1896.] The Theory of the Ludicrous. 95 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, March 13, 1896. 



George Matthey, Esq. F.E.S. Vice-President, in the Chair. 



William Samuel Lilly, Esq. M.A. Hon. Fellow of Peterhouse, 

 Cambridge. 



The Theory of the Ludicrous. 



The feelings aroused by the perception of the Beautiful, the 

 Sublime and the Ludicrous, are referred by modern writers on 

 psychology to the domain of what Kant has taught us to call the 

 Esthetic. It seems to be pretty generally allowed that the Beau- 

 tiful attracts without repelling, and affects us with unmingled 

 pleasure in the free exercise of our cognitive faculties ; while the 

 feeling of the Sublime is mixed of pleasure and pain, involving, 

 as it does, fear and awe as well as admiration. Eegarding the 

 Ludicrous there is much less agreement, and few modern psycholo- 

 gists appear to have made it the subject of profound or far-reaching 

 studies. That is one reason why I have chosen it as my topic to- 

 night. Now in dealing with the Ludicrous, the first thing to be 

 remembered is its vast extent. 



Let us look a little at the varieties of it, as that will help us, 

 perhaps, to the theory of which we are in quest. I have thought 

 that it would be well to catalogue them — a thing, so far as I am 

 aware, not previously attempted. My catalogue, which reduces them 

 to twenty-one headings, is as follows : — 



1. Humour. 



2. Wit. 



3. Irony. 



4. Satire. 



5. Sarcasm. 



6. Parody. 



7. Bathos. 



8. Bulls. 



9. Puns. 



10. Banter, 



11. Caricature. 



12. Buffoonery. 



13. Mimicry. 



14. The Comical. 



15. The Farcical. 



16. The Burlesque. 



17. The Grotesque. 



18. Alliteration. 



19. Conundrums. 



20. Charades. 



21. Practical Joking:. 



Now I am far from asserting that this catalogue is exhaustive, 

 although I have taken a great deal of pains with it, and cannot call 

 to mind any instance of the Ludicrous that may not be brought under 

 one or another of its twenty-one headings, which, I may observe, are, 

 so to speak, mere finger-posts for guidance in a vast and ill-explored 



