{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/judex-jocosus",
 "title": "Judex Jocosus",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV",
 "book_slug": "collected-works-iv",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 27,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1910,
  "venue": "The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IV (1910)",
  "note": "Taken from Volume IV of the Neale collected edition (copyright 1910). That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume's own preface speaks of the verses republished in this volume and the next, and which newspaper or earlier book printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "shapes-of-clay.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4793",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12658",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12977",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15599",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof08bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/literarycalifor05mighgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cali07webb"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 14,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 46,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "We blench when maniacs to dance begin.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What makes a skull so dreadful is the grin.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When horrible and ludicrous unite,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our sense of humor does but feed our fright.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As the shocked spirit with a double dread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might see a monkey watching by the dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or headsman part a neck, without a fault,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While turning o’er the block a somersault.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So, Judge Hilario, the untroubled awe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And reverence men cherish for the law",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Turn all to terror when with wit profound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And tricksy humor you the law expound.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More frightful sounds the felon’s doom by half",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From lips still twisted to an idiot laugh.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}