[244] Wright, _op. cit._, chap. xix. [245] Sellar, _Roman Poets_, p. 167. [246] Tyrrell, _op. cit._, p. 52. [247] Ward, _Engl. Dram. Poets_, ii., pp. 398–9. The Restoration comedy also made fun of the “cit” as the inferior of the West-end gentleman. [248] Ward, _op. cit._, ii., pp. 399, 400. [249] _The Golden Ass_, Bk. III., ch. 55. [250] Doran, _History of Court Fools_, pp. 18, 37, 75. [251] Tyrrell, _Latin Poetry_, p. 43 ff. The scurrility of the early Greek comedy led to its being discountenanced by Pisistratus. As Prof. P. Gardner remarks, “Tyrants have no sense of humour, and dread ridicule” (_Greek Antiquities_, p. 666). [252] Wright, _op. cit._, p. 44 ff. [253] Ward, _Engl. Dram. Poets_, ii., pp. 392–3. [254] Colley Cibber’s satire “Non-Juror” is said to have brought him a pension and the office of Poet Laureate (Wright, _op. cit._, chap. xxii.). [255] George III. was caricatured again and again by Gillray (Wright, _op. cit._, chap. xxvii.). [256] This has no doubt arisen in part from the fact that no other single English word expresses directly and clearly the subjective feeling or disposition which lies behind laughter. [257] George Eliot, _Essays_, pp. 82, 83. [258] The opening scene of _Le Médecin malgré lui_ shows that Molière had observed this quaint form of wifely loyalty. [259] _Sylvie and Bruno_, Part II., p. 132. [260] Hence Addison’s remark (_Spectator_, No. 35) that humour should always be under the check of reason seems, in what one is tempted to call a characteristic way, to miss the mark. [261] See, for example, Höffding, _Outlines of Psychology_, pp. 294, 295. [262] Quoted by Dugas, _op. cit._, p. 98. Flaubert here indicates, perhaps, one great limiting condition of the growth of the composite sentiment of humour. [263] _Philebus_, Jowett’s translation, iv., p. 94 ff. [264] One of the best recent discussions of this subject will be found in the work of A. Lehmann, already referred to; _see_ pp. 247–251 and 259. [265] _Cf._ above, p. 70. [266] _Op. cit._, p. 95. [267] For the whole passage, written perhaps with an unconscious reminiscence of the Rousseau period, see the _Kritik of Judgment_, Dr. Bernard’s translation, p. 227. [268] The absence in the East of the comic spirit as expressing itself in the art of comedy, a point noted by Mr. Meredith, is of course not conclusive with respect to the existence of the humorous disposition. [269] M. Bédier has a delicate characterisation of this French spirit in the _Contes_; touching on its want of depth and _arrière-pensée_, its spice of malice, its joyous good sense, its irony, which though a little coarse is yet precise and just, _op. cit._, p. 278. [270] This redeeming quality of the Irish bull is indistinctly perceived by the Edgeworths in their essay on the subject, in which they speak of the Irishman’s habit of using figurative and witty language. See _The Book of Bulls_, by G. R. Neilson (in which the Edgeworths’ essay is included).