Unit 2 Commonplace Book

Swift, Gulliver's Travels p501
I began last week to permit my Wife to sit at Dinner with me, at the farthest End of a long Table; and to answer (but in the utmost Brevity) the few Questions I asked her.  Yet the Smell of a Yahoo continuing very offensive, I always keep my Nose well stopt with Rue, Lavender, or Tobacco Leaves.  

Bergson, Laughter p87
And were all men always attentive to life, were we constantly keeping in touch with others as well as with ourselves, nothing within us would ever appear as due to the working of strings or springs.

Me:  First, I wanted to use the quote about how Gulliver still walked and moved like a horse, but evidently I didn't mark it and I looked for it for about a half hour before deciding to use another passage.  Anyway, Gulliver is obviously not in touch with his family and other humans.  He's also not keeping in touch with himself, as he is NOT in fact a horse but a human as well.  These strange habits he has picked up from all the lands he has travelled to make him function in a very unnatural way, like he is operating under "strings or springs."  This unnatural, mechanical motion makes him prance like a horse or stop his nose with tobacco leaves because he is out of touch with the human culture, smell, and accepted lifestyle.

Swift, "A Modest Proposal" p298
A VERY worthy Person, a true lover of his Country, and whose Virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased, in discoursing on this Matter, to offer a Refinement upon my Scheme...

Griffin, Satire p73
I am arguing that satirists implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) ask that we observe and appreciate their skill.  It is to be suspected too that satirists judge themselves by such a standard.  Anybody can call names, but it requires skill to make a malefactor die sweetly.

Me:  Swift seems to be talking himself up, "explicitly," as Griffin would say.  The narrator's entire plan is perfectly mapped out, the only problem being the obvious moral backlash which he doesn't seem to see.  The only problem the narrator seems to see is pointed out by this VERY worthy person who goes on to talk about jerky.  Even then, it is not a problem, only a small refinement.  He doesn't need to scrap his plan, just tweek it a bit.  Also his VERY worthy person (who loves his country and has admirable Virtues and probably good credit) legitimizes the plan, another tool Swift's satire uses to point out his skill.

Bergson, Laughter p 85
To cover a good deal of ground only to come back unwittingly to the starting-point, is to make a great effort for a result that is nil.

Sterne, Tristram Shandy p25
It is so long since the reader of this rhapsodical work has been parted from the midwife, that it is high time to mention her again to him, merely to put him in mind that there is such a body still in the world, and whom, upon the best judgment I can form upon my own plan at present,--- I am going to introduce to him for good and all.

Me:  I know that the quote from Bergson isn't his point at all, but it just made me think undeniably of the entire work of Tristram Shandy.  The whole book (or at least what we've read) is nothing but covering ground, going back to starting points, and accomplishing nothing.  At least, that's how I've perceived it thus far.  I chose the Sterne passage just to illustrate this point with how he keeps coming back to the midwife. Even in that small quote, though, he says he just wants to mention her to keep us thinking about her, so we don't forget or something, "merely to put him in mind".  It's so annoying!

Other quotes I enjoyed:

Swift, "Strephon and Chloe" p 613
Twelve cups of tea, (with Grief I speak)
Had now constrain'd the Nymph to leak.
This point must needs be settled first:
The bride must either void or burst.
Then, see the dire Effect of Pease,
Think what can give the Cholick ease.
 p616-617
Rash mortals, e'er you take a wife
Contrive your pile to last for life
Since beauty scarce endures a day,
And youth so swiftly glides away;
Why will you make your self a bubble
To build on sand, with hay and stubble?
On sense and wit your passion found,
By decency cemented round;
Let prudence with good nature strive,
To keep esteem and love alive.
Then, come old age whene'er it will,
Your friendship shall continue still;
And, thus a mutual gentle fire,
Shall never but with life expire.
Swift, GT p350
Care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a man's goods from thieves; but honesty hath no fence against superior cunning.
p340
And, to confess the truth, my Breeches were at that Time in so ill a Condition, that they afforded some Opportunities for Laughter and Admiration.

Unit 1 Blog

Behn, The Rover, 3.1.85-90

(After Willmore gives his love to Angellica and comes out of her house)
Belvile (wondering how it went) asks, "Are we to break her windows, or raise up altars to her, ha?"

“Indifference is its natural environment, for laughter has no greater foe than emotion.” (Bergson, Laughter p4)


I never really thought about laughter as the absence of emotion. In fact, I thought the opposite. But it does make sense. In this quote, Belvile teases Willmore about his radical reactions to women rejecting or accepting him. Willmore, who believes himself wholly in love, is filled with emotion and probably does not find Belvile amusing. Belvile, however, is emotionally detached from the situation and thus can see how ridiculous Willmore is when it comes to women.


Behn, The Rover, 3.6.14-15

Frederick: Why, how the devil came you so drunk?

Willmore: Why, how the devil came you so sober?



“To imitate any one is to bring out the element of automatism he has allowed to creep into his person” (Bergson, Laughter, p33)


“The laughable element… consists of a certain mechanical inelasticity, just where one would expect to find the wide awake adaptability and the living pliableness of a human being.” (Bergson, Laughter, p 10)


This passage perfectly reflects Bergson’s claims. The funny part about this passage is Willmore’s drunken mimic of Frederick. It seems, at first, that we laugh at Willmore’s drunkenness. However, Bergson would say that we laugh at the automatism in Frederick that Willmore lacks. Being drunk, Willmore is loose and free, which emphasizes Frederick’s rigidity.

Behn, The Rover 2.1.79-85

Blunt: ...there are things about this
Essex calf, that shall take with the ladies, beyond all your wit and
parts. This shape and size, gentlemen, are not to be despised; my
waist too, tolerably long, with other inviting signs that shall benameless.

Willmore: Egad, I believe he may have met with some person of
quality that may be kind to him.

 “…a comic character is generally comic in proportion to his ignorance of himself.” (Bergson, Laughter, p16)


Blunt is responding to the others calling him an “Essex calf.” He is obviously not finding it funny, as he sees himself very differently than the rest of the group. Later in the play, we learn he is quite gullible but his ignorance of his own naïveté is what makes this passage really hilarious.

Behn, The Rover 5.1.473-474
Willmore: ...And now let the blind ones, love and fortune, do their worst.

This passage isn't funny, I just really really liked it and wanted to write it down. :)

First Blog

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