| PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. |
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| Subjective Character of the Ludicrous—The Subject little |
| Studied—Obstacles to the Investigation—Evanescence—Mental |
| Character of the Ludicrous—Distinction between |
| Humour and the Ludicrous | 1 |
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| INTRODUCTION. |
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| PART I. |
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| ORIGIN OF HUMOUR. |
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| Pleasure in Humour—What is Laughter?—Sympathy—First |
| Phases—Gradual Development—Emotional Phase—Laughter of |
| Pleasure—Hostile Laughter—Is there any sense of the |
| Ludicrous in the Lower Animals?—Samson—David—Solomon |
| —Proverbs—Fables | 13 |
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| PART II. |
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| GREEK HUMOUR. |
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| Birth of Humour—Personalities—Story of Hippocleides—Origin |
| of Comedy—Archilochus—Hipponax—Democritus, |
| the Laughing Philosopher—Aristophanes—Humour |
| of the Senses—Indelicacy—Enfeeblement of the Drama—Humorous |
| Games—Parasites, their Position and Jests—Philoxenus—Diogenes—Court |
| of Humour—Riddles—Silli | 52 |
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| PART III. |
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| ROMAN HUMOUR. |
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| Roman Comedy—Plautus—Acerbity—Terence—Satire—Lucilius |
| —Horace—Humour of the CÆsar Family—Cicero—Augustus—Persius |
| —Petronius—Juvenal—Martial—Epigrammatist—Lucian—Apuleius |
| —Julian the Apostate—The Misopogon—Symposius' Enigmas |
| —Macrobius—Hierocles and Philagrius | 99 |
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| ENGLISH HUMOUR. |
|
| CHAPTER I. |
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| MIDDLE AGES. |
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| Relapse of Civilization in the Middle Ages—Stagnation of |
| Mind—Scarcity of Books—Character of reviving Literature—Religious |
| Writings—Fantastic Legends—Influence |
| of the Crusades—Romances—Sir Bevis of Hamptoun—Prominence |
| of the Lower Animals—Allegories | 161 |
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| CHAPTER II. |
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| Anglo-Saxon Humour—Rhyme—Satires against the Church—The |
| Brunellus—Walter Mapes—Goliardi—Piers the |
| Ploughman—Letters of Obscure Men—Erasmus—The |
| Praise of Folly—Skelton—The Ship of Fools—Doctour |
| Doubble Ale—The Sak full of Nuez—Church Ornamentation—Representations |
| of the Devil | 179 |
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| CHAPTER III. |
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| Origin of Modern Comedy—Ecclesiastical Buffoonery—Jougleurs |
| and Minstrels—Court Fools—Monks' Stories—The |
| "Tournament of Tottenham"—Chaucer—Heywood—Roister |
| Doister—Gammer Gurton | 211 |
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| CHAPTER IV. |
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| Robert Greene—Friar Bacon's Demons—The "Looking |
| Glasse"—Nash and Harvey | 231 |
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| CHAPTER V. |
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| Donne—Hall—Fuller | 243 |
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| CHAPTER VI. |
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| Shakespeare—Ben Jonson—Beaumont and Fletcher—The |
| Wise Men of Gotham | 250 |
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| CHAPTER VII. |
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| Jesters—Court of Queen Elizabeth—James I.—The |
| "Counterblasts to Tobacco"—Puritans—Charles II. |
| —Rochester—Buckingham—Dryden—Butler | 271 |
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| CHAPTER VIII. |
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| Comic Drama of the Restoration—Etheridge—Wycherley | 303 |
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| CHAPTER IX. |
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| Tom Brown—His Prose Works—Poetry—Sir Richard |
| Blackmore—D'Urfey—Female Humorists—Carey | 312 |
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| CHAPTER X. |
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| Vanbrugh—Colley Cibber—Farquhar | 340 |
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| CHAPTER XI. |
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| Congreve—Lord Dorset | 355 |
