In fine, ever since I could read the Bible, I was particularly pleas’d with the History of Jonas, where such a Representation is made of that Prophet’s Ignorance, Folly, and Peevishness, as exposes him to the utmost Contempt and Scorn, and fixes a perpetual Ridicule on his Character. And let me here observe, that this History has had ample Justice done it, in an Explication thereof by two [60] very ingenious Authors, who, by most penetrating and happy Criticisms and Reflections, have drawn the Character of Jonas in a more open manner.
III. But, Thirdly, I wave my Remedy, and am ready to come into any Law that shall be made to rectify this suppos’d Fault of Irony, by punishing those who are guilty of it.
The great Concern is and ought to be, that the Liberty of examining into the Truth of Things should be kept up, that Men may have some Sense and Knowledge, and not be the Dupes of Cheats and Impostors, or of those who would keep them in the dark, and let them receive nothing but thro’ their Hands. If that be secur’d to us by Authority, I, for my part, am very ready to sacrifice the Privilege of Irony, tho so much in fashion among all Men; being persuaded, that a great Part of the Irony complain’d of, has its rise from the want of Liberty to examine into the Truth of Things; and that if that Liberty was prevalent, it would, without a Law, prevent all that Irony which Men are driven into for want of Liberty to speak plainly, and to protect themselves from the Attacks of those who would take the Advantage to ruin them for direct Assertions; and that such Authors as Rabelais, Saint Aldegonde, Blount, Marvel, Thekeringil, and many others, would never have run into that Excess of Burlesque, for which they are all so famous, had not the Restraint from writing seriously been so great.
“If [61] Men are forbid to speak their Minds seriously on certain Subjects, they will do it ironically. If they are forbid at all upon such Subjects, or if they find it dangerous to do so, they will then redouble their Disguise, involve themselves in mysteriousness, and talk so as hardly to be understood, or at least not plainly interpreted by those who are dispos’d to do them a Mischief. And thus Raillery is brought more in fashion, and runs into an Extreme. ’Tis the persecuting Spirit has rais’d the bantering one: And want of Liberty may account for want of a true Politeness, and for the Corruption or wrong Use of Pleasantry and Humour.
“If in this respect we strain the just Measure of what we call Urbanity, and are apt sometimes to take a buffooning rustick Air, we may thank the ridiculous Solemnity and sour Humour of our Pedagogues: or rather they may thank themselves, if they in particular meet with the heaviest of this kind of Treatment. For it will naturally fall heaviest, where the Constraint has been the severest. The greater the Weight is, the bitterer will be the Satire. The higher the Slavery, the more exquisite the Buffoonery.
“That this is really so, may appear by looking on those Countries where the spiritual Tyranny is highest. For the greatest of Buffoons are the Italians: and in their Writings, in their freer sort of Conversations, on their Theatres, and in their Streets, Buffoonery and Burlesque are in the highest Vogue. ’Tis the only manner in which the poor cramp’d Wretches can discharge a free Thought. We must yield to ’em the Superiority in this sort of Wit. For what wonder is it if we, who have more Liberty, have less Dexterity in that egregious way of Raillery and Ridicule?”
Liberty of grave Examination being fix’d by Law, I am, I say, ready to sacrifice the Privilege of Irony, and yield to have a Law enacted to prevent it. I am, moreover, willing to leave the drawing up such a Law to your self; who honestly and impartially say[62], that all who droll, let them be of any Party, let them droll for the Truth or against it, should be equally punish’d.
Thus this grand Affair of Irony, Banter, and Ridicule; this last persecuting Pretence, upon which you would set the Humours and Passions of People, who are all at quiet, on float, and make a Fermentation, and raise a Persecution against particular People, seems perfectly settled, by yielding to your own Terms.
IV. Let me here add, that I am apt to think, that when you draw up your Law, you will find it so very difficult to settle the Point of Decency in Writing, in respect to all the various kinds of Irony and Ridicule, that you will be ready to lay aside your Project; and that you will be no more able to settle that Point of Decency, than you would be to settle by Law, that Cleanliness in Clothes, and that Politeness in Dress, Behaviour, and Conversation, which become Men of Quality and Fortune in the World, and should be habitual to them: And that, if you are able to do that to your own Satisfaction, you will find it very difficult to engage the Lawmakers in your Project. For I am persuaded, that if our Lawmakers were, out of a rational Principle, disposed to give Liberty by Law to serious Opposition to publickly receiv’d Notions, they would not think it of much Importance to make a Law about a Method of Irony. They will naturally conclude, that if Men may and ought to be allow’d to write seriously in Opposition to publickly receiv’d Doctrines, they should be allow’d to write in their own way; and will be unwilling to be depriv’d of ingenious and witty Discourses, or such as some of them will judge so, about a Subject wherein serious free Discourse is allow’d. Besides, I am apt to think, that you, upon consideration of the Advantages which the Church has receiv’d from the Berkenheads, the Heylins, the Ryves’s, the Needhams, the Lestranges, the Nalsons, the Lesleys, the Oldesworths, and others, in their Mercurius Aulicus’s, their Mercurius Pragmaticus’s, their Mercurius Rusticus’s, their Observators[63], their Heraclitus Ridens’s, Rehearsals, their Examiners[64], and the three Volumes against the Rights of the Church; from the Butlers in their Hudibras’s, and other Burlesque Works upon the Religion and Religious Conduct of the Dissenters; or from the Eachards, the Tom Browns, and Swifts; or from the Parkers[65], Patricks[66], Souths[67], Sherlocks[68], Atterburys[69], and Sacheverels[70]; in their Discourses, and Tracts against the Nonconformists, Whigs, Low-Church-men, and Latitudinarians; and other such ironical, satirical, and polemical Divines; and from such drolling Judges as Howel, Recorder of London, and the Chief Justice Jefferys, who, in all Causes, where Whigs or Dissenters were the Persons accus’d and try’d before them, carried on the Trial by a [71] Train of ridicule on them, their Witnesses and Counsel: I say, I am apt to think, that you would be unwilling to be depriv’d of what has been and may be again so serviceable.
I am dispos’d to think that Dr. Snape, who is notoriously known to have gone into the greatest Lengths of Calumny and Satire against Bishop Hoadley[72], to have fall’n upon the dissenting Clergy in a burlesque and bantering Address to the Peirces, the Calamys, and the Bradburys, and to have written a long ironical Letter in the Name of the Jesuits to Mr. de la Pilloniere[73], will be thought a very improper Object of Censure for such Employment of his Pen. On the contrary, such sort of Attacks upon such Persons are the most meritorious Parts of a Man’s Life, recommend him as a Person of true and sincere Religion, much more than the strongest Reasoning, and the most regular Life; and pave the way to all the Riches, and Pleasures and Advantages or Life; not only among those, who, under the Colour of Religion, are carrying on a common Corporation Cause of Wealth, Power, and Authority, but among many well-meaning People, who allow of all Practices, which they suppose help out the Truth! It seems to me a most prodigious Banter upon us, for Men to talk in general of the Immorality of Ridicule and Irony, and of punishing Men for those Matters, when their own Practice is universal Irony and Ridicule of all those who go not with them, and universal Applause and Encouragement for such Ridicule and Irony, and distinguishing by all the honourable ways imaginable such drolling Authors for their Drollery; and when Punishment for Drollery is never call’d for, but when Drollery is used or employ’d against them!