THE SECOND VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.

Burlesque--Parody--The "Splendid Shilling"--Prior--Pope--Ambrose

Philips--Parodies of Gray's Elegy--Gay1

CHAPTER II.

Defoe--Irony--Ode to the Pillory--The "Comical Pilgrim"--The

"Scandalous Club"--Humorous Periodicals--Heraclitus

Ridens--The London Spy--The British Apollo22

CHAPTER III.

Swift--"Tale of a Tub"--Essays--Gulliver's Travels--Variety

of Swift's Humour--Riddles--Stella's Wit--Directions

for Servants--Arbuthnot44

CHAPTER IV.

Steele--The Funeral--The Tatler--Contributions of Swift--Of

Addison--Expansive Dresses--"Bodily Wit"--Rustic

Obtuseness--Crosses in Love--Snuff-taking62

CHAPTER V.

Spectator--The Rebus--Injurious Wit--The Everlasting

Club--The Lovers' Club--Castles in the Air--The

Guardian--Contributions by Pope--"The Agreeable

Companion"--The Wonderful Magazine--Joe Miller--Pivot

Humour77

CHAPTER VI.

Sterne--His Versatility--Dramatic Form--Indelicacy--Sentiment

and Geniality--Letters to his Wife--Extracts

from his Sermons--Dr. Johnson99

CHAPTER VII.

Dodsley--"A Muse in Livery"--"The Devil's a Dunce"--"The

Toy Shop"--Fielding--Smollett113

CHAPTER VIII.

Cowper--Lady Austen's Influence--"John Gilpin"--"The

Task"--Goldsmith--"The Citizen of the World"--Humorous

Poems--Quacks--Baron Münchausen127

CHAPTER IX.

The Anti-Jacobin--Its Objects and Violence--"The

Friends of Freedom"--Imitation of Latin Lyrics--The

"Knife Grinder"--The "Progress of Man"141

CHAPTER X.

Wolcott--Writes against the Academicians--Tales of a

Hoy--"New Old Ballads"--"The Sorrows of Sunday"--Ode

to a Pretty Barmaid--Sheridan--Comic Situations--"The

Duenna"--Wits150

CHAPTER XI.

Southey--Drolls of Bartholomew Fair--The "Doves"--Typographical

Devices--Puns--Poems of Abel Shufflebottom164

CHAPTER XII.

Lamb--His Farewell to Tobacco--Pink Hose--On the

Melancholy of Tailors--Roast Pig175

CHAPTER XIII.

Byron--Vision of Judgment--Lines to Hodgson--Beppo--Humorous

Rhyming--Profanity of the Age184

CHAPTER XIV.

Theodore Hook--Improvisatore Talent--Poetry--Sydney

Smith--The "Dun Cow"--Thomas Hood--Gin--Tylney

Hall--John Trot--Barham's Legends196

CHAPTER XVI.

Douglas Jerrold--Liberal Politics--Advantages of Ugliness--Button

Conspiracy--Advocacy of Dirt--The "Genteel

Pigeons"207

CHAPTER XVII.

Thackeray--His Acerbity--The Baronet--The Parson--Medical

Ladies--Glorvina--"A Serious Paradise"216

CHAPTER XVIII.

Dickens--Sympathy with the Poor--Vulgarity--Geniality--Mrs.

Gamp--Mixture of Pathos and Humour--Lever

and Dickens compared--Dickens' power of Description--General

Remarks226

CHAPTER XIX.

Variation--Constancy--Influence of Temperament--Of

Observation--Bulls--Want of Knowledge--Effects

of Emotion--Unity of the Sense of the Ludicrous241

CHAPTER XX.

Definition--Difficulties of forming one of Humour276

CHAPTER XXI.

Charm of Mystery--Complication--Poetry and Humour

compared--Exaggeration285

CHAPTER XXII.

Imperfection--An Impression of Falsity implied--Two

Views taken by Philosophers--Firstly that of Voltaire,

Jean Paul, Brown, the German Idealists, Léon Dumont,

Secondly that of Descartes, Marmontel and Dugald

Stewart--Whately on Jests--Nature of Puns--Effect of

Custom and Habit--Accessory Emotion--Disappointment

and Loss--Practical Jokes307

CHAPTER XXIII.

Nomenclature--Three Classes of Words--Distinction between

Wit and Humour--Wit sometimes dangerous,

generally innocuous339