Here is a witty and learned literary excursion into the world of humour and comic literature as revealed inter alia by the works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Oliver Goldsmith and Henry Fielding – leading in the second half to some glorious insights and observations provided by author’s life experience in the world of diplomacy. It is a rich and fascinating mix of literary idiom, the theatre of the absurd and the comic element of the human condition.

Ambassador Nils-Johan Jørgensen was educated at the universities of Oslo and Oxford (Norway Scholar at Wadham) and was Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). As a Norwegian career diplomat he served in Brussels, Copenhagen, Harare, Tokyo, Bonn and Dar es Salaam. He retired in 2001. He is the author of books and articles on European integration, international development, Southern Africa and Germany and Japan.

Acknowledgements

Induction

Chapter 1: BEN JONSON AND HIS SOURCES

Classical literary sources (Decorum, the comedies of Plautus and Terence, the Ridiculous)

Medieval Sources: the Morality Play and the Interludes

The Great Chain and Man as Microcosm

Ancient medical theory and Renaissance psychology

The character sketch

Early Humour plays

(George Chapman, Henry Porter)

Chapter 2: HUMOROUS CHARACTERIZATION IN THE COMEDIES OF BEN JONSON

In humour

Out of humour

Volpone, Epicoene, The Alchemist, Bartholomew Fair

Chapter 3: THE INFLUENCE OF JONSON ON SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY COMEDY

Richard Brome

James Shirley

Thomas Shadwell

Colley Cibber

The Sons of Ben

Margareth Cavendish

Aphra Behn

James Miller

Oliver Goldsmith

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Chapter 4: THE INTRUSION OF HUMOROUS CHARACTERIZATION INTO THE ENGLISH NOVEL

Henry Fielding

Tobias Smollett

Chapter 5: THE MEANING OF THE COMIC

Chapter 6: NOMADIC HUMOURS

Where did the humours go

Berlin 1900

Fabulous

Hilarious

An ever-closer union

Identity mix-up

Chameleon

An exchange of notes

Visiting card

Holy See

Sisyphean diplomatic challenge

Laughter above

The laughing philosopher

Chapter 7: UNCONSCIOUS REVELATION
Postscript

Bibliography

Index