Whoever will look into Antiquity for an Account of the Lives, Actions, and Works of the old Philosophers, will find little remaining of them; but some of their witty, drolling, and bantering Sayings, which alone have been thought worthy to be preserv’d to Posterity. And if you will look into the Lives of the modern Statesmen, Philosophers, Divines, Lawyers, &c. you will find that their witty Sayings ever make a considerable Part: by reporting which great Honour is intended to be done to their Memory. The great and most religious Philosopher Dr. H. More, has a great many Pieces of Wit attributed to him in his Life by Mr. Ward, who represents him from his Companions, [101] as one of the merriest Greeks they were acquainted with, and tells us, that the Doctor said in his last Illness, to him[102], that the merry way was that which he saw mightily to take; and so he used it the more.
The great and famous Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England in Henry the Eighth’s time, was an inexhaustible Source of Drollery[103], as his voluminous Works, which consist for the most part of controversial Divinity in behalf of Popery, show, and which are many of them written in Dialogue, the better to introduce the drolling Way of Writing, which he has us’d in such Perfection, that it is said [104] none can ever be weary of reading them, tho they be never so long. Nor could Death it self, in immediate view before his Eyes, suppress his merry Humour, and hinder him from cracking Jests on the Scaffold; tho he was a Man of great Piety and Devotion, whereof all the World was convinced by his Conduct both in his Life and at his Death.
It is said (as I have before observ’d) of my Lord Chancellor Clarendon, that “he had too much Levity in his Wit[105], and that he did not always observe the Decorum of his Post.” Which implies not only his Approbation of Drollery in the most grave Business, but also his great Knowledge of Mankind, by applying to them in that Way; which he knew from Experience, and especially from the common drolling [106] Conversation in the Court of King Charles the Second, would recommend him to the World much more than an impartial Administration of Justice; which is less felt, less understood, and less taken notice of and applauded, than a Piece of Wit; which is generally suppos’d to imply in it a great deal of Knowledge, and a Capacity fit for any thing.
Mr. Whiston[107], a famous Person among us, sets up for great Gravity, and proposes a Scheme of Gravity for the Direction of those who write about Religion: He is for allowing Unbelievers, nay for having them “invited by Authority to produce all the real or original Evidence they think they have discover’d against any Parts of the Bible; against any Parts of the Jewish and Christian Religions, in order to their being fully weigh’d and consider’d by all learned Men; provided at the same time, that the whole be done gravely, and seriously, without all Levity, Banter, and Ridicule.” And yet this Man, having a handle given him by Bishop Robinson’s Letter to the Clergy of his Diocess about New Doxologies borrow’d from Old Hereticks, takes the advantage of the Bishop’s (supposed) Ignorance, Dulness, Stupidity, and Contradiction to himself, and writes and prints, like a Tom Brown or Swift, a most bantering and drolling Letter, under the sneering Title of a Letter of Thanks to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of London, for his late Letter, &c. whom, one would think, he should not only have spar’d, but have applauded for his profound Gravity, and carrying on the Cause of Religion in a very remarkable manner, with the most consummate Solemnity. But so strong was the Temptation, so naturally productive of Mirth was the Bishop’s Cause, and his grave Management thereof, as that he could not help laughing at the Bishop, by himself; and so was led on mechanically to write in that Humour, and to publish what he wrote, and afterwards to defend his drole Manner [108] of attacking the Bishop, against those who took offence at that Manner of writing.
XII. The burning Papists themselves are not always serious with us: They treat the Church and its Defenders as fanatical, and laugh at them as such, just as the Church does the Dissenters, and have their elaborate Works of Drollery against their Adversaries. They publish’d a Poem against the Reformation, just before the Death of Queen Anne, which was design’d to have given such a Stroke to the Protestant Religion among us, under the new projected Revolution, as Hudibras did to Puritanism after the Restoration. The Popish Editor, in the Preface to the said Poem, says, “that the Motive of the Author (Thomas Ward) for publishing the History of the Reformation in a Burlesque Style (tho a History full of melancholy Incidents, which have distracted the Nation, even beyond the hope of recovery, after so much Blood drawn from all its Veins, and from its Head) was that which he met with in Sir Roger L’Estrange’s Preface to the second Part of his Cit and Bumkin, express’d in these Words; Tho this way of fooling is not my Talent, nor Inclination; yet I have great Authorities for the taking up this Humour, in regard not only of the Subject, but of the Age we live in; which is so much upon the Drole, that hardly any thing else will down with it.”
And the ingenious Protestant Editor of this Poem at London, which he allows to have some Wit in it, concludes the Remarks he makes upon it, by saying, “One thing more we can’t forbear hinting at, that a Retaliation would be as happy a Thought as could enter into the Head of a Man of Genius and Spirit. What a fruitful Harvest would the Legends, Tricks, spiritual Jugglings, Convents, and Nunneries, yield to a good Poet? Buchanan in his Franciscani, and Oldham in his Satires on the Jesuits, have open’d the Way, and we heartily wish some equal Pen would write the whole Mystery of Iniquity at length.”
XIII. All the old Puritan Preachers, who were originally Divines of the Church of England, sprinkled and season’d their Sermons with a great many drolling Sayings against Libertinism and Vice, and against Church Ceremonies; many of which Sayings are reported and handed down to us in Books and Conversation, as are also the Effects of those Sayings, which we are told converted many to Christ on the Spot, or in the Instant of Delivery. Nor is that manner wholly laid aside, but has continued to be kept alive by some Hands at all times; who have been greatly follow’d for their Success in drolling upon Sinners, and treating of Religion in humoursom and fantastical Phrases, and fixing that way of Religion in some Mens Minds.
I do not remember to have met with a more complete Drole in the Church of England, or in any other of the laughing or ridiculing Sects, than Andrew Marvel of the grave Puritan Sect, in many Works of his both in Prose and Verse, but especially in his Rehearsal Transprosed; which tho writ against Parker, who with great Eloquence, Learning, and a Torrent of Drollery and Satire, had defended the Court and Church’s Cause, in asserting the Necessity of Penal Laws against the Nonconformists, “was read from the King down to the Tradesman with great pleasure, on account of that Burlesque Strain and lively Drollery that ran thro’ it,” as Bishop Burnet tells us[109]. Nor were the gravest Puritans and Dissenters among us less taken and pleas’d with his Writings for their Drollery, than our drole King; tho there are some Passages in them, which should give just Offence to chaste Ears.
I find also, that the Puritans and Dissenters have always born with, and allow’d of, a great Mixture of Drollery in their Sermons, that one would think should offend their Gravity, and pious Ears; and that they applaud their Ministers for such their Discourses, as much as the Church does Dr. South for the Ribaldry sprinkled thro’out his Sermons about the most high Points in Divinity. They have always had some eminent Divines among them who have been remarkable for such Passages and Reflections: And these have never lessen’d their number of Auditors, nor drawn upon themselves the Character of Irreligious; but have had the largest Auditories of contributing Hearers, as well as of Churchmen, who came to smile, and have been esteem’d very pious Men.
In fine, the Puritans and Dissenters have, like the Church, their Taste of Humour, Irony, and Ridicule, which they promote with great Zeal, as a Means to serve Religion: And I remember, that, among other things said in behalf of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, upon the reprinting it lately by Subscription, it was affirm’d, and that, in my Opinion, truly, “that it had infinitely out-done The Tale of a Tub; which perhaps had not made one Convert to Infidelity, whereas the Pilgrim’s Progress had converted many Sinners to Christ.”