HENRY MAYHEW (1812-1887) AND

Frye's earlier discussions. and they are summarized as follows:
( 1 ) As a genre of ultimate philosophic and religious questions. the Menippea contemplated
the world on the broadest possible scale with fantasy and free invention following this.
(2) The Menippea revealed an extraordinary freedom of plot and philosophical invention,
and an independence from plausibility in its depictions: The most important characteristic of the
Menippea was the creation of extraordinary adventures in which to test a truth or philosophical
idea, which was embodied in the person of a wise man or sage. This accounted for the frequent
journeys to heaven and hell. whose real purpose was the testing of an idea in the world. In
Menippean sorire, the Odyssey was a series of more metaphysical quests where truth may be
found."
(3) The Menippea is characterized by an experimental fantasticality, which is very important.
There is observation from an unusual point of view. typically from on high, as when Menippus
looked down on the earth from the moon in Lucian's Icaromenippus. Visual representations of
exotic places endemic to factual travel accounts also combine. This brings about a radical change
in the way everyday life is observed as in London Labour. From its beginning, Mayhew opened
London Labour with a broad theatrical sweep of London's street markets on a Saturday night as if
one might imagine he is perched atop St. Paul's cathedral:
Here, and in the shops adjoining, the working-classes generally purchase their Sunday's
Dinner; and after pay-time on Saturday night. or early on Sunday morning, the crowd in
the New-cut. and the Brill in particular. is almost impassable. Indeed the scene in these
parts has more of the character of a fair than a market. There are hundreds of staIls, and
every stall has its one or two lights: either it is illuminated by the intense white light of
the new self-generating gas-lamp, or else it is brightened up by the red-smoky flame of
Relihan. 33.