"General was brought-to-bed, or (as other authors "say) miscarried, the very night before the battle.” Swift used to say he never knew any one despise a pun, who was capable of making one. The above account of the Amazonian disaster, however, proves, that it was not from any such incapacity that the critic, whose theories I have been examining, declared war with puns.

Florimell is the name given in Spencer's Faeri Queene, to the Maid, which a witch is represented to have formed of Snow.

NUMBER XXII.

TUESDAY, MAY 12th, 1807.

Causa latet: res est notissima.

OVID.

The cause conceal'd; th' effect is often seen.

HUMOUR, if definable, is at least not easily defined. Nor is this surprising: since it is exclusively cognizable by the faculty which we call taste: and which is so denominated, because its powers and operations bear a close analogy to those of the corporeal sense, which is distinguished by the same name. Humour, to pursue the metaphor, is a simple flavour;

as easily relished as acidity; and as hard to be described. Rousseau has depicted Taste as "le Microscope du Jugement. C'est lui qui met les petits objets à sa portée; et ses operations commencent, ou s'arrêtent celles du dernier." But perhaps the most illustrative assimilation is that to which I have above alluded; and which is involved in the appellation given to this intellectual sense. It is by this mental palate that we discern the spirit of vigorous prose, the sweetness of flowing verse, the attic salt of wit, and coarser pungency of humour: and as, concerning the decisions of taste, there can (proverbially) be no dispute, so neither can there from these be any appeal; unless it be one somewhat similar to that, from Philip flurried, to Philip more composed.

This being the case, it is fortunate for literary suitors, that there are many of these tribunals, exercising a concurrent jurisdiction throughout the republic of letters. Renuis quod tu, jubet alter, is a maxim, not more reverend for its antiquity, than consolatory in its operation.

But to return to Humour: though we may not be well able to define it, yet it is a seasoning so generally known and relished, that in treating of it, we are likely to be as well understood, as if any ordinary corporeal savour were the subject of our discussion.

Neither are we utterly destitute of a definition. We have what may be termed a generic one:-for,

Humour I clearly hold to be a species of Wit; and Wit Mr. Locke has (tant bien que mal,) defined.

With reference to his definition, and in order to render it more specific, I would bestow on Humour, the appellation of risible wit: i. e. wit exciting laughter. For I apprehend Humour to have been the Ridiculum of Horace; and that it always either produces laughter; or at least promotes a tendency that way.

Humour sometimes appears to share in the merriment which it sets on foot. At other times it perhaps excites the greater mirth, for wearing a mask of seriousness and grave demeanour.

Irony is indeed, on some occasions, as grave as it appears :

-medioque in fonte leporum,

Surgit amari aliquid.*

Thus circumstanced, it may furnish argument, remonstrance, reproof, vituperation: it may perhaps assume the character of Wit: but according to my theory, it ceases to be Humour. It communicates a portion of its own gravity to the hearer; and does not, even while it is exposing absurdity, excite mirth.

When we think of producing examples of the laughter-loving wit, (to return to this :) Swift at once presents himself to the mind; who

* Lucretius.

"Whether he chuse Cervantes' serious air,

"Or laugh and shake in Rabelais' easy chair,

appears to have the Reader's muscles at command. To select instances from his works, would be to do injustice to his excellence. For, as the Lydian converted whatever he came in contract with to gold,* * so every subject becomes humourous, beneath the touch of Swift. A serious matter, laying aside its solemnity, condescends to be pleasant, for his gratification and convenience: while Puns or Riddles, on the other hand, throw off their meanness; and arising from their dross and low estate, become sterling Wit, or Humour, in his hands.

As for Rabelais, I have sitten too little in his chair, to pronounce upon its merits: though I can on its grotesqueness. To me, from some cause or other, it was indeed no easy chair.

But another model, to whom I have cursorily adverted, is Cervantes. And on this, as on many (perhaps most) subjects, I dissent from the supercilious and shallow flippancy of Horace Walpole; and prefer the testimony of St. Evremond: who declared, that of all the works which he had read, Don Quix

* See (by the way) the witty use made of this fable by Swift, in one of his Poems.

ote was that, of which he should most wish to have been the Author.*

The superiority of the original to any translation is universally allowed; and we know that Lord Oxford, with little pleasantry, and less good nature, congratulated Rowe on the adequate reward, which (in the privilege of perusing this) he had obtained, for the pains which it had cost him to study Spanish.

In fact, many of the beauties of Don Quixote are not translateable. That diffusive and rich abundance of expression, which in the original is delightful, becomes prolixity in the version. The irresistible pleasantry of Sancho too often degenerates into vulgarity, or quaintness. The Knight, his Master, is alternately trop sage, and trop fou; whilst in the original, the Sagesse and Folie are not only so compounded that the character sibi constat, but are on many occasions so intimately blended, as to cause an entertaining perplexity to the Reader; and leave it difficult to pronounce which is predominant of the two. How this latter should arise from idiom I cannot say; but so it is. I therefore incline to think Florian's abridgment of Don Quixote the best for those to read, who do not understand Spanish.

* Horace Walpole held, or professed to hold, Don Quixote in great contempt. This fact, I believe, is even recorded in. Walpoliana.

M