This is indeed the characteristic mark, the common
signature, so to speak, of _esprit_ like his.
Irrepressible mischief, indefatigable elasticity, a power of luminous
mockery, delight in the perpetual discharge of innumerable arrows from
an inexhaustible quiver, the unquenchable laughter of some little
earth-born demon, perpetual gayety, and a radiant force of
epigram--there are all these in the true humorist. _Stulti sunt
innumerabiles_, said Erasmus, the patron of all these dainty mockers.
Folly, conceit, foppery, silliness, affectation, hypocrisy,
attitudinizing and pedantry of all shades, and in all forms, everything
that poses, prances, bridles, struts, bedizens, and plumes itself,
everything that takes itself seriously and tries to impose itself on
mankind--all this is the natural prey of the satirist, so many targets
ready for his arrows, so many victims offered to his attack. And we all
know how rich the world is in prey of this kind! An alderman's feast of
folly is served up to him in perpetuity; the spectacle of society offers
him an endless _noce de Gamache_. [Footnote: _Noce de Gamache_--"repas
tres somptueux."--Littre. The allusion, of course, is to Don Quixote,
Part II. chap. xx.--"Donde se cuentan las bodas de Bamacho el rico, con
el suceso de Basilio el pobre.
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