EnglishHumor

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This Sceptered Isle  (nyt.com 1 May, 2005)

In "The Man Who Made England," Germaine Greer, writing in The Spectator, a British weekly, says Shakespeare created the traits and types the English today take for authentic Englishness.

Shakespeare dealt in illusion; if in the history plays he created a coherent view of England as an autonomous region, distinct from continental Europe and its island neighbors, he also allowed the English to be mocked, as madmen, by the gravedigger in Hamlet ... and as drunkards by Iago, who is less trustworthy.

Self-mockery remains an intrinsic element of Englishness. The Englishman, unlike Queen Victoria, is always prepared to be amused. His characteristic response to the unbearable is to make a joke of it. This chronic lack of seriousness baffles the rest of the world, who see it as a kind of callousness, but it is what protects the Englishman from the fanaticism inherent in tabloid culture.
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