Laughter

Leopardi deals with the theme of laughter a lot in his works. Among the many texts that could be mentioned, we should not forget the Operetta Elogio degli uccelli (Eulogy of birds) and its protagonist Amelio, “solitary philosopher”, who plans to compose a “history of laughter”, “privilege” of man and not of other animals: “and it was thus that some came to think that, because man is defined an intellective or rational animal, he could be no less sufficiently defined as a laughable animal”; and the Operetta Dialogo di Timandro e di Eleandro, in which Eleandro (“he who commiserates man”, Leopardi’s alter ego) states: “Laughing at our ills, I find some comfort; and do the same for others”.

Widely taken up again and elaborated anew in his later Pensieri, the pages from the Zibaldone on laughter show the attention that Leopardi reserved this theme:

“The laughter of a sensitive man and oppressed by proud calamity is a sign of already mature desperation” [107] – hollow and stupid laughter is common in mad people, but also in sages who have completely despaired of life [188] – it is easy to joke about things out of the ordinary or corporal defects, the difficult thing is to “be inspired to laughter by things ordinary” [1774] – the more one is capable of laughing the more one is appreciated in conversation and in life [3360-1] – in this world “All things are worthy of laughter barring to laugh at everything” [3990] – as experience grows, and thus unhappiness, man laughs more and more easily and finds it harder and harder to cry [4138] – in a conversation, to laugh “heartily and strong” “with one or two people” provokes the respect of others, and takes from them their boldness and arrogance: “in the end simple  hearty laughter gives you a decided superiority over those before you and around you, without exception. Terrible and awful is the power of laughter: he who has the courage to laugh, is the master of others, like he who has the courage to embrace death” [4391].