John Trapp on Proverbs 26:19

Verſ. 19. Am not I in jeſt?] The wicked mans mirth is uſually mixed with miſchief; it is no ſport, unleſs he may have the Devil his Play-fellow: no good fellowſhip without Horſe-play. Salt-jeſts, and dry flouts, to the juſt grief or diſgrace of another, is counted facetious and fine. But St. Paul calls it fooliſh, Epheſ. 5.4. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. and further ſaith, that for ſuch things ſake the wrath of God commeth upon the children of diſobedience. Quid mihi cum fabulis, cum jocis? ſaith Bernard, what hath a Chriſtian to doe with jeſting and jearing? Wee allow an Horſe to praunce and skip in a paſture; which if he doth when backt by the Rider, we count him an unruly and unbroken Jade. So, howſoever in Heathens and Atheiſts, God may wink at jocularity and dicacity, yet he looks for better things from his own people. Crede mihi, res ſevera eſt verum gaudium, ſaith Seneca. True mirth is a ſevere buſineſs. But what a mad man Robert de Beliaſme Earl of Shrewsbury, Anno Dom. 1111. delighting to doe miſchief, and exerciſe his cruelty, and then to ſay, Am not I in jeſt? An example hereof he ſhewed upon his own Son; who being but a child and playing with him, the father for a paſtime,Speeds Chron. 473. put his thumb in the boys eyes, and thruſt out the balls thereof.