to place1 and persons who are closely connected with it1 so that through a series of scenes a change in the position of the object mechanically brings about increasingly serious changes in the situation of the persons4 ,let us now turn to comedy4 ,many a droll scene1 many a comedy even1 may be referred to this simple type4 ,read the speech of ,chicanneau in the ,plaideurs3 here we find lawsuits within lawsuits1 and the mechanism works faster and faster--,racine produces in us this feeling of increasing acceleration by crowding his law terms ever closer together--until the lawsuit over a truss of hay costs the plaintiff the best part of his fortune4 ,and again the same arrangement occurs in certain scenes of ,don ,quixote2 for instance1 in the inn scene1 where1 by an extraordinary concatenation of circumstances1 the mule-driver strikes ,sancho1 who belabours ,maritornes1 upon whom the innkeeper falls1 etc4 ,finally1 let us pass to the light comedy of to-day4 ,need we call to mind all the forms in which this same combination appears8 ,there is one that is employed rather frequently4 ,for instance1 a certain thing1 say a letter1 happens to be of supreme importance to a certain person and must be recovered at all costs4 ,this thing1 which always vanishes just when you think you have caught it1 pervades the entire play1 rolling up increasingly serious and unexpected incidents as it proceeds4 ,all this is far more like a child's game than appears at first blush4 ,once more the effect produced is that of the snowball4 ,it is the characteristic of a mechanical combination to be generally ,,reversible4 ,a child is delighted when he sees the ball in a game of ninepins knocking down everything in its way and spreading havoc in all directions2 he laughs louder than ever when the ball returns to its starting-point after twists and turns and waverings of every kind4 ,in other words1 the mechanism just described is laughable even when rectilinear1 it is much more so on becoming circular and when every effort the player makes1 by a fatal interaction of cause and effect1 merely results in bringing it back to the same spot4 ,now1 a considerable number of light comedies revolve round this idea4 ,an ,italian straw hat has been eaten up by a horse4 ,footnote3 ,un ,chapeau de paille d',italie 7,labiche74 ,there is only one other hat like it in the whole of ,paris2 it ,,must be secured regardless of cost4 ,this hat1 which always slips away at the moment its capture seems inevitable1 keeps the principal character on the run1 and through him all the others who hang1 so to say1 on to his coat tails1 like a magnet which1 by a successive series of attractions1 draws along in its train the grains of iron filings that hang on to each other4 ,and when at last1 after all sorts of difficulties1 the goal seems in sight1 it is found that the hat so ardently sought is precisely the one that has been eaten4 ,the same voyage of discovery is depicted in another equally well-known comedy of ,labiche4 ,footnote3 ,la ,cagnotte4 ,the curtain rises on an old bachelor and an old maid1 acquaintances of long standing1 at the moment of enjoying their daily rubber4 ,each of them1 unknown to the other1 has applied to the same matrimonial agency4 ,through innumerable difficulties1 one mishap following on the heels of another1 they hurry along1 side by side1 right through the play1 to the interview which brings them back1 purely and simply1 into each other's presence4 ,we have the same circular effect1 the same return to the starting-point1 in a more recent play4 ,footnote3 ,les ,surprises du divorce4 ,a henpecked husband imagines he has escaped by divorce from the clutches of his wife and his mother-in-law4 ,he marries again1 when1 lo and behold1 the double combination of marriage and divorce brings back to him his former wife in the aggravated form of a second mother-in-law6 ,when we think how intense and how common is this type of the comic1 we understand why it has fascinated the imagination of certain philosophers4 ,to cover a good deal of ground only to come back unwittingly to the starting-point1 is to make a great effort for a result that is nil4 ,so we might be tempted to define the comic in this latter fashion4 ,and such1 indeed1 seems to be the idea of ,herbert ,spencer3 according to him1 laughter is the indication of an effort which suddenly encounters a void4 ,kant had already said something of the kind3 ,laughter is the result of an expectation1 which1 of a sudden1 ends in nothing4 ,no doubt these definitions would apply to the last few examples given1 although1 even then1 the formula needs the addition of sundry limitations1 for we often make an ineffectual effort which is in no way provocative of laughter4 ,while1 however1 the last few examples are illustrations of a great cause resulting in a small effect1 we quoted others1 immediately before1 which might be defined inversely as a great effect springing from a small cause4 ,the truth is1 this second definition has scarcely more validity than the first4 ,lack of proportion between cause and effect1 whether appearing in one or in the other1 is never the direct source of laughter4 ,what we do laugh at is something that this lack of proportion may in certain cases disclose1 namely1 a particular mechanical arrangement which it reveals to us1 as through a glass1 at the back of the series of effects and causes4 ,disregard this arrangement1 and you let go the only clue capable of guiding you through the labyrinth of the comic4 ,any hypothesis you otherwise would select1 while possibly applicable to a few carefully chosen cases1 is liable at any moment to be met and overthrown by the first unsuitable instance that comes along4 ,but why is it we laugh at this mechanical arrangement8 ,it is doubtless strange that the history of a person or of a group should sometimes appear like a game worked by strings1 or gearings1 or springs2 but from what source does the special character of this strangeness arise8 ,what is it that makes it laughable8 ,to this question1 which we have already propounded in various forms1 our answer must always be the same4 ,the rigid mechanism which we occasionally detect1 as a foreign body1 in the living continuity of human affairs is of peculiar interest to us as being a kind of ,,absentmindedness on the part of life4 ,were events unceasingly mindful of their own course1 there would be no coincidences1 no conjunctures and no circular series2 everything would evolve and progress continuously4 ,and were all men always attentive to life1 were we constantly keeping in touch with others as well as with ourselves1 nothing within us would ever appear as due to the working of strings or springs4 ,the comic is that side of a person which reveals his likeness to a thing1 that aspect of human events which1 through its peculiar inelasticity1 conveys the impression of pure mechanism1 of automatism1 of movement without life4 ,consequently it expresses an individual or collective imperfection which calls for an immediate corrective4 ,this corrective is laughter1 a social gesture that singles out and represses a special kind of absentmindedness in men and in events4 ,but this in turn tempts us to make further investigations4 ,so far1 we have spent our time in rediscovering1 in the diversions of the grownup man1 those mechanical combinations which amused him as a child4 ,our methods1 in fact1 have been entirely empirical4 ,let us now attempt to frame a full and methodical theory1 by seeking1 as it were1 at the fountainhead1 the changeless and simple archetypes of the manifold and transient practices of the comic stage4 ,comedy1 we said1 combines events so as to introduce mechanism into the outer forms of life4 ,let us now ascertain in what essential characteristics life1 when viewed from without1 seems to contrast with mere mechanism4 ,we shall only have1 then1 to turn to the opposite characteristics1 in order to discover the abstract formula1 this time a general and complete one1 for every real and possible method of comedy4 ,life presents itself to us as evolution in time and complexity in space4 ,regarded in time1 it is the continuous evolution of a being ever growing older2 it never goes backwards and never repeats anything4 ,considered in space1 it exhibits certain coexisting elements so closely interdependent1 so exclusively made for one another1 that not one of them could1 at the same time1 belong to two different organisms3 each living being is a closed system of phenomena1 incapable of interfering with other systems4 ,a continual change of aspect1 the irreversibility of the order of phenomena1 the perfect individuality of a perfectly self-contained series3 such1 then1 are the outward characteristics--whether real or apparent is of little moment--which distinguish the living from the merely mechanical4 ,let us take the counterpart of each of these3 we shall obtain three processes which might be called ,,repetition1 ,,inversion1 and ,,reciprocal ,,interference ,,of ,,series4 ,now1 it is easy to see that these are also the methods of light comedy1 and that no others are possible4 ,as a matter of fact1 we could discover them1 as ingredients of varying importance1 in the composition of all the scenes we have just been considering1 and1 a fortiori1 in the children's games1 the mechanism of which they reproduce4 ,the requisite analysis would1 however1 delay us too long1 and it is more profitable to study them in their purity by taking fresh examples4 ,nothing could be easier1 for it is in their pure state that they are found both in classic comedy and in contemporary plays4 #a4 ,,repetition4-,our present problem no longer deals1 like the preceding one1 with a word or a sentence repeated by an individual1 but rather with a situation1 that is1 a combination of circumstances1 which recurs several times in its original form and thus contrasts with the changing stream of life4 ,everyday experience supplies us with this type of the comic1 though only in a rudimentary state4 ,thus1 you meet a friend in the street whom you have not seen for an age2 there is nothing comic in the situation4 ,if1 however1 you meet1 him again the same day1 and then a third and a fourth time1 you may laugh at the coincidence4 ,now1 picture to yourself a series of imaginary events which affords a tolerably fair illusion of life1 and within this ever-moving series imagine one and the same scene reproduced either by the same characters or by different ones3 again you will have a coincidence1 though a far more extraordinary one4 ,such are the repetitions produced on the stage4 ,they are the more laughable in proportion as the scene repeated is more complex and more naturally introduced--two conditions which seem mutually exclusive1 and which the play-writer must be clever enough to reconcile4 ,contemporary light comedy employs this method in every shape and form4 ,one of the best-known examples consists in bringing a group of characters1 act after act1 into the most varied surroundings1 so as to reproduce1 under ever fresh circumstances1 one and the same series of incidents or accidents more or less symmetrically identical4 ,in several of ,moliere's plays we find one and the same arrangement of events repeated right through the comedy from beginning to end4 ,thus1 the ,ecole des femmes does nothing more than reproduce and repeat a single incident in three tempi3 first tempo1 ,horace tells ,arnolphe of the plan he has devised to deceive ,agnes's guardian1 who turns out to be ,arnolphe himself2 second tempo1 ,arnolphe thinks he has checkmated the move2 third tempo1 ,agnes contrives that ,horace gets all the benefit of ,arnolphe's precautionary measures4 ,there is the same symmetrical repetition in the ,ecole des marts1 in ,l',etourdi1 and above all in ,george ,dandin1 where the same effect in three tempi is again met with3 first tempo1 ,george ,dandin discovers that his wife is unfaithful2 second tempo1 he summons his father--and mother-in-law to his assistance2 third tempo1 it is ,george ,dandin himself1 after all1 who has to apologise4 ,at times the same scene is reproduced with groups of different characters4 ,then it not infrequently happens that the first group consists of masters and the second of servants4 ,the latter repeat in another key a scene already played by the former1 though the rendering is naturally less refined4 ,a part of the ,depit amoureux is constructed on this plan1 as is also ,amphitryon4 ,in an amusing little comedy of ,benedix1 ,der ,eigensinn1 the order is inverted3 we have the masters reproducing a scene of stubbornness in which their servants have set the example4 ,but1 quite irrespective of the characters who serve as pegs for the arrangement of symmetrical situations1 there seems to be a wide gulf between classic comedy and the theatre of to-day4 ,both aim at introducing a certain mathematical order into events1 while none the less maintaining their aspect of likelihood1 that is to say1 of life4 ,but the means they employ are different4 ,the majority of light comedies of our day seek to mesmerise directly the mind of the spectator4 ,for1 however extraordinary the coincidence1 it becomes acceptable from the very fact that it is accepted2 and we do accept it1 if we have been gradually prepared for its reception4 ,such is often the procedure adopted by contemporary authors4 ,in ,moliere's plays1 on the contrary1 it is the moods of the persons on the stage1 not of the audience1 that make repetition seem natural4 ,each of the characters represents a certain force applied in a certain direction1 and it is because these forces1 constant in direction1 necessarily combine together in the same way1 that the same situation is reproduced4 ,thus interpreted1 the comedy of situation is akin to the comedy of character4 ,it deserves to be called classic1 if classic art is indeed that which does not claim to derive from the effect more than it has put into the cause4 #b4 ,inversion4--,this second method has so much analogy with the first that we will merely define it without insisting on illustrations4 ,picture to yourself certain characters in a certain situation3 if you reverse the situation and invert the roles1 you obtain a comic scene4 ,the double rescue scene in ,le ,voyage de ,m4 ,perrichon belongs to this class4 ,footnote3 ,labiche1 ,le ,voyage de ,m4 ,perrichon4 ,there is no necessity1 however1 for both the identical scenes to be played before us4 ,we may be shown only one1 provided the other is really in our minds4 ,thus1 we laugh at the prisoner at the bar lecturing the magistrate2 at a child presuming to teach its parents2 in a word1 at everything that comes under the heading of topsyturvydom4 ,not infrequently comedy sets before us a character who lays a trap in which he is the first to be caught4 ,the plot of the villain who is the victim of his own villainy1 or the cheat cheated1 forms the stock-in-trade of a good many plays4 ,we find this even in primitive farce4 ,lawyer ,pathelin tells his client of a trick to outwit the magistrate2 the client employs the self-same trick to avoid paying the lawyer4 ,a termagant of a wife insists upon her husband doing all the housework2 she has put down each separate item on a rota4 ,now let her fall into a copper1 her husband will refuse to drag her out1 for that is not down on his 'rota4' ,in modern literature we meet with hundreds of variations on the theme of the robber robbed4 ,in every case the root idea involves an inversion of roles1 and a situation which recoils on the head of its author4 ,here we apparently find the confirmation of a law1 some illustrations of which we have already pointed out4 ,when a comic scene has been reproduced a number of times1 it reaches the stage of being a classical type or model4 ,it becomes amusing in itself1 quite apart from the causes which render it amusing4 ,henceforth1 new scenes1 which are not comic de jure1 may become amusing de facto1 on account of their partial resemblance to this model4 ,they call up in our mind a more or less confused image which we know to be comical4 ,they range themselves in a category representing an officially recognised type of the comic4 ,the scene of the robber robbed belongs to this class4 ,it casts over a host of other scenes a reflection of the comic element it contains4 ,in the end it renders comic any mishap that befalls one through one's own fault1 no matter what the fault or mishap may be1--nay1 an allusion to this mishap1 a single word that recalls it1 is sufficient4 ,there would be nothing amusing in the saying1 ,it serves you right1 ,george ,dandin1 were it not for the comic overtones that take up and re-echo it4 #c4 ,we have dwelt at considerable length on repetition and inversion2 we now come to the reciprocal interference ,footnote3 ,the word interference has here the meaning given to it in ,optics1 where it indicates the partial superposition and neutralisation1 by each other1 of two series of light-waves4 of series4 ,this is a comic effect1 the precise formula of which is very difficult to disentangle1 by reason of the extraordinary variety of forms in which it appears on the stage4 ,perhaps it might be defined as follows3 ,a situation is invariably comic when it belongs simultaneously to two altogether independent series of events and is capable of being interpreted in two entirely different meanings at the same time4 ,you will at once think of an equivocal situation4 ,and the equivocal situation is indeed one which permits of two different meanings at the same time1 the one merely plausible1 which is put forward by the actors1 the other a real one1 which is given by the public4 ,we see the real meaning of the situation1 because care has been taken to show us every aspect of it2 but each of the actors knows only one of these aspects3 hence the mistakes they make and the erroneous judgments they pass both on what is going on around them and on what they are doing themselves4 ,we proceed from this erroneous judgment to the correct one1 we waver between the possible meaning and the real1 and it is this mental seesaw between two contrary interpretations which is at first apparent in the enjoyment we derive from an equivocal situation4 ,it is natural that certain philosophers should have been specially struck by this mental instability1 and that some of them should regard the very essence of the ludicrous as consisting in the collision or coincidence of two judgments that contradict each other4 ,their definition1 however1 is far from meeting every case1 and even when it does1 it defines--not the principle of the ludicrous1 but only one of its more or less distant consequences4 ,indeed1 it is easy to see that the stage-made misunderstanding is nothing but a particular instance of a far more general phenomenon1--the reciprocal interference of independent series1 and that1 moreover1 it is not laughable in itself1 but only as a sign of such an interference4 ,as a matter of fact1 each of the characters in every stage-made misunderstanding has his setting in an appropriate series of events which he correctly interprets as far as he is concerned1 and which give the key-note to his words and actions4 ,each of the series peculiar to the several characters develop independently1 but at a certain moment they meet under such conditions that the actions and words that belong to one might just as well belong to another4 ,hence arise the misunderstandings and the equivocal nature of the situation4 ,but this latter is not laughable in itself1 it is so only because it reveals the coincidence of the two independent series4 ,the proof of this lies in the fact that the author must be continually taxing his ingenuity to recall our attention to the double fact of independence and coincidence4 ,this he generally succeeds in doing by constantly renewing the vain threat of dissolving partnership between the two coinciding series4 ,every moment the whole thing threatens to break down1 but manages to get patched up again2 it is this diversion that excites laughter1 far more than the oscillation of the mind between two contradictory ideas4 ,it makes us laugh because it reveals to us the reciprocal interference of two independent series1 the real source of the comic effect4 ,and so the stage-made misunderstanding is nothing more than one particular instance1 one means--perhaps the most artificial--of illustrating the reciprocal interference of series1 but it is not the only one4 ,instead of two contemporary series1 you might take one series of events belonging to the past and another belonging to the present3 if the two series happen to coincide in our imagination1 there will be no resulting cross-purposes1 and yet the same comic effect will continue to take place4 ,think of ,bonivard1 captive in the ,castle of ,chillon3 one series of facts4 ,now picture to yourself ,tartarin1 travelling in ,switzerland1 arrested and imprisoned3 second series1 independent of the former4 ,now let ,tartarin be manacled to ,bonivard's chain1 thus making the two stories seem for a moment to coincide1 and you will get a very amusing scene1 one of the most amusing that ,daudet's imagination has pictured4 ,tartarin sur les ,alpes1 by ,daudet4 ,numerous incidents of the mock-heroic style1 if analysed1 would reveal the same elements4 ,the transposition from the ancient to the modern--always a laughable one--draws its inspiration from the same idea4 ,labiche has made use of this method in every shape and form4 ,sometimes he begins by building up the series separately1 and then delights in making them interfere with one another3 he takes an independent group--a wedding-party1 for instance--and throws them into altogether unconnected surroundings1 into which certain coincidences allow of their being foisted for the time being4 ,sometimes he keeps one and the same set of characters right through the play1 but contrives that certain of these characters have something to conceal--have1 in fact1 a secret understanding on the point--in short1 play a smaller comedy within the principal one3 at one moment1 one of the two comedies is on the point of upsetting the other2 the next1 everything comes right and the coincidence between the two series is restored4 ,sometimes1 even1 he introduces into the actual series a purely immaterial series of events1 an inconvenient past1 for instance1 that some one has an interest in concealing1 but which is continually cropping up in the present1 and on each occasion is successfully brought into line with situations with which it seemed destined to play havoc4 ,but in every case we find the two independent series1 and also their partial coincidence4 ,we will not carry any further this analysis of the methods of light comedy4 ,whether we find reciprocal interference of series1 inversion1 or repetition1 we see that the objective is always the same--to obtain what we have called a ,,mechanisation of life4 ,you take a set of actions and relations and repeat it as it is1 or turn it upside down1 or transfer it bodily to another set with which it partially coincides--all these being processes that consist in looking upon life as a repeating mechanism1 with reversible action and interchangeable parts4 ,actual life is comedy just so far as it produces1 in a natural fashion1 actions of the same kind1--consequently1 just so far as it forgets itself1 for were it always on the alert1 it would be ever-changing continuity1 irrevertible progress1 undivided unity4 ,and so the ludicrous in events may be defined as absentmindedness in things1 just as the ludicrous in an individual character always results from some fundamental absentmindedness in the person1 as we have already intimated and shall prove later on4 ,this absentmindedness in events1 however1 is exceptional4 ,its results are slight4 ,at any rate it is incurable1 so that it is useless to laugh at it4 ,therefore the idea would never have occurred to any one of exaggerating that absentmindedness1 of converting it into a system and creating an art for it1 if laughter were not always a pleasure and mankind did not pounce upon the slightest excuse for indulging in it4 ,this is the real explanation of light comedy1 which holds the same relation to actual life as does a jointed dancing-doll to a man walking1--being1 as it is1 an artificial exaggeration of a natural rigidity in things4 ,the thread that binds it to actual life is a very fragile one4 ,it is scarcely more than a game which1 like all games1 depends on a previously accepted convention4 ,comedy in character strikes far deeper roots into life4 ,with that kind of comedy we shall deal more particularly in the final portion of our investigation4 ,but we must first analyse a certain type of the comic1 in many respects similar to that of light comedy3 the comic in words4 ,,ii ,there may be something artificial in making a special category for the comic in words1 since most of the varieties of the comic that we have examined so far were produced through the medium of language4 ,we must make a distinction1 however1 between the comic ,,expressed and the comic ,,created by language4 ,the former could1 if necessary1 be translated from one language into another1 though at the cost of losing the greater portion of its significance when introduced into a fresh society different in manners1 in literature1 and above all in association of ideas4 ,but it is generally impossible to translate the latter4 ,it owes its entire being to the structure of the sentence or to the choice of the words4 ,it does not set forth1 by means of language1 special cases of absentmindedness in man or in events4 ,it lays stress on lapses of attention in language itself4 ,in this case1 it is language itself that becomes comic4 ,comic sayings1 however1 are not a matter of spontaneous generation2 if we laugh at them1 we are equally entitled to laugh at their author4 ,this latter condition1 however1 is not indispensable1 since the saying or expression has a comic virtue of its own4 ,this is proved by the fact that we find it very difficult1 in the majority of these cases1 to say whom we are laughing at1 although at times we have a dim1 vague feeling that there is some one in the background4 ,moreover1 the person implicated is not always the speaker4 ,here it seems as though we should draw an important distinction between the ,,witty 7,,spirituel7 and the ,,comic4 ,a word is said to be comic when it makes us laugh at the person who utters it1 and witty when it makes us laugh either at a third party or at ourselves4 ,but in most cases we can hardly make up our minds whether the word is comic or witty4 ,all that we can say is that it is laughable4 ,before proceeding1 it might be well to examine more closely what is meant by ,,esprit4 ,a witty saying makes us at least smile2 consequently1 no investigation into laughter would be complete did it not get to the bottom of the nature of wit and throw light on the underlying idea4 ,it is to be feared1 however1 that this extremely subtle essence is one that evaporates when exposed to the light4 ,let us first make a distinction between the two meanings of the word wit ,,esprit1 the broader one and the more restricted4 ,in the broader meaning of the word1 it would seem that what is called wit is a certain ,,dramatic way of thinking4 ,instead of treating his ideas as mere symbols1 the wit sees them1 he hears them and1 above all1 makes them converse with one another like persons4 ,he puts them on the stage1 and himself1 to some extent1 into the bargain4 ,a witty nation is1 of necessity1 a nation enamoured of the theatre4 ,in every wit there is something of a poet--just as in every good reader there is the making of an actor4 ,this comparison is made purposely1 because a proportion might easily be established between the four terms4 ,in order to read well we need only the intellectual side of the actor's art2 but in order to act well one must be an actor in all one's soul and body4 ,in just the same way1 poetic creation calls for some degree of self-forgetfulness1 whilst the wit does not usually err in this respect4 ,we always get a glimpse of the latter behind what he says and does4 ,he is not wholly engrossed in the business1 because he only brings his intelligence into play4 ,so any poet may reveal himself as a wit when he pleases4 ,to do this there will be no need for him to acquire anything2 it seems rather as though he would have to give up something4 ,he would simply have to let his ideas hold converse with one another for nothing1 for the mere joy of the thing6 ,footnote3 ,pour rien1 pour le plaisir is a quotation from ,victor ,hugo's ,marion ,delorme ,he would only have to unfasten the double bond which keeps his ideas in touch with his feelings and his soul in touch with life4 ,in short1 he would turn into a wit by simply resolving to be no longer a poet in feeling1 but only in intelligence4 ,but if wit consists1 for the most part1 in seeing things ,,sub ,,specie ,,theatri1 it is evidently capable of being specially directed to one variety of dramatic art1 namely1 comedy4 ,here we have a more restricted meaning of the term1 and1 moreover1 the only one that interests us from the point of view of the theory of laughter4 ,what is here called ,,wit is a gift for dashing off comic scenes in a few strokes--dashing them off1 however1 so subtly1 delicately and rapidly1 that all is over as soon as we begin to notice them4 ,who are the actors in these scenes8 ,with whom has the wit to deal8 ,first of all1 with his interlocutors themselves1 when his witticism is a direct retort to one of them4 ,often with an absent person whom he supposes to have spoken and to whom he is replying4 ,still oftener1 with the whole world1--in the ordinary meaning of the term1--which he takes to task1 twisting a current idea into a paradox1 or making use of a hackneyed phrase1 or parodying some quotation or proverb4 ,if we compare these scenes in miniature with one another1 we find they are almost always variations of a comic theme with which we are well acquainted1 that of the robber robbed4 ,you take up a metaphor1 a phrase1 an argument1 and turn it against the man who is1 or might be1 its author1 so that he is made to say what he did not mean to say and lets himself be caught1 to some extent1 in the toils of language4 ,but the theme of the robber robbed is not the only possible one4 ,we have gone over many varieties of the comic1 and there is not one of them that is incapable of being volatilised into a witticism4 ,every witty remark1 then1 lends itself to an analysis1 whose chemical formula1 so to say1 we are now in a position to state4 ,it runs as follows3 ,take the remark1 first enlarge it into a regular scene1 then find out the category of the comic to which the scene evidently belongs3 by this means you reduce the witty remark to its simplest elements and obtain a full explanation of it4 ,let us apply this method to a classic example4 ,your chest hurts me 7,j',,ai ,,mal ,a ,,votre ,,poitrine7 wrote ,mme4 de ,sevigne to her ailing daughter--clearly a witty saying4 ,if our theory is correct1 we need only lay stress upon the saying1 enlarge and magnify it1 and we shall see it expand into a comic scene4 ,now1 we find this very scene1 ready made1 in the ,,amour ,,medecin of ,moliere4 ,the sham doctor1 ,clitandre1 who has been summoned to attend ,sganarelle's daughter1 contents himself with feeling ,sganarelle's own pulse1 whereupon1 relying on the sympathy there must be between father and daughter1 he unhesitatingly concludes3 ,your daughter is very ill6 ,here we have the transition from the witty to the comical4 ,to complete our analysis1 then1 all we have to do is to discover what there is comical in the idea of giving a diagnosis of the child after sounding the father or the mother4 ,well1 we know that one essential form of comic fancy lies in picturing to ourselves a living person as a kind of jointed dancing-doll1 and that frequently1 with the object of inducing us to form this mental picture1 we are shown two or more persons speaking and acting as though attached to one another by invisible strings4 ,is not this the idea here suggested when we are led to materialise1 so to speak1 the sympathy we postulate as existing between father and daughter8 ,we now see how it is that writers on wit have perforce confined themselves to commenting on the extraordinary complexity of the things denoted by the term without ever succeeding in defining it4 ,there are many ways of being witty1 almost as many as there are of being the reverse4 ,how can we detect what they have in common with one another1 unless we first determine the general relationship between the witty and the comic8 ,once1 however1 this relationship is cleared up1 everything is plain sailing4 ,we then find the same connection between the comic and the witty as exists between a regular scene and the fugitive suggestion of a possible one4 ,hence1 however numerous the forms assumed by the comic1 wit will possess an equal number of corresponding varieties4 ,so that the comic1 in all its forms1 is what should be defined first1 by discovering 7a task which is already quite difficult enough7 the clue that leads from one form to the other4 ,by that very operation wit will have been analysed1 and will then appear as nothing more than the comic in a highly volatile state4 ,to follow the opposite plan1 however1 and attempt directly to evolve a formula for wit1 would be courting certain failure4 ,what should we think of a chemist who1 having ever so many jars of a certain substance in his laboratory1 would prefer getting that substance from the atmosphere1 in which merely infinitesimal traces of its vapour are to be found8 ,but this comparison between the witty and the comic is also indicative of the line we must take in studying the comic in words4 ,on the one hand1 indeed1 we find there is no essential difference between a word that is comic and one that is witty2 on the other hand1 the latter1 although connected with a figure of speech1 invariably calls up the image1 dim or distinct1 of a comic scene4 ,this amounts to saying that the comic in speech should correspond1 point by point1 with the comic in actions and in situations1 and is nothing more1 if one may so express oneself1 than their projection on to the plane of words4 ,so let us return to the comic in actions and in situations1 consider the chief methods by which it is obtained1 and apply them to the choice of words and the building up of sentences4 ,we shall thus have every possible form of the comic in words as well as every variety of wit4 #a4 ,inadvertently to say or do what we have no intention of saying or doing1 as a result of inelasticity or momentum1 is1 as we are aware1 one of the main sources of the comic4 ,thus1 absentmindedness is essentially laughable1 and so we laugh at anything rigid1 ready-made1 mechanical in gesture1 attitude and even facial expression4 ,do we find this kind of rigidity in language also8 ,no doubt we do1 since language contains ready-made formulas and stereotyped phrases4 ,the man who always expressed himself in such terms would invariably be comic4 ,but if an isolated phrase is to be comic in itself1 when once separated from the person who utters it1 it must be something more than ready-made1 it must bear within itself some sign which tells us1 beyond the possibility of doubt1 that it was uttered automatically4 ,this can only happen when the phrase embodies some evident absurdity1 either a palpable error or a contradiction in terms4 ,hence the following general rule3 ,a ,,comic ,,meaning ,,is ,,invariably ,,obtained ,,when ,,an ,,absurd ,,idea ,,is ,,fitted ,,into ,a ,,well-,,established ,,phrase-,,form4 ,ce sabre est le plus beau jour de ma vie1 said ,m4 ,prudhomme4 ,translate the phrase into ,english or ,german and it becomes purely absurd1 though it is comic enough in ,french4 ,the reason is that le plus beau jour de ma vie is one of those ready-made phrase-endings to which a ,frenchman's ear is accustomed4 ,to make it comic1 then1 we need only clearly indicate the automatism of the person who utters it4 ,this is what we get when we introduce an absurdity into the phrase4 ,here the absurdity is by no means the source of the comic1 it is only a very simple and effective means of making it obvious4 ,we have quoted only one saying of ,m4 ,prudhomme1 but the majority of those attributed to him belong to the same class4 ,m4 ,prudhomme is a man of ready-made phrases4 ,and as there are ready-made phrases in all languages1 ,m4 ,prudhomme is always capable of being transposed1 though seldom of being translated4 ,at times the commonplace phrase1 under cover of which the absurdity slips in1 is not so readily noticeable4 ,i don't like working between meals1 said a lazy lout4 ,there would be nothing amusing in the saying did there not exist that salutary precept in the realm of hygiene3 ,one should not eat between meals4 ,sometimes1 too1 the effect is a complicated one4 ,instead of one commonplace phrase-form1 there are two or three which are dovetailed into each other4 ,take1 for instance1 the remark of one of the characters in a play by ,labiche1 ,only ,god has the right to kill ,his fellow-creature4 ,it would seem that advantage is here taken of two separate familiar sayings2 ,it is ,god who disposes of the lives of men1 and1 ,it is criminal for a man to kill his fellow-creature4 ,but the two sayings are combined so as to deceive the ear and leave the impression of being one of those hackneyed sentences that are accepted as a matter of course4 ,hence our attention nods1 until we are suddenly aroused by the absurdity of the meaning4 ,these examples suffice to show how one of the most important types of the comic can be projected--in a simplified form--on the plane of speech4 ,we will now proceed to a form which is not so general4 #b4 ,we laugh if our attention is diverted to the physical in a person when it is the moral that is in question1 is a law we laid down in the first part of this work4 ,let us apply it to language4 ,most words might be said to have a ,,physical and a ,,moral meaning1 according as they are interpreted literally or figuratively4 ,every word1 indeed1 begins by denoting a concrete object or a material action2 but by degrees the meaning of the word is refined into an abstract relation or a pure idea4 ,if1 then1 the above law holds good here1 it should be stated as follows3 ,a comic effect is obtained whenever we pretend to take literally an expression which was used figuratively2 or1 ,once our attention is fixed on the material aspect of a metaphor1 the idea expressed becomes comic4 ,in the phrase1 ,tous les arts sont freres 7all the arts are brothers71 the word frere 7brother7 is used metaphorically to indicate a more or less striking resemblance4 ,the word is so often used in this way1 that when we hear it we do not think of the concrete1 the material connection implied in every relationship4 ,we should notice it more if we were told that ,tous les arts sont cousins1 for the word cousin is not so often employed in a figurative sense2 that is why the word here already assumes a slight tinge of the comic4 ,but let us go further still1 and suppose that our attention is attracted to the material side of the metaphor by the choice of a relationship which is incompatible with the gender of the two words composing the metaphorical expression3 we get a laughable result4 ,such is the well-known saying1 also attributed to ,m4 ,prudhomme1 ,tous les arts 7masculine7 sont soeurs 7feminine74 ,he is always running after a joke1 was said in ,boufflers' presence regarding a very conceited fellow4 ,had ,boufflers replied1 ,he won't catch it1 that would have been the beginning of a witty saying1 though nothing more than the beginning1 for the word catch is interpreted figuratively almost as often as the word run2 nor does it compel us more strongly than the latter to materialise the image of two runners1 the one at the heels of the other4 ,in order that the rejoinder may appear to be a thoroughly witty one1 we must borrow from the language of sport an expression so vivid and concrete that we cannot refrain from witnessing the race in good earnest4 ,this is what ,boufflers does when he retorts1 ,i'll back the joke6 ,we said that wit often consists in extending the idea of one's interlocutor to the point of making him express the opposite of what he thinks and getting him1 so to say1 entrapt by his own words4 ,we must now add that this trap is almost always some metaphor or comparison the concrete aspect of which is turned against him4 ,you may remember the dialogue between a mother and her son in the ,faux ,bonshommes3 ,my dear boy1 gambling on ',change is very risky4 ,you win one day and lose the next4--,well1 then1 ,i will gamble only every other day4 ,in the same play too we find the following edifying conversation between two company-promoters3 ,is this a very honourable thing we are doing8 ,these unfortunate shareholders1 you see1 we are taking the money out of their very pockets4444--,well1 out of what do you expect us to take it8 ,an amusing result is likewise obtainable whenever a symbol or an emblem is expanded on its concrete side1 and a pretence is made of retaining the same symbolical value for this expansion as for the emblem itself4 ,in a very lively comedy we are introduced to a ,monte ,carlo official1 whose uniform is covered with medals1 although he has only received a single decoration4 ,you see1 ,i staked my medal on a number at roulette1 he said1 and as the number turned up1 ,i was entitled to thirty-six times my stake4 ,this reasoning is very similar to that offered by ,giboyer in the ,effrontes4 ,criticism is made of a bride of forty summers who is wearing orange-blossoms with her wedding costume3 ,why1 she was entitled to oranges1 let alone orange-blossoms6 remarked ,giboyer4 ,but we should never cease were we to take one by one all the laws we have stated1 and try to prove them on what we have called the plane of language4 ,we had better confine ourselves to the three general propositions of the preceding section4 ,we have shown that series of events may become comic either by repetition1 by inversion1 or by reciprocal interference4 ,now we shall see that this is also the case with series of words4 ,to take series of events and repeat them in another key or another environment1 or to invert them whilst still leaving them a certain meaning1 or mix them up so that their respective meanings jostle one another1 is invariably comic1 as we have already said1 for it is getting life to submit to be treated as a machine4 ,but thought1 too1 is a living thing4 ,and language1 the translation of thought1 should be just as living4 ,we may thus surmise that a phrase is likely to become comic if1 though reversed1 it still makes sense1 or if it expresses equally well two quite independent sets of ideas1 or1 finally1 if it has been obtained by transposing an idea into some key other than its own4 ,such1 indeed1 are the three fundamental laws of what might be called ,,the ,,comic ,,transformation ,,of ,,sentences1 as we shall show by a few examples4 ,let it first be said that these three laws are far from being of equal importance as regards the theory of the ludicrous4 ,,inversion is the least interesting of the three4 ,it must be easy of application1 however1 for it is noticeable that1 no sooner do professional wits hear a sentence spoken than they experiment to see if a meaning cannot be obtained by reversing it1--by putting1 for instance1 the subject in place of the object1 and the object in place of the subject4 ,it is not unusual for this device to be employed for refuting an idea in more or less humorous terms4 ,one of the characters in a comedy of ,labiche shouts out to his neighbour on the floor above1 who is in the habit of dirtying his balcony1 ,what do you mean by emptying your pipe on to my terrace8 ,the neighbour retorts1 ,what do you mean by putting your terrace under my pipe8 ,there is no necessity to dwell upon this kind of wit1 instances of which could easily be multiplied4 ,the ,,reciprocal ,,interference of two sets of ideas in the same sentence is an inexhaustible source of amusing varieties4 ,there are many ways of bringing about this interference1 ,i mean of bracketing in the same expression two independent meanings that apparently tally4 ,the least reputable of these ways is the pun4 ,in the pun1 the same sentence appears to offer two independent meanings1 but it is only an appearance2 in reality there are two different sentences made up of different words1 but claiming to be one and the same because both have the same sound4 ,we pass from the pun1 by imperceptible stages1 to the true play upon words4 ,here there is really one and the same sentence through which two different sets of ideas are expressed1 and we are confronted with only one series of words2 but advantage is taken of the different meanings a word may have1 especially when used figuratively instead of literally4 ,so that in fact there is often only a slight difference between the play upon words on the one hand1 and a poetic metaphor or an illuminating comparison on the other4 ,whereas an illuminating comparison and a striking image always seem to reveal the close harmony that exists between language and nature1 regarded as two parallel forms of life1 the play upon words makes us think somehow of a negligence on the part of language1 which1 for the time being1 seems to have forgotten its real function and now claims to accommodate things to itself instead of accommodating itself to things4 ,and so the play upon words always betrays a momentary ,,lapse ,,of ,,attention in language1 and it is precisely on that account that it is amusing4 ,,inversion and ,,reciprocal ,,interference1 after all1 are only a certain playfulness of the mind which ends at playing upon words4 ,the comic in ,,transposition is much more far-reaching4 ,indeed1 transposition is to ordinary language what repetition is to comedy4 ,we said that repetition is the favourite method of classic comedy4 ,it consists in so arranging events that a scene is reproduced either between the same characters under fresh circumstances or between fresh characters under the same circumstances4 ,thus we have1 repeated by lackeys in less dignified language1 a scene already played by their masters4 ,now1 imagine ideas expressed in suitable style and thus placed in the setting of their natural environment4 ,if you think of some arrangement whereby they are transferred to fresh surroundings1 while maintaining their mutual relations1 or1 in other words1 if you can induce them to express themselves in an altogether different style and to transpose themselves into another key1 you will have language itself playing a comedy--language itself made comic4 ,there will be no need1 moreover1 actually to set before us both expressions of the same ideas1 the transposed expression and the natural one4 ,for we are acquainted with the natural one--the one which we should have chosen instinctively4 ,so it will be enough if the effort of comic invention bears on the other1 and on the other alone4 ,no sooner is the second set before us than we spontaneously supply the first4 ,hence the following general rule3 ,a ,,comic ,,effect ,,is ,,always ,,obtainable ,,by ,,transposing ,,the ,,nature ,,expression ,,of ,,an ,,idea ,,into ,,another ,,key4 ,the means of transposition are so many and varied1 language affords so rich a continuity of themes and the comic is here capable of passing through so great a number of stages1 from the most insipid buffoonery up to the loftiest forms of humour and irony1 that we shall forego the attempt to make out a complete list4 ,having stated the rule1 we will simply1 here and there1 verify its main applications4 ,in the first place1 we may distinguish two keys at the extreme ends of the scale1 the solemn and the familiar4 ,the most obvious effects are obtained by merely transposing the one into the other1 which thus provides us with two opposite currents of comic fancy4 ,transpose the solemn into the familiar and the result is parody4 ,the effect of parody1 thus defined1 extends to instances in which the idea expressed in familiar terms is one that1 if only in deference to custom1 ought to be pitched in another key4 ,take as an example the following description of the dawn1 quoted by ,jean ,paul ,richter3 ,the sky was beginning to change from black to red1 like a lobster being boiled4 ,note that the expression of old-world matters in terms of modern life produces the same effect1 by reason of the halo of poetry which surrounds classical antiquity4 ,it is doubtless the comic in parody that has suggested to some philosophers1 and in particular to ,alexander ,bain1 the idea of defining the comic1 in general1 as a species of ,,degradation4 ,they describe the laughable as causing something to appear mean that was formerly dignified4 ,but if our analysis is correct1 degradation is only one form of transposition1 and transposition itself only one of the means of obtaining laughter4 ,there is a host of others1 and the source of laughter must be sought for much further back4 ,moreover1 without going so far1 we see that while the transposition from solemn to trivial1 from better to worse1 is comic1 the inverse transposition may be even more so4 ,it is met with as often as the other1 and1 apparently1 we may distinguish two main forms of it1 according as it refers to the ,,physical ,,dimensions of an object or to its ,,moral ,,value4 ,to speak of small things as though they were large is1 in a general way1 ,,to ,,exaggerate4 ,exaggeration is always comic when prolonged1 and especially when systematic2 then1 indeed1 it appears as one method of transposition4 ,it excites so much laughter that some writers have been led to define the comic as exaggeration1 just as others have defined it as degradation4 ,as a matter of fact1 exaggeration1 like degradation1 is only one form of one kind of the comic4 ,still1 it is a very striking form4 ,it has given birth to the mock-heroic poem1 a rather old-fashioned device1 ,i admit1 though traces of it are still to be found in persons inclined to exaggerate methodically4 ,it might often be said of braggadocio that it is its mock-heroic aspect which makes us laugh4 ,far more artificial1 but also far more refined1 is the transposition upwards from below when applied to the moral value of things1 not to their physical dimensions4 ,to express in reputable language some disreputable idea1 to take some scandalous situation1 some low-class calling or disgraceful behaviour1 and describe them in terms of the utmost ,,respectability1 is generally comic4 ,the ,english word is here purposely employed1 as the practice itself is characteristically ,english4 ,many instances of it may be found in ,dickens and ,thackeray1 and in ,english literature generally4 ,let us remark1 in passing1 that the intensity of the effect does not here depend on its length4 ,a word is sometimes sufficient1 provided it gives us a glimpse of an entire system of transposition accepted in certain social circles and reveals1 as it were1 a moral organisation of immorality4 ,take the following remark made by an official to one of his subordinates in a novel of ,gogol's1 ,your peculations are too extensive for an official of your rank4 ,summing up the foregoing1 then1 there are two extreme terms of comparison1 the very large and the very small1 the best and the worst1 between which transposition may be effected in one direction or the other4 ,now1 if the interval be gradually narrowed1 the contrast between the terms obtained will be less and less violent1 and the varieties of comic transposition more and more subtle4 ,the most common of these contrasts is perhaps that between the real and the ideal1 between what is and what ought to be4 ,here again transposition may take place in either direction4 ,sometimes we state what ought to be done1 and pretend to believe that this is just what is actually being done2 then we have ,,irony4 ,sometimes1 on the contrary1 we describe with scrupulous minuteness what is being done1 and pretend to believe that this is just what ought to be done2 such is often the method of ,,humour4 ,humour1 thus denned1 is the counterpart of irony4 ,both are forms of satire1 but irony is oratorical in its nature1 whilst humour partakes of the scientific4 ,irony is emphasised the higher we allow ourselves to be uplifted by the idea of the good that ought to be3 thus irony may grow so hot within us that it becomes a kind of high-pressure eloquence4 ,on the other hand1 humour is the more emphasised the deeper we go down into an evil that actually is1 in order t o set down its details in the most cold-blooded indifference4 ,several authors1 ,jean ,paul amongst them1 have noticed that humour delights in concrete terms1 technical details1 definite facts4 ,if our analysis is correct1 this is not an accidental trait of humour1 it is its very essence4 ,a humorist is a moralist disguised as a scientist1 something like an anatomist who practises dissection with the sole object of filling us with disgust2 so that humour1 in the restricted sense in which we are here regarding the word1 is really a transposition from the moral to the scientific4 ,by still further curtailing the interval between the terms transposed1 we may now obtain more and more specialised types of comic transpositions4 ,thus1 certain professions have a technical vocabulary3 what a wealth of laughable results have been obtained by transposing the ideas of everyday life into this professional jargon6 ,equally comic is the extension of business phraseology to the social relations of life1--for instance1 the phrase of one of ,labiche's characters in allusion to an invitation he has received1 ,your kindness of the third ult41 thus transposing the commercial formula1 ,your favour of the third instant4 ,this class of the comic1 moreover1 may attain a special profundity of its own when it discloses not merely a professional practice1 but a fault in character4 ,recall to mind the scenes in the ,faux ,bonshommes and the ,famille ,benoiton1 where marriage is dealt with as a business affair1 and matters of sentiment are set down in strictly commercial language4 ,here1 however1 we reach the point at which peculiarities of language really express peculiarities of character1 a closer investigation of which we must hold over to the next chapter4 ,thus1 as might have been expected and may be seen from the foregoing1 the comic in words follows closely on the comic in situation and is finally merged1 along with the latter1 in the comic in character4 ,language only attains laughable results because it is a human product1 modelled as exactly as possible on the forms of the human mind4 ,we feel it contains some living element of our own life2 and if this life of language were complete and perfect1 if there were nothing stereotype in it1 if1 in short1 language were an absolutely unified organism incapable of being split up into independent organisms1 it would evade the comic as would a soul whose life was one harmonious whole1 unruffled as the calm surface of a peaceful lake4 ,there is no pool1 however1 which has not some dead leaves floating on its surface1 no human soul upon which there do not settle habits that make it rigid against itself by making it rigid against others1 no language1 in short1 so subtle and instinct with life1 so fully alert in each of its parts as to eliminate the ready-made and oppose the mechanical operations of inversion1 transposition1 etc41 which one would fain perform upon it as on some lifeless thing4 ,the rigid1 the ready--made1 the mechanical1 in contrast with the supple1 the ever-changing and the living1 absentmindedness in contrast with attention1 in a word1 automatism in contrast with free activity1 such are the defects that laughter singles out and would fain correct4 ,we appealed to this idea to give us light at the outset1 when starting upon the analysis of the ludicrous4 ,we have seen it shining at every decisive turning in our road4 ,with its help1 we shall now enter upon a more important investigation1 one that will1 we hope1 be more instructive4 ,we purpose1 in short1 studying comic characters1 or rather determining the essential conditions of comedy in character1 while endeavouring to bring it about that this study may contribute to a better understanding of the real nature of art and the general relation between art and life4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,comic ,,in ,,character ,i ,we have followed the comic along many of its winding channels in an endeavour to discover how it percolates into a form1 an attitude1 or a gesture2 a situation1 an action1 or an expression4 ,the analysis of comic ,,characters has now brought us to the most important part of our task4 ,it would also be the most difficult1 had we yielded to the temptation of defining the laughable by a few striking--and consequently obvious--examples2 for then1 in proportion as we advanced towards the loftiest manifestations of the comic1 we should have found the facts slipping between the over-wide meshes of the definition intended to retain them4 ,but1 as a matter of fact1 we have followed the opposite plan1 by throwing light on the subject from above4 ,convinced that laughter has a social meaning and import1 that the comic expresses1 above all else1 a special lack of adaptability to society1 and that1 in short1 there is nothing comic apart from man1 we have made man and character generally our main objective4 ,our chief difficulty1 therefore1 has lain in explaining how we come to laugh at anything else than character1 and by what subtle processes of fertilisation1 combination or amalgamation1 the comic can worm its way into a mere movement1 an impersonal situation1 or an independent phrase4 ,this is what we have done so far4 ,we started with the pure metal1 and all our endeavours have been directed solely towards reconstructing the ore4 ,it is the metal itself we are now about to study4 ,nothing could be easier1 for this time we have a simple element to deal with4 ,let us examine it closely and see how it reacts upon everything else4 ,there are moods1 we said1 which move us as soon us as soon as we perceive them1 joys and sorrows with which we sympathise1 passions and vices which call forth painful astonishment1 terror or pity1 in the beholder2 in short1 sentiments that are prolonged in sentimental overtones from mind to mind4 ,all this concerns the essentials of life4 ,all this is serious1 at times even tragic4 ,comedy can only begin at the point where our neighbour's personality ceases to affect us4 ,it begins1 in fact1 with what might be called a growing callousness to social life4 ,any individual is comic who automatically goes his own way without troubling himself about getting into touch with the rest of his fellow-beings4 ,it is the part of laughter to reprove his absentmindedness and wake him out of his dream4 ,if it is permissible to compare important things with trivial ones1 we would call to mind what happens when a youth enters one of our military academies4 ,after getting through the dreaded ordeal of the examination1 he finds the has other ordeals to face1 which his seniors have arranged with the object of fitting him for the new life he is entering upon1 or1 as they say1 of breaking him into harness4 ,every small society that forms within the larger is thus impelled1 by a vague kind of instinct1 to devise some method of discipline or breaking in1 so as to deal with the rigidity of habits that have been formed elsewhere and have now to undergo a partial modification4 ,society1 properly so-called1 proceeds in exactly the same way4 ,each member must be ever attentive to his social surroundings2 he must model himself on his environment2 in short1 he must avoid shutting himself up in his own peculiar character as a philosopher in his ivory tower4 ,therefore society holds suspended over each individual member1 if not the threat of correction1 at all events the prospect of a snubbing1 which1 although it is slight1 is none the less dreaded4 ,such must be the function of laughter4 ,always rather humiliating for the one against whom it is directed1 laughter is1 really and truly1 a kind of social ragging4 ,hence the equivocal nature of the comic4 ,it belongs neither altogether to art nor altogether to life4 ,on the one hand1 characters in real life would never make us laugh were we not capable of watching their vagaries in the same way as we look down at a play from our seat in a box2 they are only comic in our eyes because they perform a kind of comedy before us4 ,but1 on the other hand1 the pleasure caused by laughter1 even on the stage1 is not an unadulterated enjoyment2 it is not a pleasure that is exclusively esthetic or altogether disinterested4 ,it always implies a secret or unconscious intent1 if not of each one of us1 at all events of society as a whole4 ,in laughter we always find an unavowed intention to humiliate1 and consequently to correct our neighbour1 if not in his will1 at least in his deed4 ,this is the reason a comedy is far more like real life than a drama is4 ,the more sublime the drama1 the more profound the analysis to which the poet has had to subject the raw materials of daily life in order to obtain the tragic element in its unadulterated form4 ,on the contrary1 it is only in its lower aspects1 in light comedy and farce1 that comedy is in striking contrast to reality3 the higher it rises1 the more it approximates to life2 in fact1 there are scenes in real life so closely bordering on high-class comedy that the stage might adopt them without changing a single word4 ,hence it follows that the elements of comic character on the stage and in actual life will be the same4 ,what are these elements8 ,we shall find no difficulty in deducing them4 ,it has often been said that it is the ,,trifling faults of our fellow-men that make us laugh4 ,evidently there is a considerable amount of truth in this opinion2 still1 it cannot be regarded as altogether correct4 ,first1 as regards faults1 it is no easy matter to draw the line between the trifling and the serious2 maybe it is not because a fault is trifling that it makes us laugh1 but rather because it makes us laugh that we regard it as trifling1 for there is nothing disarms us like laughter4 ,but we may go even farther1 and maintain that there are faults at which we laugh1 even though fully aware that they are serious1--,harpagon's avarice1 for instance4 ,and then1 we may as well confess--though somewhat reluctantly--that we laugh not only at the faults of our fellow-men1 but also1 at times1 at their good qualities4 ,we laugh at ,alceste4 ,the objection may be urged that it is not the earnestness of ,alceste that is ludicrous1 but rather the special aspect which earnestness assumes in his case1 and1 in short1 a certain eccentricity that mars it in our eyes4 ,agreed2 but it is none the less true that this eccentricity in ,alceste1 at which we laugh1 ,,makes ,,his ,,earnestness ,,laughable1 and that is the main point4 ,so we may conclude that the ludicrous is not always an indication of a fault1 in the moral meaning of the word1 and if critics insist on seeing a fault1 even though a trifling one1 in the ludicrous1 they must point out what it is here that exactly distinguishes the trifling from the serious4 ,the truth is1 the comic character may1 strictly speaking1 be quite in accord with stern morality4 ,all it has to do is to bring itself into accord with society4 ,the character of ,alceste is that of a thoroughly honest man4 ,but then he is unsociable1 and1 on that very account1 ludicrous4 ,a flexible vice may not be so easy to ridicule as a rigid virtue4 ,it is rigidity that society eyes with suspicion4 ,consequently1 it is the rigidity of ,alceste that makes us laugh1 though here rigidity stands for honesty4 ,the man who withdraws into himself is liable to ridicule1 because the comic is largely made up of this very withdrawal4 ,this accounts for the comic being so frequently dependent on the manners or ideas1 or1 to put it bluntly1 on the prejudices1 of a society4 ,it must be acknowledged1 however1 to the credit of mankind1 that there is no essential difference between the social ideal and the rule1 that it is the faults of others that make us laugh1 provided we add that they make us laugh by reason of their ,,unsociability rather than of their ,,immorality4 ,what1 then1 are the faults capable of becoming ludicrous1 and in what circumstances do we regard them as being too serious to be laughed at8 ,we have already given an implicit answer to this question4 ,the comic1 we said1 appeals to the intelligence1 pure and simple2 laughter is incompatible with emotion4 ,depict some fault1 however trifling1 in such a way as to arouse sympathy1 fear1 or pity2 the mischief is done1 it is impossible for us to laugh4 ,on the other hand1 take a downright vice1--even one that is1 generally speaking1 of an odious nature1--you may make it ludicrous if1 by some suitable contrivance1 you arrange so that it leaves our emotions unaffected4 ,not that the vice must then be ludicrous1 but it ,,may1 from that time forth1 become so4 ,,it ,,must ,,not ,,arouse ,,our ,,feelings2 that is the sole condition really necessary1 though assuredly it is not sufficient4 ,but1 then1 how will the comic poet set to work to prevent our feelings being moved8 ,the question is an embarrassing one4 ,to clear it up thoroughly1 we should have to enter upon a rather novel line of investigation1 to analyse the artificial sympathy which we bring with us to the theatre1 and determine upon the circumstances in which we accept and those in which we refuse to share imaginary joys and sorrows4 ,there is an art of lulling sensibility to sleep and providing it with dreams1 as happens in the case of a mesmerised person4 ,and there is also an art of throwing a wet blanket upon sympathy at the very moment it might arise1 the result being that the situation1 though a serious one1 is not taken seriously4 ,this latter art would appear to be governed by two methods1 which are applied more or less unconsciously by the comic poet4 ,the first consists in ,,isolating1 within the soul of the character1 the feeling attributed to him1 and making it a parasitic organism1 so to speak1 endowed with an independent existence4 ,as a general rule1 an intense feeling successively encroaches upon all other mental states and colours them with its own peculiar hue2 if1 then1 we are made to witness this gradual impregnation1 we finally become impregnated ourselves with a corresponding emotion4 ,to employ a different image1 an emotion may be said to be dramatic and contagious when all the harmonics in it are heard along with the fundamental note4 ,it is because the actor thus thrills throughout his whole being that the spectators themselves feel the thrill4 ,on the contrary1 in the case of emotion that leaves us indifferent and that is about to become comic1 there is always present a certain rigidity which prevents it from establishing a connection with the rest of the soul in which it has taken up its abode4 ,this rigidity may be manifested1 when the time comes1 by puppet-like movements1 and then it will provoke laughter2 but1 before that1 it had already alienated our sympathy3 how can we put ourselves in tune with a soul which is not in tune with itself8 ,in ,moliere's ,l',avare we have a scene bordering upon drama4 ,it is the one in which the borrower and the usurer1 who have never seen each other1 meet face to face and find that they are son and father4 ,here we should be in the thick of a drama1 if only greed and fatherly affection1 conflicting with each other in the soul of ,harpagon1 had effected a more or less original combination4 ,but such is not the case4 ,no sooner has the interview come to an end than the father forgets everything4 ,on meeting his son again he barely alludes to the scene1 serious though it has been3 ,you1 my son1 whom ,i am good enough to forgive your recent escapade1 etc4 ,greed has thus passed close to all other feelings ,,absentmindedly1 without either touching them or being touched4 ,although it has taken up its abode in the soul and become master of the house1 none the less it remains a stranger4 ,far different would be avarice of a tragic sort4 ,we should find it attracting and absorbing1 transforming and assimilating the divers energies of the man3 feelings and affections1 likes and dislikes1 vices and virtues1 would all become something into which avarice would breathe a new kind of life4 ,such seems to be the first essential difference between high-class comedy and drama4 ,there is a second1 which is far more obvious and arises out of the first4 ,when a mental state is depicted to us with the object of making it dramatic1 or even merely of inducing us to take it seriously1 it gradually crystallises into ,,actions which provide the real measure of its greatness4 ,thus1 the miser orders his whole life with a view to acquiring wealth1 and the pious hypocrite1 though pretending to have his eyes fixed upon heaven1 steers most skilfully his course here below4 ,most certainly1 comedy does not shut out calculations of this kind2 we need only take as an example the very machinations of ,tartuffe4 ,but that is what comedy has in common with drama2 and in order to keep distinct from it1 to prevent our taking a serious action seriously1 in short1 in order to prepare us for laughter1 comedy utilises a method1 the formula of which may be given as follows3 ,,instead ,,of ,,concentrating ,,our ,,attention ,,on ,,actions1 ,,comedy ,,directs ,,it ,,rather ,,to ,,gestures4 ,by ,,gestures we here mean the attitudes1 the movements and even the language by which a mental state expresses itself outwardly without any aim or profit1 from no other cause than a kind of inner itching4 ,gesture1 thus defined1 is profoundly different from action4 ,action is intentional or1 at any rate1 conscious2 gesture slips out unawares1 it is automatic4 ,in action1 the entire person is engaged2 in gesture1 an isolated part of the person is expressed1 unknown to1 or at least apart from1 the whole of the personality4 ,lastly--and here is the essential point--action is in exact proportion to the feeling that inspires it3 the one gradually passes into the other1 so that we may allow our sympathy or our aversion to glide along the line running from feeling to action and become increasingly interested4 ,about gesture1 however1 there is something explosive1 which awakes our sensibility when on the point of being lulled to sleep and1 by thus rousing us up1 prevents our taking matters seriously4 ,thus1 as soon as our attention is fixed on gesture and not on action1 we are in the realm of comedy4 ,did we merely take his actions into account1 ,tartuffe would belong to drama3 it is only when we take his gestures into consideration that we find him comic4 ,you may remember how he comes on to the stage with the words3 ,laurent1 lock up my hair-shirt and my scourge4 ,he knows ,dorine is listening to him1 but doubtless he would say the same if she were not there4 ,he enters so thoroughly into the role of a hypocrite that he plays it almost sincerely4 ,in this way1 and this way only1 can he become comic4 ,were it not for this material sincerity1 were it not for the language and attitudes that his long-standing experience as a hypocrite has transformed into natural gestures1 ,tartuffe would be simply odious1 because we should only think of what is meant and willed in his conduct4 ,and so we see why action is essential in drama1 but only accessory in comedy4 ,in a comedy1 we feel any other situation might equally well have been chosen for the purpose of introducing the character2 he would still have been the same man though the situation were different4 ,but we do not get this impression in a drama4 ,here characters and situations are welded together1 or rather1 events form part and parcel with the persons1 so that were the drama to tell us a different story1 even though the actors kept the same names1 we should in reality be dealing with other persons4 ,to sum up1 whether a character is good or bad is of little moment3 granted he is unsociable1 he is capable of becoming comic4 ,we now see that the seriousness of the case is of no importance either3 whether serious or trifling1 it is still capable of making us laugh1 provided that care be taken not to arouse our emotions4 ,unsociability in the performer and insensibility in the spectator--such1 in a word1 are the two essential conditions4 ,there is a third1 implicit in the other two1 which so far it has been the aim of our analysis to bring out4 ,this third condition is automatism4 ,we have pointed it out from the outset of this work1 continually drawing attention to the following point3 what is essentially laughable is what is done automatically4 ,in a vice1 even in a virtue1 the comic is that element by which the person unwittingly betrays himself--the involuntary gesture or the unconscious remark4 ,absentmindedness is always comical4 ,indeed1 the deeper the absentmindedness the higher the comedy4 ,systematic absentmindedness1 like that of ,don ,quixote1 is the most comical thing imaginable3 it is the comic itself1 drawn as nearly as possible from its very source4 ,take any other comic character3 however unconscious he may be of what he says or does1 he cannot be comical unless there be some aspect of his person of which he is unaware1 one side of his nature which he overlooks2 on that account alone does he make us laugh4 ,footnote3 ,when the humorist laughs at himself1 he is really acting a double part2 the self who laughs is indeed conscious1 but not the self who is laughed at4 ,profoundly comic sayings are those artless ones in which some vice reveals itself in all its nakedness3 how could it thus expose itself were it capable of seeing itself as it is8 ,it is not uncommon for a comic character to condemn in general terms a certain line of conduct and immediately afterwards afford an example of it himself3 for instance1 ,m4 ,jourdain's teacher of philosophy flying into a passion after inveighing against anger2 ,vadius taking a poem from his pocket after heaping ridicule on readers of poetry1 etc4 ,what is the object of such contradictions except to help us to put our finger on the obliviousness of the characters to their own actions8 ,inattention to self1 and consequently to others1 is what we invariably find4 ,and if we look at the matter closely1 we see that inattention is here equivalent to what we have called unsociability4 ,the chief cause of rigidity is the neglect to look around--and more especially within oneself3 how can a man fashion his personality after that of another if he does not first study others as well as himself8 ,rigidity1 automatism1 absent-mindedness and unsociability are all inextricably entwined2 and all serve as ingredients to the making up of the comic in character4 ,in a word1 if we leave on one side1 when dealing with human personality1 that portion which interests our sensibility or appeals to our feeling1 all the rest is capable of becoming comic1 and the comic will be proportioned to the rigidity4 ,we formulated this idea at the outset of this work4 ,we have verified it in its main results1 and have just applied it to the definition of comedy4 ,now we must get to closer quarters1 and show how it enables us to delimitate the exact position comedy occupies among all the other arts4 ,in one sense it might be said that all character is comic1 provided we mean by character the ready-made element in our personality1 that mechanical element which resembles a piece of clockwork wound up once for all and capable of working automatically4 ,it is1 if you will1 that which causes us to imitate ourselves4 ,and it is also1 for that very reason1 that which enables others to imitate us4 ,every comic character is a type4 ,inversely1 every resemblance to a type has something comic in it4 ,though we may long have associated with an individual without discovering anything about him to laugh at1 still1 if advantage is t taken of some accidental analogy to dub him with the name of a famous hero of romance or drama1 he will in our eyes border upon the ridiculous1 if only for a moment4 ,and yet this hero of romance may not be a comic character at all4 ,but then it is comic to be like him4 ,it is comic to wander out of one's own self4 ,it is comic to fall into a ready-made category4 ,and what is most comic of all is to become a category oneself into which others will fall1 as into a ready-made frame2 it is to crystallise into a stock character4 ,thus1 to depict characters1 that is to say1 general types1 is the object of high-class comedy4 ,this has often been said4 ,but it is as well to repeat it1 since there could be no better definition of comedy4 ,not only are we entitled to say that comedy gives us general types1 but we might add that it is the ,,only one of all the arts that aims at the general2 so that once this objective has been attributed to it1 we have said all that it is and all that the rest cannot be4 ,to prove that such is really the essence of comedy1 and that it is in this respect opposed to tragedy1 drama and the other forms of art1 we should begin by defining art in its higher forms3 then1 gradually coming down to comic poetry1 we should find that this latter is situated on the border-line between art and life1 and that1 by the generality of its subject-matter1 it contrasts with the rest of the arts4 ,we cannot here plunge into so vast a subject of investigation2 but we needs must sketch its main outlines1 lest we overlook what1 to our mind1 is essential on the comic stage4 ,what is the object of art8 ,could reality come into direct contact with sense and consciousness1 could we enter into immediate communion with things and with ourselves1 probably art would be useless1 or rather we should all be artists1 for then our soul would continually vibrate in perfect accord with nature4 ,our eyes1 aided by memory1 would carve out in space and fix in time the most inimitable of pictures4 ,hewn in the living marble of the human form1 fragments of statues1 beautiful as the relics of antique statuary1 would strike the passing glance4 ,deep in our souls we should hear the strains of our inner life's unbroken melody1--a music that is ofttimes gay1 but more frequently plaintive and always original4 ,all this is around and within us1 and yet no whit of it do we distinctly perceive4 ,between nature and ourselves1 nay1 between ourselves and our own consciousness a veil is interposed3 a veil that is dense and opaque for the common herd1--thin1 almost transparent1 for the artist and the poet4 ,what fairy wove that veil8 ,was it done in malice or in friendliness8 ,we had to live1 and life demands that we grasp things in their relations to our own needs4 ,life is action4 ,life implies the acceptance only of the ,,utilitarian side of things in order to respond to them by appropriate reactions3 all other impressions must be dimmed or else reach us vague and blurred4 ,i look and ,i think ,i see1 ,i listen and ,i think ,i hear1 ,i examine myself and ,i think ,i am reading the very depths of my heart4 ,but what ,i see and hear of the outer world is purely and simply a selection made by my senses to serve as a light to my conduct2 what ,i know of myself is what comes to the surface1 what participates in my actions4 ,my senses and my consciousness1 therefore1 give me no more than a practical simplification of reality4 ,in the vision they furnish me of myself and of things1 the differences that are useless to man are obliterated1 the resemblances that are useful to him are emphasised2 ways are traced out for me in advance1 along which my activity is to travel4 ,these ways are the ways which all mankind has trod before me4 ,things have been classified with a view to the use ,i can derive from them4 ,and it is this classification ,i perceive1 far more clearly than the colour and the shape of things4 ,doubtless man is vastly superior to the lower animals in this respect4 ,it is not very likely that the eye of a wolf makes any distinction between a kid and a lamb2 both appear t o the wolf as the same identical quarry1 alike easy to pounce upon1 alike good to devour4 ,we1 for our part1 make a distinction between a goat and a sheep2 but can we tell one goat from another1 one sheep from another8 ,the ,,individuality of things or of beings escapes us1 unless it is materially to our advantage to perceive it4 ,even when we do take note of it--as when we distinguish one man from another--it is not the individuality itself that the eye grasps1 i4e41 an entirely original harmony of forms and colours1 but only one or two features that will make practical recognition easier4 ,in short1 we do not see the actual things themselves2 in most cases we confine ourselves to reading the labels affixed to them4 ,this tendency1 the result of need1 has become even more pronounced under the influence of speech2 for words--with the exception of proper nouns--all denote genera4 ,the word1 which only takes note of the most ordinary function and commonplace aspect of the thing1 intervenes between it and ourselves1 and would conceal its form from our eyes1 were that form not already masked beneath the necessities that brought the word into existence4 ,not only external objects1 but even our own mental states1 are screened from us in their inmost1 their personal aspect1 in the original life they possess4 ,when we feel love or hatred1 when we are gay or sad1 is it really the feeling itself that reaches our consciousness with those innumerable fleeting shades of meaning and deep resounding echoes that make it something altogether our own8 ,we should all1 were it so1 be novelists or poets or musicians4 ,mostly1 however1 we perceive nothing but the outward display of our mental state4 ,we catch only the impersonal aspect of our feelings1 that aspect which speech has set down once for all because it is almost the same1 in the same conditions1 for all men4 ,thus1 even in our own individual1 individuality escapes our ken4 ,we move amidst generalities and symbols1 as within a tilt-yard in which our force is effectively pitted against other forces2 and fascinated by action1 tempted by it1 for our own good1 on to the field it has selected1 we live in a zone midway between things and ourselves1 externally to things1 externally also to ourselves4 ,from time to time1 however1 in a fit of absentmindedness1 nature raises up souls that are more detached from life4 ,not with that intentional1 logical1 systematical detachment--the result of reflection and philosophy--but rather with natural detachment1 one innate in the structure of sense or consciousness1 which at once reveals itself by a virginal manner1 so to speak1 of seeing1 hearing or thinking4 ,were this detachment complete1 did the soul no longer cleave to action by any of its perceptions1 it would be the soul of an artist such as the world has never yet seen4 ,it would excel alike in every art at the same time2 or rather1 it would fuse them all into one4 ,it would perceive all things in their native purity3 the forms1 colours1 sounds of the physical world as well as the subtlest movements of the inner life4 ,but this is asking too much of nature4 ,even for such of us as she has made artists1 it is by accident1 and on one side only1 that she has lifted the veil4 ,in one direction only has she forgotten to rivet the perception to the need4 ,and since each direction corresponds to what we call a ,,sense--through one of his senses1 and through that sense alone1 is the artist usually wedded to art4 ,hence1 originally1 the diversity of arts4 ,hence also the speciality of predispositions4 ,this one applies himself to colours and forms1 and since he loves colour for colour and form for form1 since he perceives them for their sake and not for his own1 it is the inner life of things that he sees appearing through their forms and colours4 ,little by little he insinuates it into our own perception1 baffled though we may be at the outset4 ,for a few moments at least1 he diverts us from the prejudices of form and colour that come between ourselves and reality4 ,and thus he realises the loftiest ambition of art1 which here consists in revealing to us nature4 ,others1 again1 retire within themselves4 ,beneath the thousand rudimentary actions which are the outward and visible signs of an emotion1 behind the commonplace1 conventional expression that both reveals and conceals an individual mental state1 it is the emotion1 the original mood1 to which they attain in its undefiled essence4 ,and then1 to induce us to make the same effort ourselves1 they contrive to make us see something of what they have seen3 by rhythmical arrangement of words1 which thus become organised and animated with a life of their own1 they tell us--or rather suggest--things that speech was not calculated to express4 ,others delve yet deeper still4 ,beneath these joys and sorrows which can1 at a pinch1 be translated into language1 they grasp something that has nothing in common with language1 certain rhythms of life and breath that4 are closer to man than his inmost feelings1 being the living law--varying with each individual--of his enthusiasm and despair1 his hopes and regrets4 ,by setting free and emphasising this music1 they force it upon our attention2 they compel us1 willy-nilly1 to fall in with it1 like passers-by who join in a dance4 ,and thus they impel us to set in motion1 in the depths of our being1 some secret chord which was only waiting to thrill4 ,so art1 whether it be painting or sculpture1 poetry or music1 has no other object than to brush aside the utilitarian symbols1 the conventional and socially accepted generalities1 in short1 everything that veils reality from us1 in order to bring us face to face with reality itself4 ,it is from a misunderstanding on this point that the dispute between realism and idealism in art has arisen4 ,art is certainly only a more direct vision of reality4 ,but this purity of perception implies a break with utilitarian convention1 an innate and specially localised disinterestedness of sense or consciousness1 in short1 a certain immateriality of life1 which is what has always been called idealism4 ,so that we might say1 without in any way playing upon the meaning of the words1 that realism is in the work when idealism is in the soul1 and that it is only through ideality that we can resume contact with reality4 ,dramatic art forms no exception to this law4 ,what drama goes forth to discover and brings to light1 is a deep-seated reality that is veiled from us1 often in our own interests1 by the necessities of life4 ,what is this reality8 ,what are these necessities8 ,poetry always expresses inward states4 ,but amongst these states some arise mainly from contact with our fellow-men4 ,they are the most intense as well as the most violent4 ,as contrary electricities attract each other and accumulate between the two plates of the condenser from which the spark will presently flash1 so1 by simply bringing people together1 strong attractions and repulsions take place1 followed by an utter loss of balance1 in a word1 by that electrification of the soul known as passion4 ,were man to give way to the impulse of his natural feelings1 were there neither social nor moral law1 these outbursts of violent feeling would be the ordinary rule in life4 ,but utility demands that these outbursts should be foreseen and averted4 ,man must live in society1 and consequently submit to rules4 ,and what interest advises1 reason commands3 duty calls1 and we have to obey the summons4 ,under this dual influence has perforce been formed an outward layer of feelings and ideas which make for permanence1 aim at becoming common to all men1 and cover1 when they are not strong enough to extinguish it1 the inner fire of individual passions4 ,the slow progress of mankind in the direction of an increasingly peaceful social life has gradually consolidated this layer1 just as the life of our planet itself has been one long effort to cover over with a cool and solid crust the fiery mass of seething metals4 ,but volcanic eruptions occur4 ,and if the earth were a living being1 as mythology has feigned1 most likely when in repose it would take delight in dreaming of these sudden explosions1 whereby it suddenly resumes possession of its innermost nature4 ,such is just the kind of pleasure that is provided for us by drama4 ,beneath the quiet humdrum life that reason and society have fashioned for us1 it stirs something within us which luckily does not explode1 but which it makes us feel in its inner tension4 ,it offers nature her revenge upon society4 ,sometimes it makes straight for the goal1 summoning up to the surface1 from the depths below1 passions that produce a general upheaval4 ,sometimes it effects a flank movement1 as is often the case in contemporary drama2 with a skill that is frequently sophistical1 it shows up the inconsistencies of society2 it exaggerates the shams and shibboleths of the social law2 and so indirectly1 by merely dissolving or corroding the outer crust1 it again brings us back to the inner core4 ,but1 in both cases1 whether it weakens society or strengthens nature1 it has the same end in view3 that of laying bare a secret portion of ourselves1--what might be called the tragic element in our character4 ,this is indeed the impression we get after seeing a stirring drama4 ,what has just interested us is not so much what we have been told about others as the glimpse we have caught of ourselves--a whole host of ghostly feelings1 emotions and events that would fain have come into real existence1 but1 fortunately for us1 did not4 ,it also seems as if an appeal had been made within us to certain ancestral memories belonging to a far-away past--memories so deep-seated and so foreign to our present life that this latter1 for a moment1 seems something unreal and conventional1 for which we shall have to serve a fresh apprenticeship4 ,so it is indeed a deeper reality that drama draws up from beneath our superficial and utilitarian attainments1 and this art has the same end in view as all the others4 ,hence it follows that art always aims at what is ,,individual4 ,what the artist fixes on his canvas is something he has seen at a certain spot1 on a certain day1 at a certain hour1 with a colouring that will never be seen again4 ,what the poet sings of is a certain mood which was his1 and his alone1 and which will never return4 ,what the dramatist unfolds before us is the life-history of a soul1 a living tissue of feelings and events--something1 in short1 which has once happened and can never be repeated4 ,we may1 indeed1 give general names to these feelings1 but they cannot be the same thing in another soul4 ,they are ,,individualised4 ,thereby1 and thereby only1 do they belong to art2 for generalities1 symbols or even types1 form the current coin of our daily perception4 ,how1 then1 does a misunderstanding on this point arise8 ,the reason lies in the fact that two very different things have been mistaken for each other3 the generality of things and that of the opinions we come to regarding them4 ,because a feeling is generally recognised as true1 it does not follow that it is a general feeling4 ,nothing could be more unique than the character of ,hamlet4 ,though he may resemble other men in some respects1 it is clearly not on that account that he interests us most4 ,but he is universally accepted and regarded as a living character4 ,in this sense only is he universally true4 ,the same holds good of all the other products of art4 ,each of them is unique1 and yet1 if it bear the stamp of genius1 it will come to be accepted by everybody4 ,why will it be accepted8 ,and if it is unique of its kind1 by what sign do we know it to be genuine8 ,evidently1 by the very effort it forces us to make against our predispositions in order to see sincerely4 ,sincerity is contagious4 ,what the artist has seen we shall probably never see again1 or at least never see in exactly the same way2 but if he has actually seen it1 the attempt he has made to lift the veil compels our imitation4 ,his work is an example which we take as a lesson4 ,and the efficacy of the lesson is the exact standard of the genuineness of the work4 ,consequently1 truth bears within itself a power of conviction1 nay1 of conversion1 which is the sign that enables us to recognise it4 ,the greater the work and the more profound the dimly apprehended truth1 the longer may the effect be in coming1 but1 on the other hand1 the more universal will that effect tend to become4 ,so the universality here lies in the effect produced1 and not in the cause4 ,altogether different is the object of comedy4 ,here it is in the work itself that the generality lies4 ,comedy depicts characters we have already come across and shall meet with again4 ,it takes note of similarities4 ,it aims at placing types before our eyes4 ,it even creates new types1 if necessary4 ,in this respect it forms a contrast to all the other arts4 ,the very titles of certain classical comedies are significant in themselves4 ,le ,misanthrope1 l',avare1 le ,joueur1 le ,distrait1 etc41 are names of whole classes of people2 and even when a character comedy has a proper noun as its title1 this proper noun is speedily swept away1 by the very weight of its contents1 into the stream of common nouns4 ,we say a ,tartuffe1 but we should never say a ,phedre or a ,polyeucte4 ,above all1 a tragic poet will never think of grouping around the chief character in his play secondary characters to serve as simplified copies1 so to speak1 of the former4 ,the hero of a tragedy represents an individuality unique of its kind4 ,it may be possible to imitate him1 but then we shall be passing1 whether consciously or not1 from the tragic to the comic4 ,no one is like him1 because he is like no one4 ,but a remarkable instinct1 on the contrary1 impels the comic poet1 once he has elaborated his central character1 to cause other characters1 displaying the same general traits1 to revolve as satellites round him4 ,many comedies have either a plural noun or some collective term as their title4 ,les ,femmes savantes1 ,les ,precieuses ridicules1 ,le ,monde ou l'on s'ennuie1 etc41 represent so many rallying points on the stage adopted by different groups of characters1 all belonging to one identical type4 ,it would be interesting to analyse this tendency in comedy4 ,maybe dramatists have caught a glimpse of a fact recently brought forward by mental pathology1 viz4 that cranks of the same kind are drawn1 by a secret attraction1 to seek each other's company4 ,without precisely coming within the province of medicine1 the comic individual1 as we have shown1 is in some way absentminded1 and the transition from absent-mindedness to crankiness is continuous4 ,but there is also another reason4 ,if the comic poet's object is to offer us types1 that is to say1 characters capable of self-repetition1 how can he set about it better than by showing us1 in each instance1 several different copies of the same model8 ,that is just what the naturalist does in order to define a species4 ,he enumerates and describes its main varieties4 ,this essential difference between tragedy and comedy1 the former being concerned with individuals and the latter with classes1 is revealed in yet another way4 ,it appears in the first draft of the work4 ,from the outset it is manifested by two radically different methods of observation4 ,though the assertion may seem paradoxical1 a study of other men is probably not necessary to the tragic poet4 ,we find some of the great poets have lived a retiring1 homely sort of life1 without having a chance of witnessing around them an outburst of the passions they have so faithfully depicted4 ,but1 supposing even they had witnessed such a spectacle1 it is doubtful whether they would have found it of much use4 ,for what interests us in the work of the poet is the glimpse we get of certain profound moods or inner struggles4 ,now1 this glimpse cannot be obtained from without4 ,our souls are impenetrable to one another4 ,certain signs of passion are all that we ever apperceive externally4 ,these we interpret--though always1 by the way1 defectively--only by analogy with what we have ourselves experienced4 ,so what we experience is the main point1 and we cannot become thoroughly acquainted with anything but our own heart--supposing we ever get so far4 ,does this mean that the poet has experienced what he depicts1 that he has gone through the various situations he makes his characters traverse1 and lived the whole of their inner life8 ,here1 too1 the biographies of poets would contradict such a supposition4 ,how1 indeed1 could the same man have been ,macbeth1 ,hamlet1 ,othello1 ,king ,lear1 and many others8 ,but then a distinction should perhaps here be made between the personality ,,we ,,have and all those we might have had4 ,our character is the result of a choice that is continually being renewed4 ,there are points--at all events there seem to be--all along the way1 where we may branch off1 and we perceive many possible directions though we are unable to take more than one4 ,to retrace one's steps1 and follow to the end the faintly distinguishable directions1 appears to be the essential element in poetic imagination4 ,of course1 ,shakespeare was neither ,macbeth1 nor ,hamlet1 nor ,othello2 still1 he ,,might ,,have ,,been these several characters if the circumstances of the case on the one hand1 and the consent of his will on the other1 had caused to break out into explosive action what was nothing more than an inner prompting4 ,we are strangely mistaken as to the part played by poetic imagination1 if we think it pieces together its heroes out of fragments filched from right and left1 as though it were patching together a harlequin's motley4 ,nothing living would result from that4 ,life cannot be recomposed2 it can only be looked at and reproduced4 ,poetic imagination is but a fuller view of reality4 ,if the characters created by a poet give us the impression of life1 it is only because they are the poet himself1--multiplication or division of the poet1--the poet plumbing the depths of his own nature in so powerful an effort of inner observation that he lays hold of the potential in the real1 and takes up what nature has left as a mere outline or sketch in his soul in order to make of it a finished work of art4 ,altogether different is the kind of observation from which comedy springs4 ,it is directed outwards4 ,however interested a dramatist may be in the comic features of human nature1 he will hardly go1 ,i imagine1 to the extent of trying to discover his own4 ,besides1 he would not find them1 for we are never ridiculous except in some point that remains hidden from our own consciousness4 ,it is on others1 then1 that such observation must perforce be practised4 ,but it2 will1 for this very reason1 assume a character of generality that it cannot have when we apply it to ourselves4 ,settling on the surface1 it will not be more than skin-deep1 dealing with persons at the point at which they come into contact and become capable of resembling one another4 ,it will go no farther4 ,even if it could1 it would not desire to do so1 for it would have nothing to gain in the process4 ,to penetrate too far into the personality1 to couple the outer effect with causes that are too deep-seated1 would mean to endanger and in the end to sacrifice all that was laughable in the effect4 ,in order that we may be tempted to laugh at it1 we must localise its cause in some intermediate region of the soul4 ,consequently1 the effect must appear to us as an average effect1 as expressing an average of mankind4 ,and1 like all averages1 this one is obtained by bringing together scattered data1 by comparing analogous cases and extracting their essence1 in short by a process of abstraction and generalisation similar to that which the physicist brings to bear upon facts with the object of grouping them under laws4 ,in a word1 method and object are here of the same nature as in the inductive sciences1 in that observation is always external and the result always general4 ,and so we come back1 by a roundabout way1 to the double conclusion we reached in the course of our investigations4 ,on the one hand1 a person is never ridiculous except through some mental attribute resembling absent-mindedness1 through something that lives upon him without forming part of his organism1 after the fashion of a parasite2 that is the reason this state of mind is observable from without and capable of being corrected4 ,but1 on the other hand1 just because laughter aims at correcting1 it is expedient that the correction should reach as great a number of persons as possible4 ,this is the reason comic observation instinctively proceeds to what is general4 ,it chooses such peculiarities as admit of being reproduced and consequently are not indissolubly bound up with the individuality of a single person1--a possibly common sort of uncommonness1 so to say1--peculiarities that are held in common4 ,by transferring them to the stage1 it creates works which doubtless belong to art in that their only visible aim is to please1 but which will be found to contrast with other works of art by reason of their generality and also of their scarcely confessed or scarcely conscious intention to correct and instruct4 ,so we were probably right in saying that comedy lies midway between art and life4 ,it is not disinterested as genuine art is4 ,by organising laughter1 comedy accepts social life as a natural environment1 it even obeys an impulse of social life4 ,and in this respect it turns its back upon art1 which is a breaking away from society and a return to pure nature4 ,,ii ,now let us see1 in the light of what has gone before1 the line to take for creating an ideally comic type of character1 comic in itself1 in its origin1 and in all its manifestations4 ,it must be deep-rooted1 so as to supply comedy with inexhaustible matter1 and yet superficial1 in order that it may remain within the scope of comedy2 invisible to its actual owner1 for the comic ever partakes of the unconscious1 but visible to everybody else1 so that it may call forth general laughter1 extremely considerate to its own self1 so that it may be displayed without scruple1 but troublesome to others1 so that they may repress it without pity2 immediately repressible1 so that our laughter may not have been wasted1 but sure of reappearing under fresh aspects1 so that laughter may always find something to do2 inseparable from social life1 although insufferable to society2 capable--in order that it may assume the greatest imaginable variety of forms--of being tacked on to all the vices and even to a good many virtues4 ,truly a goodly number of elements to fuse together6 ,but a chemist of the soul1 entrusted with this elaborate preparation1 would be somewhat disappointed when pouring out the contents of his retort4 ,he would find he had taken a vast deal of trouble to compound a mixture which may be found ready-made and free of expense1 for it is as widespread throughout mankind as air throughout nature4 ,this mixture is vanity4 ,probably there is not a single failing that is more superficial or more deep-rooted4 ,the wounds it receives are never very serious1 and yet they are seldom healed4 ,the services rendered to it are the most unreal of all services1 and yet they are the very ones that meet with lasting gratitude4 ,it is scarcely a vice1 and yet all the vices are drawn into its orbit and1 in proportion as they become more refined and artificial1 tend to be nothing more than a means of satisfying it4 ,the outcome of social life1 since it is an admiration of ourselves based on the admiration we think we are inspiring in others1 it is even more natural1 more universally innate than egoism2 for egoism may be conquered by nature1 whereas only by reflection do we get the better of vanity4 ,it does not seem1 indeed1 as if men were ever born modest1 unless we dub with the name of modesty a sort of purely physical bashfulness1 which is nearer to pride than is generally supposed4 ,true modesty can be nothing but a meditation on vanity4 ,it springs from the sight of others' mistakes and the dread of being similarly deceived4 ,it is a sort of scientific cautiousness with respect to what we shall say and think of ourselves4 ,it is made up of improvements and after-touches4 ,in short1 it is an acquired virtue4 ,it is no easy matter to define the point at which the anxiety to become modest may be distinguished from the dread of becoming ridiculous4 ,but surely1 at the outset1 this dread and this anxiety are one and the same thing4 ,a complete investigation into the illusions of vanity1 and into the ridicule that clings to them1 would cast a strange light upon the whole theory of laughter4 ,we should find laughter performing1 with mathematical regularity1 one of its main functions--that of bringing back to complete self-consciousness a certain self-admiration which is almost automatic1 and thus obtaining the greatest possible sociability of characters4 ,we should see that vanity1 though it is a natural product of social life1 is an inconvenience to society1 just as certain slight poisons1 continually secreted by the human organism1 would destroy it in the long run1 if they were not neutralised by other secretions4 ,laughter is unceasingly doing work of this kind4 ,in this respect1 it might be said that the specific remedy for vanity is laughter1 and that the one failing that is essentially laughable is vanity4 ,while dealing with the comic in form and movement1 we showed how any simple image1 laughable in itself1 is capable of worming its way into other images of a more complex nature and instilling into them something of its comic essence2 thus1 the highest forms of the comic can sometimes be explained by the lowest4 ,the inverse process1 however1 is perhaps even more common1 and many coarse comic effects are the direct result of a drop from some very subtle comic element4 ,for instance1 vanity1 that higher form of the comic1 is an element we are prone to look for1 minutely though unconsciously1 in every manifestation of human activity4 ,we look for it if only to laugh at it4 ,indeed1 our imagination often locates it where it has no business to be4 ,perhaps we must attribute to this source the altogether coarse comic element in certain effects which psychologists have very inadequately explained by contrast3 a short man bowing his head to pass beneath a large door2 two individuals1 one very tall the other a mere dwarf1 gravely walking along arm-in-arm1 etc4 ,by scanning narrowly this latter image1 we shall probably find that the shorter of the two persons seems as though he were trying ,,to ,,raise ,,himself to the height of the taller1 like the frog that wanted to make itself as large as the ox4 ,,iii ,it would be quite impossible to go through all the peculiarities of character that either coalesce or compete with vanity in order to force themselves upon the attention of the comic poet4 ,we have shown that all failings may become laughable1 and even1 occasionally1 many a good quality4 ,even though a list of all the peculiarities that have ever been found ridiculous were drawn up1 comedy would manage to add to them1 not indeed by creating artificial ones1 but by discovering lines of comic development that had hitherto gone unnoticed2 thus does imagination isolate ever fresh figures in the intricate design of one and the same piece of tapestry4 ,the essential condition1 as we know1 is that the peculiarity observed should straightway appear as a kind of ,,category into which a number of individuals can step4 ,now1 there are ready-made categories established by society itself1 and necessary to it because it is based on the division of labour4 ,we mean the various trades1 public services and professions4 ,each particular profession impresses on its corporate members certain habits of mind and peculiarities of character in which they resemble each other and also distinguish themselves from the rest4 ,small societies are thus formed within the bosom of ,society at large4 ,doubtless they arise from the very organisation of ,society as a whole4 ,and yet1 if they held too much aloof1 there would be a risk of their proving harmful to sociability4 ,now1 it is the business of laughter to repress any separatist tendency4 ,its function is to convert rigidity into plasticity1 to readapt the individual to the whole1 in short1 to round off the corners wherever they are met with4 ,accordingly1 we here find a species of the comic whose varieties might be calculated beforehand4 ,this we shall call the ,,professional ,,comic4 ,instead of taking up these varieties in detail1 we prefer to lay stress upon what they have in common4 ,in the forefront we find professional vanity4 ,each one of ,m4 ,jourdain's teachers exalts his own art above all the rest4 ,in a play of ,labiche there is a character who cannot understand how it is possible to be anything else than a timber merchant4 ,naturally he is a timber merchant himself4 ,note that vanity here tends to merge into ,,solemnity1 in proportion to the degree of quackery there is in the profession under consideration4 ,for it is a remarkable fact that the more questionable an art1 science or occupation is1 the more those who practise it are inclined to regard themselves as invested with a kind of priesthood and to claim that all should bow before its mysteries4 ,useful professions are clearly meant for the public1 but those whose utility is more dubious can only justify their existence by assuming that the public is meant for them3 now1 this is just the illusion that lies at the root of solemnity4 ,almost everything comic in ,moliere's doctors comes from this source4 ,they treat the patient as though he had been made for the doctors1 and nature herself as an appendage to medicine4 ,another form of this comic rigidity is what may be called ,,professional ,,callousness4 ,the comic character is so tightly jammed into the rigid frame of his functions that he has no room to move or to be moved like other men4 ,only call to mind the answer ,isabelle receives from ,perrin ,dandin1 the judge1 when she asks him how he can bear to look on when the poor wretches are being tortured3 ,bah6 cela fait toujours passer une heure ou deux4 ,footnote3 ,bah6 it always helps to while away an hour or two4 ,does not ,tartuffe also manifest a sort of professional callousness when he says--it is true1 by the mouth of ,orgon3 ,et je verrais mourir frere1 enfants1 mere et femme1 ,que je m'en soucierais autant que de cela6 ,footnote3 ,let brother1 children1 mother and wife all die1 what should ,i care6 ,the device most in use1 however1 for making a profession ludicrous is to confine it1 so to say1 within the four corners of its own particular jargon4 ,judge1 doctor and soldier are made to apply the language of law1 medicine and strategy to the everyday affairs of life1 as though they had became incapable of talking like ordinary people4 ,as a rule1 this kind of the ludicrous is rather coarse4 ,it becomes more refined1 however1 as we have already said1 if it reveals some peculiarity of character in addition to a professional habit4 ,we will instance only ,regnard's ,joueur1 who expresses himself with the utmost originality in terms borrowed from gambling1 giving his valet the name of ,hector1 and calling his betrothed ,pallas1 du nom connu de la ,dame de ,pique2 ,footnote3 ,pallas1 from the well-known name of the ,queen of ,spades4 or ,moliere's ,femmes savantes1 where the comic element evidently consists largely in the translation of ideas of a scientific nature into terms of feminine sensibility3 ,epicure me plait444 7,epicurus is charming71 ,j'aime les tourbillons 7,i dote on vortices71 etc4 ,you have only to read the third act to find that ,armande1 ,philaminte and ,belise almost invariably express themselves in this style4 ,proceeding further in the same direction1 we discover that there is also such a thing as a professional logic1 i4e4 certain ways of reasoning that are customary in certain circles1 which are valid for these circles1 but untrue for the rest of the public4 ,now1 the contrast between these two kinds of logic--one particular1 the other universal--produces comic effects of a special nature1 on which we may advantageously dwell at greater length4 ,here we touch upon a point of some consequence in the theory of laughter4 ,we propose1 therefore1 to give the question a wider scope and consider it in its most general aspect4 ,,iv ,eager as we have been to discover the deep-seated cause of the comic1 we have so far had to neglect one of its most striking phenomena4 ,we refer to the logic peculiar to the comic character and the comic group1 a strange kind of logic1 which1 in some cases1 may include a good deal of absurdity4 ,theophile ,gautier said that the comic in its extreme form was the logic of the absurd4 ,more than one philosophy of laughter revolves round a like idea4 ,every comic effect1 it is said1 implies contradiction in some of its aspects4 ,what makes us laugh is alleged to be the absurd realised in concrete shape1 a palpable absurdity2--or1 again1 an apparent absurdity1 which we swallow for the moment only to rectify it immediately afterwards2--or1 better still1 something absurd from one point of view though capable of a natural explanation from another1 etc4 ,all these theories may contain some portion of the truth2 but1 in the first place1 they apply only to certain rather obvious comic effects1 and then1 even where they do apply1 they evidently take no account of the characteristic element of the laughable1 that is1 the ,,particular ,,kind of absurdity the comic contains when it does contain something absurd4 ,is an immediate proof of this desired8 ,you have only to choose one of these definitions and make up effects in accordance with the formula3 twice out of every three times there will be nothing laughable in the effect obtained4 ,so we see that absurdity1 when met with in the comic1 is not absurdity ,,in ,,general4 ,it is an absurdity of a definite kind4 ,it does not create the comic2 rather1 we might say that the comic infuses into it its own particular essence4 ,it is not a cause1 but an effect--an effect of a very special kind1 which reflects the special nature of its cause4 ,now1 this cause is known to us2 consequently we shall have no trouble in understanding the nature of the effect4 ,assume1 when out for a country walk1 that you notice on the top of a hill something that bears a faint resemblance to a large motionless body with revolving arms4 ,so far you do not know what it is1 but you begin to search amongst your ,,ideas--that is to say1 in the present instance1 amongst the recollections at your disposal--for that recollection which will best fit in with what you see4 ,almost immediately the image of a windmill comes into your mind3 the object before you is a windmill4 ,no matter if1 before leaving the house1 you have just been reading fairy-tales telling of giants with enormous arms2 for although common sense consists mainly in being able to remember1 it consists even more in being able to forget4 ,common sense represents the endeavour of a mind continually adapting itself anew and changing ideas when it changes objects4 ,it is the mobility of the intelligence conforming exactly to the mobility of things4 ,it is the moving continuity of our attention to life4 ,but now1 let us take ,don ,quixote setting out for the wars4 ,the romances he has been reading all tell of knights encountering1 on the way1 giant adversaries4 ,he therefore must needs encounter a giant4 ,this idea of a giant is a privileged recollection which has taken its abode in his mind and lies there in wait1 motionless1 watching for an opportunity to sally forth and become embodied in a thing4 ,it ,,is ,,bent on entering the material world1 and so the very first object he sees bearing the faintest resemblance to a giant is invested with the form of one4 ,thus ,don ,quixote sees giants where we see windmills4 ,this is comical2 it is also absurd4 ,but is it a mere absurdity1--an absurdity of an indefinite kind8 ,it is a very special inversion of common sense4 ,it consists in seeking to mould things on an idea of one's own1 instead of moulding one's ideas on things1--in seeing before us what we are thinking of1 instead of thinking of what we see4 ,good sense would have us leave all our memories in their proper rank and file2 then the appropriate memory will every time answer the summons of the situation of the moment and serve only to interpret it4 ,but in ,don ,quixote1 on the contrary1 there is one group of memories in command of all the rest and dominating the character itself3 thus it is reality that now has to bow to imagination1 its only function being to supply fancy with a body4 ,once the illusion has been created1 ,don ,quixote develops it logically enough in all its consequences2 he proceeds with the certainty and precision of a somnambulist who is acting his dream4 ,such1 then1 is the origin of his delusions1 and such the particular logic which controls this particular absurdity4 ,now1 is this logic peculiar to ,don ,quixote8 ,we have shown that the comic character always errs through obstinacy of mind or of disposition1 through absentmindedness1 in short1 through automatism4 ,at the root of the comic there is a sort of rigidity which compels its victims to keep strictly to one path1 to follow it straight along1 to shut their ears and refuse to listen4 ,in ,moliere's plays how many comic scenes can be reduced to this simple type3 ,a ,,character ,,following ,,up ,,his ,,one ,,idea1 and continually recurring to it in spite of incessant interruptions6 ,the transition seems to take place imperceptibly from the man who will listen to nothing to the one who will see nothing1 and from this latter to the one who sees only what he wants to see4 ,a stubborn spirit ends by adjusting things to its own way of thinking1 instead of accommodating its thoughts to the things4 ,so every comic character is on the highroad to the above-mentioned illusion1 and ,don ,quixote furnishes us with the general type of comic absurdity4 ,is there a name for this inversion of common sense8 ,doubtless it may be found1 in either an acute or a chronic form1 in certain types of insanity4 ,in many of its aspects it resembles a fixed idea4 ,but neither insanity in general1 nor fixed ideas in particular1 are provocative of laughter3 they are diseases1 and arouse our pity4 ,laughter1 as we have seen1 is incompatible with emotion4 ,if there exists a madness that is laughable1 it can only be one compatible with the general health of the mind1--a sane type of madness1 one might say4 ,now1 there is a sane state of the mind that resembles madness in every respect1 in which we find the same associations of ideas as we do in lunacy1 the same peculiar logic as in a fixed idea4 ,this state is that of dreams4 ,so either our analysis is incorrect1 or it must be capable of being stated in the following theorem3 ,comic absurdity is of the same nature as that of dreams4 ,the behaviour of the intellect in a dream is exactly what we have just been describing4 ,the mind1 enamoured of itself1 now seeks in the outer world nothing more than a pretext for realising its imaginations4 ,a confused murmur of sounds still reaches the ear1 colours enter the field of vision1 the senses are not completely shut in4 ,but the dreamer1 instead of appealing to the whole of his recollections for the interpretation of what his senses perceive1 makes use of what he perceives to give substance to the particular recollection he favours3 thus1 according to the mood of the dreamer and the idea that fills his imagination at the time1 a gust of wind blowing down the chimney becomes the howl of a wild beast or a tuneful melody4 ,such is the ordinary mechanism of illusion in dreams4 ,now1 if comic illusion is similar to dream illusion1 if the logic of the comic is the logic of dreams1 we may expect to discover in the logic of the laughable all the peculiarities of dream logic4 ,here1 again1 we shall find an illustration of the law with which we are well acquainted3 given one form of the laughable1 other forms that are lacking in the same comic essence become laughable from their outward resemblance to the first4 ,indeed1 it is not difficult to see that any ,,play ,,of ,,ideas may afford us amusement if only it bring back to mind1 more or less distinctly1 the play of dreamland4 ,we shall first call attention to a certain general relaxation of the rules of reasoning4 ,the reasonings at which we laugh are those we know to be false1 but which we might accept as true were we to hear them in a dream4 ,they counterfeit true reasoning just sufficiently to deceive a mind dropping off to sleep4 ,there is still an element of logic in them1 if you will1 but it is a logic lacking in tension and1 for that very reason1 affording us relief from intellectual effort4 ,many witticisms are reasonings of this kind1 considerably abridged reasonings1 of which we are given only the beginning and the end4 ,such play upon ideas evolves in the direction of a play upon words in proportion as the relations set up between the ideas become more superficial3 gradually we come to take no account of the meaning of the words we hear1 but only of their sound4 ,it might be instructive to compare with dreams certain comic scenes in which one of the characters systematically repeats in a nonsensical fashion what another character whispers in his ear4 ,if you fall asleep with people talking round you1 you sometimes find that what they say gradually becomes devoid of meaning1 that the sounds get distorted1 as it were1 and recombine in a haphazard fashion to form in your mind the strangest of meanings1 and that you are reproducing between yourself and the different speakers the scene between ,petit-,jean and ,the ,prompter4 ,footnote3 ,les ,plaideurs 7,racine74 ,there are also ,,comic ,,obsessions that seem to bear a great resemblance to dream obsessions4 ,who has not had the experience of seeing the same image appear in several successive dreams1 assuming a plausible meaning in each of them1 whereas these dreams had no other point in common4 ,effects of repetition sometimes present this special form on the stage or in fiction3 some of them1 in fact1 sound as though they belonged to a dream4 ,it may be the same with the burden of many a song3 it persistently recurs1 always unchanged1 at the end of every verse1 each time with a different meaning4 ,not infrequently do we notice in dreams a particular ,,crescendo1 a weird effect that grows more pronounced as we proceed4 ,the first concession extorted from reason introduces a second2 and this one1 another of a more serious nature2 and so on till the crowning absurdity is reached4 ,now1 this progress towards the absurd produces on the dreamer a very peculiar sensation4 ,such is probably the experience of the tippler when he feels himself pleasantly drifting into a state of blankness in which neither reason nor propriety has any meaning for him4 ,now1 consider whether some of ,moliere's plays would not produce the same sensation3 for instance1 ,monsieur de ,pourceaugnac1 which1 after beginning almost reasonably1 develops into a sequence of all sorts of absurdities4 ,consider also the ,bourgeois gentilhomme1 where the different characters seem to allow themselves to be caught up in a very whirlwind of madness as the play proceeds4 ,if it is possible to find a man more completely mad1 ,i will go and publish it in ,rome4 ,this sentence1 which warns us that the play is over1 rouses us from the increasingly extravagant dream into which1 along with ,m4 ,jourdain1 we have been sinking4 ,but1 above all1 there is a special madness that is peculiar to dreams4 ,there are certain special contradictions so natural to the imagination of a dreamer1 and so absurd to the reason of a man wide-awake1 that it would be impossible to give a full and correct idea of their nature to anyone who had not experienced them4 ,we allude to the strange fusion that a dream often effects between two persons who henceforth form only one and yet remain distinct4 ,generally one of these is the dreamer himself4 ,he feels he has not ceased to be what he is2 yet he has become someone else4 ,he is himself1 and not himself4 ,he hears himself speak and sees himself act1 but he feels that some other he has borrowed his body and stolen his voice4 ,or perhaps he is conscious of speaking and acting as usual1 but he speaks of himself as a stranger with whom he has nothing in common2 he has stepped out of his own self4 ,does it not seem as though we found this same extraordinary confusion in many a comic scene8 ,i am not speaking of ,amphitryon1 in which play the confusion is perhaps suggested to the mind of the spectator1 though the bulk of the comic effect proceeds rather from what we have already called a reciprocal interference of two series4 ,i am speaking of the extravagant and comic reasonings in which we really meet with this confusion in its pure form1 though it requires some looking into to pick it out4 ,for instance1 listen to ,mark ,twain's replies to the reporter who called to interview him3 ,,question4 ,isn't that a brother of yours8 ,,answer4 ,oh6 yes1 yes1 yes6 ,now you remind me of it1 that ,,was a brother of mine4 ,that's ,william--,,bill we called him4 ,poor old ,bill6 ,q4 ,why8 ,is he dead1 then8 ,a4 ,ah6 well1 ,i suppose so4 ,we never could tell4 ,there was a great mystery about it4 ,q4 ,that is sad1 very sad4 ,he disappeared1 then8 ,a4 ,well1 yes1 in a sort of general way4 ,we buried him4 ,q4 ,,buried him6 ,,buried him1 without knowing whether he was dead or not8 ,a4 ,oh no6 ,not that4 ,he was dead enough4 ,q4 ,well1 ,i confess that ,i can't understand this4 ,if you buried him1 and you knew he was dead--,a4 ,no6 no6 ,we only thought he was4 ,q4 ,oh1 ,i see6 ,he came to life again8 ,a4 ,i bet he didn't4 ,q4 ,well1 ,i never heard anything like this4 ,,somebody was dead4 ,,somebody was buried4 ,now1 where was the mystery8 ,a4 ,ah6 that's just it6 ,that's it exactly4 ,you see1 we were twins1--defunct and ,i1--and we got mixed in the bath-tub when we were only two weeks old1 and one of us was drowned4 ,but we didn't know which4 ,some think it was ,bill4 ,some think it was me4 ,q4 ,well1 that is remarkable4 ,what do ,,you think8 ,a4 ,goodness knows6 ,i would give whole worlds to know4 ,this solemn1 this awful tragedy has cast a gloom over my whole life4 ,but ,i will tell you a secret now1 which ,i have never revealed to any creature before4 ,one of us had a peculiar mark1--a large mole on the back of his left hand3 that was ,,me4 ,,that ,,child ,,was ,,the ,,one ,,that ,,was ,,drowned6 444 etc41 etc4 ,a close examination will show us that the absurdity of this dialogue is by no means an absurdity of an ordinary type4 ,it would disappear were not the speaker himself one of the twins in the story4 ,it results entirely from the fact that ,mark ,twain asserts he is one of these twins1 whilst all the time he talks as though he were a third person who tells the tale4 ,in many of our dreams we adopt exactly the same method4 ,v ,regarded from this latter point of view1 the comic seems to show itself in a form somewhat different from the one we lately attributed to it4 ,up to this point1 we have regarded laughter as first and foremost a means of correction4 ,if you take the series of comic varieties and isolate the predominant types at long intervals1 you will find that all the intervening varieties borrow their comic quality from their resemblance to these types1 and that the types themselves are so many models of impertinence with regard to society4 ,to these impertinences society retorts by laughter1 an even greater impertinence4 ,so evidently there is nothing very benevolent in laughter4 ,it seems rather inclined to return evil for evil4 ,but this is not what we are immediately struck by in our first impression of the laughable4 ,the comic character is often one with whom1 to begin with1 our mind1 or rather our body1 sympathises4 ,by this is meant that we put ourselves for a very short time in his place1 adopt his gestures1 words1 arid actions1 and1 if amused by anything laughable in him1 invite him1 in imagination1 to share his amusement with us2 in fact1 we treat him first as a playmate4 ,so1 in the laugher we find a hail-fellow-well-met spirit--as far1 at least1 as appearances go--which it would be wrong of us not to take into consideration4 ,in particular1 there is in laughter a movement of relaxation which has often been noticed1 and the reason of which we must try to discover4 ,nowhere is this impression more noticeable than in the last few examples4 ,in them1 indeed1 we shall find its explanation4 ,when the comic character automatically follows up his idea1 he ultimately thinks1 speaks and acts as though he were dreaming4 ,now1 a dream is a relaxation4 ,to remain in touch with things and men1 to see nothing but what is existent and think nothing but what is consistent1 demands a continuous effort of intellectual tension4 ,this effort is common sense4 ,and to remain sensible is1 indeed1 to remain at work4 ,but to detach oneself from things and yet continue to perceive images1 to break away from logic and yet continue to string together ideas1 is to indulge in play or1 if you prefer1 in dolce far niente4 ,so1 comic absurdity gives us from the outset the impression of playing with ideas4 ,our first impulse is to join in the game4 ,that relieves us from the strain of thinking4 ,now1 the same might be said of the other forms of the laughable4 ,deep-rooted in the comic1 there is always a tendency1 we said1 to take the line of least resistance1 generally that of habit4 ,the comic character no longer tries to be ceaselessly adapting and readapting himself to the society of which he is a member4 ,he slackens in the attention that is due to life4 ,he more or less resembles the absentminded4 ,maybe his will is here even more concerned than his intellect1 and there is not so much a want of attention as a lack of tension2 still1 in some way or another1 he is absent1 away from his work1 taking it easy4 ,he abandons social convention1 as indeed--in the case we have just been considering--he abandoned logic4 ,here1 too1 our first impulse is to accept the invitation to take it easy4 ,for a short time1 at all events1 we join in the game4 ,and that relieves us from the strain of living4 ,but we rest only for a short time4 ,the sympathy that is capable of entering into the impression of the comic is a very fleeting one4 ,it also comes from a lapse in attention4 ,thus1 a stern father may at times forget himself and join in some prank his child is playing1 only to check himself at once in order to correct it4 ,laughter is1 above all1 a corrective4 ,being intended to humiliate1 it must make a painful impression on the person against whom it is directed4 ,by laughter1 society avenges itself for the liberties taken with it4 ,it would fail in its object if it bore the stamp of sympathy or kindness4 ,shall we be told that the motive1 at all events2 may be a good one1 that we often punish because we love1 and that laughter1 by checking the outer manifestations of certain failings1 thus causes the person laughed at to correct these failings and thereby improve himself inwardly8 ,much might be said on this point4 ,as a general rule1 and speaking roughly1 laughter doubtless exercises a useful function4 ,indeed1 the whole of our analysis points to this fact4 ,but it does not therefore follow that laughter always hits the mark or is invariably inspired by sentiments of kindness or even of justice4 ,to be certain of always hitting the mark1 it would have to proceed from an act of reflection4 ,now1 laughter is simply the result of a mechanism set up in us by nature or1 what is almost the same thing1 by our long acquaintance with social life4 ,it goes off spontaneously and returns tit for tat4 ,it has no time to look where it hits4 ,laughter punishes certain failing's somewhat as disease punishes certain forms of excess1 striking down some who are innocent and sparing some who are guilty1 aiming at a general result and incapable of dealing separately with each individual case4 ,and so it is with everything that comes to pass by natural means instead of happening by conscious reflection4 ,an average of justice may show itself in the total result1 though the details1 taken separately1 often point to anything but justice4 ,in this sense1 laughter cannot be absolutely just4 ,nor should it be kind-hearted either4 ,its function is to intimidate by humiliating4 ,now1 it would not succeed in doing this1 had not nature implanted for that very purpose1 even in the best of men1 a spark of spitefulness or1 at all events1 of mischief4 ,perhaps we had better not investigate this point too closely1 for we should not find anything very flattering to ourselves4 ,we should see that this movement of relaxation or expansion is nothing but a prelude to laughter1 that the laugher immediately retires within himself1 more self-assertive and conceited than ever1 and is evidently disposed to look upon another's personality as a marionette of which he pulls the strings4 ,in this presumptuousness we speedily discern a degree of egoism and1 behind this latter1 something less spontaneous and more bitter1 the beginnings of a curious pessimism which becomes the more pronounced as the laugher more closely analyses his laughter4 ,here1 as elsewhere1 nature has utilised evil with a view to good4 ,it is more especially the good that has engaged our attention throughout this work4 ,we have seen that the more society improves1 the more plastic is the adaptability it obtains from its members2 while the greater the tendency towards increasing stability below1 the more does it force to the surface the disturbing elements inseparable from so vast a bulk2 and thus laughter performs a useful function by emphasising the form of these significant undulations4 ,such is also the truceless warfare of the waves on the surface of the sea1 whilst profound peace reigns in the depths below4 ,the billows clash and collide with each other1 as they strive to find their level4 ,a fringe of snow-white foam1 feathery and frolicsome1 follows their changing outlines4 ,from time to time1 the receding wave leaves behind a remnant of foam on the sandy beach4 ,the child1 who plays hard by1 picks up a handful1 and1 the next moment1 is astonished to find that nothing remains in his grasp but a few drops of water1 water that is far more brackish1 far more bitter than that of the wave which brought it4 ,laughter comes into being in the self-same fashion4 ,it indicates a slight revolt on the surface of social life4 ,it instantly adopts the changing forms of the disturbance4 ,it1 also1 is afroth with a saline base4 ,like froth1 it sparkles4 ,it is gaiety itself4 ,but the philosopher who gathers a handful to taste may find that the substance is scanty1 and the after-taste bitter4 ,,the ,,end