by Mary Beard
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Illustrations and Credits
1. Frans Hals, The Laughing Cavalier, 1624. Oil on canvas. Wallace Collection, London, P84. Reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees.
2. Cave Canem mosaic from the entrance of the House of the Tragic Poet (6.8.5), Pompeii, first century CE. Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei. By permission of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali.
3. Bronze statuette of an actor with an ape’s head, Roman date. Private collection.
4. A boy with a performing monkey. Copy of a painting from the House of the Dioscuri (6.9.6/7), Pompeii. Original, first century CE. By permission of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali.
5. Aeneas as an ape. Copy of a painting from a house (unknown) in Pompeii. Original, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, inv. 9089.
6. Rembrandt van Rijn, self-portrait as Zeuxis, c. 1668. Oil on canvas. Wallraf Richartz Museum, Cologne, Inv. Nr. WRM 2526.
Index
Abdera: association with laughter, 51, 92; jokes about, 191–92, 195
actors, place in social hierarchy, 119, 167. See also mime actors
Acts of Saint Dasius, 235n42
adridere/arridere (to laugh), 71–72, 238n1; Martial’s use of, 72, 238n5; Seneca’s use of, 150–51; sinister uses of, 238n3
Aeneas, images of, 162–63, 261n35
Aesop: comical appearance of, 138; death of, 139; faculty of speech, 138, 144; historical, 254n31; joking with master, 138; life of, 137–39; and stolen figs, 265n95
agelasts (nonlaughers), 3, 160; Anacharsis, 160–61, 167, 174; Crassus, 25, 42, 176, 178; fairy princesses, 174; Greek, 265n89; Parmeniscus of Metapontum, 174–76, 206; unwilling, 174–76
Anacharsis: as agelast, 167, 174; laughter of, 160–61, 163
Anaxandrides, 275n86; The Madness of Old Men, 208
Andreassi, M., 271n40
Andromachus of Carrhae, 151
animals: boundary with humans, 137, 157–60; comical, 27; homology with humans, 224n14; laughter of, 34, 46–48, 159, 161, 227n43, 253n27. See also dogs; monkeys and apes; primates
Antigenes (master of Eunus), 152
Antonia (daughter of Mark Antony), bodily peculiarity of, 25
Antonius, Marcus: in On the Orator, 108, 109, 113, 119, 248n37, 250n80
Antony, Mark: on Cicero’s jokes, 101–2
apes. See monkeys and apes
apophthegmata: collections of, 202; modern usages of, 274n68
Apuleius, The Golden Ass, x, 89, 178–84; Anglophone approaches to, 266n101; auctor et actor in, 181, 183–84, 267n127; god of Laughter in, 160, 178, 181–83; human-animal boundary in, 160, 167, 183; human nutrition in, 266n109; Isis in, 178; laugher and laughed at in, 181, 184, 268n130; links with Cicero, 267n127; and Lucius, or The Ass, 178–79, 180; manuscript tradition of, 267n127; mock trial in, 182, 183; narrator of, 181, 183; polyphonic aspects of, 267n116; reality and illusion in, 267n121; relationship to similar texts, 178–79, 180, 266nn104,112; thievery in, 179; transformations in, 178, 179, 182–83
Archelaus (king of Macedon), joke of, 189, 213
Aristodemus, Geloia Apomnēmoneumata, 204, 274n71
Aristophanes: monkey tropes of, 161, 261n24; Wasps, 206
Aristotle: association of derisory laughter with, 29, 33, 227n40; on buffoons, 226n35; on Callippides, 263n63; and “classical theory of laughter,” 29–36, 225n22; on comedy, 24; dialogues of, 248n38; on the incongruous, 38; on laughter, 32–34, 40, 220n9, 227n40; on metaphor, 228n47; on primates, 261n31; and Roman laughter theory, 34, 35; theory of tragedy, 226n31; on wit, 33
—History of Animals, 33–34, 227n43
—Nicomachean ethics, 32, 227n39, 230n69
—On the Parts of Animals, 27, 35
—Poetics: on comedy, 32; incoherence of, 226n31; lost second book of, 29–31, 34, 42; superiority theory of, 230n68
—Rhetoric, on laughter, 32, 33
Arndt, E., 113
Arnott, W. G., 257n83
art, Greco-Roman: laughter in, 56–59, 233n21. See also visual images, ancient
Artemidorus, dream interpretations of, 273n57
Athena, smile of, 253n25
Athenaeus: on Anacharsis, 160–61, 174; on Anaxandrides, 208–9; on autocratic laughter, 207; on parasites, 151; on Parmeniscus, 174–76; on theatrical masks, 263n53
—The Philosophers’ Banquet, 151, 206, 274n75; additions to fragments in, 275n8
Attardo, Salvatore, 38, 222n41
“Attic salt,” 94–95, 204; Plutarch on, 245n94. See also wit
Augustan History, 13, 77, 240n30; on Commodus, 132; on Elagabalus, 129, 132, 142, 148, 154
Augustus, Emperor: civilitas of, 134; Fescennine verses of, 238n67; jocularity of, 134–35, 156, 252n7; jokes of, 78, 105, 124, 130–31, 132–33, 202; last words of, 253n19; moral legislation of, 156; toleration of joking, 131, 135, 213
Aulus Gellius, on Saturnalia, 236n49
babies: laughter of, 25, 35, 36, 83, 84, 85; smiles of, 85
Bakhtin, Mikhail, 48, 220n17; on the carnivalesque, 61–62, 64, 234n39; on The Golden Ass, 267n116; on inversion, 237n55; on laughter culture, 60–62, 234n33; Rabelais and His World, 60–61, 63, 65; reception in West, 234n37; on Roman laughter, 50; on Saturnalia, 62–63, 65, 235n43; self-contradictory passages of, 61, 234n33
baldness: Caesar’s, 132, 146; laughter at, 51, 146, 165, 221n21, 253n16; in Philogelos, 185–86, 200
Baldwin, B., 273n58
banquets: Elagabalus’s, 149; flattery at, 150–51; guest/host relationships in, 150; ideal companions at, 245n3; joking at, 147–52; parasites at, 148, 149, 209; patronage relationships at, 152; social hierarchy at, 147–48, 256n76; Tiberius’s, 145
barbarians, laughter of, 52
Barchiesi, A., 253n25
barristers, mimicry of, 145
Barton, C. A., 256n67
Bataille, Georges, 228n52; on Virgil’s fourth Eclogue, 84–85, 242n61
Baubo, Demeter’s laughter at, 174, 256n70, 264n79
Baudelaire, Charles, 228n52, 229n65
belching, 230n72
Bergson, Henri, 40; Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic, 39; laughter theory of, 38, 230n72
Bettini, M., 257n86
Bhabha, H., 243n67
Billig, M., 223n48, 225n22
biography, collections of wit in, 202
biology, evolutionary: in laughter theory, 37
bodily control, as marker of social hierarchy, 60
bodily peculiarities: jokes on, 106, 120, 121, 231n4; Pliny the Elder on, 25, 42–43
body, human: possession by laughter, 116. See also laughter, physical nature of
bona dicta. See jokes, Roman
Bonaria, M., 262n49
Bowen, Barbara, 275n2
Bowen, Jim: retelling of ancient jokes, 18–19
Bowersock, G. W., 263n61
Bowie, E., 275n80
Branham, R. B., 235n45
Braund, D. 275n81
Brugnola, V., 245n4
Burgdorf, J., 231n83
Burke, P., 234n37
cachinnare (to laugh), 72–73; and Caligula, 132; in The Golden Ass, 183; meanings of, 72–73, 239n12; and Philemon, 177; in St. Jerome, 266n98
Caesar, Julius, 113, 168; baldness of, 132, 146; Dicta Collectanea of, 202; gestures of, 75; joking with captors, 252n2
Caligula, Emperor: Alexandrian Jews’ delegation to, 140–42, 254n42; coercing of laughter, 6, 134, 147; flatterers of, 141; jocularity of, 129, 132, 140–42; murder of joker, 253n12; pranks on Claudius, 143–44, 147; prohibition of laughter, 134; toleration of joking, 135; women’s footwear of, 255n56
Callippides (actor), gestures of, 263n63
Calvius Sabinus, 150–51
Cameron, A., 240n30
cannabis, gelotophyllis as, 25, 28, 224n8
Capitoline Hill, theater at, 8
Capitolinus (court jester), 143
carnival: inversionary aspects of, 63, 65; medieval, 67; Nietzsche on, 63, 235n42; popular culture of, 61; scholarship on, 234n39
the carnivalesque: Bakhtin on, 61–62, 64, 234n39; consumption in, 236n47; laughter in, 60, 61–62, 223n48; in Saturnalia, 235n47; scatology in, 64; situation in past, 67
Carter, Angela, 3, 157, 259n6
Cato, Marcus Porcius: on Cicero’s jokes, 102–3, 153, 246n16
Cato the Elder: jokes of, 78; on Saturnalia, 236n49
Catullus: laughter in, 81, 242n60; women’s laughter in, 159–60, 171; words for laughter, 73, 239n12; words for smiles, 73, 74. Works: poem 42, 159, 260nn15–16; wedding hymn for Manlius Torquatus, 84, 242n60
Catulus, wit of, 111
CAVE CANEM mosaic (House of the Tragic Poet), 58, 59
cavillatio (extended humor), 35, 228n48; Cicero on, 110, 111, 113, 114; mime as antitype of, 249n56
Cellini, Benvenuto: Perseus statue of, 220n18
Cercopes, as flatterers, 262n38
Chariton mime, 263n56
Chartier, Roger, 67
Chaucer, Geoffrey: “The Miller’s Tale,” 157
Chesterfield, Lord: advice on laughter, 36, 60, 66, 67, 237n58; on “Attic salt,” 94; as prankster, 237n58; on smiling, 75, 240n22
children, laughter of, 44, 230n75
chimpanzees. See monkeys and apes
Choricius of Gaza, defense of mime, 169
chreiai (witty sayings), 202, 207, 274n68
Christmas, Saturnalia and, 63
Chrysippus, death by laughter, 177, 179, 180
church and state, medieval: agelastic culture of, 61, 62
Cicero, Marcus Tullius: on Abdera, 191; accusations of scurrilitas against, 152–53, 246n15; attack on Vatinius, 106, 122–23, 251n87; attendance at mimes, 263n54; compendia of facetiae, 104–5; on Crassus the agelast, 176; defense of Milo, 99–100, 126–27, 245n2; defense of Murena, 102; on Democritus, 92, 94, 95, 111, 116; and Demosthenes, 102, 103; on festivitas, 238n63; gravitas of, 105; inappropriate wit of, 103–4; jokes, 78, 101–5, 124, 126–27, 153, 202, 212, 245n5, 246n14, 270n23, 275n2; jokes attributed to, 104, 105, 246n22; jokes on name, 101; jokes on Stoicism, 102; on old-style wit, 68, 237n63; as priest, 121; puns of, 99–100, 245n1; on quotation use, 194; relationship with Vatinius, 122–23; Renaissance view of, 104, 246n21; reputation for pomposity, 100–101; as ridiculus, 102–3; scholarship on jokes of, 105, 247n24; as scholastikos, 190; smiles in, 239n16; on theology, 121; urbanitas of, 103; use of invective, 120, 123; use of laughter, 95; use of ridicule, 106; against Verres, 72, 239n9; vocabulary for laughter, 72; wartime joking of, 38, 101–2, 104, 229n60, 246n20; wit of, 100–108
—Letters, joking in, 105
—On the Orator: aggressive laughter in, 120–23; Aristotelian influence on, 110, 116, 248nn38,48; Athenian wit in, 244n93; causes of laughter in, 107, 109, 111, 113, 115–19; cavillatio in, 110, 111, 113, 114; characters of, 108, 247n36, 248n37; composition of, 108, 247n34; cookery analogies in, 124; corruptions to, 111; dicacitas in, 110, 111, 114; double entendres in, 117; facetiae in, 111, 113, 114; format of, 108; ideal orator in, 108, 109, 113, 119; jokes in, 118, 200, 212, 231n4; the laughable in, 109–10, 120; laughter in, 28, 35, 107–8, 109–23, 212, 223n1, 225n23; on mime, 168; mimicry in, 112, 119, 249n57; nature of laughter in, 23, 116; puns in, 118; Quintilian’s use of, 123, 251n93; Roman character of, 109; sources of, 110, 225n23, 248nn46–47; style of debate in, 109; textual transmission of, 54; topics of, 108; traditions of oratory on, 121; the unexpected in, 117–18; wit in, 111–15; wordplay in, 118
—The Orator, wit in, 114, 115
—Pro Caelio, comic aspects of, 247n24
—second Philippic, 101, 245n7
Cixous, Hélène, 37
Claeon (weeping spring), 25–26
Clarke, J. R., 220n11, 233n24; on apotropaic laughter, 234n25; Looking at Laughter, 57–58
Claudius, Emperor: in Apocolocyntosis, 64; Caligula’s pranks on, 143–44, 147; History of Rome, 133; laughter of, 133, 159; quips of, 132
Clausen, W., 242n55
Cleisophus (parasite of Philip of Macedon), 151
Clodius Pulcher, Publius: murder of, 100, 126
Coleiro, E., 241n51
Coleman, R., 242n54
Colosseum, Roman: Commodus’s spectacles at, 1–2, 219n1; spectators at, 1
comedy: Aristotle on, 24, 32; Aristotle’s lost work on, 29–31; clever slaves of, 254n29; Tractatus Coislinianus on, 31, 225nn28–29
comedy, Greek: Aristophanic, 226n35; parasites in, 203; scripted laughter in, 222n34; survival of, 86
comedy, Roman: audience reactions to, 18; eunuchs in, 9; Greek ancestors of, 203; inversionary, 235n47; jokes involving hierarchy, 137; modern stagings of, 18; monkey tropes of, 162; parasites in, 150; performance space for, 8; satyric, 130; scripted laughter in, 8–17; social relations in, 208; stock characters of, 8
Commodus, Emperor: assassination of, 2; court jesters of, 143; execution of laughers, 132; grin of, 6, 141; jokes of, 132, 133; resistance to, 5; ridiculing of, 7–8; spectacles of, 1–2, 219n1; threats to senators, 2–3, 85, 128
Connors, C., 260n21
control: over body, 60; of laughter, 43, 134–35; Roman protocols of, 133
Conybeare, Catherine, 155, 238n68, 259n103; on Philo’s use of laughter, 254n42
copreae (court jesters), 143–44, 255nn51,58; evidence for, 144. See also jesters
Corbeill, Antony, 122, 247n28, 248n48; Controlling Laughter, 106; on ridicule, 121
Corbett, Philip, 154, 258n98
Cordero, N.-L., 244n90
Cotta, Gaius Aurelius: in On the Orator, 108, 248n37
court, imperial: jesters at, 142–47, 255n49, 256nn63–64; laughter in, 129, 140–47
Crassus, Lucius Licinius: joke on Memmius, 123, 125, 248n51; in On the Orator, 108, 109, 248n37; use of
mimicry, 119; use of ridicule, 121
Crassus, Marcus Licinius (Dives), 176; parasite of, 151
Crassus, Marcus Licinius (the agelast), 25, 42; single laugh of, 176, 178, 265n91
Critchley, Simon, 159, 220n17, 259n11; on function of jokes, 197; On Humour, 39
crowfoot, 225n19; as gelotophyllis, 25, 28–29, 224n8
Csapo, E., 263n63
culture, Greek: Horace on, 87; literary, 205; of Roman empire, 88; Roman engagement with, 90, 243n68
culture, Hellenic: and Roman culture, 87, 88
culture, medieval: laughter in, 61, 62
culture, Roman: changes in, 87; commodification of, 208; diversity in, 86–87; dreams in, 197–98; elite, 52, 129; flatterers in, 163; and Hellenic culture, 87, 88; illumination by jokes, 196; impact on Greece, 91–92; imperial, 205, 208; jokers in, 129; the laughable in, 103; mimicry in, 163; monkeys in, 162–63; ridicule in, 232n6; smiles in, 74–76. See also laughter culture, Roman
Cytheris (mime actress), 263n54
Damascene, l’Abbé, 222n34
Damon, Cynthia, 154, 256n77, 257n82; on parasites, 149, 257n80
D’Arms, J. H., 256n76
Darwin, Charles: on chimpanzee laughter, 46
Dawe, Roger, 195
Delphic oracle, agelast’s consultation of, 174–75, 265n83
Demeter, laughter at Baubo, 174, 256n70, 264n79
Demetrius of Phaleron, 225n23
Demetrius Poliorcetes, love of laughter, 207
Democritus, laughter of, 92–94, 95, 111, 116, 191, 244nn79,85,90
Demosthenes: and Cicero, 102, 103; jokes of, 78; use of laughter, 102, 103
diaphragm, in production of laughter, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 34–35
dicacitas (witticism), 35, 228n48; Cicero on, 110, 111, 114; in Roman Senate, 252n11; scurra as antitype of, 249n56; Vespasian’s, 153
Dio Cassius: cause of laughter for, 6–7, 39, 42; giggling fit of, 1–8, 43, 53, 128; on Hadrian, 253n23; History, 2–3, 7, 14, 86; name of, 219n4; political career of, 2; use of Greek, 85; vocabulary of, 3, 220n9
Dio Chrysostom, 86; on Alexandrian laughter, 51–52
Diodorus Siculus, 258n93; Library of History, 151–52; on monkeys, 261n31
Diogenes Laertius: death from laughter, 14; on death of Chrysippus, 177; on Parmeniscus, 265n85
Diomedes (grammarian), on mime, 170