(1464)
HUMOR AND GENEROSITY
In his “Reminiscences” of the late Sir Henry Irving, says the London Academy, Joseph Hatton gives an anecdote which shows the great actor in the role of a humorist:
A widow of an old Lyceum servant applied to him for some sort of occupation about the theater, whereby she might earn a living. Irving appealed to Loveday, the manager.
“There is absolutely no vacancy of any kind,” said Loveday. “Can’t you give her a job to look after the theater cats? I think we’ve too many mice about, not to mention rats.” “No,” said Loveday, “there are two women already on that job.” “Hum, ha, let me see,” said Irving, reflectively, then suddenly brightening with an idea. “Very well, then, give her the job of looking after the two women who are looking after the cats.” The widow was at once engaged on the permanent staff of the theater.
(1465)
HUMOR, LACK OF
Rev. W. H. Fitchett points out the lack of humor in Susannah Wesley, the mother of John Wesley:
The only charge which can be fairly urged against Susannah Wesley is that she had no sense of humor. The very names of the children prove the complete absence of any sense of the ridiculous in either the rector of Epworth or his wife. One daughter was cruelly labeled Mehetabel; a second, Jedidah. Mrs. Susannah Wesley’s theological performances while yet in short dresses prove her want of humor. A girl of thirteen, who took herself solemnly enough to undertake the settlement of “the whole question betwixt dissent and the Church” must have been of an unsmiling and owl-like gravity. Now, humor has many wholesome offices. It acts like a salt to the intellect, and keeps it sweet. It enables its owner to see the relative sizes of things. It gives an exquisite tact, a dainty lightness of touch to the intellectual powers. And Mrs. Wesley visibly lacked any rich endowment of that fine grace.—“Wesley and His Century.”
(1466)