THE LAUGH OF DERISION an 



sense of relief when we recognise that the disaster is not 

 real. We laugh at the " unreal " when we should be filled 

 with horror and grief were we assured that there was real 

 pain and cruelty going on in front of us. The laughter 

 caused by grotesque mimicry or caricature of pompous or 

 solemn individuals seems to arise from the same (more or 

 less unconscious) working of the mind as that caused by 

 some unexpected neglect of those social " taboos " or laws 

 of behaviour which we call modesty, decency, and propriety. 

 They either cause indignation and resentment in the 

 on-looker at the neglect of respect for the taboo, or, on the 

 contrary, the natural man, long oppressed by pomposity 

 or by the fetters of propriety imposed by society, suddenly 

 feels a joyous sense of escape from his bonds, and bursts 

 into laughter — the laughter of a return to vitality and 

 nature — which is enormously encouraged and developed 

 into " roars of merriment " by the sympathy of others 

 around him who are experiencing the same emotion and 

 expressing it in the same way. 



The laugh of derision and contempt and the laugh of 

 exultation and triumph are of a different character. I 

 cannot now discuss them further than to say that they are 

 either genuine or pretended assertions of joy in one's own 

 superior vitality or other superiority. The "sardonic 

 smile " and " sardonic laughter " have been supposed by 

 .some learned men to refer to the smiles of the ancient 

 Sardinians when stoning their aged parents. But they 

 have no more to do with Sardinians than they have with 

 sardines or sardonyx. The word " sardonic '' is related'to 

 a Greek word which means " to snarl," and a sardonic grin 

 is merely a snarl. In it the teeth are shown with 

 malicious intent, and not as they are in the benevolent 

 appeal of true laughter. Mrs. Grote, the wife of the great 

 historian (who was herself declared by a French wit to 

 furnish the explanation of the word " grotesque "), wrote 



