University of Virginia Library

II. On the Benefit of Laughing (August 1728)

On 3 August 1728, just a fortnight after "The Norfolk Lanthorn" caused such a stir among readers of The Craftsman, there appeared in Mist's Weekly Journal, the other principal organ of the Opposition, an essay "upon the Benefit of Laughing" contributed by a certain facetious correspondent who, though he is ready enough to have fun at Walpole's expense, is more inclined to amuse the public than to embarrass the minister. The writer who, having recently returned from his "Travels" is soon "to cross the Channel" again, represents himself as a most peculiar sort of physician—one able, indeed, to "cure all Diseases incident to the Mind and Body of Man by a Laugh." Though choosing to remain anonymous, this odd doctor of mirth may be confidently identified as Henry Fielding—soon to embark again for Holland to resume his studies, but already launched upon a literary career that would establish his reputation as one of England's greatest comic authors. How fitting, therefore, that by celebrating the therapeutic properties of laughter, this his first published essay should serve as a kind of overture to the comic masterpieces to come.

Though in attributing this essay to Fielding we must rely entirely on internal evidence, the amount of such evidence is plentiful—to the extent

that no attempt could be made in the notes to adduce all the relevant parallels. Consider, to begin with, the general theme of the essay, which is one Fielding made peculiarly his own. It precisely anticipates, for example, that passage in the Preface to Joseph Andrews in which Fielding adapts to comedy Aristotle's medical metaphor of a tragic catharsis, purging the audience of the passions of fear and pity. Burlesque, Fielding would write in his famous Preface, Variations on this same theme are often heard in Fielding's early work—as in these lines from the prologue to The Author's Farce (1730): In The Mock-Doctor (1732) we are similarly assured that the physician who can bring his patient to smile has cured him (X. 156); and later in that play Gregory, to cure Charlotte, instead of disagreeable medicines prescribes a song: "Is there any thing so strange in that? Did you never hear of Pills to purge Melancholy?" (X. 168). Compare, too, Fielding's anatomy of laughter in "An Essay on the Knowledge of the Characters of Men" (1743), where he again emphasizes its beneficial effects: "laughter, while confi[n]ed to vice and folly, is no very cruel punishment on the object, and may be attended with good consequences to him . . ." (XIV. 286). Or finally, consider how Fielding in The Champion (27 March 1740) applies the same metaphor to the case of satire and ridicule: "If the mind be only tainted with one particular vice, this is but a potion given to our disease; and though it may be attended with some pain in the operation, the satirist is to be regarded as our physician, not our enemy . . . ."

Not only is the general theme of the curative power of laughter associated distinctively with Fielding's theory of comic catharsis. In its particular patterns of thought as well the essay recalls Fielding at virtually every turn: his anatomy of the kinds of laughter here resembles the similar analysis in "An Essay on the Knowledge of the Characters of Men" (XIV. 285-288); his satire of physicians—ridiculing in particular their greed for fat fees, their painful or unpalatable remedies, their way of declining to swallow themselves the medicines they prescribe for others—might serve as a paradigm for his treatment of the "Faculty" throughout his career; as might his milder ridicule

of the lady's bad spelling, and her tendency to suffer from the vapors or to amuse herself at quadrille. Numerous passages in his works reveal the same pleasure he here expresses in the antics of monkeys, or the wholesome gaiety of fiddles and country dances, or the cheerfulness induced by witty conversation over a bottle of wine; or in the humor of Butler's Hudibras and Swift's Gulliver's Travels (even, most particularly, in the character of the giantess Glumdalclitch).

Many of the essay's rhetorical strategies and turns of phrase, furthermore, correspond to Fielding's usual practice—the pattern of the maid's speech, for example ("Lord, Madam . . . I beg your Ladyship . . . ."); or the occasional bawdy or rude observation; or the humorous use of homely proverbs. And many of Fielding's favorite words, associated with his characteristic habits of thought and description, will be found here as well: the notion, for example, that there are "Degrees" of certain qualities; of an art or science as a "Mystery"; of evil-doing as "Mischief"; of moods being reflected in the "Countenance"; and such favorite adjectives as "good-natur'd," "nauseous," "handsome," "sour" vs. "sweet."

It is true of course that, with perhaps the exception of the controlling theme of the essay—the therapeutic properties of laughter, which is such a distinctive feature of Fielding's theory of comedy—no one of these correspondencies is so singular that it could not also be found in other authors of the period. But the occurrence of so many marks of Fielding's thought and style in this essay should establish the case for his authorship beyond reasonable doubt.

SIR,[1]
Perhaps you'll be surprized to think, that one advanced to my Years should think of engaging with Success in a new Profession, a Profession too which is commonly thought to require some Study; but when I assure you, that my Method is new, and that I am resolved to avoid all the Courses of your modern Practitioners in Physick, you will allow that I may do the World some Service.

To let you therefore into the Affair at once, you must know I propose to cure all Diseases incident to the Mind and Body of Man by a Laugh, and therefore it will be necessary that I should make some Remarks upon the Benefit of Laughing, and give a few Examples of some extraordinary Cures perform'd by it.

I will own to you, that I took the Hint from an ancient Manuscript, wherein the Author assures us, that he frequently prescrib'd Laughing, and never knew it fail of Success; (he lived before it was the Custom for Physicians to poison their Patients with nauseous Drugs; [)][2] his Method was to prescribe a small low Laugh, which in our Language is called Te he,[3] and is just two Degrees above a Sneer,[4] with Directions to raise it by Degrees till it came at last to the loud Laugh called the Haugh, haugh, he does not advise it to be taken in Bed, because if the Engines should happen to be weak, or unretentive, the Patient will be in Danger of bep—— himself,[5] a Case that has often happened.

But as Men under acute Pains are not to be worked into a Laugh by ordinary Methods, such as the moving of a Feather, or the like, which will operate well enough upon the Muscles[6] of a French Gentleman or Lady, proper Objects must therefore be applied, according to the Design of the Physician, and Strength of the Patient. Sometimes the Conversation of a pleasant Man of Wit, and sometimes the Appearance of a blundering Fellow[7] have had the same Effect, and perform'd the Cure.

In my own Practice, I confess, I have found nothing more effectual than the Writings of a certain modern Author,[8] who, though he never laughs himself, has a Knack of making others laugh; in this Way he is like the Gentlemen of the Faculty, who never take any of those Medicines themselves they prescribe their Patients.[9]

Let your Patient take up Gulliver's Voyages, and imagine what an odd Figure Nurse Glumdalclitch [10] would make in a modish English Head, of the Dimensions of a Silver Three-Pence, and how charmingly it must become her Baby Face, in Circumference equal to the great Tun of Heidelburg, (for those People were all Roundheads,[11] though the learned Author, out of a Contempt to that Party, is pleased to take no Notice of it,) let him do this, I say, and forbear laughing if he can.

I foresee the Gentlemen of the Faculty will endeavour to cry down[12] this my Discovery, (as indeed they will have Reason) because it will certainly lessen the Receipt of high Fees; and when any Person hereafter finds himself indisposed, instead of sending for a Physician, and being at a Guinea Charge,[13] they need only drink a Pint of Wine with a facetious Friend,[14] or read a Page of Hudibras [15] or S——t, and as for Men of Wit, they may cure one another, without any Expence, or Loss of Time whatsoever.

But there never was a laudable Design but what was depreciated by those self-interested People who find their Accounts in imposing upon Mankind; but if it be true, as it is commonly said, that the Wisdom of Men, and of particular Nations, is shewn mostly by their Proverbs;[16] I can call in many, which plainly hint at the Vertues of this Medicine, as first, Laugh and be fat, which certainly intimates, that laughing will cure a Consumption. Next, Laugh and be rich. Here you see it is good for the Distempers of the Pocket, as well as for those of the Body. Some Manuscripts, indeed, have it, Drink and be rich, but this last Reading is certainly a Corruption of the Text, and therefore I recommend the first. Then there is Laugh and lye down. But I must give some Persons a Caution how they take it this Way, especially young Maids, because I have known it sometimes followed by a Tympany,[17] therefore great Regard must be had to the Designs of the Physician who prescribes; for what is a salutiferous Medicine[18] in the Hands of one Man, may be Poyson in the Hands of another.

But since I have made this Remark, I must observe further, that all Laughs are not to be prescribed; for some are extreamly noxious,[19] as a disdainful Laugh,[20] a malicious Laugh,[21] a treacherous Laugh, which are mostly practiced by Courtiers: There is also a killing Laugh, but this hurts none but Lovers.[22] —Your open Laugh is the most universal Medicine, and attended with no bad Consequences, except that it sometimes discovers a Sett of black Grinders, decayed perhaps by digging into hot Venison Pasty;[23] the sociable Laugh, which is taken by seeing others laugh, is also a very good Laugh.

The Secret of raising a Laugh is not known to all, it has sometimes been convey'd by Way of Letter, and the Writer knew nothing of the Matter.—Thus one fair Lady writing to another, was to tell her she had sent her some Pendants for her Ears;—but as the British Ladies have a peculiar Way of Spelling,[24] she leaves out the first Letter E in the Word E-arse:[25] Her fair Correspondent, who was, at that Time, dying of the Vapours,[26] no sooner came to that Word, but she burst into a Laugh; her Maid, who was also indisposed, perceiving the Change of Countenance in her Mistress, says, Lord, Madam, it is your handsome[27] Day, I beg your Ladyship to let me have a Sight of that Letter,[28] which being granted, she was also cured upon the Spot; the Lady has now left off sickly Quadrille,[29] and can run about for four Hours together to a Tune of a Fiddle in a Country Dance.[30]

I could give innumerable Instances of Cures, but I shall only trouble you with a few, which can be well attested. A certain Person, who had lost both his Wits and his Fortune by an ill Run in the Stocks,[31] was standing at his Window in Suspence, whether he should throw himself out or send for three Pennyworth of Ratsbane,[32] when a Man with a wooden Leg, who is Master of a Company of Players, consisting of one Bear and two Monkeys,[33] happen'd to pass by; they acted a Play, in which the two Monkeys were to decide a Quarrel by Sword and Pistol upon the Back of the Bear, they behav'd so gallantly that both were wounded, so that the fore Leg of each was tied in a Scarf; the whole Scene occasioned so much Laughter, and so diverted his Melancholly [sic],[34] that he immediately applied himself to repair his Affairs, and is now in a Way of making a very good Fortune by an honest Employment (not Stockjobbing.)[35] —The Story of a rich Cardinal at Rome should not be omitted upon this Occasion, who dying of an Imposthume, his Domesticks all began to pillage, even in the Chamber where he lay; his Eminency's Monkey seeing one seize upon this, and the other run away with that, was resolved to have something amongst them, and laid Hold of the Cardinal's Cap, and put it upon his own Head.—The odd Ambition of Pug to be made a Cardinal, so tickled his Eminence, that he burst into a loud Laugh,[36] which broke the Imposthume, and he recovered, to the great Disappointment of the Faculty, who reported him to be a dead Man;[37] —his Eminence ordered a new Chain for his Doctor, and as much Chesnuts as he could eat as long as he lived.

It will not be disputed but that this Medicine gives a very agreeable Air to the Countenance.—In my Travels, I my self cured the present Prime Vizier at Constantinople, of a sower starch'd Countenance,[38] which made some of the Ladies of the Seraglio miscarry, and caused him to be dreaded by the Subjects as a Person always disposed to Mischief: He is become the most affable good-natur'd Person alive, never insults Prisoners of State, and indeed has left off taking People up, and is grown such a merry Grig,[39] that he does nothing from Morning to Night but crack Jokes[40] in the Sclavonian Language.—He sent for me to make me some noble Gratifications, but I begg'd his Highness, if he thought I had merited any Thing at his Hands, that he would shew it in some Favours to our Turkey Company,— and I have in Form received their Thanks since my Return from Travel; upon which Occasion their Secretary was pleased to tell me, I had done as much to recover that sinking Trade as all[*]

You'll excuse me, dear Friend, from discovering all the Mysteries[41] of my Art, till after my Patent be pass'd: In the mean Time I can tell you, that in Order to silence all those who shall attempt to cry down my Practice,[42] that I intend to convey a Laugh into[43] the Congress of Soissons, but this, indeed, I will do more to serve my Country than from the Vanity of shewing my Art, not doubting, but it may make the Spaniards good-humour'd, and dispose them to recede from their Demands of certain Restitutions. No Man has these Affairs more at Heart than my self, and I would not have Ministers and Plenipotentiaries patch up a Peace, as Tinkers do old brass Kettles, who in stopping one Hole make half a Dozen, which call for Repair presently after.

If you hear of any Body that intends to write against this my Scheme, I desire you will advertise him to do it like a Gentleman and a Scholar, in which Case I will enter the Lists to defend it. The Success of my Practice, I think, will be a good Argument; but as I know that curing the Patient has no Weight in a physical Dispute, I shall therefore prove Galen, Hippocrates, Celsus,[44] and all the Physicians of Antiquity to have been of my Side.

As to those who desire no more than to be cured when they are ill, they cannot be so much their own Enemies,[45] as to refuse my Method of Practice; they know the Ease of the Operation, it is but a laughing Matter, and all is well; whereas your regular Quacks attack you with Blisters, Vomits, and Purges,[46] and display a horrid Sight of excruciating Instruments enough to stagger the Resolution of a primitive Saint.[47] —You are ply'd continually with nauseous Draughts, for the Benefit of your Apothecary, so that you are obliged to out-swallow an Ostrich; you must fast when you have a Mind to eat, and eat when you are inclined to fast,[48] and are forbid to laugh, for Fear you should mend, and the Doctor lose his Fees.

Whereas my Design is only to ease Mankind from all these Plagues, and to furnish every one with a Laugh, at an easy Rate, according to his Circumstances and the Nature of his Disease; but I have not Leisure to inlarge further, at present, because I am going to cross the Channel, having engaged to add a little Sweetness to the Countenance[49] of a certain Ambassador: A certain Person of Interest, his Relation, having promised[50] to make me Physician to some Body[51] the first Vacancy, which cannot be long; for I take it for granted, that half the Faculty will kick up their Heels and die of the Spleen at the Success of my Practice.