SOURCE: Williams, Orlo. “A Little Classic of the Future¹.” The London Mercury 1, no. 4 (February 1920): 555-64.

In the following essay, Williams discusses the work of Somerville and Ross as comic literature and predicts that their works will become classics.

The evanescence of laughter is most pathetic. Its bubbles vanish from the sparkling wine that held it so soon after it has been uncorked, leaving a sadly flat beverage to the critical palates of future generations. Wit, being a subtler and less easily disintegrated essence, does not so quickly pass away, but the buoyant bubbles of laughter, except in some rare vintages, survive but a moment the uncorking of their bottle. We may smile at the things that aroused the laughter of our ancestors, bringing our intellect and our imagination to the tasting, but it is seldom that we experience spontaneously the “sudden glory” of bursting sides when we read...