Banerjee 1

Deepshikha Banerjee

Semester: V

English Honours

UID: 0304200012

Roll No: 203651

Course: DSE – B1

DEVELOPMENT OF COMEDY IN ENGLISH LITERATURE

The birth of Comedy traces back to the roots evoked from the stage of Greek Theatre were the Greek drama

was handled as a medium of instructions and indoctrinations exercised by the state power of authority. It

was organised as a grand festival were the writers of Tragedy would compete with each other. Now

continuation of tragedy plays for long hours made it pretty boring, so the idea of evoking laughter by

something incongruent in-between the tragedy became a thing. Accommodating brief catalogues between a

set of characters on stage without a plot in the form of Satire plays was nicely punctuated and was quite

liked by the audience. This is how Comedy began. Later Greek Comedy sub-divided into three types: Old

Comedy represented by Aristophanes, Middle Comedy known by Alexis and Menander and lastly the New

Comedy with writers like Poseidippus of Cassandria and Diphilus of Sinope.

Comedy according to Aristotle views “an imitation of men worse than average; worse, however not as

regards any and every sort of fault but only as regards one particular kind, the ridiculous which is a species

of the ugly. The ridiculous may be defined as a mistake or deformity not productive of pain or harm to

others; the mask, for instance, that excites laughter, is something ugly and distorted without causing pain.”

The gradual development of Comedy can be traced down the roads of the history of English Literature,

through the Medieval Ages, till the 18th century.

 Banerjee 2

Returning to the drama, this originated in the depths of mankind’s religious predispositions. The term

‘drama’ derived from the Greek word “deed” or “to act”. Drama is a form of literature, has been unique in

adhering to a dialogic mode of representations. It introduces new thoughts and doctrines effortlessly through

an apparent distraction in the form of entertainment. Drama came to life with the coming of The Norman

Conquest in 1066, whose purpose was undoubtedly to replace the pagan religion of the Anglo-Saxons with a

new form of religion called Christianity. The Church started enacting small pieces from the Bible (point of

genesis) in thought of spreading a religious message.

Secularization of English drama shifted the idea of the traditional ecclesiastical dialogues based upon

liturgical stories (‘tropes’) to the establishment of the feast of ‘Corpus Christi’ were the drama moved from

the hands of Church to the trade guilds who promoted their products through selective Bible episodes.

Through Medieval Ages, the comic elements started to mould and shape the nature of drama in the form of

Miracles and Mysteries, even though these two types of plays were synonymously used in England and later

it was accommodated by Moralities and Interludes. The former dealt with the lives of saint and themes taken

by the Bible whereas Morality plays represented personifications of abstractions like virtues and vice in their

struggle for the soul of man. Interludes transformed the abstractions represented by Moralities into

something that reflected the 16th century socio-political development brought by the Reformation and the

advent of Protestantism, the comic and realistic elements became more pronounced in these plays.

The 16th century saw the actual development of English Comedy under the influence and discretion of

humanists in Renaissance, who rediscovered the text of ancient civilisations and started translating further

which gradually permeated the native language and culture and also broaden the minds of people for what it

should be like.

The Shakespearean Comedy (1564-1660) is not about comedy in the modern sense of the term, it was

divided into: histories, tragedies, Comedies and Romances. The salient features of this type comedy are:

Idyllic setting, mistaken identities, love intrigues, Resolution of conflict, a blend of laughter based on

thought and action.

 Banerjee 3

“Every character has a pre-dominant humour”

Comedy of Humours of 16th century is attributed to Ben Jonson of England. The term ‘Humour’ is taken

from the Greek and Roman Medicine and Philosophy were it refers to the four major fluids in the body –

blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile which are responsible for determining personality types and the

physical and mental well-being of individuals. Pre-dominance of any fluid was supposed to lead to an

imbalance and emerge any peculiar traits of a character. One such example of a play by Jonson is Volpone.

Restoration Comedy of Manners showcases the Neo-Classical approach towards comic laughter also known

as Comedy of Wit were the sophisticated upper class put more emphasis on witty satire than on humour.

However, Comedy of Manners was not just an imitation of French and Spanish writers. It fused with the

foreign traditions the existing school of Jonsonian Comedy of Humour. The influence is visible in the

naming of the characters. Some of the refined writers of the period: William Wycherley, William Congreve,

George Etherege etc.

In the 18th century English Literature sees the emergence of a new kind of comedy that replaced the

Restoration Comedy based on Puritan Immorality was ‘Sentimental Comedy’. One of the well-known

writers of the period is Jonathan Swift. These comedies celebrated middle class values, indicating major

changes in socio and economic power structures. This kind of comedy does not aim at producing laughter

but showing the triumph of middle class protagonists over moral trials.

‘
 Banerjee 4

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Bates, Alfred. The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, Volume 1. London.

1906.

 Buckham, P.W. Theatre of the Greeks. Cambridge. 1827.

 Cornford, F.M. The Origin of Attic Comedy. 1934.