...claim that the success of the Witzarheit can onlv be judged by a third person. 'A jest's prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it, never in the tongue of him that makes it' ( 144). The inherent intersubjectivity of the joke becomes essential in the process ofEvleiebterung....

...Horatio" or Edgar's "Ripeness is all," and sometimes portentous utterances like these: A jest's prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Of him that makes it. (Love's Labour's Lost V.ii. 871-73) The ample proposition that hope makes In all designs begun on earth...

...influence is begot ofthat loose grace Which shallow laughing hearers give to fools: A jest's prosperity ff he threw: Then threw he down himself, and all their lives That by indictment sickly ears, Deaf 'd with the clamours of their own dear groans, Will hear your idle scorns, continue...

...all the fierce endeavour of your wit To enforce the pained impotent to smile. is A jest's prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Of him that makes it. Then, if sickly ears, Deafed with the clamours of their own dear groans, Will hear your idle scorns, continue...

...twelvemonth he must visit 'the speechless sick' and make them smile. Rosaline's homily, 'A jest's prosperity lies in the ear / Of him that hears it, never in the tongue / Of him that makes it' (859-61) is not only good moral sense but a sound articulation of the importance of plain talk in Shakespeare...

...up others. Rosaline hopes that Berowne will come to discover for himself that "a jest's prosperity lies in the ear / Of him that hears it, never in the tongue / Of him that makes it" (5.2.861-63). She calls his jests "idle scorns" and twice refers to his "gibing spirit" as a "fault,"...

...men's use of the language of the academy as an exclusionary tactic. But just as "a jest's prosperity lies in the ear / Of him that hears it, never in the tongue / Of him that makes it" (5.2.838-40), so too the scholars can use their knowledge to diminish others only if those on the receiving...

...Epilogue. 2 Their fate is only in their hearers eares. Cf. LL L. 5. 2. 871-3 : A jest's prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Of him that makes it. 4 The maker. For a discussion of Jonson's use of the word ' maker ' cf. Henry, ed. Epiccme, Second...

...his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. 10338 Love's Labour's Lost A jest's prosperity tony and Cleopatra The crown o' the earth doth melt. My lord! O! withered 10339 Macbeth FIRST WITCH: When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain? SECOND...

...Lost reveal a notion of the jest as a commodity to be defined by its exchange: A jest's prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Of him that makes it.* From the sixteenth century, when the term "jest" was first used to designate all manner of laughable...