[299] An elaborate classification of the various kinds of word-play may be found in an article by Dr. Emil Kräpelin, in Wundt’s _Philosoph. Studien_, 2^{er} Band, s. 144 ff. [300] Bergk observes that these are at once individuals and types (_Griech. literaturgeschichte_, Bd. IV., s. 91). [301] Mommsen observes that in Terence we have a more becoming, though not yet moral, conception of feminine nature and of married life (_Hist. of Rome_, Bk. IV., chap. xiii.). [302] Courthope, _Hist. of English Poetry_, vol. ii., pp. 345 ff., and 356. [303] _Eng. Lit._, Bk. II., chap. iii. [304] On this mixture of tones see Moulton, _Shakespeare as Dramatic Artist_, p. 291. [305] Mr. Meredith touches on the way in which Molière developed his characters out of persons known to him (_op. cit._, p. 53). [306] _Lectures and Notes on Shakespeare_, p. 416. [307] “Comme un morceau de cire entre mes mains elle est, Et je lui puis donner la forme qui me plaît.” [308] M. Henri Bergson (_op. cit._, chap, iii.) seems to me to push his helpful idea of a mechanical rigidity (_raideur_) in Molière’s characters a little too far. [309] The play closes with the “aside” of Covielle: “Si l’on en peut voir un plus fou, je l’irai dire à Rome”. [310] Mr. Meredith remarks that it was “here and there Bacchanalian beyond the Aristophanic example” (_op. cit._, p. 11). [311] See above, p. 92 f. [312] Coleridge saw clearly enough how far comedy is from making morality its basis. He remarks that the new comedy of Menander and the whole of modern comedy (Shakespeare excepted) is based on rules of prudence (_Lectures and Notes on Shakespeare_, Bell’s Edition, 1884, p. 191). [313] _Cf. supra_, p. 139. [314] _Hist. of Eng. Lit._, Bk. III., chap. i. Mr. Meredith is nearer the mark when he speaks of the comic poet as being “in the narrow field, or enclosed square of the society he depicts” (_op. cit._, p. 85). [315] _Op. cit._, Bd. IV., s. 2. [316] See his “Notice” to _Gil Blas_, pp. xii, xiii. [317] _Hist. of Eng. Lit._, vol. iv., p. 173. [318] _Op. cit._, p. 240. [319] Quoted by Bacon, _Essays_, “Apothegms,” 181. [320] This is well illustrated by George Eliot, who observes rightly that wit is allied to ratiocination (_Essays_, “German Wit,” p. 81). [321] I remember discussing the point with the late Henry Sidgwick—no mean authority—who admitted that several quotations which he had proffered as examples of wit might with equal appropriateness he described as humorous. The germ of the view put forward in the text is contained in some pithy remarks by the late Professor Minto (_English Prose Literature_, Introduction, p. 23). [322] The reference in the text is to humour and wit, regarded as subjective, as elements in the writer. Considered objectively as an attribute of a character, wit of a kind may become one ingredient in a humorous presentation, as in the homely and rather borné wit of the countryfolk in the novels of George Eliot and Mr. Hardy.