ABSTRACT
Everyone knows how a talented story-teller can make a quite pointless anecdote comic by his tone, expression, and gesture; and how easy it is to spoil a good story by neglecting these accompaniments. The comic writer has to put his work into a form which will make it as difficult as possible for anyone to spoil it in the reading. Tragedy has its characteristic accent too. The most striking and lasting effect of Shakespeare’s tragedies comes from the poetry. Chaucer is distinguished among comic writers by the attention he pays to the physical appearance of his characters. The old officer was reading attentively a small pamphlet with a large pair of spectacles. In a very austere comic style nothing more than accurate and expressive description would be needed for the narrative.
