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Read Ebook: An Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit Humour Railery Satire and Ridicule (1744) by Morris Corbyn Clifford James L James Lowry Commentator
Font size: Background color: Text color: Add to tbrJar First Page Next PageEbook has 59 lines and 26293 words, and 2 pagesCommentator: James L. Clifford No. 4 With an Introduction by James L. Clifford and a Bibliographical Note The Augustan Reprint Society November, 1947 Price: .00 GENERAL EDITORS RICHARD C. BOYS, University of Michigan EDWARD NILES HOOKER, University of California, Los Angeles H.T. SWEDENBERG, JR., University of California, Los Angeles ADVISORY EDITORS INTRODUCTION Not much is known of the early life of Corbyn Morris. Born 14 August 1710, he was the eldest son of Edmund Morris of Bishop's Castle, Salop. . On 17 September 1727 he was admitted at Queen's College, Cambridge, as an exhibitioner from the famous Charterhouse School. Exactly when he left the university, or whether he took a degree, is not certain. Christ Church College, Oxford, SIR: If the "Gentlemen of Abilities" of the day found some of Morris's definitions obscure, modern readers will find them more precise than those of most of his predecessors. All who had gone before--Cowley, Barrow, Dryden, Locke, Addison, and Congreve --Morris felt had bungled the job. And although he apologizes for attempting what the great writers of the past had failed to do, he has no hesitation in setting forth exactly what he believes to be the proper distinctions in the meanings of such terms as wit, humour, judgment, invention, raillery, and ridicule. The mathematician and statistician in Morris made him strive for precise accuracy. It was all very clear to him, and by the use of numerous anecdotes and examples he hoped to make the distinctions obvious to the general reader. "Great Palace now of Light! Hither, as to their Fountain, other Stars Repairing, in their golden Urns, draw Light; And here the Morning Planet gilds her Horns." "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. James L. Clifford Columbia University 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. 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 John Falstaff, Sir Roger De Coverly, and Don Quixote. Inscribed to the RIGHT HONORABLE ROBERT Earl of ORFORD. 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. INTRODUCTION. ODE of WIT. I don't doubt but you have observed several Men laugh when they are angry; others, who are silent; some that are loud; yet I cannot suppose that it is the Passion of ANGER, which is in itself different, or more or less in one than t'other, but that it is the HUMOUR of the Man that is predominant, and urges him to express it in that Manner. Demonstrations of PLEASURE, are as various: One Man has a HUMOUR of retiring from all Company, when any thing has happened to please him beyond Expectation; he hugs himself alone, and thinks it an Addition to the Pleasure to keep it a Secret, &c. "Suppose MOROSE to be a Man naturally splenetic, and melancholy; is there any thing more offensive to one of such a DISPOSITION than Noise and Clamour? Let any Man that has the Spleen be Judge. We see common Examples of this HUMOUR in little every Day. 'Tis ten to one, but three Parts in four of the Company you dine with, are discomposed, and started at the cutting of a Cork, or scratching of a Plate with a Knife; it is a Proportion of the same HUMOUR, that makes such, or any other Noise, offensive to the Person that hears it; for there are others who will not be disturbed at all by it. An ESSAY on Wit, Humour, Raillery, & c. To exhibit some Examples of WIT. It is easy to be perceived, that HUMOUR, and WIT are extremely different. However, though HUMOUR and WIT are thus absolutely different in themselves, yet we frequently see them blended together. HUMOUR and WIT, as they may thus both be united in the same Subject, may also separately appear without the least Mixture together; that is, there may be HUMOUR without WIT, and WIT without HUMOUR. That HUMOUR gives more Delight, and leaves a more pleasurable Impression behind it, than WIT, is universally felt and established; Though the Reasons for this have not yet been assign'd.--I shall therefore beg Leave to submit the following. Collation: A, a-c, in fours; d in two; a-d, in fours; B-K in fours; L in two. A, title; verso blank; A^2-d, dedication; d^2 erratum and advertisements; a-d^4, Introduction; B-L^2, text. The first edition. A second edition was published in 1758. Colton Storm Clements Library ANNOUNCING the THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY RICHARD C. BOYS EDWARD NILES HOOKER H.T. SWEDENBERG, JR. Makes Available from Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page |
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