"On the Nature of Laughter" ("De l'essence du rire"; 1855) by Charles Baudelaire (3/3: The Distinction in Between: Joy/Laughter, the Comic/the Grotesque, the Absolute Comic/the Significant Comic)

(Picture taken from "Charles Baudelaire." WIKIPEDEA.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Baudelaire. July 24, 2018.)

In Part V of "De l'essence du rire,"* Baudelaire deals with the distinction between joy and laughter. According to Baudelaire, joy is "single," while laughter is "double." Namely, joy is one solid entity all by itself, while laughter is only an expression provoked by a feeling of conflicts, or, a "double" (two-fold) feeling.

The distinction between the comic and the grotesque is also specified here: the comic is an imitation; the grotesque is a creation. The grotesque, therefore, seems to be on a higher artistic level for it is a response toward denial of common sense and it is an expression provoked by superiority of humans to nature, not of one person to another, as it is (the primitive form of sense of superiority) in the case of the comic.

Baudelaire refers to the comic as the ordinary comic, the customary comic, the comic associated with laughter caused by behavior or something commonplace--i. e., "the significative comic" (le comique significatif). The significative comic is an easy-to-analyze comic because it is composed of double or contradictory elements (this does remind us of the incongruity theory).

On the other hand, Baudelaire refers to the grotesque as something closer to innocent life, closer to absolute joy, and closer to nature--i. e., "the absolute comic" (le comique absolue). The absolute comic is not anything of a double or contradictory nature, but a single, solid entity, which is to be understood through intuition alone, instead of finding elements in contradictory categories.

V.**

1.         il faut d’abord bien distinguer la joie d’avec le rire. La joie existe par elle-même, mais elle a des manifestations diverses. (it is necessary to draw a distinction between joy and laughter. Joy exists by itself, but it has many different ways to show.) 

2.         Le rire n’est qu’une expression, un symptôme, un diagnostic. Symptôme de quoi ? Voilà la question. La joie est une. Le rire est l’expression d’un sentiment double, ou contradictoire (Laughter is only an expression, a symptom, a diagnostic. Symptom of what? That is the question. Joy is one single thing; laughter is the expression of a double or contradictory feeling.)

3.         je veux parler du rire causé par le grotesque. Les créations fabuleuses, les êtres dont la raison, la légitimation ne peut pas être tirée du code du sens commun, excitent souvent en nous une hilarité folle, excessive, et qui se traduit en des déchirements et des pâmoisons interminables. (I'd like to talk about laughter caused by the grotesque. Fabulous creations, beings whose reason of existence cannot be justified by common sense, often excite in us a crazy, excessive hilarity which manifests itself in endless schisms and swoons.)

4.         Le comique est, au point de vue artistique, une imitation ; le grotesque, une création. Le comique est une imitation mêlée d’une certaine faculté créatrice, c’est-à-dire d’une idéalité artistique. Or, l’orgueil humain, qui prend toujours le dessus, et qui est la cause naturelle du rire dans le cas du comique, devient aussi cause naturelle du rire dans le cas du grotesque, qui est une création mêlée d’une certaine faculté imitatrice d’éléments préexistants dans la nature. Je veux dire que dans ce cas-là le rire est l’expression de l’idée de supériorité, non plus de l’homme sur l’homme, mais de l’homme sur la nature. (The comic is, from the artistic point of view, an imitation; the grotesque, a creation. The comic is an imitation combined with a certain creative faculty, namely, with an artistic ideality. Now, human pride, which always prevails, is the natural cause of laughter in the case of the comic [sense of superiority in human nature makes certain things laughable]; it also becomes the natural cause of laughter in the case of the grotesque. The grotesque is a creation combined with a certain imitative faculty that involves elements preexisting in nature. I'd like to say that, in this case, laughter is the expression of an idea of superiority, yet no longer superiority of one person to another, but of humans to nature.)

5.         le rire causé par le grotesque a en soi quelque chose de profond, d’axiomatique et de primitif qui se rapproche beaucoup plus de la vie innocente et de la joie absolue que le rire causé par le comique de mœurs. (the laughter caused by the grotesque has in itself something profound, self-evident, and primitive, something much closer to innocent life and absolute joy than the laughter caused by the customary/ordinary comic.) 

6.         le grotesque domine le comique d’une hauteur proportionnelle. (the grotesque prevails over the comic on a much larger scale.)

7.         J’appellerai désormais le grotesque comique absolu, comme antithèse au comique ordinaire, que j’appellerai comique significatif. Le comique significatif est un langage plus clair, plus facile à comprendre pour le vulgaire, et surtout plus facile à analyser, son élément étant visiblement double : l’art et l’idée morale ; mais le comique absolu, se rapprochant beaucoup plus de la nature, se présente sous une espèce une, et qui veut être saisie par intuition. Il n’y a qu’une vérification du grotesque, c’est le rire, et le rire subit.; (I shall refers to the grotesque as the absolute comic, as opposed to the ordinary comic, referred to as the significative comic. The significative comic is a clearer language, easier for the vulgar to understand, and above all easier to analyse, with obviously double elements--of art and of morality. But the absolute comic, much closer to nature, shows itself as one single entity and demands comprehension by intuition. There is only one way to verify the grotesque--it is laughter, the sudden laughter.)

8.         Le comique ne peut être absolu que relativement à l’humanité déchue (The absolute comic is possible only when humanity fails./ The comic, only in relation to fallen humanity, can be absolute.)

*MLA7: Baudelaire, Charles Pierre. "De L'essence Du Rire." Charles Baudelaire: Curiosités Esthétiques. Wikisource, N. p, n.d. Web. 14 July 2018. <https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/De_l%E2%80%99essence_du_rire>.

MLA8: Baudelaire, Charles Pierre. “De L'essence Du Rire.” Charles Baudelaire: Curiosités Esthétiques, Wikisource, fr.wikisource.org/wiki/De_l%E2%80%99essence_du_rire.

** The following translations are mine.