Why laughing mattered in the renaissance: The second Henry Tudor memorial lecture

History of Political Thought

Volumn 23, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 418-447

  Skinner, Quentin ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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ART; ARTICLE; CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY; CULTURAL FACTOR; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; EMOTION; ETHNOLOGY; EUROPE; HISTORY; LANGUAGE; LEISURE; NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION; PHILOSOPHY; PHYSIOLOGY; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; PUBLIC HEALTH; PUBLICATION; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIAL CHANGE; SOCIAL CLASS; SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY;

ANTHROPOLOGY, CULTURAL; ART; CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS; EUROPE; EXPRESSED EMOTION; HISTORY, 17TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 18TH CENTURY; LANGUAGE; LAUGHTER; LEISURE ACTIVITIES; PHILOSOPHY; PUBLIC HEALTH; PUBLICATIONS; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIAL CHANGE; SOCIAL CLASS; SOCIAL CONFORMITY; SOCIAL VALUES;

EID: 0035457393     PISSN: 0143781X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (237)

1. 3 Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, trans. R.J. Hollingdale (Harmondsworth, revised edn., 1990), section 294, p. 218.
2. 4 For fuller lists of Renaissance theorists of laughter see M.A. Screech Laughter at the Foot of the Cross (London, 1997), p. 58 n., and especially Daniel Ménager, La renaissance et le rire (Paris, 1995), pp. 7-11. Ménager's is an excellent study and I am much indebted to it.
3. 4 For fuller lists of Renaissance theorists of laughter see M.A. Screech Laughter at the Foot of the Cross (London, 1997), p. 58 n., and especially Daniel Ménager, La renaissance et le rire (Paris, 1995), pp. 7-11. Ménager's is an excellent study and I am much indebted to it.
4. 5 Laurent Joubert, Traité du ris, contenant son essence ses causes, et mervelheus essais, curieusemant recherchés, raisonnés & observés (Paris, 1579). On the publishing history of Joubert's book see Ménager, La renaissance et le rire, pp. 7-8. On the place of Joubert's work in the medical literature see Vera Cecília Machine, 'The Contribution of Laurent Joubert's Traité du Ris to Sixteenth-Century Physiology of Laughter', in Reading the Book of Nature: The Other Side of the Scientific Revolution, ed. Allen G. Debus and Michael T. Walton (Kirksville, MO, 1998), pp. 251-64.
5. 5 Laurent Joubert, Traité du ris, contenant son essence ses causes, et mervelheus essais, curieusemant recherchés, raisonnés & observés (Paris, 1579). On the publishing history of Joubert's book see Ménager, La renaissance et le rire, pp. 7-8. On the place of Joubert's work in the medical literature see Vera Cecília Machine, 'The Contribution of Laurent Joubert's Traité du Ris to Sixteenth-Century Physiology of Laughter', in Reading the Book of Nature: The Other Side of the Scientific Revolution, ed. Allen G. Debus and Michael T. Walton (Kirksville, MO, 1998), pp. 251-64.
6. 5 Laurent Joubert, Traité du ris, contenant son essence ses causes, et mervelheus essais, curieusemant recherchés, raisonnés & observés (Paris, 1579). On the publishing history of Joubert's book see Ménager, La renaissance et le rire, pp. 7-8. On the place of Joubert's work in the medical literature see Vera Cecília Machine, 'The Contribution of Laurent Joubert's Traité du Ris to Sixteenth-Century Physiology of Laughter', in Reading the Book of Nature: The Other Side of the Scientific Revolution, ed. Allen G. Debus and Michael T. Walton (Kirksville, MO, 1998), pp. 251-64.
7. 6 Celso Mancini, De risu, ac ridiculis, in Moralis Philosophi Libn III (Frankfurt, 1598), pp. 160-231. According to Ménager, La renaissance et le rire, p. 9, Mancini's text was originally published in 1591. But Ménager appears to confuse the publishing history of Mancini's book with that of Antonio Lorenzini's De risu (on which see note 7 below).
8. 6 Celso Mancini, De risu, ac ridiculis, in Moralis Philosophi Libn III (Frankfurt, 1598), pp. 160-231. According to Ménager, La renaissance et le rire, p. 9, Mancini's text was originally published in 1591. But Ménager appears to confuse the publishing history of Mancini's book with that of Antonio Lorenzini's De risu (on which see note 7 below).
9. 6 Celso Mancini, De risu, ac ridiculis, in Moralis Philosophi Libn III (Frankfurt, 1598), pp. 160-231. According to Ménager, La renaissance et le rire, p. 9, Mancini's text was originally published in 1591. But Ménager appears to confuse the publishing history of Mancini's book with that of Antonio Lorenzini's De risu (on which see note 7 below).
10. 7 Antonio Lorenzini [alias Poliziano], Dialogus pulcherrimus et utilissimus, de risu: eiusaue causis et consequentibus (Marburg, 1606). Lorenzini's text had earlier been published together with a reprint of Nicander Jossius' 1580 treatise on laughter in Tractatus Novus, Utilis et Iucundus (Frankfurt, 1603). For Jossius' treatise see note 16 below.
11. 7 Antonio Lorenzini [alias Poliziano], Dialogus pulcherrimus et utilissimus, de risu: eiusaue causis et consequentibus (Marburg, 1606). Lorenzini's text had earlier been published together with a reprint of Nicander Jossius' 1580 treatise on laughter in Tractatus Novus, Utilis et Iucundus (Frankfurt, 1603). For Jossius' treatise see note 16 below.
12. 8 Elpidio Berrettario, Phisici, et Philosophi Tractatus de Risu (Florence, 1603).
13. 9 René Descartes, Les passions de l'ame, ed. Geneviéve Rodis-Lewis (Paris, 1988).
14. 10 The standard edition is Thomas Hobbes, The Elements of Law, ed. Ferdinand Tönnies with an introduction by M.M. Goldsmith (London, 2nd edn., 1969). But this version contains so many transcription errors that I have preferred to quote directly from the best surviving manuscript, BL Harl. MS 4235, adding references to Tönnies' edition in brackets.
15. 11 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. Richard Tuck (Cambridge, 1996), Ch. VI, p. 43.
16. 12 Benedict de Spinoza, Ethics, in The Collected Works of Spinoza, ed. Edwin Curley, Vol. I (Princeton, 1985), IV, P. 45, pp. 571-2.
17. 13 Henry More, An Account of Virtue, trans. Edward Southwell (London, 1690), esp. pp. 69-78, 227-8.
18. 14 This contrasts with some of the most interesting scholarship on the history of laughter, which has concentrated on genres of comedy and their potential for the subversion of elites. See, for example, Mikhaïl Bakhtine, L'oeuvre de François Rabelais et la culture populaire au Moyen Age et sous la Renaissance, trans. Andrée Robel (Paris, 1970); and Keith Thomas, 'The Place of Laughter in Tudor and Stuart England', The Times Literary Supplement, 21 January 1977, pp. 77-81.
19. 14 This contrasts with some of the most interesting scholarship on the history of laughter, which has concentrated on genres of comedy and their potential for the subversion of elites. See, for example, Mikhaïl Bakhtine, L'oeuvre de François Rabelais et la culture populaire au Moyen Age et sous la Renaissance, trans. Andrée Robel (Paris, 1970); and Keith Thomas, 'The Place of Laughter in Tudor and Stuart England', The Times Literary Supplement, 21 January 1977, pp. 77-81.
20. 15 Francisco Vallesio, De risu et fletu, in Controversiarum Medicarum et Philosophicarum Libri Decent (Frankfurt, 1582), V, IX, pp. 220-2.
21. 16 Nicander Jossius, De risu et fletu, in Opuscula (Rome, 1580), pp. 44-144.
22. 17 Timothy Bright, A Treatise of Melancholie (London, 1586), esp. Ch. XXVIII, p. 161: 'Howe melancholic causeth both weeping and laughing, and the reasons how'. Thomas Hobbes, Critique du De Mundo de Thomas White, ed. Jean Jacquot and Harold Whitmore Jones (Paris, 1973), p. 360, similarly links the 'affectus ridentium & flentium', while Descartes, Les passions de l'ame, Article CXXVIII, p. 156, likewise links 'le Ris' and 'les larmes'.
23. 17 Timothy Bright, A Treatise of Melancholie (London, 1586), esp. Ch. XXVIII, p. 161: 'Howe melancholic causeth both weeping and laughing, and the reasons how'. Thomas Hobbes, Critique du De Mundo de Thomas White, ed. Jean Jacquot and Harold Whitmore Jones (Paris, 1973), p. 360, similarly links the 'affectus ridentium & flentium', while Descartes, Les passions de l'ame, Article CXXVIII, p. 156, likewise links 'le Ris' and 'les larmes'.
24. 17 Timothy Bright, A Treatise of Melancholie (London, 1586), esp. Ch. XXVIII, p. 161: 'Howe melancholic causeth both weeping and laughing, and the reasons how'. Thomas Hobbes, Critique du De Mundo de Thomas White, ed. Jean Jacquot and Harold Whitmore Jones (Paris, 1973), p. 360, similarly links the 'affectus ridentium & flentium', while Descartes, Les passions de l'ame, Article CXXVIII, p. 156, likewise links 'le Ris' and 'les larmes'.
25. 18 Rodolph Goclenius (the elder), Physica Commentatio De Risu & Lacrymis (Marburg, 1597).
26. 19 Jossius, De risu et fletu, pp. 91, 94-5; Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 220. See also Goclenius, De Risu & Lacrymis, pp. 21, 37, 45, who anticipates a possible objection by adding (p. 54) that the tears of the crocodile are not real but 'quasi' tears.
27. 19 Jossius, De risu et fletu, pp. 91, 94-5; Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 220. See also Goclenius, De Risu & Lacrymis, pp. 21, 37, 45, who anticipates a possible objection by adding (p. 54) that the tears of the crocodile are not real but 'quasi' tears.
28. 19 Jossius, De risu et fletu, pp. 91, 94-5; Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 220. See also Goclenius, De Risu & Lacrymis, pp. 21, 37, 45, who anticipates a possible objection by adding (p. 54) that the tears of the crocodile are not real but 'quasi' tears.
29. 20 Jossius, De risu et fletu, pp. 52,57;
30. Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 220;
31. Goclenius, De Risu & Lacrymis, p. 22.
32. 21 For the claim that 'risus et fletus praeter naruram fiunt' see Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 222. Cf. Jossius, De risu et fletu, p. 52, on how laughter 'oritur...ob vehementem occasionem' and Goclenius, De Risu & Lacrymis, p. 21, on the 'animi commotio' involved.
33. 21 For the claim that 'risus et fletus praeter naruram fiunt' see Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 222. Cf. Jossius, De risu et fletu, p. 52, on how laughter 'oritur...ob vehementem occasionem' and Goclenius, De Risu & Lacrymis, p. 21, on the 'animi commotio' involved.
34. 21 For the claim that 'risus et fletus praeter naruram fiunt' see Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 222. Cf. Jossius, De risu et fletu, p. 52, on how laughter 'oritur...ob vehementem occasionem' and Goclenius, De Risu & Lacrymis, p. 21, on the 'animi commotio' involved.
35. 22 Jossius, De risu et fletu, p. 99, claims that 'dolor seu dolorificium esset subiectum & materia fletus'. Cf. Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 222, on 'tristitia' as the cause. Thomas Hobbes in his fragment Of Passions likewise observes that 'sudden deiection, is the passion; that causeth weeping'. For Hobbes's remarks see BL Harl. MS 6083, fo. 177, a manuscript in the hand of Sir Charles Cavendish, endorsed (fo. 177v) 'parte of M': Hobbes his answear to my brothers quaeres'.
36. 22 Jossius, De risu et fletu, p. 99, claims that 'dolor seu dolorificium esset subiectum & materia fletus'. Cf. Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 222, on 'tristitia' as the cause. Thomas Hobbes in his fragment Of Passions likewise observes that 'sudden deiection, is the passion; that causeth weeping'. For Hobbes's remarks see BL Harl. MS 6083, fo. 177, a manuscript in the hand of Sir Charles Cavendish, endorsed (fo. 177v) 'parte of M': Hobbes his answear to my brothers quaeres'.
37. 23 Vallesio, De risu, p. 222, claims that weeping can arise out of 'tristitia aut timore'.
38. 24 Bright, A Treatise of Melancholie, p. 162.
39. 25 Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 222, speaks of the 'quasi motus quidam convulsionis' that accompanies laughter. Jossius, De risu et fletu, p. 57, similarly speaks of the passions that 'erumpunt in risum'.
40. 25 Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 222, speaks of the 'quasi motus quidam convulsionis' that accompanies laughter. Jossius, De risu et fletu, p. 57, similarly speaks of the passions that 'erumpunt in risum'.
41. 26 Baldessare Casliglione, The Courtyer of Count Baldessar Castilio . . . done into Englyshe by Thomas Hoby (London 1561; reprinted Edinburgh, 1899), p. 156.
42. 27 Juan Luis Vives, De anima & vita libri tres ('ex ultima autorum eorundem recognitione') (Lyon, 1550), p. 206: 'ex laetitia & delectatione risus nascitur'.
43. 28 For example, by Jossius, De risu et fletu, p. 57, and Lorenzini, De risu, p. 95.
44. 28 For example, by Jossius, De risu et fletu, p. 57, and Lorenzini, De risu, p. 95.
45. 29 Fracastoro, well-known as a Latin poet, was also one of the physicians appointed by the Vatican to attend the Council of Trent. See Ménager, La renaissance et le rire, p. 8.
46. 30 Girolamo Fracastoro, De sympathia & antipathia rerum (Venice, 1546), fo. 23v, states that, when we laugh, 'laetitia interna in facie manifestetur'.
47. 31 Joubert, Traité du ris, esp. pp. 72-3, 87-8.
48. 32 Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 220: 'sentimus, homines ridere quum occurrit res iocunda'.
49. 33 Descartes, Les passions de l'ame, Article CXXV, p. 153: 'il semble que le Ris soit un des principaux signes de la Joye'.
50. 34 BL Harl. MS 4235, fo. 35v (cf. Hobbes, The Elements of Law, ed. Tönnies, p. 41).
51. 35 Castiglione, The Courtyer, p. 158.
52. 36 Thomas Wilson, The Arte of Rhetorique, for the use of all suche as are studious of Eloquence (n.p., 1554), fos. 74v, 75r.
53. 37 Valleriola in turn speaks warmly of Joubert's Traité du ris in his Observationum Medicinalium Libri VI (Lyon, 1588), p. 134.
54. 38 Joubert, Traité du ris, p. 15: 'quelle est la matiere du Ris?'.
55. 39 François Valleriola, De risus natura, & causis in Enarrationum Medicinalium Libri Sex (Lyon, 1954), III, IX, pp. 212-24, esp. pp. 217-18.
56. 40 Joubert, Traité du ris, p. 16: 'tout ce qui est ridicule . . . an fait, ou an dit'.
57. 41 Ibid.: 'ce que nous voyons de laid, difforme, des-honneste, indessant, mal-feant, & peu convenable'.
58. 42 See ibid., p. 134:the 'faisoudis' that provoke laughter are those 'qui ont apparance de laideur, & ne sont pitoyables'.
59. 43 Ibid., p. 30: '[le] commum geanre . . . e[s]t le mepris ou derision'.
60. 44 Ibid., pp. 87-8: 'pour ce que tout ridicule provient de laideur & meffeance'.
61. 45 Ibid., p 87' 'la chose ridicule nous donne plaisir & tristesse'.
62. 46 For a very similar account see Goclenius, De Risu & Lacrymis, Ch II, esp. pp. 9, 15.
63. 47 Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, ed. Thomas C. Faulkner, Nicholas K. Kiessling and Rhonda L. Blair, Vol. I, Text (Oxford, 1989), pp. 37, 57, 101.
64. 48 Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodaxia Epidemica, in The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, ed. Geoffrey Keynes (6 vols., London, 1928-31), Vol. III, p. 312. But Browne believes that there can also be 'a laugh . . . of mirth and Jocosity'.
65. 49 Descartes, Les passions de l'ame, Article CXXV, p. 153: 'Or encore qu'il semble que le Ris soit un des principaux signes de la Joye, elle ne peut toutefois le causer que lors qu' elle est seulement mediocre, & qu' il y a quelque admiration ou quelque haine meslée avec elle.'
66. 50 BL Harl. MS4235, fo. 36r (cf. Hobbes, The Elements of Law, ed. Tönnies, p.42). It seems to be Hobbes's view that, even when our laughter is directed at our own former infirmities, the comparison is with our present ascendancy over others.
67. 51 BL Harl. MS4235, fo. 36r (cf. Hobbes, The Elements of Law, ed. Tönnies, p. 42).
68. 52 BL Harl. MS 4235, fos. 35v-36r (cf. Hobbes, The Elements of Law, ed. Tönnies, pp. 41-2).
69. 53 Thomas Hobbes, Of Passions, BL Harl. MS 6083, fo. 177r (For this MS see note 22 above.)
70. 54 Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, pp. 311-12.
71. 55 For a particularly rapturous discussion see the closing chapter of More, An Account of Virtue, esp. pp. 265-6.
72. 56 My quotations come from the version entitled 'La cause morale du ris' (a translation from the Greek by M.I. Guichard), which is printed as an Appendix to Joubert, Traité du ris, pp. 355-75.
73. 57 Joubert, Traité du ris, p. 375: 'Ce disant, il sourioit: & adonc il me sambloit une face divine, ayant changé la sienne.'
74. 58 For a discussion of smiling, and especially the smile of La Gioconda, see Ménager, La renaissance et le rire, esp. pp. 200-6.
75. 59 Charles Baudelaire, The Essence of Laughter (De l'essence du rire), in The Essence of Laughter and Other Essays, Journals, and Letters, ed. Peter Quennell (New York, 1956), pp. 109-30, esp. pp. 115-17.
76. 60 BL Harl. MS 4235, fo. 35v (cf. Hobbes, The Elements of Law, ed. Tönnies, p. 41).
77. 61 Aristotle, Parts of Animals, trans. A.L. Peck (London, revised edn., 1961), III. 10, p. 281. For a discussion see Screech, Laughter at the Foot of the Cross, pp 1-5.
78. 61 Aristotle, Parts of Animals, trans. A.L. Peck (London, revised edn., 1961), III. 10, p. 281. For a discussion see Screech, Laughter at the Foot of the Cross, pp 1-5.
79. 62 Hobbes's paraphrase is preserved at Chatsworth as Hobbes MS D.1: Latin Exercises (bound MS volume with Ex Aristot: Rhet. at pp. 1-143).
80. 63 As Karl Schumann's forthcoming edition will show, the English version of Hobbes's paraphrase contains a number of anomalies and mistranslations which suggest that it cannot be by Hobbes.
81. 64 [Thomas Hobbes], A Brief of the Art of Rhetorique, in The Rhetorics of Thomas Hobbes and Bernard Lamy, ed. John T. Harwood (Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL,
82. 65 Ibid., p. 86.
83. 66 Ibid., pp. 70, 86.
84. 67 Ibid., p. 57.
85. 68 Aristotle, The 'Art' of Rhetoric, ed. and trans. J.H. Freese (London, 1926), 1371b, p. 128, and 1419b, p. 466.
86. 69 It may be, however, that Aristotle is referring to a fuller discussion in the now lost Book II of his Poetics.
87. 70 Aristotle, Poetics, ed. and trans. Stephen Halliwell (London, 1995), 1449a, p. 44.
88. 71 See Plato, Philebus, 48c-50b, and cf. The Laws, Book XI, 935d-936a, where he discusses the need to regulate comic writers in their use of ridicule.
89. 71 See Plato, Philebus, 48c-50b, and cf. The Laws, Book XI, 935d-936a, where he discusses the need to regulate comic writers in their use of ridicule.
90. 72 Plato, The Republic, Book V, 452d.
91. 73 Joubert, Traité du ris, Appendix, p. 358: 'voulant ancor mieus expliquer sa follie, se mit à pleurer à haute vois, comme une fame qui pleure la mort de son anfant'.
92. 74 Ibid., p. 363: 'Je ne me Ris que de l'homme, plein de folie, & vide de toutes accions droites.'
93. 75 Ibid., pp. 363-4: 'choses de nulle valeur, consument leurs vies an choses ridicules'.
94. 76 Ibid., p. 375: 'le tres-sage Democrite, qui seul peut randre sages tous les hommes du monde'.
95. 77 Cicero, De oratore, ed. and trans. E.W. Sutton and H. Rackham (2 vols., London, 1942), II. 57.233,Vol. I, p. 370.
96. 78 Ibid., II. 58. 236, Vol. I, p. 372: 'Locus autem et regio quasi ridiculi ... turpitudine et deformitate quadam continetur; haec enim ridentur vel sola, vel maxime, quae notant et designant turpitudinem aliquam non turpiter.'
97. 79 Ibid., II. 59. 238, Vol. I, p.374: 'materies omnis ridiculorum est istis vitiis quae sunnn vita hommum neque carorum neque calamitosorum'.
98. 80 Ibid., II. 59. 239, Vol. I, p. 374: 'est etiam deformitatis et corporis vitiorum satis bella materies as iocandum'.
99. 81 Quintilian, Instituto oratoria, ed. and trans. H.E. Butler (4 vols., London, 1920-2), VI. 3. 8, Vol. II, pp. 442, quoting Cicero, De oratore, II. 58. 236, Vol. I, p. 372: '[Risus] habet sedem in deformitate aliqua et turpitudine.'
100. 81 Quintilian, Instituto oratoria, ed. and trans. H.E. Butler (4 vols., London, 1920-2), VI. 3. 8, Vol. II, pp. 442, quoting Cicero, De oratore, II. 58. 236, Vol. I, p. 372: '[Risus] habet sedem in deformitate aliqua et turpitudine.'
101. 82 Quintilian, Institutio oratoria, VI. 3. 6, Vol. II, pp. 440: 'ridiculum dictum plerumque falsum est (hoc semper humile), saepe ex industria depravatum, praeterea nunquam honorificum'.
102. 83 Ibid., VI. 3. 8, Vol. II, p. 442. 'A desiru non proculabest risus.'
103. 84 Ibid., XI. 1. 22, Vol. IV, pp. 166: 'Ambitiosissimum glorandi genus est etiam deridere.'
104. 85 Castiglione, The Courtyer, p. 153.
105. 86 Joubert, Traité du ris, Appendix, pp. 355-75.
106. 87 Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 33.
107. 88 BL Harl. MS 4235, fo. 35v (cf. Hobbes, The Elements of Law, ed. Tönnies, p. 41). The definition is repeated in Hobbes, Leviathan, Ch. VI, p. 43.
108. 88 BL Harl. MS 4235, fo. 35v (cf. Hobbes, The Elements of Law, ed. Tönnies, p. 41). The definition is repeated in Hobbes, Leviathan, Ch. VI, p. 43.
109. 89 Cicero, De oratore, II. 63. 255, Vol. I, p. 388; cf. also II. 71. 289, Vol. I, p. 418.
110. 89 Cicero, De oratore, II. 63. 255, Vol. I, p. 388; cf. also II. 71. 289, Vol. I, p. 418.
111. 90 Castiglione, The Courtyer, pp. 189, 191.
112. 91 Vives, De anima & vita, p. 207: 'insperata vera & subita plus afficiunt, citius commovent risum'. On this assumption see Quentin Skinner, Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes (Cambridge, 1996), p. 392. The claim was frequently reiterated by humanist writers of the next generation. See, for example, Mancini, De risu, ac ridiculis, p. 217, arguing that anything which causes laughter must always happen statim, suddenly and all at once.
113. 91 Vives, De anima & vita, p. 207: 'insperata vera & subita plus afficiunt, citius commovent risum'. On this assumption see Quentin Skinner, Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes (Cambridge, 1996), p. 392. The claim was frequently reiterated by humanist writers of the next generation. See, for example, Mancini, De risu, ac ridiculis, p. 217, arguing that anything which causes laughter must always happen statim, suddenly and all at once.
114. 91 Vives, De anima & vita, p. 207: 'insperata vera & subita plus afficiunt, citius commovent risum'. On this assumption see Quentin Skinner, Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes (Cambridge, 1996), p. 392. The claim was frequently reiterated by humanist writers of the next generation. See, for example, Mancini, De risu, ac ridiculis, p. 217, arguing that anything which causes laughter must always happen statim, suddenly and all at once.
115. 92 The point was quickly taken up by the humanist writers. See, for example, Jossius, De risu et fletu, p. 58, and Lorenzini, De risu, p. 95.
116. 92 The point was quickly taken up by the humanist writers. See, for example, Jossius, De risu et fletu, p. 58, and Lorenzini, De risu, p. 95.
117. 93 Fracastoro, De sympathia, fo. 23v: 'Nova quoque ea sunt, quae risum movere solent.' See also fo. 24r. on the need for the res to be subita and repentina.
118. 94 Ibid., fo. 24r. 'subitam & repentinam etiam admirationem ac repentinam etiam deledtationem faciunt [et ex delectatione] ... motum oris, qui risus dicitur'.
119. 95 Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 220, acknowledges both Valeriola and Fracastoro.
120. 96 Ibid.: 'experimento sentimus, homines ridere, quum occurrit res iocunda, & nova ... nova faciunt admirationem, iocunda gaudium'.
121. 97 Vicento Maggi, De ridiculis, in In Aristotelis Librum de Poetica Communes Explicationes (Venice, 1550), pp. 301-27.
122. 98 Ibid., p. 305: 'Mirari satis non possum cur Cicero ... de admiratione, quae est una risus causa, ne verbum quidem fecerit ... cum risus nunquam sine admiratione fieri possit.'
123. 99 Maggio focuses on the importance of novitas in Part of his De ridiculis, pp. 310-22.
124. 100 On the place of wonder in Descartes' theory of the passions see Susan James, Passion and Action: The Emotions in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy (Oxford, 1997), esp. pp. 169-70, 187-9.
125. 101 Descartes, Les passions de l'ame, Article CXXIV, p. 153: 'enflant les poumons subitement ... fait que l'air qu'ils contienent, est contraint d'en sortir avec impetuosité par le sifflet, où il forme une voix inarticulée & esclatante'.
126. 102 Ibid., p. 154: 'poussée vers le coeur par quelque legere émotion de Haine, aydée par la surprise de l'Admiration'.
127. 103 More, Account of Virtue, p. 69: 'Derision is compounded of joy and hatred; and if the Evil, which is the Object of it, happens on asudden, it produces Laughter.'
128. 104 BL Harl. MS 4235, fo. 35v (cf. Hobbes, The Elements of Law, ed. Tönnies, p. 41).
129. 105 Ibid.
130. 106 Ibid.
131. 107 Maggi, De ridiculis, Part III, esp. p. 325.
132. 108 Aristotle, Poetics, ed. Halliwell, 1449a, p. 44.
133. 109 Castiglione, The Courtyer, p. 166.
134. 110 Jossius, De risu et fletu, p. 75, offers ' quodam avaritiae genus & actiones' as his first example of the fact that 'in moribus quoque corporis, atque animi latent ridicula'.
135. 111 Mancini, De risu, ac ridiculis, pp. 229-30: 'Ridendo avaritiam senum [quod] ab avaritia hominem fieri deformem & monstrum.'
136. 112 Paolo Beni, In Aristotelis poeticam commentarii (Padua, 1613), p. 162.
137. 113 Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews, ed. R.F. Brissenden (London, 1985), pp. 28-9.
138. 114 Plato, Philebus, 48c-49c.
139. 115 Cicero, De oratore, II. 58. 237, Vol. I. p. 374, singles out the absurdity of those who 'se forte iactant'.
140. 116 Castiglione, The Courtyer, p. 158.
141. 117 Ibid., p.166.
142. 118 Mancini , De risu, ac ridiculis, pp. 229-30: 'Provocat nos ad risum iactantia militis gloriosi [quod] cognoscimus dementiam esse illam inanem gloriam . . . carens mensura nos vexat.'
143. 119 Francis Bacon, 'Of Boldness', in Essays, ed. Michael J. Hawkins (London, 1994), pp. 30-1.
144. 120 Lodovico Castelvetro, Poetica d'Arislotele vulgarizzata et sposta (Vienna 1570), fo. 53v, speaks of 'la natura nostra corrotta per lo peccato originale' and the fact that 'si riempie d'alegrezza, & di superbia'.
145. 121 One might expect to find in addition some moral objections to contemptuous laughter, and especially to its use (in accordance with Cicero's instructions) to mock other people's weaknesses and infirmities. But such scruples are rarely voiced. The only leading humanist to make this kind of anti-Aristotelian point is Thomas More in Utopia, ed. George M. Logan, Robert M. Adams and Clarence H. Miller (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 192-4.
146. 122 Fracastoro, De sympathia, fos. 23v-24r: 'verum haec non proprie ea sunt, quae ridicula dicuntur ... Est autem risus, compositus ex admiratione & letitia.'
147. 123 Vallesio, De risu et fletu, p. 220: 'homines ridere, quum occurrit res iocunda, & nova ... atque quamprimum cessat aut iocunditas, aut novitas, cessare risum'.
148. 124 Berrettario, Tractatus de Risu, fos. 7r, 22r, also singles out the laughter provoked by tickling, insisting (against Fracastoro) that this too is 'real' and a distinct genus of the phenomenon.
149. 125 Ibid., fo. 7r.
150. 126 Ibid., fo. 19r: 'alterum vero, quando iucunditate & cantate quadam allicimur ad risum.'
151. 127 See Ménager, La renaissance et le rire, pp. 32-3, for a discussion of this text.
152. 128 Castelvetro, Poetica d' Aristotle, fo. 50v: 'il ridevole è particella della turpitudine'.
153. 129 Ibid., fo. 51r: 'il riso si muove in noi per cose piacentici'.
154. 130 Beni, In Aristotelis poeticam commentarii, p. 103: 'Comoedia non raro bonos exprimit ... [et] cum laude represente[n]t.' Cf. also pp. 162, 197.
155. 131 Fracastoro, De sympathia, fo. 23v: 'quum aut amicis & familiaribus, aut filiis, & universaliter charis occurrimus ... ridere solemus, & laetitiam ostendere'.
156. 132 Castelvetro, Poetica d'Aristotle, fo. 51r: 'Il padre & la madre con riso & con festa riceve I figlioletti piccioli ... & parimente l'amante raccoglie la donna amata con riso.' See also the tabulation at the end of this section of Castelvetro's commentary, which is headed (fo. 54v) 'cose piacenti che ci muovono a riso'. The first is said to be 'carita di persone prossime o amate o di cose desiderate'.
157. 133 Berrettario. Tractatus de Risu, fo. 20v.
158. 134 Ibid., fos. 19r, 21v.
159. 135 Jossius, De risu et fletu, pp. 71-2: 'si mulier induat habitum virilem, aut accincta ense proficiscatur ad forum ... [aut si] miles gloriosus ... sedeat cum pueris in schola discens grammaticam ... [aut] si princeps ut rustica gens vestiat'.
160. 136 Ibid., p. 71: 'ad locum, ad tempus, ad modum, aut occasionem'.
161. 137 On this development see Stuart M. Tave, The Amiable Humorist (Chicago, 1960), esp. pp. 43-87.
162. 138 [Joseph Addison], The Spectator, ed. Donald F. Bond (4 vols Oxford 1965), no. 249 (15 December 1711), Vol. II, pp. 465-9, refers us back to an earlier article (no. 49, 24 April 1711, Vol. I, pp. 200-4) about Hobbes's theory of laughter. Addison maintains that, while Hobbes's account 'seems to hold in most cases', we need to recognize a form of laughter 'in it self both amiable and beautiful' (Vol. II, pp. 466, 468).
163. 139 Francis Hutcheson, Reflections upon Laughter (Glasgow, 1750), originally published as three articles in the Dublin Review (1725). (For the printing history see Tave, The Amiable Humorist, p. 56.) Hutcheson (Reflections upon Laughter, pp. 6, 29) denounces the 'palpable absurdity' of Hobbes's failure to recognize that laughter frequently 'evidences good nature'.
164. 139 Francis Hutcheson, Reflections upon Laughter (Glasgow, 1750), originally published as three articles in the Dublin Review (1725). (For the printing history see Tave, The Amiable Humorist, p. 56.) Hutcheson (Reflections upon Laughter, pp. 6, 29) denounces the 'palpable absurdity' of Hobbes's failure to recognize that laughter frequently 'evidences good nature'.
165. 139 Francis Hutcheson, Reflections upon Laughter (Glasgow, 1750), originally published as three articles in the Dublin Review (1725). (For the printing history see Tave, The Amiable Humorist, p. 56.) Hutcheson (Reflections upon Laughter, pp. 6, 29) denounces the 'palpable absurdity' of Hobbes's failure to recognize that laughter frequently 'evidences good nature'.
166. 140 Fielding, Joseph Andrews, pp. 26-8. On the development of the contrast between laughter produced by satire (contemptuous and ridiculing) and by the burlesque sympathetic) see Ronald Paulson, Don Quixote in England: The Aesthetics of Laughter (Baltimore, 1998).
167. 140 Fielding, Joseph Andrews, pp. 26-8. On the development of the contrast between laughter produced by satire (contemptuous and ridiculing) and by the burlesque sympathetic) see Ronald Paulson, Don Quixote in England: The Aesthetics of Laughter (Baltimore, 1998).
168. 141 Joubert, Traité du ris, Ch. IX, pp. 288-301.
169. 142 Jossius, De risu et fletu, p. 69: 'ego tamen dico ex mente Aristotelis'.
170. 143 Ibid., p. 52, claims that, for the 'verus risus', it is essential 'quod ridicula cognoscit'.
171. 144 See Lorenzini, De risu, p. 74, where the Socratic figure of Cosmus declares that 'oportet eum, qui ridet, quod ridet, cognoscere', adding that 'etiam solus homo ad risum aptus sit'.
172. 145 Valleriola, Enarrationum Medicinalium, p. 218.
173. 146 Joubert, Traité du ris, p. 72; Descartes, Les passions de l'ame, Article CXXV, p. 153.
174. 146 Joubert, Traité du ris, p. 72; Descartes, Les passions de l'ame, Article CXXV, p. 153.
175. 147 Valleriola, Enarrationum Medicinalium, p. 217.
176. 148 Castiglione, The Courtyer, pp. 156-7.
177. 149 Joubert, Traité du ris, p. 72: 'L'objet ou matiere de la rejouissance, e[s]t chose seneuse qui apporte plaisir, gain, proufit, commodité, ou autre vray contantement. La matiere de l'affeccion faisant rire, n'et que sollatre, badine, vaine, & souvant mansongere.'
178. 150 Philip Sidney, The Defence of Poesie, in The Complete Works, ed. Albert Feuillerat, Vol. III (Cambridge, 1923), p. 40.
179. 151 Joubert, Traité du ris, esp. pp. 251-4, 258-9
180. 152 Ibid., esp. pp. 81-3, 273-6.
181. 153 Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 2.
182. 154 Joubert, Traité du ris, Appendix, p. 363, speaks of this 'remede et cure'.
183. 155 Joubert Traité du ris, p. 259, speaks of the value of laughter in helping to sustain 'la symmetrie & moderacion de la temperature ou complexion humaine'.
184. 156 For similar observations about the power of laughter to purge ill humours see Bright, A Treatise of Melancholie, Ch. XXXI, pp. 178-84, and Berrattano, Tractatus de Risu, Ch. X, fos. 25v-26r.
185. 157 John Milton, L'Allegro, in The Complete Poems, ed. John Leonard (London, 1998), p. 22, line 13.
186. 158 Quintilian, Institutio oratoria, II. 17.32, Vol. I, p. 338: 'duos sapientes aliquando iustae causae in diversum trahant, (quando etiam pugnaturos eos inter se, si ratio ita duxerit, credunt)'.
187. 159 Ibid., II. 17. 10 Vol. I, p. 322: 'in utramque pattem valet arma facundiae'.
188. 160 Cicero, De oratore, I. 8. 30, Vol. I, p. 22; II. 42. 178, Vol. I, p. 324; III. 6. 23, Vol. II, p. 18; III. 14. 55, Vol. II, p. 44.
189. 160 Cicero, De oratore, I. 8. 30, Vol. I, p. 22; II. 42. 178, Vol. I, p. 324; III. 6. 23, Vol. II, p. 18; III. 14. 55, Vol. II, p. 44.
190. 160 Cicero, De oratore, I. 8. 30, Vol. I, p. 22; II. 42. 178, Vol. I, p. 324; III. 6. 23, Vol. II, p. 18; III. 14. 55, Vol. II, p. 44.
191. 160 Cicero, De oratore, I. 8. 30, Vol. I, p. 22; II. 42. 178, Vol. I, p. 324; III. 6. 23, Vol. II, p. 18; III. 14. 55, Vol. II, p. 44.
192. 160 Cicero, De oratore, I. 8. 30, Vol. I, p. 22; II. 42. 178, Vol. I, p. 324; III. 6. 23, Vol. II, p. 18; III. 14. 55, Vol. II, p. 44.
193. 161 Ibid., II. 17. 72, Vol. I, p. 252: when the judge is 'amicus adversario et inimicus tibi', then 'tanquam machinatione aliqua ... est contorquendus'.
194. 162 Ibid., II. 42. 178, Vol. I, p. 324: 'ipse sic moveatur, ut impetu quodam animi et perturbatione, magis quam iudicio aut consilio regatur'.
195. 163 As the figure of Antonius in De oratore expresses it, the highest art is to argue in such a way that, while appearing merely to teach, 'you have the power to move the minds of your audience as much as possible'. See ibid., II. 77. 310, Vol. I, p. 434: 'habere hanc vim magnopere debent, ut ad eorum mentes apud quos agetur' movendas pertinere possint'.
196. 164 Ibid., III. 27. 104, Vol. II, p. 82: 'Summa autem laus eloquentiae est amplificare rem ornando ... vel cum conciliamus animos vel cum concitamus.'
197. 165 Quintilian, Institutio oratoria, IX. 1. 21, Vol. III, p. 358: 'Plurimum tamen ad commendationem facit, sive in conciliandis agentis moribus sive ad promerendum actioni favorem.' On figurae as the chief means by which 'ornatur oratio', cf. ibid., X. 5. 3, Vol. IV, p. 114.
198. 165 Quintilian, Institutio oratoria, IX. 1. 21, Vol. III, p. 358: 'Plurimum tamen ad commendationem facit, sive in conciliandis agentis moribus sive ad promerendum actioni favorem.' On figurae as the chief means by which 'ornatur oratio', cf. ibid., X. 5. 3, Vol. IV, p. 114.
199. 166 Ibid., VI. 3. 8, Vol. II, p. 442.
200. 167 Ibid., X. 1. 107. Vol. IV, pp. 60-2: 'Salibus certe et commiseratione, qui duo plurimum in adfectibus valent.'
201. 168 Cicero, De oratore, II. 58. 236, Vol. I, p. 372: 'maxime respondents, nonnunquam etiam lacessentis; vel quod frangit adversarium, quod impedit, quod elevat, quod deterrret, quod refutat'.
202. 169 Ibid., II. 65. 261, Vol. I, p. 394, and esp. II. 67. 269-72, Vol. I, pp. 402-4.
203. 169 Ibid., II. 65. 261, Vol. I, p. 394, and esp. II. 67. 269-72, Vol. I, pp. 402-4.
204. 170 Ibid., II. 66. 267, Vol. I, p. 400: 'Etiam illa quae minuendi aut augendi causa ad incredibilem admirationem efferuntur.'
205. 171 Wilson, The Arte of Rhetorique, fo. 76v.
206. 172 Henry Peacham, The Garden of Eloquence (London, 1593), p. 34.
207. v.
208. v.
209. 175 Peacham, The Garden of Eloquence, p. 118.
210. 176 Ibid., p. 168.
211. 177 For an analysis of Erasmus's satirical techniques see Screech, Laughter at the Foot of the Cross, pp. 161-75, 188-90.
212. 178 A point perceptively made in Elizabeth McCutcheon, 'Denying the Contrary: More's Use of Litotes in the Utopia', Moreana, 31 (1971), pp. 107-21, esp. at pp. 114-16.
213. 179 For Hobbes's use of these techniques see Skinner, Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes, pp. 404-5, 421-2.
214. 180 For a full account of these techniques (on which I draw in what follows) see ibid., pp. 413-25.
215. r.
216. 182 Hobbes, Leviathan, Ch. XLIV, p. 426.
217. 183 Ibid., Ch. XLVII, p. 481.
218. 184 Ibid., Ch. XLVI, p. 458.
219. v.
220. 186 Hobbes, Leviathan, Ch VIII, p. 59.
221. 187 Ibid., Ch.VI, p.42.
222. r.
223. 189 Norbert Elias, The Civilising Process, trans. Edmund Jephcott (Oxford, 1994).
224. 190 See ibid., esp. pp. 110-17; and Thomas, 'The Place of Laughter in Tudor and Stuart England', esp. p. 79.
225. 190 See ibid., esp. pp. 110-17; and Thomas, 'The Place of Laughter in Tudor and Stuart England', esp. p. 79.
226. 191 Castiglione, The Courtyer, pp. 158, 178.
227. 192 Ibid., p. 156.
228. 193 Stefano Guazzo, The Civile Conversation, trans. George Pettie and Bartholomew Young, ed. Edward Sullivan (2 vols., London, 1925), Vol. II, p. 198.
229. 194 Ibid., p. 132.
230. 195 BL Harl. MS 4235, fo. 36r(cf. Hobbes, The Elements of Law, ed. Tönnies, p. 42).
231. 196 Thomas Hobbes, The Answer of Mr. Hobbes to Sir Will. D' Avenant Preface Before Gondibert, in Sir William Davenant's Gondibert, ed. David F. Gladish (Oxford, 1971), p. 53.
232. 197 Hobbes, Leviathan, Ch. VI, p. 43.
233. 198 William Congreve, The Double-Dealer, ed. J.C. Ross (London, 1981), I. i., p. 25. For this and other comparable references see Tave, The Amiable Humorist, p. 10 and notes.
234. 198 William Congreve, The Double-Dealer, ed. J.C. Ross (London, 1981), I. i., p. 25. For this and other comparable references see Tave, The Amiable Humorist, p. 10 and notes.
235. 199 The Marquis of Halifax, The Lady's New Year's Gift; Or, Advice to a Daugther, in Halifax: Complete Works, ed. J.P. Kenyon (Harmondsworth, 1969), p. 298.
236. 200 Ibid.
237. 201 The Earl of Chesterfield, The Letters of the Earl of Chesterfield to his Son, ed. Charles Strachey and Annette Calthrop (2 vols., London, 1901), Letter CXLIV, Vol. I, p. 212.