Produced by Chuck Greif, MWS, Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) THE COMIC POEMS OF THOMAS HOOD. [Illustration: FAULTS ON BOTH SIDES.] [Illustration: WAR DANCE--THE OPENING OF THE BALL.] THE COMIC POEMS OF THOMAS HOOD. _WITH A PREFACE BY_ THOMAS HOOD THE YOUNGER. _A NEW AND COMPLETE EDITION._ [Illustration] LONDON: E. MOXON, SON, AND COMPANY, DORSET BUILDINGS, SALISBURY SQUARE, E.C. Ballantyne Press BALLANTYNE AND HANSON, EDINBURGH CHANDOS STREET, LONDON [Illustration] PREFACE. If the general public, acquainted only with the comic works of THOMAS HOOD, were taken by surprise when they found how he could handle serious and solemn themes; those who saw him in the flesh must have been equally astonished to learn how grave and melancholy a man the famous wit was to all appearance. The chronic ill health, which gave this expression to his countenance, was, however, powerless to affect the tone of his mind. “Here lies one who spat more blood and made more puns than any man living,” was the epitaph he half-jestingly proposed for himself. The connection between the disease and the comic faculty is not so unreasonable as it appears at first. The invalid, who could supply mirth for millions while he himself was propped up with pillows on the bed of sickness, was not a jester whose sole stock in trade consisted in mere animal spirits--which are too often mistaken for wit, but have in common with other spirits a tendency to evaporate somewhat rapidly. HOOD’S wit was the fruit of an even temperament, a cheery and contented mind endowed with a keen appreciation of the ludicrous. This acute perception of what is ludicrous is the foundation of all wit, but it may influence the mind in two ways. It may render its possessor as indifferent to the feelings as it makes him alive to the failings of others. How often does the wit, delighting in the flash and report of his jest, forget the wound it may inflict!