The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 08 (of 12)

The collection presents a series of lectures and essays that begin by defining wit, humour, and the psychology of laughter, then applies those ideas to readings of English comic writers and the stage. It contrasts Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, surveys Restoration dramatists and periodical essayists, assesses novelists' comic techniques, and interprets Hogarth’s art in relation to comic and grand styles of representation. The prose blends theoretical definition with close literary and artistic analysis, offering character sketches, stylistic judgments, and reflections on how incongruity and disrupted expectation produce comic effect.