CHAPTER X.

AN OUTSIDER'S VIEW OF MEN AND THINGS.

Man has a notion of revenging himself on that which pleases him. Hence

the contempt felt for the comedian.

This being charms me, diverts, distracts, teaches, enchants, consoles

me; flings me into an ideal world, is agreeable and useful to me. What

evil can I do him in return? Humiliate him. Disdain is a blow from afar.

Let us strike the blow. He pleases me, therefore he is vile. He serves

me, therefore I hate him. Where can I find a stone to throw at him?

Priest, give me yours. Philosopher, give me yours. Bossuet,

excommunicate him. Rousseau, insult him. Orator, spit the pebbles from

your mouth at him. Bear, fling your stone. Let us cast stones at the

tree, hit the fruit and eat it. "Bravo!" and "Down with him!" To repeat

poetry is to be infected with the plague. Wretched playactor, we will

put him in the pillory for his success. Let him follow up his triumph

with our hisses. Let him collect a crowd and create a solitude. Thus it

is that the wealthy, termed the higher classes, have invented for the

actor that form of isolation, applause.

The crowd is less brutal. They neither hated nor despised Gwynplaine.

Only the meanest calker of the meanest crew of the meanest merchantman,

anchored in the meanest English seaport, considered himself immeasurably

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The Man Who Laughs