Article December 23, 1985 Issue

"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh"

MARK RUBLE

Charles Dickens, a master of caricature and wit, has a wonderful story about laughter in his book Nicholas Nickleby. Poor young Nicholas, torn from his family in the middle of winter, is traveling to his wretched new position of employment when his coach overturns. He ends up spending part of the night in a dismal, run-down old tavern while another coach is being sent for. There a man suggests telling tales to pass the time.

One of those tales is about a man, a "Baron Von Koëldwethout," who is on the brink of suicide. A ghostly apparition, "The Genius of Despair and Suicide," encourages the baron to end it all quickly. But the apparition's arguments backfire. Getting more and more outrageous, the ghoul's nonsense causes the baron to burst out laughing "so loud and boisterously, that the room rang with it." Horrified by the laughter, the creature turns its weapon of self-depreciation upon itself and disappears, never to be seen or heard of again.^{The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, chap. 6 .}

This tale must have given Nicholas and his fellow travelers a needed laugh, raising their spirits, and returning them a bit refreshed to the new coach. The story also suggests to the reader (as Dickens often seems to in this book) that there is much in human experience that can be mended or dispensed with through humor, wit, and a balanced perspective that knows evil will eventually punish itself.

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