Comedy

Comedy, as it is seen in plays, has had three major forms throughout history. Shakespearean Comedy was created from New Comedy, and is therefore very similar to it. "Comedy" in it Elizabethan usage had a very different meaning from modern comedy. It does not necessarily mean funny, but more focuses on a problem that leads to some form of catastrophe which in the end has a happy and joyful outcome > Shakespearean comedies also tend to have:
 * The first is known as Old Comedy. [[image:GreekDance.jpg width="196" height="189"]]
 * Old Comedy started in about 450 B.C., and usually was based on politics.
 * There were no restrictions on material, which means that plays were usually very abusive and dirty.
 * The abuse was usually directed against something that no one really liked, and this something was made fun of like crazy.
 * Like drama, comedy had masked actors, choral dances, rhythm, scenery, organization, and sophisticated language.
 * The next type of comedy was from about 400-330 B.C., and was called Middle Comedy
 * Middle Comedy was very similar to Old Comedy, however it was different in three major ways
 * It had no chorus
 * No unpopular people were impersonated on the stage and made fun of
 * The things that were made fun of were much more general and usually did not focus on a specific person, such as whole classes of people were criticized instead of individuals. Also, plays were no longer political.
 * Also, this type of comedy was more criticism and review then simply abusively making fun of something
 * Middle Comedy usually focused on criticizing strange things in society and in literature
 * The last type of comedy is called New Comedy, and lasted from about 330-260 B.C.
 * For the first time, love became a principal element in the play, but it was usually not an honest love
 * The characters were about the same from the Middle Comedy, except that in the New Comedy there was usually a strict parent who does stupid things, and a recently returned soldier who is not very bright
 * A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriage for all the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more lighthearted than Shakespeare's other plays.
 * A struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty that is often presented by elders
 * Separation and unification
 * Mistaken identities
 * A clever servant
 * Heightened tensions, often within a family
 * Multiple, intertwining plots
 * Frequent use of puns