Wolcott--Writes against the Academicians--Tales of a Hoy--"New Old Ballads"--"The Sorrows of Sunday"--Ode to a Pretty Barmaid--Sheridan--Comic Situations--"The Duenna"--Wits 150 CHAPTER XI. Southey--Drolls of Bartholomew Fair--The "Doves"--Typographical Devices--Puns--Poems of Abel Shufflebottom 164 CHAPTER XII. Lamb--His Farewell to Tobacco--Pink Hose--On the Melancholy of Tailors--Roast Pig 175 CHAPTER XIII. Byron--Vision of Judgment--Lines to Hodgson--Beppo--Humorous Rhyming--Profanity of the Age 184 CHAPTER XIV. Theodore Hook--Improvisatore Talent--Poetry--Sydney Smith--The "Dun Cow"--Thomas Hood--Gin--Tylney Hall--John Trot--Barham's Legends 196 CHAPTER XVI. Douglas Jerrold--Liberal Politics--Advantages of Ugliness--Button Conspiracy--Advocacy of Dirt--The "Genteel Pigeons" 207 CHAPTER XVII. Thackeray--His Acerbity--The Baronet--The Parson--Medical Ladies--Glorvina--"A Serious Paradise" 216 CHAPTER XVIII. Dickens--Sympathy with the Poor--Vulgarity--Geniality--Mrs. Gamp--Mixture of Pathos and Humour--Lever and Dickens compared--Dickens' power of Description--General Remarks 226 CHAPTER XIX. Variation--Constancy--Influence of Temperament--Of Observation--Bulls--Want of Knowledge--Effects of Emotion--Unity of the Sense of the Ludicrous 241 CHAPTER XX. Definition--Difficulties of forming one of Humour 276 CHAPTER XXI. Charm of Mystery--Complication--Poetry and Humour compared--Exaggeration 285 CHAPTER XXII. Imperfection--An Impression of Falsity implied--Two Views taken by Philosophers--Firstly that of Voltaire, Jean Paul, Brown, the German Idealists, Leon Dumont, Secondly that of Descartes, Marmontel and Dugald Stewart--Whately on Jests--Nature of Puns--Effect of Custom and Habit--Accessory Emotion--Disappointment and Loss--Practical Jokes 307 CHAPTER XXIII. Nomenclature--Three Classes of Words--Distinction between Wit and Humour--Wit sometimes dangerous, generally innocuous 339 HISTORY OF ENGLISH HUMOUR. CHAPTER I. Burlesque--Parody--The "Splendid Shilling"--Prior--Pope--Ambrose Philips--Parodies of Gray's Elegy--Gay.