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Ambassador Nils-Johan Jørgensen was educated at the universities of Oslo and Oxford (Norway Scholar at Wadham) and was Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). As a Norwegian career diplomat he served in Brussels, Copenhagen, Harare, Tokyo, Bonn and Dar es Salaam. He retired in 2001. He is the author of books and articles on European integration, international development, Southern Africa and Germany and Japan, including Norge mot Europa? (Norway towards/against Europe?), Copenhagen, 1981, Nytt liv bak taken (A new life behind the haze in Zimbabwe), Oslo, 1989, and Japan og Tyskland. Gjenvinning og makt (Japan and Germany. Restoration and Power), Oslo, 1997. He is also author of Culture and Power in Germany and Japan: The Spirit of Renewal, Global Oriental, 2006.

• AcknowledgementsInductionChapter 1: BEN JONSON AND HIS SOURCESClassical literary sources (Decorum, the comedies of Plautus and Terence, the Ridiculous)Medieval Sources: the Morality Play and the InterludesThe Great Chain and Man as MicrocosmAncient medical theory and Renaissance psychologyThe character sketchEarly Humour plays(George Chapman, Henry Porter)Chapter 2: HUMOROUS CHARACTERIZATION IN THE COMEDIES OF BEN JONSONIn humourOut of humourVolpone, Epicoene, The Alchemist, Bartholomew FairChapter 3: THE INFLUENCE OF JONSON ON SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY COMEDYRichard BromeJames ShirleyThomas ShadwellColley CibberThe Sons of BenMargareth CavendishAphra BehnJames MillerOliver GoldsmithRichard Brinsley SheridanChapter 4: THE INTRUSION OF HUMOROUS CHARACTERIZATION INTO THE ENGLISH NOVELHenry FieldingTobias SmollettChapter 5: THE MEANING OF THE COMICChapter 6: NOMADIC HUMOURSWhere did the humours goBerlin 1900FabulousHilariousAn ever-closer unionIdentity mix-upChameleonAn exchange of notesVisiting cardHoly SeeSisyphean diplomatic challengeLaughter aboveThe laughing philosopherChapter 7: UNCONSCIOUS REVELATIONPostscriptBibliographyIndex