THE FANTASTIC, THE GROTESQUE 169 



manuscripts, in the choir- stalls of our cathedrals, or in the 

 carven ornaments of their exteriors, rarely fails to introduce 

 some grotesque element. The free play of the Northern 

 fancy ran over easily into distortion, degradation of form, 

 burlesque. Scandinavian poetry of the best period exhibits 

 striking specimens of Aristophanic satire, in which the gods 

 are mercilessly dealt with. Grotesqueness may be traced in 

 all the fantastic beings of Celtic and Germanic folk-lore in 

 gnomes inhabiting the mountains, in kelpies of the streams 

 and mermaids of the ocean, in Puck and Robin Goodfellow, 

 in fairies of heath and woodland, in the princesses of Border 

 ballad-literature fated by magic spells to dree their doom as 

 loathly dragons. 



Of such grotesqueness I doubt whether we can discern a 

 trace in classical mythology and art. Ugly stories about 

 Zeus and Cronos, quaint stories about the metamorphoses of 

 Proteus, and the Phorcydes with their one eye, are not 

 grotesque. They lack the touch of caricature, always a 

 conscious or semi-conscious element, which is needful to 

 create the species. 



This element is absent in the voluminous literature of 

 the Arabs, as that is known to us through the 'Arabian 

 Nights.' Princesses transformed into parrots, djinns with 

 swarthy faces doting on fair damsels, water-carriers con- 

 verted by some spell into caliphs, ghouls, animals that talk, 

 immense birds brooding over treasures in the wilderness, are 

 not grotesque. They lack the touch of conscious caricature 

 added to free fancy which differentiates the species. 



Both caricature and the fantastic played an important part 

 in Southern and Eastern literature, but they did not come 

 into the peculiar connection which is necessary to grotesque- 

 ness. The fantastic made itself moderately felt in Hellas, 

 and assumed gigantic proportions in Islam. The Asiatic and 

 Greek minds, however, lacked a quality which was demanded in 

 order to elicit grotesqueness from phantasy. That quality the 

 Teutonic section of the Aryan family pcssessed in abundance; 

 it was all-pervasive in the products of their genius. We may 

 define it broadly as humour. I do not deny humour to the 



