FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34  
35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   >>   >|  
just as well to preach to the dead buried six feet under the earth as to the people of Drowsytown?" _"I?--I?--I?"_ gasped the astonished Fizzle. "A more alive and wakeful people are not upon the earth than the citizens of Drowsytown. What calumniator has thus outraged them and _me_? Who told you this? _Who_ dared to say it?" "Brother Ichabod Muzzle," calmly answered Dizzle. Fizzle leaped out, hurried to his home, and was soon seen whipping his unfortunate horse in a certain direction. He was on his way to the residence of the Reverend Ichabod Muzzle, who lived five or six miles off. He reached the home of the Reverend Ichabod. The friends greeted each other. Fizzle, though pregnant with indignation, assumed the benignant air of the Beloved Disciple. Muzzle looked Platonically the incarnate idea of the Christian Parson. "Fine day," said Fizzle. "Lovely," said Muzzle. "Glorious view from this window," observed Fizzle. "Superb," replied Muzzle. "The beauties of Nature are calming and consolatory," murmured Fizzle. "And so are the doctrines of grace," whispered Muzzle. Fizzle could hold out no longer. Still he tried to look the placid, and to speak with meekness. "Pray, how did it come, Brother Muzzle," said Fizzle, "that you reported I declared in my farewell-sermon it was as easy to preach to the dead buried six feet under the earth as to the people of Drowsytown?" "You have been grossly misinformed, my brother," replied Muzzle. "I didn't say _six feet_. I said _four feet_." In Hood we have all varieties of wit and humor, both separate and intermingled. As we have already observed, the grotesque is that which is most obviously distinctive in Hood's writings. But in different degrees it is combined with other elements, and in each combination altered and modified. The combination which more immediately arrests attention is that with the ludicrous. In this the genius of Hood seemed to hold a very festival of antics, oddity, and mirth; all his faculties seemed to rant and riot in the Saturnalia of comic incongruity. And it is difficult to say whether, in provoking laughter, his pen or his pencil is the more effective instrument. The mere illustrations of the subject-matter are in themselves irresistible. They reach at once and directly the instinctive sense of the ludicrous, and over them youth and age cachinnate together. We have seen a little girl, eight years old, laugh as if her heart woul
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34  
35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Fizzle
 

Muzzle

 

Drowsytown

 

people

 

Ichabod

 
ludicrous
 
combination
 

replied

 

Reverend

 

observed


Brother

 
buried
 

preach

 

genius

 

elements

 

combined

 

degrees

 

grossly

 

misinformed

 

arrests


altered
 

immediately

 

modified

 
attention
 
grotesque
 
separate
 
intermingled
 

varieties

 

writings

 

brother


distinctive

 
cachinnate
 

instinctive

 

directly

 

irresistible

 
Saturnalia
 

incongruity

 

faculties

 

festival

 
antics

oddity

 

difficult

 

illustrations

 
subject
 

matter

 

instrument

 

effective

 

provoking

 

laughter

 
pencil