An Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit, Humour, Railery, Satire, and Ridicule | Page 3

all very clear to him, and by the use of numerous anecdotes and examples he hoped to make the distinctions obvious to the general reader.
The Essay shows what a man of some evident taste and perspicacity, with an analytical mind, can do in defining the subtle semantic distinctions in literary terms. Trying to fix immutably what is certain always to be shifting, Morris is noteworthy not only because of the nature of his attempt, but because he is relatively so successful. As Professor Edward Hooker has pointed out in an Introduction to an earlier ARS issue (Series I, No. 2), his is "probably the best and clearest treatment of the subject in the first half of the eighteenth century." It may be regretted that political and economic concerns occupied so much of his later life, leaving him no time for further literary essays.
In the present facsimile edition, for reasons of space, only the Introduction and the main body of the Essay are reproduced. Although Morris once remarked to David Hume that he wrote all his books "for the sake of the Dedications" (Letters of David Hume ed. Greig, I, 380), modern readers need not regret too much the omission of the fulsome 32 page dedication to Walpole (The Earl of Orford). Morris insists at the beginning that the book was inspired by a fervent desire of "attempting a Composition, independent of Politics, which might furnish an occasional Amusement" to his patron. The praise which follows, in which Walpole is said to lead "the Empire of Letters," is so excessive as to produce only smiles in twentieth century readers. Walpole is praised for not curbing the press while necessarily curbing the theatre, his aid to commerce and industry, indeed almost every act of his administration, is lauded to the skies. The Church of England, in which "the Exercise of Reason in the solemn Worship of God, is the sacred Right, and indispensible Duty, of Man," receives its share of eulogy. In every connection the Tories are violently attacked.
The Dedication ends in a peroration of praise for Walpole's public achievements which "shall adorn the History of Britain," and for his "Private Virtues and all the _softer Features_" of his mind. His home of retirement is referred to in the lines of Milton:
"Great Palace now of Light! Hither, as to their Fountain, other Stars Repairing, in their golden Urns, draw Light; And here [sic] the Morning Planet gilds her Horns."
[P.L. 7. 363-66]
"Thus splendid, and superior, your Lordship now flourishes in honourable Ease, exerting universal Benevolence...." But in dedications, as in lapidary inscriptions, as Dr. Johnson might have agreed, a writer need not be upon oath.
At the end of the Essay Morris reprinted two essays from The Spectator, Nos. 35 and 62, and William Congreve's "An Essay concerning Humour in Comedy. To Mr. Dennis" (Congreve's Works, ed. Summers, III, 161-68). Since these are readily available, they have not been included in this edition.
The present facsimile is made from a copy owned by Louis I. Bredvold, with his kind permission.
James L. Clifford
Columbia University
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[Transcriber's Note: The ARS edition included an errata slip, reproduced here. Where text was changed or deleted, the original is given in brackets. Corrections to the Essay itself are listed after the ARS errata.]
Please paste the following in your copy of Corbyn Morris's Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit....
(ARS, Series One, No. 4)
ERRATA
INTRODUCTION:
page 5, line 1--"word apparently omitted" should be inclosed in brackets.
page 5, line 6--"not identified" should be inclosed in brackets.
page 6, line 5--the first "of" should be omitted. ["modern readers need not regret too much of the omission of the fulsome 32 page dedication"]
page 6, line 12, should read "Walpole is praised for not curbing the press while necessarily curbing the theatre, his aid to commerce". ["Walpole is praised for not curbing the theatre; his aid to commerce"]
page 6, line 25--"sic" should be inclosed in brackets, as also "P.L. 7. 363-66" in the next line.
[ ESSAY ON WIT:
page viii: Whence in Aristotle such Persons are termed "epidexioi", dexterous Men The Greek may read "epidezioi"; the letter-form is ambiguous.
page 14: ... without any Reference to their whimsical Oddities or _Foibles_; Text reads Oddistie.
page 20 and elsewhere: "Biass" is an attested variant spelling; it has not been changed.
page 25: "teizes" (modern "teases") is an attested variant spelling; it has not been changed.
page 40: --It is therefore no wonder that Signior Don Quixote of la Mancha ... Text reads Quoxote. ]
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An ESSAY
Towards Fixing the TRUE STANDARDS of WIT, HUMOUR, RAILLERY, SATIRE, and RIDICULE.
To which is Added, an ANALYSIS Of the CHARACTERS of
An HUMOURIST, Sir John Falstaff, Sir Roger De Coverly, and Don Quixote.

Inscribed to the RIGHT HONORABLE ROBERT Earl of ORFORD.
By the AUTHOR of a