Critical Observations on Humour in English Literature

Contents: Preface. I. Origin of humour: 1. Emotional phases of humour and laughter: pleasurable, hostile etc. 2. Greek humour: birth of humour and comedy. 3. Roman humour, comedy and satire. 4. Relapse of civilization in the middle ages English humour. 5. Anglo-Saxon humour: satires against the church. 6. Ecclesiastical Buffoonery and origin of modern comedy. 7. Robert Greene, Nash and Harvey. 8. Donne, Hall and Fuller. 9. Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher. 10. Jesters in the Times of Elizabeth and James I, Dryden and Butler. 11. Comic Drama of the restoration--Etherege and Wycherley. 12. Tom Brown, Richard Blackmore and female Humorists like Carey. 13. Vanbrugh, Colley Cibber and Farquhar. 14. Congreve--Lord Dorset. II. Evolution of English humour: 15. Introducing Burlesque, the comic imitation. 16. Daniel Defoe's Irony, humour and beginning of humorous periodicals. 17. Jonathan Swift and variety of his humour. 18. Richard Steele and the Tatler's rustic obtuseness. 19. Spectator and The Guardian's pivot humour. 20. Laurence Sterne's versatility and dramatic form. 21. Robert Dodsley, Henry Fielding and Tobias George Smollett. 22. Cowper, Goldsmith, Munchausen and humorous poems. 23. The anti-Jacobin and imitation of Latin lyrics. 24. Wolcott against academicians and Sheridan's comic situations. 25. Typographical devices, puns and poems of Abel Shufflebottom. 26. Charles Lamb. 27. Byron's vision of judgment, humorous rhymes. 28. Theodore Hook, Sydney Smith and John Trot. 29. Douglas Jerrold on liberal politics and advantages of ugliness. 30. Thackeray's acerbity. 31. Dicken's geniality and mixture of Pathos and humour. 32. Variation, effects of emotion and unity of the Ludicrous sense. 33. Difficulties in forming one definition of humour. 34. Charm of mystery, complication--poetry and humour compared. 35. Imperfection--falsity implied, emotion and practical jokes. 36. Three classes of words: obvious distinctions in wit and humour.

"The main body of this book is divided into 36 chapters. The first chapter deals with the Emotional Phases of Humour and Laughter and then comes its origin, which can be traced to the Greek Humour followed by the Roman Humour, Comedy and Satire, Relapse of Civilization in the Middle Ages English Humour and Anglo-Saxon Humour: Satires Against the Church.

Afterwards modern comedy evolved through Ecclesiastical Buffoonery and great Laureates of later centuries which include Daniel Defoe, Robert Greene, Nash and Harvey; Donne, Hall and Fuller; Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher.

Eighteenth century was filled with satire, burlesque, and parody both in art and in literature. The later chapters of the book deal with the first third of the nineteenth century. These chapters deal with the middle third of the nineteenth century. During this period, Robert Browning and Matthew Arnold refined the tradition of witty and ironic poetry started by Lamb, Byron, and Shelley. This is also the period when Charles Dickens established the tradition of the "humors character" in his vernacular comic novels, and also expanded the tradition of the comic gothic. The Bronte Sisters also expanded the comic gothic tradition, as did George Eliot.

The last parts of the book are devoted to the Variation and Effects of Emotion and Unity of the Ludicrous Sense, Difficulties in Forming one Definition of Humour which make the book an incomparable asset for the student of literature." (jacket)