[ 85 ] 



horfe •, or a great monarch be furprized at the unkingly paftime 

 of playing taw, or catching flies. Yet even fuch mean and ridi- 

 culous adions as thefe (which confirms the preceding theory) 

 may be qualified and ennobled by collateral circumftances. 

 Socrates was not afliamed to be caught in fome fuch fituatiorv}, 

 nor would it degrade even a monarch, in the eye of wifdom,. 

 fhould he be found, in a moment of paternal tendernefs, playing 

 at taw among his children^ 



Under the foregoing head we may include fuch charaders 

 as the Parfon Trulliber of Fielding, the ambitious cobler men- 

 tioned in the Spectator, who contrived to gratify his pride by 

 framing the figure of a beau in wood, who kneeled before him 

 in a fuppliant pofture ^ female pedants, and fmall politiciansi 

 From this fund of the ridiculous are derived the tnock heroic or 

 parody^ and the low burlefquc. The mock heroic reprefents mean 

 agents, and low charaders fpeaking the language which com- 

 mon ufe has appropriated to the auguft and exalted ; parody 

 applies the very identical expreflions which had been employed 

 on fome great and folemn occafion, and by an exalted and dig- 

 nified perfonage, to fome vulgar and little incident. The low bur- 

 fefque, on the contrary, reprefents exalted perfonages engaged 

 in mean purfuits (as, for inftance, Dido building an houfe of eafe) 

 and ufing the dialed of the rabble. It is remarkable that thefe 

 two fpecies of compofition, although they feem to differ fo widely 

 i-n their genius, produce their efted, laughter, by the very fame 

 ibrt of incongruity. 



Third Lr. 



