MARK TWAIN- THE JESTER-2

In our laugh over Twain's jokes,we generally forget the lash that lies hidden in many of them.Centering our attention upon his cap & bells,one tends to fail to see the prophet under the disguise of a clown.Amazingly,we admire him as America's greatest jester and we ignore him as one of America's profoundest philosophers.

Jesters of the type of Twain are men with a grin upon their faces and acid in their hearts.They laugh, as that other humorous pessimist,Voltaire,has pointed out,in order to keep from hanging themselves.Having looked deeply into the heart of things,they are overwhelmed with the pitiful stupidity of the "damned human race".And so they put on the comic mask as a means for concealing the tears that lurk behind it.

Those who have suffered most have learned to laugh best.The humorists,the satirists,the cynics-these naughty urchins of literature are the defeated rebels of life.They thumb their noses at fate because they realize,in their importance,that there is no other gesture left to them.

Mark Twain was one of those defeated rebels.He believed that all human striving is an aimless farce- " a tale told by an idiot,full of sound and fury,signifying nothing." We scramble toward the rainbow and are drowned in the gutter.We reach for the moon  and we break our bones.Our persistent aspiration in the face of our persistent defeat is a spectacle for the amusement of the gods.But we too - believed Mark Twain-can be amused if we mitigate the pangs of our defeat with the anodyne of our laughter.We can detach ourselves sufficiently to enjoy the spectacle of our suffering, " Learn to agonize as an actor in the drama of life; but learn also,as an onlooker,to smile at your own agony".

( Next -Tragedy in his Laughter)