COMEDY

126 LAUGHTERand the meane that maketh us merrie…is the fondnes, thefilthiness, the deformitie, and al suche evil behaviour, as we se tobee in each other. For we laugh always at those thinges, whicheither onely, or chiefly touche handsomely, and wittely, somespeciall fault, or fond behavior in some one body or some onething.(Wilson, 1567: f.69, verso)Laughter is used in rhetoric as a means of besting one’s opponent.This idea is borrowed directly from Cicero (103–43 BC), the father andcodifier of oratorical arts and hero of the humanists, who writes:It clearly becomes an orator to raise laughter…merrimentnaturally wins goodwill for its author; and everyone admiresacuteness, which is often concentrated in a single word, utteredgenerally in repelling, though sometimes in delivering, an attack;and it shatters or obstructs or makes light of an opponent, or alarmsor repulses him; and it shows the orator himself to be a man offinish, accomplishment and taste.(Cicero, 1984:28)Fritz Gaf writes that Roman laughter was mainly intended to ‘to correctdeviance—in a socially acceptable way’ (Gaf, 1997:31). Theimportance of rhetoric in humanism may therefore have had the effectof replacing medieval conceptions of redemptive, inclusive laughterwith the idea of it as a weapon used in verbal conflict and directedspecifically against failure or weaknesses. Thinking of laughter as aweapon would therefore allow us to think of it as an ethicallydetermined tool, one that can be applied to both good and bad ends.Certainly mockery and ridicule in Tudor and Stuart England wereprevalent means of extending social norms. Michael Bristol tells us thatridicule is a recognized element in law enforcement, in thepunishment of insubordination and in the everyday feeling ofsuperiority enjoyed by nobles in respect to their servants.Laughter is also an important element in the strategies of socialappeasement used by servants in respect of their masters. Selfabjectionand self-ridicule are significant elements in an elaboratesystem of deferential gesture and compliment.(Bristol, 1985:126)