A Treasury of Humorous Poetry: Being a Compilation of Witty, Facetious, and Satirical Verse (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A Treasury of Humorous Poetry: Being a Compilation of Witty, Facetious, and Satirical Verse

The great end of comedy, said Doctor Johnson, in speaking of the drama, is making an audience merry. Whatever else may or may not be true of a humorous compilation, it is certain that unless such a book is amusing, it is a failure.

The aim of this Treasury is not that of presenting extracts illustrating the development of humorous poetry in the English language. If that were its purpose, the anthology might have greater value for historical students of literature, but for the average reader it would prove of necessity uninteresting. A sense of relative proportion would have to be observed, which would mean that Chaucer must be liberally represented; that one or more scenes from Shakespeare would have to be transplanted bodily; that the Rape of the Lock must needs be included, as well as much of Dryden, Prior, Gay, Samuel Butler, Swift, Southey, and other wits of a former day, and that the jesters who can really amuse a modern audience would have to be represented meagrely or not at all.

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