Kitap 6
3.84
There remains the prettiest of all forms of humour, namely the jest which depends for success on deceiving anticipations See IX. ii. 22. or taking another's words in a sense other than he intended. The unexpected element may be employed by the attacking party, as in the example cited by Cicero, de Or. II. lxx. 281. What does this man lack save wealth and—virtue? or in the remark of Afer, For pleading causes he is most admirably—dressed. Or it may be employed to meet a statement made by another, as it was by Cicero cp. § 68. on hearing a false report of Vatinius' death: he had met one of the latter's freedmen and asked him, Is all well? The freedman answered, All is well. To which Cicero replied, Is he dead, then?
3.85
But the loudest laughter of all is produced by simulation and dissimulation, proceedings which differ but little and are almost identical; but whereas simulation implies the pretence of having a certain opinion of one's own, dissimulation consists in feigning that one does not understand someone else's meaning. Afer employed simulation, when his opponents in a certain case kept saying that Celsina (who was an influential lady) knew all about the facts, and he, pretending to believe that she was a man, said, Who is he?
