Shakespeare and
Comedy
Bevington, etal.
Shakespeare: Script, Stage Screen
Definition
While there is general agreement
about what constitutes a tragedy,
scholars and theorists have
reached little accord on comedy.
Although all of Shakespeare’s
comedies are set in foreign locales
(except The Merry Wives of
Windsor), each retains a distinctly
Elizabethan quality, especially
among the common characters
Types of comedy
Scholars and critics have typed Shakespeare’s works as
Romantic Comedy
Romance
Comedy of manners
Farce and slapstick
Bawdy comedy
Grotesque comedy
Sentimental comedy
Yet his works seem to defy simple classification
14 of 35 in First Folio were placed under the
heading of “Comedies”
TODAY, two of them THE TEMPEST and THE
WINTER’S TALE are regarded as Romances
MEASURE FOR MEASURE and ALL’S WELL THAT
ENDS WELL are classified as Problem Plays
Effect of comedy
Shakespeare’s comedies extend beyond our normal
assumption that it makes people laugh and ends happily
Tragedy is ennobling/Comedy is foolish
Comedy is fundamentally democratic
Stakes are not as high in comedy as in tragedy
Tragedy deals with the individual/Comedy with groups
Comic characters are at odds with the norms of society
Northrop Frye observes that Shakespeare’s
comedies are initiated by “irrational law”
 In “Taming of the Shrew,” a young woman cannot
marry until her older sister is wed
 Hermia is sentenced to death in “A Midsummer
Night’s Dream” if she does not marry the man her
father prefers
 In the first act of “As You Like It” Rosalind is
banished from court because she is her father’s
daughter
 A death threat is at the heart of “Comedy of Errors”
The spirit of carnival pervades
Shakespeare’s comedies
 Disguises and wearing masks
 Women dress as men
 Those women who do not cross-dress rail against men
as Beatrice and Katharina do
Treatment of women
 Marriages seem to be a patriarchal right
 When women revolt against their role,
they need to be “reformed”
OTHER CRITICS SUGGEST
 Women are true subversives in society
 They choose to enter into marriages as
equals
Other qualities in
Shakespeare comedy
 Shakespeare demonstrates ingenious wordplay
 Most comedies contain about 80 puns. Love’s
Labours Lost features almost 200
 For Shakespeare, puns were not the lowest
form of comedy
 Malaprops are frequently in evidence (Peter
Quince and Nick Bottom; Dogberry; the twin
Dromios)
 Much of his humor is the product of a
character using language, not wisely, but too
much…verbosity is not a good quality in his
comic characters (see example following)
Love’s Labour’s Lost
ADRIANO DE ARMADO
I do affect the very ground, which is base, where
her shoe, which is baser, guided by her foot, which
is basest, doth tread. I shall be forsworn, which
is a great argument of falsehood, if I love. And
how can that be true love which is falsely
attempted? Love is a familiar; Love is a devil:
there is no evil angel but Love. Yet was Samson so
tempted, and he had an excellent strength; yet was
Solomon so seduced, and he had a very good wit.
Cupid's butt-shaft is too hard for Hercules' club;
and therefore too much odds for a Spaniard's rapier.
The first and second cause will not serve my turn;
the passado he respects not, the duello he regards
not: his disgrace is to be called boy; but his
glory is to subdue men. Adieu, valour! rust rapier!
be still, drum! for your manager is in love; yea,
he loveth. Assist me, some extemporal god of rhyme,
for I am sure I shall turn sonnet. Devise, wit;
write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio.
(I.2.161-)
And to conclude…
“the conflation of inventive plots, memorable characters,
and well-crafted speeches encourages actors to use their
comedic talents to make many scenes in Shakespeare’s
comic plays laugh-out-loud funny.”
References
 Barber, C.L. Shakespeare’s Festive Comedy. Princeton, 1959.
 Barton, Anne. The Names of Comedy. Toronto, 1990.
 Brown, John Russell. Shakespeare and his Comedies. London,
1968.
 Dollimore, Johathan, and Alan Sinfield, eds. Political
Shakespeare. Manchester, England, 1985.
 Evans, Bertrand. Shakespeare’s Comedies. Oxford, 1960.
 Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism. Princeton, 1957.