It is a common saying that "there is no disputing taste," and in this
respect we allow every man a certain range. But when he transgresses
this limit he often becomes ludicrous, especially to those whose tastes
rather tend in the opposite direction. The strange figure and
accoutrements of Don Quixote raised great laughter among the gay ladies
at the inn, and induced the puissant knight-errant to administer to them
the rebuke "Excessive laughter without cause denotes folly."
A friend of mine, desirous of giving an intellectual treat to the
rustics in the neighbourhood, announced that a reading of Shakespeare
would be given in the village schoolroom by a celebrated elocutionist.
The villagers, attracted by the name, came in large numbers, and laughed
vociferously at all the pathetic parts, but looked grave at the humour.
This was, no doubt, partly owing to their habits of life, as well as to
a want of taste and information. Taste for music, and familiarity with
the traditional style of the Opera, enable us to enjoy dialogues in
recitative, but were a man in ordinary conversation to deliver himself
in musical cadences, or even in rhyme, we should consider him supremely
ridiculous.
Translations have often exhibited very strange vagaries of taste. Thus,
Castalio's rendering of "The Song of Solomon" is ludicrous from the use
of diminutives.
Pages:
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306