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 PART 5: PART 6: FURT HER RESOURCES R-1
CREDITS C-1
The Origins of From Three
SOURCE INDEX SI-1
Modernity Modernities to One SUBJECT I NDEX J. 1
1750-1900 652 1914-Present 848

22 . Patterns of Nat ion-States and 28. World Wars and Compet ing Visions
Cult ure in t he Atlant ic World, of Modernity, 1900-1945
1750-1871 850
654 29. Reconstruct ion, Cold War, and
23. Creoles and Caudi llos: Latin Decolonization, 1945-1962
America in t he Nineteent h Cent ury, 888
1790-1917 30. The End of t he Cold War, Western
688 Social Transformation, and the
24. The Challenge of Modernity: East Developing World, 1963-1991
Asia, 1750-1910 924
722 3 1. A Fragil e Capital ist-Democratic
25. Adaptation and Resistance: The World Order, 1991-2017
Ottoman and Russian Empires, 960
1683-1908
754
26. Industrializat ion and Its
Discontents, 1750-1914
784
27. The New Imperialism in t he
Nineteenth Century, 1815-1914
816

vii
 MAPS xvii
STUDYING WITH MAPS xix
PREFACE xx
NOTE ON DATES AND SPELLINGS xxviii
ABOUT THE AUTHORS xxix

The Formation of Religious Civilizations

600-1450 CE 270

Chapter 15 The Rise of Empires in the Americas 428

600- 1550 CE
The Legacy of Teotihuacan and the Toltecs in Mesoamerica 429
Militarism in the Mexican Basin 430
Late Maya States in Yucatan 432

The Legacy of Tiwanaku and Wari in the Andes 434

The Expanding State of Tiwanaku 434
Features:
The Expanding City-State of Wari 436
Patterns Up Close:
Human Sacrifice and
Propaganda 450
American Empires: Aztec and Inca Origins and Dominance 438
The Aztec Empire of Mesoamerica 438
Against the Grain:
Amazon Rain -Forest The Inca Empire of the Andes 441
Civilizations 454
Imperial Society and Culture 446
Imperial Capitals: Tenochtitlan and Cuzco 447
Power and Its Cultural Expressions 450

Putting It All Together 452

~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 15

15.1-The Temple ofthe Jaguars, Chichen ltzd • 15.2-Skeletons in a Wari royal tomb site, El
Castillo de Huarmey, Peru • 15.3-Bernal DCaz, The Conque.s t of New Spain • 15.4-Pedro
Cieza de Leon on Incan roads· 15.5-Garcilaso de la Vega, "The Walls and Gates of Cuzco'

Interactions across the Globe

1450-1750 456

Chapter 16 Western European Expansion and the

1450- 1650 Ottoman- Habsburg Struggle 458

The Muslim- Christian Competition in the East and West, 1450- 1600 459
Iberian Christian Expansion, 1415-1498 460
Rise of the Ottomans and Struggle with the Habsburgs for Dominance, 1300-1609 464

The Centralizing State: Origins and Interactions 475

State Transformation, Money, and Firearms 475

viii
 Imperial Courts, Urban Festivities, and the Arts 480
Features: The Ottoman Empire: Palaces, Festivities, and t he Arts 480
Patterns Up Cl ose: The Spanish Habsburg Empire: Popu lar Festivities and the Arts 483
Shi pbuilding 466
Against the Grain:
Putting It All Together 486
Tilting at Windmills 488 ~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 16
16.1-Christopher Columbus, The Book o f Prophecies • 16.2-Thomas the Eparch and
Joshua Diplovatatzes, "The Fall of Constantinople" · 16 .3-Evliya <;elebi. "A Procession
ofArtisans at Istanbul' · 16.4-0gier Ghiselin de Busbecq, ··11,e Court ofSuleiman the
Magnificent" · 16.S-Janissary musket

Chapter 17 The Renaissance, New Scien ces, and

1450-1750 Religious Wars in Europe 490

Cultural Transformations: Renaissance, Baroque, and New Sciences 492

The Renaissance and Baroqu e Arts 492
The New Sciences 495
The New Sciences and Their Social Impact 498
The New Sciences: Philosophi cal Interpretations 502

Centralizing States and Religious Upheavals 504

The Rise of Centralized Kingdoms· 504
Features:
The Protestant Reformat ion, State Churches, and Independent Congregat ions 507
Patterns Up Cl ose:
Mappi ng the World 504 Religious Wars and Political Restorat ion 512
Against the Grain:
The Digger Movement 523 Putting It All Together 521

~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 17

17.1-Examinat ion ofLady Jane Grey, London · 17.2-Sebastian Castellio, Concerning
Whether Heretics Should Be Persecuted • 17.3-Duc de Saint -Simon, "The Daily Habits
of Louis XIV at Versailles" · 17.4-Giorgio Va sari, The Life o f Michelangelo Buonarotti •
17.5-Galileo Galilei, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina de' Medici

Chapter 18 New Pattern s in New Worlds: Colonialism and Indigenous

1500- 1800 Responses in the Americas 524

The Colonial Americas: Europe's Warm-Weather Extension 525

Features:
The Conquest of Mexico and Peru 526

Patterns Up Cl ose: The Establ ishment of Colonial Institutions 531

The Columbian Exchange 542
The Making of American Societies: Origins and Transformations 541
Against the Grain:
Exploitat ion of Mineral and Tropical Resources 541
Juana Ines de la Cruz 556
Social Strata, Castes, and Ethnic Groups 545
The Adaptati on of t he Americas to European Culture 551
x Contents

Putting It All Together 554

~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 18

18 .1-Herndn Cortes, Second Letter from Mexico to Emperor Charles V ·
18 .2-Marina de San Miguel's Confessions before the Inquisition, Mexico City ·
18 .3-Nahuatl Land Sale Documents, Mexico · 18.4-The Jesuit Relations,
French North America · 18.S-The Salem Witch Trials, British North America

Chapter 19 African Kingdoms, the Atlantic Slave Trade, and th e Origins of

1450- 1800 Black America 558

African States and the Slave Trade 560

The End of Empires in the North and the Rise of St at es in the Cent er 561
Portugal's Explorations along the African Coast and Cont acts with Ethiopia 564
Coastal Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade 566

American Plantation Slavery and Atlantic Mercantilism 57 1

Feature s:
The Special Case of Plant ation Slavery in the Americas 572
Slavery in British North America 576
Patterns Up Close:
Voodoo and Other New The Fatal Triangle: The Economic Patterns of the Atlantic Slave Trade 580
World Slave Religions 584

Against the Grain: Culture and Identity in the African Diaspora 583
Ogleth0<pe's Free Colony 590 A New Societ y: Creolization of the Early Atlantic World 583

Putting It All Together 588

~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 19

19.1-Abd al-Rahman al-Saadi on the scholarsofTimbukw • 19.2-Letter ofNzinga
Mbemba (Afonso I) ofKongo to the King ofPortugal · 19.3-Documents concerning
the slave ship Sally, Rhode Island · 19.4-The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano • 19.5-Castas Paintings, Mexico

Ch apter 20 The Mughal Empire: Muslim Rulers and

1400-1750 Hindu Subjects 592

History and Political Life of the Mughals 593

From Samarkand to Hindustan 594
The Summer and Autumn of Empire 599

Administration, Society, and Economy 605

Features:
Mansabdars and Bureaucracy 606
The Mughal Early Modern Economy 607
Patterns Up Close:
Akbar's Attempt at Religious Society, Family, and Gender 609
Synthesis 602
Against the Grain: Science, Religion, and the Arts 61 1
Sikhism in Transition 618 Science and Technology 611
Religi on: In Search of Balance 612
Lit erat ure and Art 613

Putting It All Together 616

~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 20

 Contents xi

20.1-Babur, The Baburnama • 20.2-Muhammad Dara Shikuh, The Mingling of

1\vo Oceans • 20. 3-Edicts ofAurangzeb • 20.4-Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliori,
The Five Jewels · 20.5-Calico textile

Chapter 21 Regulating the "Inner " and "Outer" Domains:

1500-1800 Chin a and J apan 620

Late Ming and Qing China to 1750 621

Features: From Expansion to Exclusion 622

Patterns Up Close: The Spring and Summer of Power: The Qi ng t o 1750 625
The "China" Trade 626 Village and Fami ly Life 633
Against the Grain: Science, Cultu re, and Intellectual Life 635
Seclusion's Exceptions 650
The Long War and Longer Peace: Japan, 1450- 1750 638
The Struggle for Unificat ion 638
The Tokugawa Bakufu to 1750 640
Growth and Stagnation: Economy and Society 6 44
Hot housi ng "Japaneseness": Culture, Science, and Intel lectual Life 647

Putt ing It All Toget her 648

~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 21

21.1-Treaty between Koxinga and the Dutch government, Formosa · 21.2-Matteo Ricci,
China in the Sixteenth Cent ury · 21.3-Emperor Qianlong's Imperial Edict to King
George Ill · 21.4-Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Goban Taiheiki • 21.5-Honda Toshiaki,
"Secret Plan for Managing the Country"

The Origins of Modernity

1750-1900 652

Chapter 22 Patterns of Nation-States and Culture in

1750-1871 the Atlan tic World 654

Origins of the Nation· State, 1750- 1815 655

The American, French, and Haitian Revolutions 656

Enlightenment Culture: Radicalism and Moderation 667

Features: The En I ighten men! and Its Many Expressions 667
Patterns Up Cl ose: The Other Enlightenment: The Ideology of Ethn ic Nationalism 670
The Guillotine 662
The Growth of the Nation· State, 1815- 1871 671
Against the Grain:
Defying the Third Restoration Monarchies, 1815-1848 671
Republic 686 Nat ion-State Building in Anglo-America, 1783-1900 676

Romanticism and Realism: Philosophical and

Artistic Expression to 1850 681
Romanticism 681
Realism 682
xii Contents

Putting It All Together 684

~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 22

22.1-Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen · 22.2-0lympede Gouges,
The Declaration of the Rights of Woman • 22.3-Voltaire, "Torture· from the Philo·
sophical Dictionary· 22.4-Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France ·
22.5-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man

Chapter 23 Creoles and Caudillos: Latin America

1790- 1917 in the Nineteenth Century 688

Independence, Constitutionalism, and Landed Elites 689

Features: Independence in the Southern Cone: State Format i on in Argentina 690

Patterns Up Close: Brazil: From Kingdom to Republic 693

Slave Rebellions m Independence and State Formation in Western and Northern South America 696
Cuba and Brazil 696 lndepedence and Political Development in the North: Mexico 700
Against the Grain:
Early Industrial ization Latin American Society and Economy in the Nineteenth Century 708
in Chile? 720 Rebuilding Societies and Econom ies 708
Export-Led Growth 712
Culture, Family, and the St atus of Women 717

Putting It All Together 718

~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 23

23.1-Memoirs of General Antonio L6pez de Santa Anna • 23.2-Sim6n Bolrvar,
"The Jamaica Letter .. · 23.3-Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Travels in the United States
in 1847 • 23.4-Amulet containing passages from the Qur'an, worn by Muslim slaves who
rioted in Bahia, Brazil · 23.5-Photograph ofa Chinese caolie, Peru

Chapter 24 The Challenge of Modernity: East Asia 722

1750- 1910
China and Japan in the Age of Imperialism 724
China and Maritime Trade, 1750-1839 724
The Opium Wars and the Treaty Port Era 727
Toward Revolution: Reform and Reaction to 1900 734
In Search of Security through Empire: Japan in the Meiji Era 737

Economy and Society in Late Qing China 741

Features: The Seeds of Modernity and the New Economic Order 74 1

Patterns Up Close: Culture, Arts, and Science 743

Interaction and Adaptation:
" Self-Strengtheni ng" and Zaibatsu and Political Parties: Economy and Society in Meiji Japan 745
..Western Science and Commerce and Cartels 745
Eastern Ethics" 732 "Civilizat ion and El ightenment" : Science, Culture, and t he Arts 749
Against the Grain:
Reacting lo Modernity 752 Putting It All Together 750

~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 24

24.1-Lin Ze-xu~s Letter to Queen Victoria ofGreat Britain · 24.2-Narrative ofthe
British ship Nemesis during the First Opium War · 24.3-A Boxer rebel and a
British family killed during the Boxer Rebellion • 24.4-The Meiji Constitution of
the Empire ofJapan • 24.S-Natsume Soseki, Kokoro
 Contents xiii

Chapter 25 Adaptation and Resistance: The Ottoman and

1683- 1908 Russian Empires 754

Decentralization and Reforms in the Ottoman Empire 756

Ottoman Imperi alism in the 1600s and 1700s 756
Features:
Patterns Up Cl ose: The Western Challenge and Ottoman Responses 759
Sunni and Shi ite Islam 766 Iran's Effort to Cope wit h t he Western Challenge 765
Against the Grain:
Precursor to Lenin
Westernization, Reforms, and Industrialization in Russia 769
782
Russia and Westernization 769
Russia in t he Early Nineteent h Cent ury 771
The Great Reforms 774
Russian Industri ali zat ion 776
The Abortive Russian Revolut ion of 1905 779

Putting It All Together 780

~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 25

25.1-Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Letters from the Levant·
25.2-lmperial Edict of the Rose Garden · 25.3-Writings of Bahd'u'lldh •
25.4-Tsar Alexander II's Abolition of Serfdom • 25.S-Nikolai Chernyshevsky,
What ls to Be Done?

Chapter 26 Industrialization and Its Discontents 784

1750- 1914
Origins and Growth of Industrialism, 1750- 1914 785
Early Industrialism, 1750-1870 785
The Spread of Earl y Indust rialism 789
Lat er Industrialism, 1871-1914 790

The Social and Economic Impact of Industrialism, 1750- 1914 797

Feature s: Oemograph ic Changes 797

Patterns Up Cl ose: Industrial Society 798
"The Age of Steam" 792 Crit ics of Industrialism 801
Against the Grain: Improved St andards of Living 803
The Luddites 814 Improved Urban Living 805
Big Business 806

Intellectual and Cultural Responses to Industrialism 808

Scientific and Int ellect ual Development s 808
Toward Modernity in Ph ilosophy and Religion 810
Toward Modernity in Lit erature and t he Arts 8 11

Putting It All Together 8 12

~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 26

26.1-Charles Dickens, Hard Times · 26.2-The Death of William Huskisson,
first casualty ofa railroad accident · 26.3-Young miners testify to the Ashley
Commission • 26.4-Karl Marx, "Wage Labour and Capital"· 26.S-Charles Darwin,
The Origin of Species
xiv Contents

Chapter 27 The New Imperialism in th e Nineteenth Century 816

1815- 1914
The British Colonies of India and Australia 817
The British East India Company 818
Direct British Ru le 822
Brit ish Settler Coloni es: Australia 825

European Imperialism in the Middle East and Africa 827

The Rising Appeal of Imperialism in t he West 828
Features:
Patterns Up Close: The Scramble for Africa 832
Military Transformations and
the New Imperialism 826
Western Imperialism and Colonialism in Southeast Asia 837
The Dutch in Indonesia 837
Against the Grain:
An Anti-Imperial Spain in the Philippines 840
Perspective 846 The French in Vietnam 842

Putting It All Together 844

~ PATTERNS OP EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 27

27.1-The Azamgarh Proclamation · 27.2-/smail ibn "Abd al·Qadir, The Life of the
Sudanese Mahdi · 27.3-Edward Wilmot Blyden, Liberian Independence Day Address ·
27.4-Rudyard Kipling, "The White Man's Burden'· 27.5-Mark nvain, "To the Person
Sitting in Darkness"

From Three Modernities to One

1 914 - PRE SENT 848

World Wars and Competing Visions of Modernity 850

Chapter 28 The Great War and Its Aftermath 851

1900- 1945 A Savage War and a Flawed Peace 852

America First: The Beginn ings of a Consumer Cul ture and the Great Depression 856
Great Britai n and France: Slow Recove,y and Troubled Empires 862
Latin America: Independent Democracies and Authoritarian Regimes 867

New Variations on Modernity: The Soviet Union and Communism 868

Features: The Communist Party and Regime in the Soviet Union 869

Patterns Up Close: The Collect ivization of Agricu lture and Industrialization 870
The Harlem Renaissance and
the African Diaspo<a 860 New Variations on Modernity: Supremacist Nationalism in Italy,
Against the Grain: Germany, and Japan 871
Righteous among the From Fascism in Italy to Nazism in the Third Reich 871
Nations 886 Japan's "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" and China's Struggle for Unit y 877

Putting It All Together 884

~ PATTERNS OP EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 28

28.1-ANZAC troops at Gallipoli · 28.2-Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth ·
28.3-Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile, "Foundations and Doctrine ofFascism" ·
 Contents xv

28.4-Adol{Hitler, Mein Kampf · 28.S-Franklin D. Roosevelt, undelivered address

planned for Jefferson Day

Chapter 29 Reconstruction, Cold War, and Decolonization 888

1945- 1962
Superpower Confrontation: Capitalist Democracy and Communism 889
The Cold War Era, 194 5- 1962 890
Society and Cult ure in Postwar Nort h America, Europe, and Japan 899

Populism and Industrialization in Latin America 901

Slow Social Change 901
Feature s:
Patterns Up Cl ose: Popul ist Guided Democracy 902
Bandung and the Origins of
the Non-Aligned Movement
The End of Colonialism and the Rise of New Nations 904
(NAM) 914 "Chi na Has Stood Up" 905
Agai nst the Grai n: Decolonization, Israel, and Arab Nat ional ism in t he Middle East 907
Postwar Counterculture 922 Decolonization and the Cold War in Asia 911
Decolonization and Cold War i n Africa 917

Putting It All Together 920

~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 29

29.1-The Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights · 29.2-Winston Churchill,
"The Iron Curtain Speech"· 29.3-Letterson the Cuban Missile Crisis between Fidel Castro
and Nikita Khrushchev · 29.4-Ho Chi Minh, "The Path Which Led Me to Leninism" ·
29.S-lndira Gandhi, "What Educated Women Can Do'

Chapter 30 The End of the Cold War, Western Social Transformation, and
1963- 1991 the Developing World 924

The Climax of the Cold War 925

The Soviet Superpower in Slow Deel ine 926

Transforming the West 933

Feature s: Civil Rights Movements 933

Patterns Up Cl ose: From "Underdeveloped" to "Developing" World, 1963- 1991 938

From Women's liberation
Chi na: Cult ural Revol ut ion to Four Modernizat ions 940
to Feminism 938
Viet nam and Cambodia: War and Commun ist Rule 944
Agai nst the Grai n:
The African National The Middle East 946
Congress 958 Africa: From Independence t o Development 950
Lat i n America: Proxy Wars 954

Putting It All Together 956

~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 30

30.1-Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World ·
30.2-Martin Luther King, Jr., ·r Have a Dream· · 30.3-Simone de Beauvoir, The Second
Sex · 30.4-Coverageof the Tiananmen Square Protests · 30.S-Salvador Allende, "Last
Words to the Nation"
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xvi Contents

Chapter 31 A Fragile Capitalist-Democratic World Order 96 0

1991- 2017
Capitalist Democracy: The Dominant Pattern of Modernity 962
A Decade of Global Expansion: The United States and t he World in t he 199Ds 962
Two Communist Holdout s: China and Vietnam 971
Pl uralist Democracy under Strain 972

The Environmental Limits of Modernity 988

Features:
Putting It All Together 991
Patterns Up Close:
Social Networking 984 ~ PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE: Sources for Chapter 31
Against the Grain: 31.1-0sama bin Laden, "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the
North Korea, Lone Holdout Land ofthe Two Holy Places" · 31.2-Vladimir Putin, Address to the Duma concerning
against t he Wortd 993
the annexation ofCrimea · 31.3- Mohamed Bouazizi triggers the Arab Spring, Tunisia
• 3 1.4-Arundhati Roy, "Capitalism: A Ghost Story" · 31.S-Uniud Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, Paris

FURTHER RESOURCES R-1

CREDITS C- 1
SOURCE INDEX SI- 1
SUBJECT INDEX I -1
Maps
Map 15.1 North America and Mesoamerica, Map 23.1 The New Nation·States of Latin America
ca. 1100 431 and the Caribbean, 1831 703
Map 15.2 Tiwanaku and Wari, ca. 1000 437 Map 23.2 Mexico's Loss of Territory to the
Map 15.3 The Aztec Empire, ca. 1520 440 United States, 1824-1854 704
Map 15.4 The Inca Empire, ca. 1525 442 Map 23.3 The Economy of Latin America and
Map 15.5 Tenochtitlan and the Valley of Mexico 447 the Caribbean, ca. 1900 709
Map 15.6 Cuzco 449 Map 23.4 Non-Western Migrations in the
Map 16.1 Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Nineteenth Century 715
Indian Ocean, 1415-1498 461 Map 24.1 The Opium Trade: Origins, Interactions,
Map 16.2 The Ottoman Empire, 1307- 1683 469 Adaptations 726
Map 16.3 Europe and the Medrterranean, Map 24.2 Treaty Ports and Foreign Spheres of
ca. 1560 471 Influence in China, 1842- 1907 729
Map 16.4 Ottoman-Portuguese Competition Map 24.3 The Taiping Rebellion, 1851- 1864 731
in the Indian Ocean, 1536- 1580 473 Map 24.4 Japanese Territorial Expansion,
Map 17.1 Centers of Learning in Europe, 1870-1905 740
1500- 1770 499 Map 24.5 The Modernization of Japan to 1910 747
Map 17.2 European Warfare, 1450-1750 507 Map 25.1 The Decline of the Ottoman Empire,
Map 17.3 The Protestant Reformation, 1683- 1923 758
ca. 1580 511 Map 25.2 The Territorial Expansion of the
Map 17.4 Europe in 1648 517 Russian Empire, 1795- 1914 771
Map 17.5 The Expansion of Russia, 1462- 1795 520 Map 26.1 Industrializing Britain in 1850 788
Map 18.1 The European Exploration of Map 26.2 The Industrialization of
the Americas, 1519- 1542 529 Europe by 1914 791
Map 18.2 The Colonization of Central and Map 26.3 World Population Growth,
South America to 1750 533 1700-1900 798
Map 18.3 The Colonization of North America Map 26.4 European Population Movements,
to 1763 538 1750-1914 800
Map 18.4 The Columbian Exchange 543 Map 27.1 The Expansion of British Power in
Map 19.1 Peoples and Kingdoms in Sut>-Saharan India, 1756- 1805 820
Africa, 1450-1750 562 Map 27.2 The British Empire in India,
Map 19.2 Regions from which Captured 1858-1914 823
Africans Were Brought to the Map 27.3 Competitive Imperialism:
Americas, 1501- 1867 573 The World in 1914 828
Map 19.3 Regions in wh ich Enslaved Africans Map 27.4 The Scramble for Africa 833
Landed, 1501- 1867 577 Map 27.5 The Spread of Islam and Christianity
Map 19.4 The North Atlantic System, in Africa, 1860- 1900 834
ca. 1750 580 Map 27.6 Western Imperialism in Southeast Asia,
Map 19.5 Slave Revolts in the Americas, 1870-1914 839
1500- 1850 588 Map 28.1 Europe, t he Middle East, and
Map 20.1 Area Subjugated by limur-i Lang, North Africa i n 1914 and 1923 857
1360- 1405 595 Map 28.2 European Empires, 1936 865
Map 20.2 The Conquests of Babur 596 Map 28.3 World War II in Europe,
Map 20.3 Mughal India under Akbar 598 1939- 1945 878
Map 20.4 European Trading Ports in India and Map 28.4 World War II in the Pacific,
Southeast Asia, ca. 1690 608 1937- 1945 883
Map 2 1.1 China in 1600 623 Map 29.1 The Cold War, 1947- 1991 892
Map 2 1.2 World Trade Networks, ca. 1770 624 Map 29.2 Global Regime Changes Engineered
Map 2 1.3 Silver Flows and Centers of Porcelain by the CIA 894
Production 626 Map 29.3 The Cuban Missile Crisis 899
Map 2 1.4 China during the Reign of Qianlong 630 Map 29.4 Urbanization and Population
Map 2 1.5 The Campaigns of Hideyoshi 640 Growth in Latin America and the
Map 2 1.6 Urban Population and Major Transport Caribbean, ca. 1950 903
Routes in Japan, ca. 1800 644 Map 29.5 Decolonization in Africa, the Middle East,
Map 22.1 British North America in 1763 657 and Asia since 194 5 908
Map 22.2 The Haitian Revolution 665 Map 29.6 The Palesti ne Conflict, 1947- 1949 909
Map 22.3 Napoleonic Europe, 1796-1815 666 Map 30.1 Commun ist Eastern Europe,
Map 22.4 Europe after the Congress of Vienna 672 1945-1989 928
Map 22.5 Europe in 1871 676 Map 30.2 The fall of Commun ism in Eastern
Map 22.6 The Expanding United States in 1900 678 Europe and the Soviet Union 932

xvii
xviii Maps

Map 30.3 Governmental Participation by Women 938 Map 31.1 The Global Distribution of Wealth, 2012 963
Map 30.4 Open Cities and Special Economic Map 31.2 The Global Balance of Trade, 2008 965
Zones in China, 1980-2000 94 3 Map 31.3 US Security Commitments since 1945 968
Map 30.5 The Vietnam War 9 45 Map 31.4 World Map of Climate Change
Map 30.6 The Arab- Israeli Wars, 1967 and 1973 94 7 Performance 990
Studying with Maps
MAPS
World history cannot be fully understood without a clear comprehension of t he c hronologies and
parameters within wh ich different empires, states, and peoples have changed over time. Maps
facilitate th is understanding by illuminat ing t he significance of time, space, and geography in
shaping the patterns of world history.

Global L o c a t o r - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~
Many of the maps in Patterns of World History
include global locators that show the area being
depicted in a larger context.

Projection - - - - - - - - --,----:--fii;;;.;r)-'7~::::::::t:;~:<-,i
A map projection portrays all or part of the earth, E "--',..,

which is spherical, on a flat surface. All maps,

therefore, include some distortion. The projections
in Patterns of World History show the earth at
global , continental, regional, and local scales.
Arna ()n

Topography - - - - - - --+- - -..: : . :i!i p~ ~~ 8 0 1 ' 11

Many maps in Patterns of World History show ;__~-----f----"~--1

relief-the contours of the land. Topography is an
important element in studying maps because the
physical terrain has played a crit ical role in shap-
ing human history.
PAC/F l
....N
Scale Bar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+-~~~~~~

Every map in Patterns of World History includes

a scale that shows distances in both miles and •••
kilometers, and in some instances in feet as well. Om,l u
"' .,.
Map Key --------------i rlh; : e~l~n:,:.=;E:.~,l:,.:--:: ca:.-~l~S:;2-;S-;c::.:----i "
Maps use symbols to show the location of fea-

-
I n.'.11 cxpuuion

To 14311
tures and to convey information. Each symbol is
Undn l'll,h"""ti. ldS-146.\
explained in the map's key. Undn PllchKttti and TupK
D Yup;mqui, 146~1,lil

B
Under Tu.p:u: \'upan,qui. 1471- 1,19}
Undn Hua>•11,;1, C:lp11c. 1·193- ISl.5

One map in each chapter is accompanied by an

- lmp,:ria.l bou.11d11ry
Bou..n<l11ry bi'ho,~n t~ fout qu11rto:r~
,>( th(, ~111piri'
icon that indicates that t he map can be analyzed Int.. rood
O Jrnph ial <api11;1l
in an interactive fash ion (see pages xxv-xxvi).
o M1jo1 Inca adt11inisira1il't<n'ltt1 NTINA
PERU Modhl'l·d&y COUtHry

XU:
Preface

he response to the first two editions of Pat- choose to e1nphasize, nor do we clain1 that all world

T terns of World History has been extraordi-

narily gratifying to those of us involved in its
development. The diversity of schools t hat have ad-
history is reducible to such patterns, nor do ,ve 1nean
to suggest t hat the nature of the patterns determines
the outcome of historical events. We see then1 instead
opted t he book-co1nn1unity colleges as well as state as broad, flexible organizational frameworks around
universities; s1nall liberal arts schools as well as large which to build t he structure of a world history in such
private universities-suggests to us that its central a way t hat t he enormous sweep and content of t he
pren1ise of exploring patterns in ,vorld history is both past can be vie,ved in a con1prehensible narrative, with
adaptable to a variety of pedagogical environments sound analysis and an1ple scope for debate and discus-
and congenial t o a wide body of instructors. Indeed, sion. In this sense, we view then1 much like t he arma-
from the responses to t he book we have received thus tures in clay sculpt ures, giving support and struct ure
far, we expect that the level of writing, t in1eliness and to t he final figure but not necessarily preordaining its
con1pleteness of the n1aterial, and analytical approach ultimate shape.
will serve it well as the discipline ofworld history con- Fro1n its origins, human culture grew t hrough
tinues to ,nature. These key strengths are enhanced in interactions and adaptat ions on all t he cont inents
the third edition of Patterns by constr uctive, dynamic except Antarctica. A voluminous scholarship on all re-
suggest ions fron1 t he broad range of students and in- gions of t he world has thus been accumulated, which
structors ,vho are using the book. those ,vorking in t he field have to attempt to master
It is widely agreed that world history is 1nore than if t heir explanat ions and argu1nents are to sound even
sin1ply t he sun1 of all national histories. Like,vise, Pat- ren1otely persuasive. The sheer volume and con1plex-
terns of World History, Third Edition, is n1ore t han an ity of the sources, however, mean t hat even the kno,vl-
unbroken sequence of dates, battles, rulers, and thei r edge and expertise of the best scholars are going to be
activities, and it is n1ore than t he study of isolated inco1nplete. Moreover, t he hu1nilitywith which all his-
stories of change over t in1e. Rather, in this textbook torians n1ust approach their material contains within
we endeavor t o present in a clear and engaging way it the realization t hat no historical explanation is ever
how world history "works." Instead of 1nerely offering fully sat isfactory or final: As a driving force in the his-
a narrat ive history of the appearance of this or that torical process, creat ive human agency n1oves events
innovation, we present an analysis of t he process by in directions that are never fully predictable, even if
which an innovation in one pa rt of the world is dif- they follo,v broad patterns. Learning to discern pat-
fused and carried to the rest of the globe. Instead of terns in t his process not only helps novice historians
focusing on t he 1nen1orizat ion of people, places, and to appreciate t he co1nplex challenges (and rewards) of
events, we strive to present in1portant facts i n context historical inquiry; it also develops critical thinking
and dra,v 1neaningful connect ions, analyzing what- abilities in all students.
ever patter ns we find and drawing conclusions ,vhere As ,ve 1nove through the second decade of t he
we can. In short, ,ve seek to examine the interlocking twenty-first centu ry, ,vorld historians have long since
n1echanisms and anin1at ing forces of world history, left behind the "West plus the rest" approach that
without neglect ing t he human agency behind them. 1narked the field 's early years, toget her with econo1nic
and geographical reduct ionism, in the search for a
new balance behveen comprehensive cultural and in-
The Patterns Approach stitut ional exan1inations on the one hand and t hose
Our approach in this book is, as t he t itle suggests, to highlight ing human agency on t he other. All too often,
look for patterns in world history. We should say at t he however, this is reflected in texts that seek broad cov-
outset that we do not 1nean to select certain categories erage at the expense of analysis, thus resulting in a kind
into which we atten1pt to stuff the historical events ,ve of"world history lite." Ou r aim is therefore to sin1plify

xx
 Preface xx:i

the study of the world-to make it accessible to t he the first t in1e. Enterprising rogue British n1erchants,
student-without n1aking,vorld history itselfsimplistic. eager to find a ,vay to crack closed Chinese 1narkets
Patterns of World History, Third Edition, proposes for other goods, began to smuggle it in from India. The
the teaching of world history fron1 t he perspective n1arket gre,v, t he price went do,vn, addict ion spread,
of t he relationship between continuity and change. and Britain and China ulti1nately ,vent to war over
What ,ve advocate in this book is a distinct intellec- China's attempts to elin1inate t he traffic. Here, we
tual fran1e,vork for this relationship and t he role of have an example of an item generating inte ractions on
innovation and historical change through patterns of a worldwide scale, ,vith in1pacts on everything fron1
origins, interactions, and adaptations. Each sn1all or politics to economics, cultu re, and even the environ-
large technical or cultural innovation originated in n1ent. The legacies of the trade still weigh heavily on
one geographical center or independently in several two of t he rising powers of t he recent decades: China
different centers. As people in t he centers interacted and India. And opiu1n and its derivatives, like n1or-
with their neighbors, the neighbors adapted t o, and in phine and heroin, cont inue to bring relief as well as
n1any cases were transformed by, the innovations. By suffering on a colossal scale to hundreds of millions
•adaptation" we include the entire spect rum of human of people.
responses, ranging fron1 outright rejection to creative What, t hen, do we gain by studying world history
borrowing and, at t imes, forced acceptance. through the use of such patterns? Fi rst, if ,ve consider
Sn1all technical innovations often went through ilie innovation to be a driving force of history, it helps to
pattern of origin, interaction, and adaptation across t he sat isfy an intrinsic hun1an curiosity about origins-
world ,vithout arousing 1nuch attention, even though our o,vn and ot hers. Perhaps n1ore in1portantly, seeing
they had major consequences. For example, the horse patterns of various kinds in historical developn1ent
colla r, which originated in the last centuries BCE in brings to light connections and linkages an1ong
China and allowed for the replacement of oxen ,vith peoples, cultures, and regions-as in the aforen1en-
stronger horses, gradually improved the productiv- tioned exan1ples-that might not otherwise present
ity of agriculture in elevenili-cent ury western Europe. then1selves.
More sweeping intellectual-cultural innovations, by Second, such patterns can also reveal differences
cont rast, such as t he spread of universal religions like among cultures t hat other approaches to world his-
Buddhisn1, Christianity, and Islan1 and the rise of tory tend to neglect. For example, the differences
science, have often had profound consequences-in between the civilizations of the Eastern and Western
some cases leading to conflicts lasting cent uries-and Hemispheres are generally highlighted in ,vorld his-
affect us even today. tory texts, but t he broad con1n1onalities of hu1nan
Son1etin1es change was effected by commodities groups creat ing agriculturally based cities and states
that to us seen1 rather ordinary. Take sugar, for ex- in widely separated areas also show deep parallels in
ample: It originated in Southeast Asia and ,vas traded their patterns of origins, interactions, and adaptations.
and grown in the Mediterranean, where its cultivation Such co1nparisons are at the center of our approach.
on plantations created t he model for expansion into Third, this kind of analysis offers insights into how
the vast slave system of the Atlantic basin fron1 t he fif- an individual innovation was subsequently developed
teenth through t he nineteenth centuries, forever alter- and diffused across space and tin1e-that is, ilie patterns
ing the histories of four cont inents. What ,vould our by which the new eventually becomes a necessity in
diets look like today without sugar? Its history contin- our daily lives. Through all of this we gain a deeper ap-
ues to unfold as we debate its n1erits and health risks p reciation of t he unfolding of global history from its
and it supports huge multinational agribusinesses. origins in s1nall, isolated areas to t he vast networks of
Or take a n1ore obscure co1nn1odity: opium. Opiun1 global inte rconnectedness in our present world.
had been used medicinally for centuries in regions all Finally, our use of a broad-based understanding
over t he world. But the advent of tobacco traded fron1 of cont inuity, change, and innovation allows us to re-
the An1ericas to t he Philippines to China, and t he en- store culture in all its individual and institutionalized
courage1nent of Dutch t raders in the region, created aspects-spiritual, artistic, intellectual, scientific-to
an environ1nent in ,vhich the drug was smoked for its rightful place alongside technology, envi ronn1ent,
xxii Preface

politics, and socioeconomic conditions. That is, un- adoption by ot hers. Obviously, lesser patterns are
derstanding innovation in t his way allows this t ext to identified as ,veil, 1nany of ,vhich are of more lin1ited
help illu1ninate the full range of human ingenuity over regional interactive and adaptive in1pact. We ,vish to
t ime and space in a comprehensive, evenhanded, and stress again t hat these are broad categories of analysis
open-ended fashion. and t hat there is nothing reduct ive or detern1inistic
in our aims or choices. Nevertheless, we believe t he
patterns we have chosen help to make the historical
Options for Teaching process n1ore int elligible, providing a series of lenses
with Patterns of World that can help to focus the ot herwise confusing facts
and disparat e details t hat comprise world history.
History, Third Edition Part One (Prehistory-600 BCE): Origins of
In response to requests from t eachers who adopt ed hun1an civilization-tool n1aking and symbol
the previous editions, Patterns of World History in- creating-in Africa as well as the origins of ag-
cludes a selection of primary-text and visual sources riculture, urbanism, and state formation in the
after every chapt er. This section, called "Patterns of three agrarian centers of the Middle East, India,
Evidence," enhances student engagen1ent with key and China.
chapter patterns t hrough cont e1nporaneous voices
Part Two (600 BCE-600 CE): Emergence of the
and perspectives. Each source is accon1panied by
axial-age thinkers and their visions of a transcen-
a concise i nt roduction t o provide chronological
dent god or first principle in Eurasia; elevation
and geographical context; "Working wit h Sources"
of these visions to the status of state religions in
questions after each selection pro1npt students to
en1pires and kingdon1S, in the process fom1ing
n1ake critical connections behveen the source and
multiethnic and n1ultilinguistic polities.
the n1ain chapter narrative.
For the convenience of instructors t eachi ng a Part Three (600-1450): Disintegration of classi-
course over two 15-week semesters, bot h versions cal en1pires and fom1ation of religious civilizations
of Patterns are lin1ited to 31 chapt ers. For the sake in Eurasia, with the e1nergence of religiously
of cont inuity and to acco1n1nodate the many differ- unified regions divided by con1mon,vealths of
ent ways schools divide the n1idpoint of t heir world multiple states.
history sequence, Chapters 15-18 overlap in both
Part Four (1450-1750): Rise of new e1npires; in-
volu1nes; in Volun1e 2, Chapter 15 is given as a "pre-
teraction, both hostile and peaceful, an1ong the
lude" to Part Four. Those using a trimest er systen1
religious civilizations and new empires across all
will also find divisions n1ade in convenient places,
continents of the world. Origins of the New Sci-
with Chapt er 10 con1ing at the beginning of Part Two
ence in Europe, based on the use of n1athen1atics
and Chapter 22 at the beginning of Part Five. Finally,
for the investigation of nature.
a Brief Edition of Patterns is also available. The Brief
Edition is 25 percent shorter in length and does not in- Part Five (1750-1900): Origins of scientific-
clude end-of-chapter primary sources .. industrial "modernity," sitnult aneous with the
en1ergence of constitutional and ethnic nation-
states, in the West (Europe and North America);
Patterns of Change and interaction of the West with Asia and Africa, re-
sulting in complex adaptations, both coerced as
Six Periods of World History ,vell as voluntary, on the part of the latter.

Si1nilarly, Patterns is adaptable to both chronological Part Six (1900-Present): Division of early West-
and then1atic styles of i nstruction. We divide the ern n1odernity into the three co1npeting visions:
history of the world int o six n1ajor t i1ne periods and co1nn1unisn1, supren1acist nationalism, and
recognize for each period one or hvo n1ain patterns of capitalis1n. After hvo horrific ,vorld wars and
innovat ion, their spread t hrough interaction, and their the triun1ph of nation-state formation across the
 Preface xxiii

,vorld, capitalisn1 remains as the last surviving such innovat ions from the outside? Are there dis-
version of modernity. Capitalis1n is then reinvig- cernible patter ns in t he developn1ent of kingdoms
orated by the increasing use of social networking or empires or nat ion-states?
tools, ,vhich popularizes both "traditional" reli- Economic and Social Developments: The relation-
gious and cultural ideas and constitutionalis1n in ship behveen economics and the st ructures and
authoritarian states. ,vorkings of societies has long been regarded as
crucial by historians and social scientists. But
,vhat patterns, if any, emerge in ho,v these rela-
Chapter Organization t ionships develop and funct ion among different
cultures? This segment explores such questions
and Structure as t he follo,ving: What role does economics play
in t he dynan1ics of change and continuity? What,
Each part of the book addresses the role of change and
for example, happens in agrarian societies when
innovation on a broad scale in a pa rt icular time and/
merchant classes develop? How does the accu-
or region, and each chapter contains different levels of
mulation of ,vealth lead to social hierarchy? What
explorat ion t o examine the principal features of par-
forn1s do these hierarchies take? How do societies
t icular cultural or nat ional areas and ho,v each affects,
forn1ally and inforn1ally t ry to regulate ,vealth and
and is affected by, the patter ns of origins, interactions,
poverty? How are econo1nic conditions reflected
and adaptations:
in fa1nily life and gender relations? Are t here pat-
Geography and the Environment: The relation- terns that reflect t he varying social positions of
ship between hun1an beings and the geography men and women that are cha racteristic of certain
and environ1nent of the places they inhabit is econon1ic and social institutions? How are these
a1nong the n1ost basic factors in understand- in turn affected by different cultural practices?
ing hun1an societies. In this chapter segn1ent, Intellectual, Religious, and Cultural Aspects: Fi-
t herefore, t he topics under investigat ion involve nally, we consider it vital to include an examina-
t he nat ural environment of a particular region t ion dealing in son1e depth with the ,vay people
and the general condit ions affect ing change and understood their existence and life du ring each
innovat ion. Climatic conditions, earthquakes, period. Clearly, intellectual i nnovation-the
tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, outbreaks of dis- generation of new ideas-lies at t he heart of
ease, and so forth all have obvious effects on how t he changes we have singled out as pivotal in t he
humans react to t he challenge of survival. The patterns of origins, interactions, and adaptat ions
initial portions of chapters introducing new re- t hat fonn the heart of this text . Beyond this,
gions for study therefore include environmental t hose areas concerned wit h the search for and
and geographical overviews, which are revisited construction of meaning-particularly religion,
and expanded in later chapters as necessary. The t he arts, philosophy, and science-not only re-
larger issues of how decisive the impact of geog- flect shifting perspectives but also, in many cases,
raphy on the developn1ent of human societ ies play a leading role in determining the course of
is-as in the co1nn1only asked question "Is geog- events ,vithin each forn1 of society. All of these
raphy destiny?"-are also exan1ined here. facets of intellectual life are in turn manifested in
Political Developments: In this seg1nent, ,ve ponder new perspect ives and representations in t he cul-
such quest ions as how rulers and their support- tural life of a society.
ers wield political and 1nilitary po,ver. How do
different political t radit ions develop in different
areas? How do states expand, and why? How do
different polit ical arrange1nents atte1npt t o strike
Features
a balance between t he rulers and t he ruled? How Seei ng P atterns/ Thinking Through P atter n s:
and why are polit ical innovations t ransn1itted to "Seeing Patterns" and "Thinking Through Pat-
other societies? Why do societ ies accept or reject terns" use a question-discussion forn1at in
xxiv Preface

each chapter to pose several broad questions

("Seeing Patterns") as advance organizers for
Changes to the
key then1es, which are t hen matched up ,vith Third Edition
short essays at the end ("Thinking Through Pat-
terns") t hat exami ne these same questions in a Streamlined narrative a nd sharpened focus To fa-
cilitate accessibility, ,ve have shortened t he text
sophisticated yet st udent-friendly fashion.
Patterns Up Close: Since students frequently ,vherever possible. This reduct ion has not come
apprehend n1acro-level patterns better when they at t he expense of discarding essent ial topics. In-
see their contours brought into sharper relief, stead, ,ve have t ightened the narrat ive, focusing
"Patterns Up Close" essays in each chapter high- even 1nore on key concepts and (\vith the guid-
light a particular innovation t hat demonst rates ance of reviewers) discarding extraneous exan1-
origins, interactions, and adaptations in action. ples. We are profoundly grateful to the revie,vers
,vho pointed out errors and conceptual short-
Spanning technological, social, polit ical, intel-
lectual, economic, and environmental develop- comings. Factual accuracy and tenninological
ments, t he "Patterns Up Close" essays combine precision are extren1ely important to us.
text, visuals, and graphics to consider everything Updated scholarship All chapters were revised and
fro,n t he pepper t rade t o the guillotine. updated, in accordance with recent develop-
Against ilie Grain: These brief essays consider ments and new scholarship. Here is a chapter-by-
counterpoints to t he 1nain patterns exan1ined in chapter overview t hat highlights t he changes ,ve
each chapter. Topics range fron1 visionaries who made in t he t hird edit ion:
challenged dominant religious patterns, to ,vomen Part One Chapter l includes t hree major
,vho resisted various fonns of pat riarchy, to agita- changes: a discussion of the new stone tool
tors who fought for social and econo1nic justice. finds in Kenya, dated to 3.3 1nillion years ago;
Ma rginal Glossary: To avoid the necessity of revisions to our understanding of the Neander-
having to flip pages back and forth, definitions t hals, on t he basis of t he new Bruniquel Cave
of key tenns are set directly in t he margin at t he finds; and revisions to our understanding of the
point ,vhere t hey are first int roduced. human settlement of the Americas, result ing
from new genetic studies (2015- 2016). Chap-
Today, n1ore than ever, students and instruct ors ter 2 clarifies the conceptual transition fron1
are confronted by a vast ,velter of inforn1ation on nature spirit uality to what is commonly called
every conceivable subject. Beyond the ever-expanding polytheism. Chapter 3 updates the n1aterial on
print n1edia, t he Internet and the Web have opened ancient India and Harappans, and the "Patterns
hitherto uni1naginable amounts of data t o us. Despite Up C lose" in Chapter 5 adds the results of a new
such unprecedented access, ho,vever, all of us are too 2016 genet ic st udy on corn.
frequently overwheln1ed by this undifferentiated- Part Two The t itle of Chapter 7 has been changed
and all too often indigestible- mass. No,vhere is this t o "Interaction and Adaptation in Western Eu r-
n1ore true than in world history, by definition t he field asia: Persia, Greece, and Rome" to more emphati-
within t he historical profession wiili ilie broadest cally sho,v t he interactions an1ong these cultural
scope. Therefore, we think that an effort at synthesis- zones. Chapter 8 contains a revised section on
of narrative and analysis structured around a clear, ac- Jainism, and Chapter 9 adds a survey of the con-
cessible, ,videly applicable ilie1ne- is needed, an effort tempora ry debate about the "Han Synt hesis."
that seeks to explain critical patterns of the world's past Part Three Chapter 10 offers clearer discussions
behind the billions of bits of inforn1ation accessible at of the Arab conquests of the Middle East, North
the stroke of a key on a co1nputer keyboard. We hope Africa, and Iberia during t he 600s and early 700s
this text, in t racing t he lines oftransfonnat ive ideas and as ,veil as of the cotnposition of Islan1ic salva-
things iliat left their patterns deeply in1printed into ilie t ion history in the 800s, including the biogra-
canvas of world history, will provide such a synthesis. phy of the Prophet Muhamn1ad. The coverage of
Other documents randomly have
different content
 But spring-wind, like a dancing psaltress, passes
Over its breast to waken it."
"The winds
Are henceforth voices, in a wail or shout,
A querulous mutter, or a quick, gay laugh,—
Never a senseless gust now man is born."
The imagination thus proclaiming the banns between spirit and
matter reminds us of Wordsworth's dear maiden, of whom he says,
—
"She was known to every star in heaven,
And every wind that blew."
The impression of surprise which a perfect simile produces is
transferred from the understanding back to the imagination before
the former can venture to be amused. But sometimes the surprise
lingers there long enough to have a narrow escape from smiling; as
when Sir Thomas Brown, finding that midnight has overtaken him at
his desk, says, "To keep our eyes open longer, were to act the
antipodes." His wakefulness is not only like the antipodal day, but
dramatizes it; and this is a simile that imparts the shock of wit.
Here is one from Shakspeare that approaches it, but is intercepted
by a sense of beauty:—
"These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die; like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume."
And he says that, when the people saw Anne Boleyn at her
coronation, such a noise arose "as the shrouds make at sea in a stiff
tempest." Mr. Browning makes us smile when he paints the "poppy's
red effrontery—till autumn spoils their fleering quite with rain,"
"And, turbanless, a coarse, brown, rattling crane
Protrudes."
This reminds me that in the West a bald man's head is spoken of as
rising above the timber-line; which is quite in the style of American
similes, as when Rufus Choate, who so frequently appeared to be
saying to his jury, "If you have tears, prepare to shed them now,"
was described to be a man who always bored for water.
Charles Lamb commenting upon the following line from Davenport's
King John and Matilda,—
"And thou, Fitzwater, reflect upon thy name,
And turn the Son of Tears,"—
says, "Fitzwater: son of water." A striking instance of the
compatibility of the serious pun with the expression of the
profoundest sorrows. Grief as well as joy finds ease in thus playing
with a word. Old John of Gaunt in Shakspeare thus descants on his
name: "Gaunt, and gaunt, indeed;" to a long string of conceits which
no one has ever yet felt to be ridiculous. The poet Wither, thus, in a
mournful review of the declining estate of his family, says with
deepest nature,—
"'The very name of Wither shows decay.'"
But, in the following passage from John Fletcher's "Bonduca," pure
poetry checks the laugh,—
"I have seen these Britons that you magnify
Run as they would have outrun time, and roaring,
Basely for mercy, roaring; the light shadows,
That in a thought scur o'er the fields of corn,
Halted on crutches to them."
That is in the finest style of an exaggeration which has been
inherited by Americans and is the source of much of their wit and
humor. Here is a coarser specimen, but perfectly witty. A person,
remarking to a famous criminal lawyer that his client would certainly
go to hell, had for a reply, "Go to hell! he ought to be thankful that
there is a hell he can go to."
This characteristic will recur under the head of Falstaff.
Some of the similes which Americans derive from their professions,
and apply to persons, have all the character of wit. A farmer says of
a meagre and unequal speech that it was "pretty scattering,"
alluding to ground crops that grow unevenly. An iron-founder will say
of a speech that was all fusion and passion that, notwithstanding, it
"didn't make a weld." Miners in the West use the word "color" for
the finest gold in the ground. One of them remarked of a man who
had been tried and found worthless, "I have panned him out clear
down to the bed rock, but I can't even raise the color." Frequenters
of the race-course mention a beaten politician as "the longest-eared
horse they ever saw," as the ears hang to a jaded horse. And a
Nantucket captain, when asked his opinion of a very rhetorical
preacher, said, "He's a good sailor, but a bad carrier."
The poetry of Donne, Cowley, Suckling, and others of that epoch,
easily furnish examples of similes which stop so far short of beauty
that their aptness only serves to raise a smile. Suckling says,—
"Her feet beneath her petticoat
Like little mice stole in and out."
Cowley begins his Hymn to Night,—
"First-born of chaos, who so fair didst come
From the old negro's darksome womb,"
and we have to deny poetic freedom to this aboriginal contraband.
How charmingly, however, did the poor woman reply to the
gentleman who found her watering her webs of linen cloth. She
could not tell him even the text of the last sermon. "And what good
can the preaching do you, if you forget it all?" "Ah, sir, if you will
look at this web on the grass, you will see that as fast as ever I put
the water on it the sun dries it all up, and yet, sir, I see it gets whiter
and whiter." This is pure wit from the well of imagination, and the
smile is as deep in it as truth.
It would be hazardous to liken a poet to a spider, we might think;
but when Mr. Browning undertakes it, this dodger of brooms spins a
web all dripping with the splendor of fancy. Mr. Browning speaks of
young Sordello, the poet, as he dreams in the old castle and
connects the events around him by absorbing surmises of his own:—
 "Thus thrall reached thrall;
He o'erfestooning every interval,
As the adventurous spider, making light
Of distance, sports her threads from depth to height,
From barbican to battlement; so flung
Fantasies forth and in their centre swung
Our architect,—the breezy morning fresh
Above, and merry,—all his waving mesh
Laughing with lucid dew-drops rainbow-edged.
This world of ours by tacit pact is pledged
To laying such a spangled fabric low,
Whether by gradual brush or gallant blow."
Beauty has spun the poet and the insect into a cocoon out of which
the splendid wings emerge; then wit takes up the thread with the
conception of the prosaic old world's hostility to flimsy poesy, and we
admire the sudden congruity which is established between two such
irreconcilable objects.
Outside the domain of poetry involuntary wit lurks everywhere, even
in passages of history whose passion seems capable of expunging all
smiles upon the face. Two contrarious ideas may blend for a moment
at one point, as when King Olaf put a pan of coals upon Eyvind's
naked flesh until it broiled beneath them, and then asked, without
suspecting any thing incongruous, "Dost thou now, O Eyvind, believe
in Christ?" Here is a momentary inclusion of an act of belief under an
act of physical pain. When in the course of time the deadly
earnestness of Olaf fades away for us, we perceive the incongruity,
but also perceive that Olaf, in sad simplicity, imagined there was
congruity; or, he reflected, a pan of coals shall compel a congruity.
This grim practice of unconscious wit is heightened when we
recollect that Christ was a person who declined to call down fire
upon those who did not receive him; and such an incident affords us
a ready passage from Wit into the domain of Irony.
IRONY.
Nature herself practised irony long before men had suffered from it
enough to endow literature with its expressive form. She has always
pretended to agree with our penchant for pleasant but noxious
habits, and for a long time seems to be of our opinion that such
ways of living are of a capital kind; but eventually she is fatigued
because we misunderstand her, and exclaims by many a twinge,
"You simpletons! I meant just the reverse." "Why didn't you say so
at first?" we reply, as we smart to find we had been so prosaic when
we thought we were so romantic; but the smart etches the shapes
of tragedy upon the soul.
The mind uses irony when it gravely states an opinion or sentiment
which is the opposite of its belief, with the moral purpose of showing
its real dissent from the opinion. It must therefore be done with this
wink from the purpose in it, so that it may not pass for an
acquiescence in an opposite sentiment. It may be done so well as to
deceive even the elect; and perhaps the ordinary mind complains of
irony as wanting in straightforwardness. There is a moment of
hesitation, when the mind stoops over this single intention with a
double appearance, and doubts upon which to settle as the real
prey. So that only carefully poised minds with the falcon's or the
vulture's glance can always discriminate rapidly enough to seize the
point. In this moment of action the pleasure of irony is developed,
which arises from a discovery of the contrast between the thing said
and the thing intended. And this pleasure is heightened when we
observe the contrast between the fine soul who means nobly, and
his speaking as if he meant to be ignoble. Then the ignoble thing is
doubly condemned, first, by having been briefly mistaken to be the
real opinion of the speaker, and then by the flash of recognition of
the speaker's superiority. Thackeray describes the high-minded
intentions of Rebecca Sharp: "It became naturally Rebecca's duty to
make herself, as she said, agreeable to her benefactors, and to gain
their confidence to the utmost of her power. Who can but admire
this quality of gratitude in an unprotected orphan? 'I am alone in the
world,' said the friendless girl: 'well, let us see if my wits cannot
provide me with an honorable maintenance.' Thus it was that our
little romantic friend formed visions of the future for herself; nor
must we be scandalized that, in all her castles in the air, a husband
was the principal inhabitant. Of what else have young ladies to think
but husbands? Of what else do dear mammas think? 'I must be my
own mamma,' said Rebecca." Thus the great author confides to us
his abhorrence of Vanity Fair.
In matters which are morally indifferent, irony is only a jesting which
is disguised by gravity; as when we apparently agree with the
notions of another person which are averse from our own, so that
we puzzle him not only on the point of our own notion, but on the
point of his own, and he begins to have a suspicion that he is not
sound in the matter. This suspicion is derived from the mind's
instinctive feeling that irony is a trait of a superior person who can
afford to have a stock of original ideas with which it tests opinion,
and who holds them so securely that he can never play with them a
losing game. The Bastard in King John indicates this superiority
when he says,—
"Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail,
And say,—there is no sin but to be rich;
And being rich, my virtue then shall be,
To say,—there is no vice but beggary."
A man who pretends to hold the opposite of his own belief is morally
a hypocrite, until we detect that slight touch of banter which is the
proof of genuine irony. Then we see that he is honest though he
equivocates, for he belies himself with sincerity. A man who can
afford this is to that extent superior to the man who, whether right
or wrong, is hopelessly didactic, and incapable of commending his
own opinions by the bold ease with which he may deplore them.
It is irony when Lowell, speaking of Dante's intimacy with the
Scriptures, adds, "They do even a scholar no harm." Jaques, in "As
You Like It," is ironical when he indicates men by the actions of the
wounded deer which augmented with tears the stream that did not
need water, as men leave their money to those who have too much
already. The herd abandons him: that is right,—misery parts
company. Anon, they come sweeping by, and never stay to inquire
into his hurt. That is just the proper fashion, too. "Sweep on, you fat
and greasy citizens!" This pretence of praising the deer is a parable
which arraigns mankind.
In the Old Testament there is an instance of irony, where the priests
of Baal called on his name but there was no reply, and Elijah
suggested that "either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a
journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked." But the
priests had all the prosaic singleness of an ignorant mind, and went
on scarifying themselves with knives and lancets, as if Elijah had not
already let their blood.
The New Testament furnishes a more delicate specimen in the
parable of the unjust steward, which has difficulties of interpretation,
arising from an unwillingness, perhaps, to recognize the irony. The
steward is expecting to be dismissed for malfeasance in office. In
the days of parable, whitewashing committees were unknown. He
then expects to ingratiate himself with his lord's debtors by reducing
the amount of their bills, hoping that some of them would take him
up when discarded. It is not clear what commendation to a debtor
who might also be a creditor lay in this fraudulent reduction of his
bill; but a parable serves only the main point, which in this case is to
show how much more tact a thoroughly worldly man has than a
technically spiritual man. So the lord admires the shiftiness of his
steward, because it had an ulterior purpose; whereas your
conventional child of light has no genuine foresight. This is done to
introduce the irony of the verse: "And I say unto you, Make to
yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when
ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." The
master's hint of the superior sagacity of the people of mammon is
delightfully qualified by the irony that lurks in his use of the word
"everlasting." Then the serious intent of the parable is clearly stated
in the three succeeding verses.
When irony becomes persistently cynical it defeats the moral
advantage which it would possess of attracting men to its serious
meaning, because it then involves too large a tract of human life in
its insinuation. The pretences that things are all bad may become so
clamorous at the door of our faith in human nature that no good
things can gain admission. In literature, an irony that is tinged a little
with cynicism is a healthy recoil from sentimentalism: for an affected
ideal, if too long and too floridly sustained, piques our knowledge of
human nature into making inquiries; and, as it is in public affairs
when people are aroused to investigate, the facts which are
discovered receive too great a valuation. They seem to indicate that
every thing is rotten; and while one temper denounces, another
temper sneeringly inquires for virtue. In broad day, this lantern of
Diogenes goes about hunting up an honest citizen. "There is nothing
but roguery to be found in villanous man."
The strained and almost impossible goodness of Dickens's "Battle of
Life" is punished by the cool depreciation of Thackeray's pen. When
the former insists too strongly that his humble characters shall be
examples of all the British beatitudes, the latter depicts too easily
sharpers and nonentities for women, and well-bred, high-toned
rascals for men. But when a too fluent and prolific imagination,
working in the steam of a great modern centre, has its shapes
distorted, and the outlines waver into caricature, a tonic breath with
the taste of brine in it will always set in to temper this radiation.
Then it is inevitable that we shiver and complain that the tone has
been reduced too far. When a skilfully distended bubble breaks, and
only a thin spat of suds is left, a cynic finger will point to it as if to
say, "Here's your fine iris all gone to unserviceable soap." But there
is a solider ball, the earth itself, upon which human nature paints its
zones; and although life is despicable at the poles, and revolting in
many a foul quarter, we know that noble landscapes stocked with
graciousness and honor spread on every side. Shakspeare alone
seems to have this bubble hanging securely from his pipe, where it
sheds the swift glances of myriad eyes.
Thackeray says, "How can I hold out the hand of friendship, when
my first impression is, 'My good sir, I strongly suspect that you were
up my pear-tree last night'? It is a dreadful state of mind. The core
is black; the death-stricken fruit drops on the bough, and a great
worm is within,—fattening and feasting and wriggling. Who stole the
pears? I say. Is it you, brother? Is it you, Madam?"
These suspicions cannot conceal their good humor: the one hand
drives the railing pen; the other, behind the chair, holds the glimmer,
not of steel, but of a smile.
But when Swift writes a chapter upon the use and improvement of
madness in a Commonwealth, the smile which scantily flickers over
the surface of it is the smile of the Spartan boy while the fox was
gnawing at his vitals. Swift's pen makes the Iron Madonna's gestures
of invitation,—she that stood in mediæval torture-chambers and
bade the bewildered prisoner take refuge in her opening arms,
where a thousand lancets pricked life, faith, and hope away.
At one time, the German Heine's irony smacks of good humor; at
another, you would ask for a bumper of gall to sweeten your mouth.
He represents two fat Manchester ladies at a particularly exposed
ballet, murmuring to each other, "Shocking! For shame!" And he
says that they were so benumbed with horror that they could not for
an instant take their opera-glasses from their eyes, and
consequently remained in that situation to the last moment, when
the curtain fell.
By and by we hear a change of tone. "I always obeyed the one
commandment, that we should love our enemies; for, ah! those
persons whom I have best loved were always, without my knowing
it, my worst enemies." And again: "Madame, you can readily form an
idea of what life is like in heaven,—the more readily, as you are
married."
This style of innuendo is always more good-natured in Thackeray; as
when speaking in the character of a widower, who remembers the
late Mrs. Brown, he says: "By a timely removal she was spared from
the grief which her widowhood would have doubtless caused her,
and I acquiesce in the decrees of Fate in this instance, and have not
the least regret at not having preceded her."
Heine also can be pleasantly mischievous. When he was about to
travel from Lyons to Paris in the old days of diligences, a friend
commissioned him to carry one of the colossal Lyons sausages to a
homœopathic doctor in the capital. But Heine and his wife were so
frequently hungry, and had trespassed so often upon the length of
the sausage, that a very small end remained on their arrival. Heine
thereupon shaved off a transparent slice with a razor, and enclosed it
in the following letter to the doctor: "My dear Sir,—Your researches
have helped to establish the fact that millionths produce the greatest
effects. Pray receive herewith the millionth part of a Lyons sausage,
which your friend consigned to you. In case your theory be true, it
will have the effect of the whole sausage upon you."
Irony employs wit to feather its purport. A Frenchman said of a man
who never really did make a witty remark: "How full of wit that man
must be! he never lets any escape." That, when translated, is
improved because the English word any can refer at once to no wit
and to no person's escaping the effect of wit. Thus the irony is
increased.
One of the most characteristic and important specimens of irony is
Thackeray's "Philip," a story of a villanous doctor who deceives a
woman with a mock marriage, deserts her, and marries a lady with
expectations, who has a son Philip and dies. But the traitor is
endowed with an impressive amount of deportment, and his
starched front and cravat seem to have been secreted by the stiffest
of spotless souls, in a rapture of rigidness. This carapace of
deportment is gradually worn too thin; for it has been put to rough
service on all occasions to supply the place of virtue and to make its
absence appear no calamity. The irony consists in accepting this
deportment as if it were really put forth by an estimable man. The
book is one long strain of grave assumption that Dr. Firmin is a good
man and a killing physician; but the reader knows better on the first
point, and enjoys tasting the man's villany through this pretence.
And it is kept up long after the deportment becomes like the
pantaloons of the stingy lawyer, which hung in his garret labelled
thus, "Too old to wear, too good to give away." It is still good
enough for Dr. Firmin; and he reaches a respectable grave in
ignorance that we know him so thoroughly, and discovers rather late
that he was always well known at the head-quarters of genius.
The story is a wonderfully sustained innuendo of rascality, carried on
by this ironical pretence of virtue. Thackeray appears in it to be as
green as Dr. Firmin's dupes; but the mask is lifted a little in every
sentence, and the author and the reader peeping in at opposite
sides, their eyes meet, and smiles at what they have discovered are
exchanged.
Even the little sister, who becomes a living mother to the Philip of
the dead lady, cannot flee from this great tide of irony, which
catches her and stands up to her heart. The author is constantly
deprecating her love for Philip; though he knows it is the sweet
flower of her life that is fed from the ugly soil of her betrayal. Why
will she go on so with that boy, and save up money for him, and
extemporize little treats with brandy and water ad libitum, and
believe in him when he tries to become a bad magazine writer, and
believe in his fortune when he marries a beggar, and, in short,
believe that she was sent into the world to be deceived, and then
have a great, blundering, brave, pure, splendid Philip, as if by
bequest from a legal mother? Why in Heaven's name does she not
blow upon the doctor, and make a good thing out of betraying his
contemptible meanness? Gracious goodness! why is she so
expensively magnanimous? Would you, Madame, be so extravagant
as to pinch yourself in that way to be faithful and tender to a
seducer out of faith and tenderness for his wife's boy? But, there he
is: God set such a pure amen to a hideous deed, and she is the
woman to say, Amen, after him; for God is just and watches the
index of the balance. What! shall she compete with God for
retribution? So her life is a long sacrifice to the purest and most
mute devotion, and our author banters her to keep the tears from
obscuring the page at which he writes.
This charming insinuation of the great observer, who once said of
himself that he had no head above his eyes, proves to us that he
had a mighty truly-beating heart below them; and we reverently
accept the little mother from his shaping hands, to place her in our
Valhalla of Women, where Portia, Imogen, and Cordelia have long
languished for her company.
If irony does not forget good nature in its indignation at discovered
shams, it can impart the exhilaration of wit. In a late novel, entitled
the "Maid of Sker," there is a fishmonger who says that, "when the
eyes of a fish begin to fail him through long retirement from the
water," he has means of setting up their aspect; "and I called" my
patrons "generous gentlemen and Christian-minded ladies every
time they wanted to smell my fish, which is not right before
payment. What right has another man to disparage the property of
another? When you have bought him, he is your own; but, when he
is put in the scales, remember 'nothing but good of the dead,' if you
remember any thing."
This recalls Hamlet's irony, when he said that he knew Polonius
excellent well,—he was a fishmonger! "Not I, my lord." "Then I
would you were so honest a man." Poor, stale Polonius! He was not
as fresh as the fish which Shakspeare used to scent at Billingsgate,
and knavery in the wind besides.
The cynicism of irony can be illustrated by the character of Jaques in
"As You Like It," as the character of Apemantus in "Timon of Athens"
will serve to show us a cynicism that has grown so ferocious as
almost to beat irony from the field.
JAQUES.
There is not a spark of unkindly feeling in Puck when he says to
Oberon, concerning the lovers,—
"Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!"
But when we overhear Jaques telling Orlando, "By my troth, I was
seeking for a fool, when I found you," there is a tang of seedy beer
in the speech. We suspect his common-sense of having soured: so
that when he says to Orlando, "The worst fault you have is to be in
love," we relish the estimate of Orlando's reply, "'Tis a fault I will not
change for your best virtue."
The melancholy of Jaques is the cynicism of a man who is blasé with
the convictions as well as the manners of society. He enjoys his vein
too well to be melancholy in the modern sense of that word, for
being something more than satirical he is something less than
morose, and we feel that he is secretly pleased with his ability to be
displeasing. Every vice lends a man a feeling of superiority in being
different from other men: he broke through some bounds to acquire
it, and this action contains some spice of originality and
independence. He transgresses in a temper of pity for the less
audacious and unchartered souls. So the cynic who makes his whole
vicinity uncomfortable is pleasant company for himself because he
has no mawkishness; you cannot cheat him with superfine emotions,
he happens to have seen the world.
Jaques characterizes the use of the word "melancholy" as applied to
himself, when he says: "It is a melancholy of mine own,
compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and,
indeed, the sundry contemplation of my travels, in which my often
rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness." He has also
gained his experience at the expense of having tried various vices of
high life, as the Duke hints: "For thou thyself hast been a libertine."
So the arsenic eaters of the Styrian Alps take the natural poison in
small successive doses which give them a bloated aspect of florid
health, but they so affect the action of the heart that it stops quite
suddenly.
The famous speech beginning with, "All the world's a stage," is
purely cynical, and assumes the futility of the parts which the
necessity of living compels us to play. It might be spoken by one
who believes that our little life is rounded by a sleep whose pure
oblivion swallows up our striving.
When Jaques calls for more singing, and is told that it will make him
melancholy, he replies, "I thank it: I can suck melancholy out of a
song as a weasel sucks eggs." We may infer that he sucks music
with the notion of the weasel, who probably regards eggs as being
laid on purpose for his sucking. There is nothing more ferrety than
your cynic, to whom all objects are game for observation. When he
hears that Duke Frederic, the usurper, has restored the kingdom and
"put on a religious life," he goes to find him for the purpose of
critical inspection; for "out of these convertites there is much matter
to be heard and learned." So Jaques surmising that every hole leads
to a rat does not leave one unexplored. In the matter of music
Jaques only cares for his sad reverie, not for the names of the
songs. He will thank nobody. "When a man thanks me heartily,
methinks I have given him a penny, and he renders me the beggarly
thanks." So, sing, if you choose to: the song tracks me to that rat
behind the arras.
Compare his scirrhous habit of assimilating music with that of the
Duke in "Twelfth Night." Love has an appetite for music: give me
excess of it to kill the love. Enough: it is not so sweet as before; for
love is like the sea, as vast, as real, as domineering. When the
brooks of music fall into it, sweet as they are, genuine as love, yet
the great sea subdues them to a greater disposition, even in a
minute; and my fancy for Olivia is alone "high-fantastical." Jaques
would have sneered at this Duke for not extracting from the music a
suspicion of the frailty of his love. No matter what a man's gifts may
be, this "vicious mole of nature" that pretends to spread over all
surfaces discolors only the gifts: all virtues, "in the general censure,
take corruption from that particular fault," and to its own scandal;
because the world is a flower that nods upon the stock of reality,
and the particles of its aroma, though invisible, set in motion the
nerves of a corresponding reality, and man does not put his nose to
an illusion. But your debauchee, like Jaques, has scorched and
tanned his senses with misuse, and his abortive sniffing at the roses
sours into a sneer.
Still, Jaques in defending himself makes disclaimers of ill-nature: as
thus, Who is hit by my speech? It means so and so. If the coat does
not fit, who is wronged? If a man be above my estimate, "why, then,
my taxing like a wild goose flies, unclaimed of any man."
Yes, but he really delights himself with the conviction that every man
is a wild goose upon the wing, and that virtue is the last game that
ventures to alight and feed on the wild celery of our ponds.
Jaques reserves his last and cruelest thrust for Touchstone, to whom
he predicts a marriage victualled for two months, and wrangling ever
after; which is hard on the wise fool, who has taken up with Audrey
as if to show the under side of court manners and the comparative
cheapness of mere breeding. This ought to have endeared him to
the heart of the cynic.
APEMANTUS.
Apemantus, in "Timon of Athens," is a cynic of a different breed, and
his temper is so acid that, as was once said of Douglas Jerrold, he
must have been suckled on a lemon. There is spleen in it when he
says: "Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee
profitably." The cynicism of Apemantus is partly justified by the
generous folly of Timon: "Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen,
I'd be good to thee." "No, I'll nothing: for if I should be bribed too,
there would be none left to rail upon thee, and then thou would'st
sin the faster." Shakspeare seems to indicate how a virtue, pushed
to excess, provokes excessive criticism. We are continually
generating these extremes, when our social virtue piques some
social fault into parading itself. Money maxims and manners are
good things, but they may all be strained to bankruptcy. So when
Timon becomes a fanatic of good-nature we see him developing a
monstrous Apemantus: his virtue, like an overgrown fruit, becomes
stringy and deprived of proper flavor. We taste its coarseness in the
colossal spleen of the cynic who says, as Timon turns away from the
repulsive tone which was really sired by himself:—

"Thou wilt not hear me now: thou shalt not then, I'll lock Thy
heaven from thee."

So it will always be: if the kingdom of heaven is claimed by one

violence, it will be competed for by another.
Apemantus is specially reared to be this bitter foil to Timon's
profuseness. He leads an isolated life, and thus like all solitaries
acquires the vice of exaggerating his own opinions. They have never
passed between the fine emery of social contact. So he is a caltrop
in men's path, with a spike always uppermost to impale the over-
hasty feet. Poverty drives Timon directly upon it, to wince at every
step he takes on such a bristly virtue, till he matches his smart with
curses quite as pointed; and Shakspeare shows us the two fanatics
of two virtues exhausting the vituperations of the English tongue to
banish each other into an oblivion, "where the light foam of the sea
may beat" their gravestones daily with a bitter lip.

Tim. When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be

welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog, than Apemantus.
Apem. Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.
Tim. Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon.
Apem. A plague on thee, thou art too bad to curse.
Tim. Away, thou issue of a mangy dog!
Choler does kill me, that thou art alive;
I swoon to see thee.
Apem. Beast!
Tim. Slave!
Apem. Toad!
Tim. Rogue, rogue, rogue!

So people who never know "the middle of humanity," but "the

extremity of both ends," batter each other's virtue out of shape and
capacity to be recognized.
Julian Hawthorne likens the cynic to a chimney-sweeper, "that
eccentric misanthrope who vents his spite against the race by
plucking defilement from the very flame which makes bright the
household hearth."
But Jaques was expressly plunged into social estimates and manners
that he may be withdrawn from them in a less splenetic temper. The
wild crab has sunned itself in orchards, and, nodding among
mellower branches, is not all flavored with their rottenness. So far
from secluding himself in the conceited fashion of all hermits from
the manifold culture of life, he has expended himself upon every
phase of it, and withdraws with the pensiveness of satiety toning the
sharpness of experience in his speech. Some men turn cynics when
the first serious disappointment of their lives drifts over them. Of a
sudden the whole, nature is drenched from the leaden cloud. The
revulsion from a sunny day to this pitiless blackening of heaven chills
the very marrow of their common-sense. Then they rail at the sky
which is but for a while retired, and insist that its old grace and
clearness were a subterfuge. So when the accursed plot of Iachimo
to make the chastity of Imogen a naughty thing has its effect, her
husband, Posthumus, sets the key for all the woman-haters since:—
"Could I find out
The woman's part in me! For there's no motion
That tends to vice in man, but I affirm
It is the woman's part: Be it lying, note it,
The woman's; flattering, hers; deceiving, hers;
Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers; revenges, hers;
Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain,
Nice longings, slanders, mutability,
All faults that may be named, nay, that hell knows,
Why, hers, in part, or all; but, rather, all;
For ev'n to vice
They are not constant, but are changing still
One vice, but of a minute old, for one
Not half so old as that. I'll write against them."
HUMOR.
If we wished to find a passage from Irony to Humor, we should have
to look for it in cases where good-nature assumes the positive
attribute of impartiality, because humor is a kind of disposition to
adopt the whole of human nature, fuse all its distinctions, tolerate all
its infirmities, and assemble vice and misery to receive rations of
good cheer.
Two Jews have been elected within a few years to be Lord Mayors of
London. They were members of the synagogue in full connection,
and might have appointed Rabbins for chaplaincies if they had
chosen. But they pursued the old custom, which was not however of
legal stringency: appointed clergymen of the Church of England, and
regularly made all the usual contributions for Christian purposes,
including the customary one to the Society for the Conversion of the
Jews. In this incident it is the element of Humor which imparts to us
the pleasure we feel.
Hippolyte Taine acknowledges that the French have not the idea of
Humor, nor the word for it. But we might expect from him at least a
definition. He can only say, however, that humor includes a taste for
contrasts, buffooneries, the mockery of Heine, starts of invention,
oddities, eruption of a violent joviality that was buried under a heap
of sadness, and absurd indecency. In another place he says that
English humor "is the product of imaginative drollery, or of
concentrated indignation."
Sir Henry Bulwer, in his book entitled "France, Social, Literary, and
Political," concedes the talent of wit to the French and quotes the
following instance of it: "I asked two little village boys, one seven,
the other eight years old, what they meant to be when they were
men? Says one, 'I shall be the doctor of the village.' 'And you, what
shall you be?' said I to the other. 'Oh! if brother's a doctor, I shall be
curé. He shall kill the people, and I'll bury them; so we shall have
the whole village between us.'"
Bulwer appreciates this, yet Taine denies to the English the sense of
wit. In fact, the quality of wit exists wherever imagination percolates
through the understanding: the sediment is the grain-gold of wit.
But the quality of humor, depending upon various moral traits, exists
only wherever a broad imagination is combined with a sweet and
tolerant moral sense that is devoid of malice and all
uncharitableness, and at peace with all mankind. A petulant egotism
may exist with wit, but never with humor. Sarcasm and satire are the
forms which best agree with imperfect moral dispositions. A too
prolonged irony has something melancholy and dyspeptic in it, and
passes into the blood of a faulty temper even if there be the tonic of
an upright moral sense. This moral sense may exist on every
meridian of the earth, but it may not appear at literary epochs in
solution with the brightest minds. Rabelais seems to be a French
exception to the Gallic trait that was noticed so long ago by the
great Roman: Comɶda and argute loqui,—belonging to comedy and
to the ingenuities of conversation. Humor appears best in
conjunction with the temper of Northern Europe, whose early races
began with deep impressions of the gravity of things and broke
thence into alleviating moods. If it be the primitive trait of a nation
to enjoy comic gayeties and the subtle surprises of discourse, it does
not readily rise to the moral earnestness which a serious world
imposes, and therefore it cannot invent the relief and grave delight
of humor.
Sydney Smith uses this word to cover any thing that is ridiculous and
laughable. So the epithet comic is quite indiscriminately applied. But
we ought not to submit to this loose application; for there are plenty
of other words to make proper distinctions for us amid our
pleasurable moods, and permit us to reserve humor for something
which is neither punning, wit, satire, nor comedy. Humor may avail
itself of all these mental exercises, but only as a manager casts his
stock company to set forth the prevailing spirit of a play. Comedy, for
instance, represents sorrows, passions, and annoyances, but shows
them without the sombre purpose of tragedy to enforce a supreme
will at any cost. All our weaknesses threaten in comedy to result in
serious embarrassments, but there is such inexhaustible material for
laughter in the whims and follies with which we baffle ourselves and
others, that the tragic threat is collared just in time and shaken into
pleasure. All kinds of details of our life are represented, which
tragedy could never tolerate in its main drift towards the pathos of
defeated human wills and broken hearts. Tricks, vices, fatuities,
crotchets, vanities, play their game for a stake no higher than the
mirth of outwitting each other; and they all pay penalties of a light
kind which God exacts smilingly for the sake of keeping our
disorders at a minimum. Comedy also funds a great deal of its charm
in the unconsciousness of an infirmity. We exhibit ourselves
unawares: each one is perfectly understood by everybody but
himself; so we plot and vapor through an intrigue with placards on
each back, where all but the wearers can indulge their mirth at
seeing us parading so innocently with advertisements of our price
and quality.
There is a comic passage in the "Inferno" of Dante, noticed by
Lowell (XV. 119), "where Brunetto Latini lingers under the burning
shower to recommend his Tesoro to his former pupil," Dante; "a
comical touch of Nature in an author's solicitude for his little work;
not, as in Fielding's case, after its, but his own damnation."
The opening verses of Canto XVI. of the "Paradiso" are also comic,
"where Dante tells us how, even in heaven, he could not help
glorying in being gently born,—he who had devoted a Canzone and
a book of the Convito to proving that nobility consisted wholly in
virtue."
Humor subsidizes every vein like this to supply the great heart-beat
which mantles over all human features and visits all the members of
great or little honor. Irony is jesting hidden behind gravity. Humor is
gravity concealed behind the jest. Our grave and noble tendencies
are brought in this world of ours into contact with very ordinary
styles of living, which are stubborn; they neither surrender nor give
way. Humor steps in to mediate: it seeks to put in the same light
and color all the parts of this incongruity, the ideal and the vulgar
real; and the constant inference of humor is that all the ideals of
right, honor, goodness, manly strength, are serious with a divine
purpose.
Even the coarsest and most revolting things can be adopted by this
temper and cheerfully assigned to their places in the great plan.
Jamie Alexander, the old Scotch grave-digger, had the habit of
carrying home fragments of old coffins, long seasoned in the earth
which was turned up by his exploring spade. He used to make clocks
and fiddles of them, thus coaxing time and tune out of these
repulsive tokens of human infirmity. Our mouldiest accessories can
furnish material for humor; since "a good wit," says Shakspeare,
"will make use of any thing; it will turn diseases to commodity."
We cannot say that man derives this power to resolve contrariety
into delight from the divine mind, though we have the habit of
saying that every intellectual act must spring from an original source
of intelligence, just as affection must have its root in the infinite
love. But Deity can have no consciousness of incongruities in
creation, because the whole must at every instant be comprehended
in the Creator of the whole, who originates the real relation of all its
parts and their mutual interdependence. Human dissatisfaction
springs from want of this ability to comprehend the whole within one
reconciling idea. This incompetency is felt by us because we have an
instinct that all dissonant things ought to be reconciled, and can be
in some way, but only can be by the finite becoming the infinite.
Humor strives to bridge this gulf. It is man's device to pacify his
painful sense that so many things appear wrong and evil to him, and
so many circumstances inconsistent with our feeling that Deity must
have framed the world in a temper of perfect goodness. We get
relief by trying to discover the ideas which may effect a temporary
reconcilement, to approach as far as we can to the temper of divine
impartiality in which all circumstances must have been ordained.
That temper passing down through our incompleteness is refracted,
broken all up into a tremulousness of human smiles. Nothing that a
Creator has the heart to tolerate can disturb him. But where there is
no sense of incongruity there can be no sense of humor. That sense
is man's expedient to make his mortality endurable. The laughter of
man is the contentment of God.
Shakspeare was not preoccupied by any theory of the universe
which denies the facts or tries to shut them up in a private meaning,
as theology does. His creative genius reflected a Creator's mind. So
he accepted all that is permitted to exist, without extenuation,
instinctively acknowledging the right of God to make men as they
are, if so He chose, out of complex motives and passions whose
roots are hidden in each man's ancestry, and whose drift the man
himself cannot anticipate, as he was not consulted. This admission
of all the facts of human nature did not disable his preference for
pure and honest things. All that is lovely has a good, report made of
it in his lives, and all that is odious appears in its habit as it lived.
Thus he moralized, as Nature does by letting all her creatures breed
and show their traits. She pastes no placards upon things which
advertise themselves to every observer. All our infirmities have the
freedom of Shakspeare's verse to display themselves at pleasure. He
is not standing by with a showman's stick to designate his creatures
to us who have eyes of our own, and know what is ugly and
pleasant when we see it. No perfume is added to the violet, no
gilding to the rose. "The image of a wicked heinous fault" lives in its
eye.
Now this impartial observation cannot shield the poet's ideal from
the hurts which are inflicted by the discrepancies of life: the real
seems to be no legitimate child of the ideal, but a changeling with
low-born traits. The noble lover of goodness cannot help being
pained at the contrast of circumstances with his thought, and there
moves over his nature a deep seriousness from this cloud, beneath
which his imagination broods upon the landscape. It raises a
suspicion that Deity itself must find omniscience annoying and
provocative of gloom; for all the worlds and the ages keep on
inflicting this incongruity upon the divine source of all ideal things.
The poet must manage to recover from this mood, to reassure his
heart with the faith that the One who calculated and devised the
aberrations which sustain His system must exist in eternal serenity.
When many human characters are contemplated by a superior
observer, an impartiality kin to that of the mind who created them
sets in. But it cannot remain a colorless, judicial attitude, nor can it
deteriorate into indifference. Good nature is an element in the
superiority of a good observer. He may make use of wit, comedy,
and irony, but his essential mood can only be described by the word
"humor;" that is, the quality of being reconciled with all that is
observed. The poet would fain conciliate, but without complicity; for
he can never give up the gravity of his ideal. Now to be perfectly
impartial to all would be too great a strain for a finite mind. It would
weary of the incessant balancing, of the exigency of moderation.
The mind yields from this in unconscious self-defence, and passes
into a mood that conciliates itself. The gravity is precipitated by the
infusion of a smile. And although this lighter ingredient appears
upon the surface, it is the record and announcement of the serious
affair below.
In Burns's "Address to the Devil," he is of opinion that that
personage cannot take much pleasure in tormenting poor devils like
him. Besides, if any thing is the matter with him, it is all the fault of
the devil's own trick which so nearly ruined every thing. Still, he
confesses to a fellow-feeling for the devil. Why can't he mend a bit?
Burns hates to think of hell for the devil's sake, as Dr. Channing once
said he hoped there was no devil for the devil's own sake.
But, as Shakspeare says, "the devil knew not what he did when he
made man politic; he crossed himself by it; and I cannot think, but,
in the end, the villanies of man will set him clear."
The humor here is pervaded with the earnest perception that Nature
contains organically the good and the evil. Both are placed in
permanent juxtaposition, to result in the interaction which makes life
and history possible.
We notice the same touch of humor in Goethe's Prologue to "Faust."
The Lord gives full permission to Mephistopheles to try his hand at
Faust:—
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Dust shall he eat for pleasure's sake,
Like my old famous aunt, the snake.
THE LORD.
 Just freely as you please, do I reply:
I never hated people of your kind;
Of all the spirits that deny
The knave is he best suits my mind.
Since man soon tires and thinks that labor's evil,
For unconditioned rest he sighs;
And so I'm glad to pique his enterprise
By a provoking comrade, like the devil.
The Lord has always tolerated this element on a compulsion of his
own. But whenever creeping plants that have extorted bitter drops
from the world around their roots climb over Shakspeare's sunny
exposure, the clusters grow fit for human lips and are crushed into
smiles.
The characters of humor in Shakspeare promote the business of the
play, but they do it as much by being special studies of the traits of
human nature as by necessary complicity with the plot. Sometimes
they appear, as they would to a Frenchman like Voltaire, to be
absurdities interpolated in the texture of the plot as if merely to raise
a laugh and stretch the mouths of the groundlings. The notion is not
uncommon, even among cultivated people, that they are drolleries
contrived to suspend the strain of the more serious portions of the
play; the poet assuming that the average mind cannot bear gravity
for a whole evening. And doubtless great numbers of spectators find
this relief in the lighter scenes into which they step down the stairs
of the blank verse, rather tired and strained. They only notice that
they are amused. But the characters of humor flow out of a natural
logic that is behind the plot, which cannot be apprehended without
them. They are essential to it because they are intrinsically logical,
however little they may appear to be woven along with the rest of
the texture. But they are in fact, as all human life is, a seamless
piece constructed at a single loom.
Why for instance, in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," does Launce
enter, leading his dog, just after Proteus and Julia have exchanged
rings, and they part, she too much overcome to respond to his
tender farewell? What an impertinent soliloquy which describes
Launce's parting, too, from his family to follow Proteus, all of them
dissolved in tears except Crab the dog! What does this bit of vulgar
life in such a connection? It introduces the essential vulgarity of
Proteus himself, who, we shall see, has the remembrance of Julia
driven out of his heart by Silvia as soon as he has turned his back.
To obtain her he plays a mean trick upon his dearest friend who
loves her. In the midst of this Launce intrudes again; for he has
fallen in love, and gives us what he calls the "cat-log" of his girl's
conditions. It is as if the trivial disposition of Proteus was suddenly
dumped upon its proper refuse-heap by the fine verse which held it.
And we soon perceive why this dog Crab was trotted into the
company; for Proteus procures a dog of gentle breed and bids
Launce carry it as a present to Silvia. But it is stolen from him, and
Launce substitutes his own vicious cur who behaves badly in Silvia's
presence, and is whipped out. This is just what Proteus is doing in
love. Launce's shift is the shabbiness of Proteus, and Silvia dismisses
it as summarily as she disposed of Crab; for she is not "so shallow,
so conceitless," as to trust such a born flirt as Proteus. Shakspeare
certainly has not left a shred of sentiment hanging to the back of
Proteus's meanness; for Launce, who is a kind of choragus of it, is
furnished with the most vigorous vulgarity which the vernacular
contains. Especially we see what a satirical dog Crab is.
"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our
virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not: and our
crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues."[3]
With that for our text, let us approach some characters of
Shakspeare.

When the requisition of the English government for the surrender of

Mason and Slidell in the Trent affair was made through Lord Lyons,
Judge Hoar rode out to see an old Concord farmer whom he highly
respected, to tell him the news, which he did with considerable
excitement. The farmer listened coolly, and said, "Well, if those
fellows are really going in for the rebels and slavery, you tell Lord
Lyons he may have my copy of Shakspeare."
But I suspect that New England farmers are content to be patriotic
without cultivating the poet's page. Shakspeare may be everywhere
extensively owned without being mentally possessed. We need a
Shakspearian piety. Formerly the Bible and a copy of Josephus or
some protracted commentary stood within reach of the household,
and the leaves were turned by Religion herself who found her own
meaning in every text and the meaning inexhaustible. If the volume
of Shakspeare could attract a sympathy so loyal and grave as that,
Religion would find in him, too, her counterpart. But we do not read
Shakspeare yet in spiritual faith, as Bibles are pondered for their
consecrated sense. Literature swarms with books of criticism which
exhaust invention for theories of his life, profession, and intent; and
the various editions of his works are liberally patronized. But where
are the devotees whose morning orison is the wonderful liturgy of
his imagination, with responses that are intoned by human nature
itself, the acknowledgment that mind and heart are surprised by
their own detection, yet with as little fear and as much confidence as
we repay to omniscience? This is rare, this persistent recurrence of
the soul to his enlightening, this praying before the shrine of every
verse in which a thought, a passion, a humor, a delight, a beauty, is
the saint. Must we have, then, professorships of Shakspeare to
instruct the youth and inculcate this natural piety? Rather let every
household accuse its own indifference, and endow its hearts to make
him more widely felt and understood. For there are sweetness and
light, wisdom and conscience and self-knowledge slumbering
unmined below those covers.

FOOTNOTES:
[3] French Gentleman in "All's Well that Ends Well," iv. 3.
 DOGBERRY, MALVOLIO,
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (AJAX),
BOTTOM, TOUCHSTONE.
DOGBERRY.
THE advocates of the theory that Lord Bacon wrote Shakspeare's
plays like to point to the coincidences of phrase between Dogberry's
Charge to the Watch in "Much Ado about Nothing," and Bacon's
"Office of Constables." They may be found in Judge Holmes's
"Authorship of Shakspeare," 2d ed. pp. 324, 326, and are plainly
Dogberry's misapplications of terms used in some municipal code or
usage for constables which was common in Shakspeare's time. They
may have been only transmitted in the form of oral instructions
before being codified by Bacon, but at any rate they were well
known and highly relished by Shakspeare as specimens of rural
pomp in language. So that although the play was first acted in the
autumn of 1599, and Bacon did not publish his manual until 1608,
the force of referring the coincidences to Bacon is lost by considering
that every village youth between Stratford and London must have
often heard the petty constables, which were elected by the people,
instructed in the phrases so comically misapplied by Dogberry.
And at first it seems as if Shakspeare intended by the introduction of
Dogberry and his ineffective watch merely to interpolate a bit of
comic business, by parodying the important phrases and impotent
exploits of the suburban constable. But Dogberry's mission extended
farther than that, and is intimately woven with delightful
unconsciousness on his part into the fortunes of Hero.
Dogberry is not only immortal for that, but his name will never die
so long as village communities in either hemisphere elect their
guardians of the peace and clothe them in verbose terrors. If the
town is unfortunately short of rascals, the officer will fear one in
each bush, or extemporize one out of some unbelligerent starveling
to show that the majestic instructions of his townsmen have not
been wasted on him. This elaborate inefficiency is frequently
selected by busy communities, because so few persons are there
clumsy enough to be unemployed. Such a vagrom is easily
comprehended. Dogberry has caught up the turns and idioms of
sagacious speech, and seems to be blowing them up as lifebelts; so
he goes bobbing helplessly around in the froth of his talk. "I leave an
arrant knave with your worship; which, I beseech your worship, to
correct yourself, for the example of others. I humbly give you leave
to depart; and if a merry meeting may be wished, God prohibit it."
He ties his conversation in hopeless knots of absurdity; when pomp
takes possession of a vacuous mind, it rattles like the jester's
bladder of dried pease. Have not his fellow-citizens invested him? He
will then lavish the selectest phrases. I heard a village politician once
say with scorn in town-meeting, "Mr. Moderator, I know nothing
about your technalities." Dogberry is the most original of Malaprops,
says to the Prince's order that it shall be suffigance, and tells the
watch that salvation were a punishment too good for them, if they
should have any allegiance in them. He has furnished mankind with
that adroit phrase of conversational escape from compromise,
"Comparisons are odorous." Where common men would suspect a
person, Dogberry says the person is auspicious. His brain seems to
be web-footed, and tumbles over itself in trying to reach swimming
water; as when he says, "Masters, it is proved already that you are
little better than false knaves, and it will go near to be thought so
shortly." This is the precipitancy of a child's reasoning.
His own set do not discover by his malapropisms how futile he is, for
their ears are accustomed to this misplacing of terms; which, indeed,
is not uncommon among people of stronger native sense. Even the
spelling-book and primer are not prophylactic against this failing,
which seems to be owing to cerebral inability to keep words from
gadding about with each other after they have once entered the
mind: a laxness between notions and memory which results in
verbal hybridity, as when a man, who was well informed enough,
used to say, when the castors were passed, that he never took
condignments with his food; and the Western lawyer said of a man
that he could not tell a story without embezzlements. A suburban
resident informed a friend that he lived in the vicissitude of General
——. We can only hope that Dr. Watts would have found it a
"beautiful vicissitude." I have heard of a stout, cheerful, and polite
Dogberry, who had arrived at the discretion of fifty years when his
parents died. Then, in reply to a friend who was practising
condolence upon him, he said, "Yes, I'm a poor orphanless man!"
The same person remarked of his nephew, that he hadn't decided on
his profession yet, but was preponderating; and arguing against
non-resistance with somebody, he said, "Why, sir, if a man should
draw a pistol on me, do you think I'd put my life in his jeopardy?" A
venerable clergyman, finding an inebriated person in the gutter, said,
"My friend, how did you get there?" The man, with a twinkle of jest
yet alive in him, replied, "I'm here, notwithstanding." This amused
the clergyman, who tried to impart it to his family. "And what do you
think the man replied to me?" Nobody could guess. "Well, said he to
me, Nevertheless!" And there was a worthy old deacon, who,
repeating Watts's hymn line for line after his clergyman, said,
"Return, ye rancid sinners!" a condition for which Dogberry would
say they ought to be condemned into everlasting redemption.
A very impracticable and contentious person was chosen to be a
member of a committee. Somebody asked one of the other
members, "Well, how did you find Mr. ——, when it came to
business?" The reply was, "Oh, full of fight as ever,—a regular horse
de combat."
When the Boston fire was stopped at the new post-office, a man
standing near was heard to say, "I'm glad they've got that fire under
headway at last." In all such cases there is a moment supplied
during which some sense is pretended, so that many malapropisms
belong to the race of bulls. At other times they contain the effect of
a pun. A man who had lately moved into the country, and was
planning some new buildings, informed a friend that he had already
got a barn in imbroglio.
A friend called my attention to an article in a Bengal (E.I.)
newspaper, which advised its readers "not to kill the calf that lays
the golden egg." That is, as he remarked, "a happy combination of
Æsop and the Prodigal Son."
So that Mrs. Malaprop's "allegory" basks beside all rivers, and is not
the "pretty worm of Nilus" alone. Climate and race do not seem to
set up distinctions in the universal breed. It skips in all pastures,
with aboriginal characters unchanged. One would suppose that the
Irish might be content with that happy cross between wit and
witlessness which engenders bulls. But they, too, revenge
themselves upon English oppressors of Home Rule by miscalling the
language which they hate to use. I heard of an Irish domestic, who,
descanting upon the manufacture of soft-soap, tried to describe the
virtue of potash, saying with the solemnity of a sacrament, "It's con-
se-cra-ted lie." What a pity that potash should not be the sole
instance of that commodity!
The magistrate asked the tramp what his occupation was. "Plaze y're
honor, I am a sort of pedlar, picking up iron and junk in this and the
previous towns." This reminds me of an obfuscated person who was
feeling around in vain to recover his carpet-bag in the horse-car, a
search which finally enriched our literature when he mumbled, "It's
damned seldom where my bag is."
The malapropisms of Shakspeare have a quality that is not strained.
They would be so likely to occur that they seem to verify all prosody
and syntax, and we sometimes prefer them to the correct word,
especially when the mistake brings a faint flavor of wit. Launcelot
Gobbo is tempted to run away from his service to Shylock, and says
that "the most contagious fiend" bids him pack. When he meets his
father, he says, "I will try confusions with him," which is made witty
by the scene that follows, in which old Gobbo does not recognize his
son. I once heard a fine lady of society generously revive Launcelot's
vein when she said, apropos of some event, "however incredulous it
may appear."
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