Charles Scribner’s Sons: For “Two Men” and “Miniver Cheevy” by E. A. Robinson from The Children of the Night and The Town Down the River.
Small, Maynard & Company: For an extract from Finley Peter Dunne (Mr. Dooley).
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
|---|---|
| Introduction | [3] |
| Ancient Humor | [21] |
| Middle Division | [43] |
| Part I. Greece | [43] |
| Part II. Rome | [86] |
| Part III. Mediæval Ages | [120] |
| Modern Humor | [253] |
| English Wit and Humor | [253] |
| French Wit and Humor | [312] |
| German Wit and Humor | [337] |
| Italian Wit and Humor | [343] |
| Spanish Wit and Humor | [359] |
| The Seventeenth Century | [364] |
| English Humor | [364] |
| French Humor | [390] |
| German Humor | [412] |
| The Eighteenth Century | [415] |
| The Nineteenth Century | [445] |
| English Humor | [446] |
| French Humor | [560] |
| German Humor | [586] |
| Italian Humor | [616] |
| Spanish Humor | [626] |
| Russian Humor | [631] |
| American Humor | [643] |
| Index | [761] |
An Outline of Humor
INTRODUCTION
Speaking exactly, an Outline of the World’s Humor is an impossibility.
For surely the adjectives most applicable to humor are elusive, evasive, evanescent, ephemeral, intangible, imponderable, and other terms expressing unavailability.
To outline such a thing is like trying to trap a sunbeam or bound an ocean.
Yet an Outline of the History of the World’s recorded humor as evolved by the Human Race, seems within the possibilities.