美文赏析：林肯的微笑

说起第16任美国总统亚伯拉罕•林肯，很多人会立即想起他对解放黑奴和维护美利坚联邦完整所做出的巨大贡献，想起他能言善辩的口才和妙语连珠的演讲，但却很少有人知道，林肯的“幽默感”也开创了一个新时代。

Something that has always intrigued1 me about Abraham Lincoln is, not surprisingly, his sense of humor. As far as I can tell, he’s the first American President to have one.

That’s because the term “sense of humor” really wasn’t in common usage until the eighteen-sixties and seventies. In the eighteen-forties and fifties, it was called “the sense of the ridiculous,” and didn’t have the positive connotations2 that “sense of humor” has today. Back then, what was ridiculous was what invited ridicule3. Funniness and cruelty went hand in hand. Of course, they still do a lot of arm-in-arm strolling in our day as well.4

Lincoln’s humor was very different because, for one thing, it was actually “humor” as the word was defined in his time. We don’t make the distinction between “wit” and “humor” anymore, but in the nineteenth century people did. Wit was sarcastic and antipathetic while humor was congenial and empathetic.5 It’s the differ—ence we note now when we distinguish between “laughing with” and “laughing at.” Lincoln was much more about “laughing with” than “laughing at.” And when “laughing at,” it was often himself he was mocking.

In the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, when Douglas accused Lincoln of being two-faced, Lincoln replied, referencing his homeliness,6 “Honestly, if I were two-faced, would I be showing you this one?” And, in a way, Lincoln’s face itself tells us much about his sense of humor.

You can comb through7 thousands of photographs of politicians, soldiers, and the like from Lincoln’s time and not find a single smile. Here’s his sourpussed cabinet.8

True, the extended exposures9 required for photographs of that era made smiling difficult. Yet Lincoln alone, as far as I can tell, overcame that difficulty. And though there is only a hint of smile in his photographs, it hints at what Lincoln knew too well: that, as Mark Twain pointed out, “the secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow.”

Interestingly, while having a sense of humor, or at least the appearance of one provided by comedy writers, has become a necessary characteristic for an American President in our time, in the nineteenth century, too much humor was considered a liability.10 And that was the case for Lincoln. A journalist covering the Lincoln-Douglas debates commented that “I could not take a real personal liking to the man, owing to an inborn weakness for which he was even then notorious and so remained during his great public career, he was inordinately fond of jokes, anecdotes, and stories.”11

There’s hoping that our age might have a more favorable feeling towards him.❖

1. intrigue: 激起兴趣，引起好奇心。

2. connotation: 隐含意义，联想的含义。

3. ridicule: 嘲笑，奚落。

4. 当然，直到今日，它们(“滑稽可笑”和”恶毒中伤”)还经常被联系在一起。

5. sarcastic: 讽刺的，挖苦的;antipathetic: 厌恶的，反感的;congenial: 宜人的，令人舒适愉快的;empathetic: 表示同情的，产生共鸣的。

6. Lincoln-Douglas debates: 林肯与道格拉斯辩论，1858年民主党人史蒂文•道格拉斯与共和党人林肯为争夺伊利诺伊州参议员一职而进行的七场辩论，在辩论中林肯提出废奴主张，虽然在此次参议员选举中不敌道格拉斯，其废奴的理念却开始深入人心;two-faced: (人)表里不一的，两面派的;homeliness: 相貌平平。

7. comb through: 梳理。

8. sourpussed: 〈俚〉整天绷着脸的，脸色阴沉的;cabinet: 内阁成员。

9. exposure: 曝光时间。

10. comedy writer: 这里指专门帮政客写笑话的写手;liability: 不利条件，碍事的人(或物)。

11. cover: 采访关于……的资讯，报道;inborn: 天生的，生来就有的;notorious: 臭名昭著的;inordinately: 非常地，无节制地;anecdote: 轶事。