...accounts, or unmodified by graver considerations, laughter is their usual result and happy ratification. Wit may be defined to be the Arbitrary Juxtaposition...for some lively purpose of Assimilation or Contrast, generally-of both. It is fancy in its most wilful, and, strictly speaking, its least poetical state...

...accounts, or unmodified by graver considerations, laughter is their usual result and happy ratification. The nature of Wit, therefore, has been well ascertained....Juxtaposition of Dissimilar Ideas, for some lively purpase of Assimilation or Contrast, generally of both. It is fancy in its most wilful, and, strictly...

...belongs to Tragedy or the serious muse ; Fancy to the comic. 1844. HUNT, Im. & Fancy, p. 26. Wit ... is fancy in its most wilful, and, strictly speaking, its least poetical state. 1816. HUNT, Wit & Humour, p. 8. Fancy ... is related to color; imagination to form. 1876. EMERSON,...

...expiation. The Rhetoric of Laughter: The Dynamics of Wit Wit is an arbitrary juxtaposition of dissonant ideas, for some lively purpose of assimilation or contrast, generally of both. William Hazlitt. "On Wit and Humour" Appropriateness was traditionally considered an absolutely essential...

...l8l8/l926, 260. 1' Martin l974, l9, 22, 26; see Hunt l846: "Wit may he defincd to he the Arhitrary Juxtaposition of -Dissimilar Ideas, for some lively purpose of Assimilation or Contrast, generally ofhoth" (9, his emphasis). st See eg Carlyle l85l/l897, 57. Sully's later overview of comic theory...