ABSTRACT
In eighteenth-century aesthetics, laughter and satirical derision were considered to be crucial vehicles for the correction of misguided and wrong behaviour.1 Neoclassical writers of satire, such as Swift and Pope, emphatically styled themselves as judges of their contemporary culture. The moral significance attributed to wit, the period’s most cherished form of linguistic dexterity, demonstrates that verbal comedy was thought to be more than simply a vehicle for entertainment. While it frequently concentrates on mocking what it considers to be offending behaviour, wit rises to its best when it explores the mysteries of human existence. That the comic mode became an important vehicle for the exploration of religious beliefs and practices is demonstrated by the fact that the late seventeenth century saw the emergence of a whole range of literary hybrids between comedy, tragedy and history. The humour of, for example, the mock-heroic mode is ambiguously pitched between glorification and derision. It therefore is an ideal vehicle for the portrayal of the period’s mixed feelings about the religious and moral implications of the new science.
