John is right about the transcience of old jokes. But the humor of character can be long lived. I laugh still at the Life of Johnson, at Falstaff’s lies, or at Malvolio dressed to woo. I do not read Latin and my wife, who did, says that Terence and Plautus are torture in the original. But their plots have been revived for modern musical comedies.

About the Author
Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.
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