Met grapjassen is het uitkijken

De Engelsen hebben een woord “wit”, met als adjectief “witty”, dat je op vele manieren kunt vertalen: scherpzinnig, spits, geestig, snedig, vernuftig, geinig, lollig, olijk, guitig, komiek, schalks enzovoort. Dat kan allemaal, de context bepaalt wat goed is en er zijn wel meer mogelijkheden dan deze elf.
Voor de Engelsen zelf is het begrip evenmin eenduidig, want in een voetnoot die Boswell geeft* las ik een omschrijving van vijfhonderd zeventig woorden. Hij citeert de wiskundige en predikant Dr. Isaac Barrow (1613-1680), die zijn sermoenen had laten drukken. Dat ging toen zo, en zulke verzamelingen waren vaak stilistische hoogstandjes en een belangrijk deel van de Engelse literatuur. De titel van zijn veertiende sermoen in band één was: ‘Against foolish Talking and Jesting’.**
Sommigen vonden ook in Boswells tijd al dat die omschrijving van “wit” nogal lang was uitgevallen, maar Boswell oordeelt anders: “Ik zie niet in hoe dit ingekort zou kunnen worden zonder verlies van een of ander belangrijk onderscheid. Aangezien dit sermoen niet algemeen bekend is, zal ik het hier als voetnoot invoegen, omdat het sommigen misschien kan aanzetten om er nog andere te lezen, waarbij zij waarlijk gesticht zouden worden, al zochten ze misschien enkel een verzetje.”

En nu moet ik me bij de lezer verontschuldigen, want deze heerlijke voetnoot vertalen gaat mijn krachten en werklust te boven. Maar de lezer zal beloond worden, en nooit nog vragen hebben bij de precieze betekenis van het woord "wit":

But first (says the learned preacher) it may be demanded, what the thing we speak of is? Or what this facetiousness (or wit as he calls it before) doth import? To which questions I might reply, as Democritus did to him that asked the definition of a man, 'Tis that which we all see and know. Any one better apprehends what it is by acquaintance, than I can inform him by description. It is, indeed, a thing so versatile and multiform, appearing in so many shapes, so many postures, so many garbs, so variously apprehended by several eyes and judgements, that it seemeth no less hard to settle a clear and certain notion thereof, than to make a portrait of Proteus, or to define the figure of the fleeting air.
Sometimes it lieth in pat allusion to a known story, or in seasonable application of a trivial saying, or in forging an apposite tale; sometimes it playeth in words and phrases, taking advantage from the ambiguity of their sense, or the affinity of their sound: sometimes it is wrapped in a dress of humorous expression: sometimes it lurketh under an odd similitude: sometimes it is lodged in a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in a shrewd intimation, in cunningly diverting or cleverly retorting an objection: sometimes it is couched in a bold scheme of speech, in a tart irony, in a lusty hyperbole, in a startling metaphor, in a plausible reconciling of contradictions, or in acute nonsense: sometimes a scenical representation of persons or things, a counterfeit speech, a mimical look or gesture, passeth for it: sometimes an affected simplicity, sometimes a presumptuous bluntness giveth it being: sometimes it riseth only from a lucky hitting upon what is strange: sometimes from a crafty wresting obvious matter to the purpose. Often it consisteth in one knows not what, and springeth up one can hardly tell how. Its ways are unaccountable, and inexplicable; being answerable to the numberless rovings of fancy, and windings of language.
It is, in short, a manner of speaking out of the simple and plain way, (such as reason teacheth and proveth things by,) which by a pretty surprising uncouthness in conceit or expression, doth affect and amuse the fancy, stirring in it some wonder, and breeding some delight thereto. It raiseth admiration, as signifying a nimble sagacity of apprehension, a special felicity of invention, a vivacity of spirit, and reach of wit more than vulgar; it seeming to argue a rare quickness of parts, that one can fetch in remote conceits applicable; a notable skill, that he can dextrously accommodate them to the purpose before him; together with a lively briskness of humour, not apt to damp those sportful flashes of imagination. (Whence in Aristotle such persons are termed ἑπίδέξιοι, dextrous men, and εὔστροφοι, men of facile or versatile manners, who can easily turn themselves to all things, or turn all things to themselves.) It also procureth delight, by gratifying curiosity with its rareness, as semblance of difficulty: (as monsters, not for their beauty, but their rarity; as juggling tricks, not for their use, but their abstruseness, are beheld with pleasure:) by diverting the mind from its road of serious thoughts; by instilling gaiety and airiness of spirit; by provoking to such dispositions of spirit in way of emulation or complaisance; and by seasoning matters, otherwise distasteful or insipid, with an unusual and thence grateful tang.
__________
* The Life of Dr. Johnson; A.D. 1759
J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd.– Everyman’s Library n°2, deel II, pp. 388-9.
** Niet enkel in Engeland werd er gewaarschuwd voor grapjassen. Blaise Pascal zei: «Diseurs de bons mots, mauvais caractères», wat spreekwoordelijk is geworden.