List of illustrations. Notes on contributors. Preface. Introduction: Humour and History: Jan Bremmer and Herman Roodenburg. 1. Jokes, Jokers and Jokebooks in Ancient Greek Culture: Jan Bremmer. 2. Cicero, Plautus and Roman Laughter: Fritz Graf. 3. Laughter in the Middle Ages: Jacques Le Goff. 4. Bakhtin and his Theory of Carnival: Aaron Gurevich. 5. Frontiers of the Comic in Early Modern Italy, c1350--1750: Peter Burke. 6. The Comic and the Counter Reformation in the Spanish Netherlands: Johan Verberckmoes. 7. Prose Jest--Books Mainly in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries in England: Derek Brewer. 8. To Converse Agreeably: Civility and the Telling of Jokes in Seventeenth--Century Holland: Herman Roodenburg. 9. How was Jan Steen Funny? Strategies and Functions of Comic Painting in the Seventeenth Century: Mariet Westermann. 10. Parliamentary Hilarity Inside the French Constitutional Assembly (1789--91): Antoine de Baecque. 11. Humour and the Public Sphere in Nineteenth--Century Germany: Mary Lee Townsend. 12. Humour, Laughter and the Field: Reflections from Anthropology: Henk Driessen. 13. Humour and History: A Research Bibliography: Johan Verberckmoes. Index of Names. Index of Subjects.