Gie a’ the faes o’ Scotland’s weal
A fowmond’s Toothache!
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Quite lately, a well known humorist of the present day was making an after dinner speech. A voice from the audience called out, “Louder!—and funnier!”
Some such voice must have called out to the World’s Humor at the close of the Eighteenth Century, for the beginning of the Nineteenth finds the Humorous element in literature decidedly louder and funnier.
The Romantic Revival which at this time affected all literature and art has been called both the effect and the cause of the French Revolution.
It has also been called the Renascence of Wonder, and as such it let loose hitherto hidebound fancies and imaginations on boundless and limitless flights. In these flights Humor showed speed and endurance quite equal to those of Romance or Poesy.
Both in energy and methods, Humor came to the front with tremendous strides. In quality and quantity it forged ahead, both as a component part of more serious writings and also independently.
And while this was a consummation devoutly to be wished, it makes harder the task of the Outliner.
Many great writers held to the conviction that in Romantic poetry humor has no place. Others were avowed comic writers of verse or prose. But others still allowed humor to meet and mingle with their numbers, to a greater or less degree.