Table of Contents // INTRODUCTION...9 // 1 THE THEORETICAL AND HISTORICAL PROLEGOMENA... 19 // 1.1 Wii Theorized: Summary of Twentieth-Century Approaches ... 19 // 1.2 Wii as Aesthetic Concept ...31 // 1.3 The Culture of the Late Seventeenth Century England and France: Political, Philosophical and Literary-historical Setting ... 44 // 2 OFFICIAL AN1) ALTERNATIVE CLASSICAL AESTHETICS...55 // 2.1 Dominique Bouhours and Poetic Ideologies of the Bel Esprit ...56 // 2.2 Chevalier de Mere: Esprit as Light of Nature...69 // 2.3 Nicolas Boileau-Dcsprcaux and the Ideal of Neoclassical Esprit...75 // 3 TRUE AND FALSE WIT: DRYDEN, POPE, AND ADDISON ...87 // 3.1 John Dryden and Vagaries of Restoration Wit ...88 // 3.2 Alexander Pope: Wit as Meta-criticism ...98 // 3.3 Joseph Addison and Aesthetics of Neoclassical Wit... 109 // 3.4 Wit and Esprit: Points of Accord and Dissonance ... 118 // CONCLUSION ...129 // BIBLIOGRAPHY... 133 // ENDNOTES ... 143 // INDEX // 151