laughter (n.)

laughter (v.)

It would be argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 2.

There Shakespeare, on whose forehead climb

The crowns o' the world; oh, eyes sublime

With tears and laughter for all time!

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1809-1861): A Vision of Poets.

Sport, that wrinkled Care derides,

And Laughter holding both his sides.

Come and trip it as ye go,

On the light fantastic toe.

John Milton (1608-1674): L'Allegro. Line 31.

Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,

Sermons and soda-water the day after.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Don Juan. Canto ii. Stanza 178.

As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool.

Old Testament: Ecclesiastes vii. 6.

And unextinguish'd laughter shakes the skies.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Iliad of Homer. Book i. Line 771.