قراءة كتاب An Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit, Humour, Railery, Satire, and Ridicule (1744)
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An Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit, Humour, Railery, Satire, and Ridicule (1744)
here [sic] the Morning Planet gilds her Horns."
[P.L. 7. 363-66]
"Thus splendid, and superior, your Lordship now flourishes in honourable Ease, exerting universal Benevolence...." But in dedications, as in lapidary inscriptions, as Dr. Johnson might have agreed, a writer need not be upon oath.
At the end of the Essay Morris reprinted two essays from The Spectator, Nos. 35 and 62, and William Congreve's "An Essay concerning Humour in Comedy. To Mr. Dennis" (Congreve's Works, ed. Summers, III, 161-68). Since these are readily available, they have not been included in this edition.
The present facsimile is made from a copy owned by Louis I. Bredvold, with his kind permission.
James L. Clifford
Columbia University
The ARS edition included an errata slip, reproduced here. A few typographical errors have also been corrected in the Essay itself. Changes to the text are marked like this.]
Please paste the following in your copy of Corbyn Morris's
Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit....
(ARS, Series One, No. 4)
ERRATA
| INTRODUCTION: | page 5, line 1--"word apparently omitted" should be inclosed in brackets. page 5, line 6--"not identified" should be inclosed in brackets. page 6, line 5--the first "of" should be omitted. page 6, line 12, should read "Walpole is praised for not curbing the press while necessarily curbing the theatre, his aid to commerce". page 6, line 25--"sic" should be inclosed in brackets, as also "P.L. 7. 363-66" in the next line. |
| ESSAY ON WIT: (as noted by transcriber) |
page ix--Greek epidexioi may have been printed epidezioi; letter-form is ambiguous page 14--"Oddistie" changed to "Oddities" page 20 and elsewhere--"Biass" is an attested variant spelling page 25--"teizes" (modern "teases") is an attested variant spelling page 40--"Quoxote" changed to "Quixote" |
AN
ESSAY
Towards Fixing the
TRUE STANDARDS
OF
Wit, Humour, Raillery,
Satire, and Ridicule.
To which is Added, an
ANALYSIS
Of the Characters of
An Humourist, Sir JohnFalstaff, Sir Roger
De Coverly, and Don Quixote.
Inscribed to the Right Honorable
Robert Earl of Orford.
By the Author of a
LETTER from a BY-STANDER.
---- Jacta est Alea.
LONDON:
Printed for J. Roberts, at the Oxford-Arms, in Warwick-
lane; and W. Bickerton, in the Temple-Exchange,
near the Inner-Temple-Gate, Fleet-Street.
M dcc xliv. [Price 2s.]
INTRODUCTION.
AN Attempt to describe the precise Limits of Wit, Humour, Raillery, Satire and Ridicule, I am sensible, is no easy or slight Undertaking. To give a Definition of Wit, has been declared by Writers of the greatest Renown, to exceed their Reach and Power; and Gentlemen of no less Abilities, and Fame, than Cowley, Barrow, Dryden, Locke, Congreve, and Addison, have tryed their Force upon this Subject, and have all left it free, and unconquered. This, I perceive, will be an Argument with some, for condemning an Essay upon this Topic by a young Author, as rash and presumptious. But, though I desire to pay all proper Respect to these eminent Writers, if a tame Deference to great Names shall become fashionable, and the Imputation of Vanity be laid upon those who examine their Works, all Advancement in Knowledge will be absolutely stopp'd; and Literary Merit will be soon placed, in an humble Stupidity, and solemn Faith in the Wisdom of our Ancestors.
Whereas, if I rightly apprehend, an Ambition to excell is the Principle which should animate a Writer, directed by a Love of Truth, and a free Spirit of Candour and Inquiry. This is the Flame which should warm the rising Members of every Science, not a poor Submission to those who have preceded. For, however it may be with a Religious Devotion, a Literary One is certainly the Child of Ignorance.
However, I must acknowledge, that where I have differed from the great Authors before mentioned, it has been with a Diffidence, and after the most serious and particular Examination of what they have delivered. It is from hence, that I have thought it my Duty, to exhibit with the following Essay, their several Performances upon the same Subject, that every Variation of mine from their Suffrage, and the Reasons upon which I have grounded it, may clearly appear.
The following Ode upon Wit is written by Mr. Cowley.
O D E
O F
W I T.
Tell me, oh tell!, what kind of Thing is Wit,
Thou who Master art of it;
For the first Matter loves Variety less;
Less Women love't, either in Love or Dress.
A thousand diff'rent Shapes it bears,
Comely in thousand Shapes appears;
Yonder we saw it plain, and here 'tis now,
Like Spirits in a Place, we know not how.
II.
London, that vents of false Ware so much Store,
In no Ware deceives us more;
For Men, led by the Colour, and the Shape,
Like Zeuxis' Bird, fly to the painted Grape.
Some things do through our Judgment pass,
As through a Multiplying Glass:
And sometimes, if the Object be too far,
We take a falling Meteor for a, Star.
III.
Hence 'tis a Wit, that greatest Word of Fame,
Grows such a common Name;
And Wits, by our Creation, they become;
Just so