THE COMEDY OF MANNERS

• What is “commedy”
• Comedy of manners in England
• The most important playwrights
• The way of the world

• The term comes from Greek “κωμωδία”,komodia
• The aim is any humorous discourse to amuse.
• Its characteristics are:
 Happy ending

Choral singing
 Derision

A reference to sexuality
• It starts with a prologue , recited by characters to introduce initial situation

• Comedy of Manners developed in England between the 1685 and the
1700 , thanks to the king Charles II
• Its aim : it satarizes the social classes of Nobility and Aristocrazy
• It criticizes people’s manners of: speech, behavior and relationships
• The themes were:

Materialistic nature
 Hypolitical existence
 Gossip of everyday life

• William Shakespeare: “Much Ado about Nothing”
• William Wychrley: “The Country Wife” (1675)
• William Congreve: “The Way of the World” (1700)
• Oliver Goldsmith: “She Stoops to Conquer” (1773)
• Richard Brinsley Sheridan: “The Rivals” (1775)
“The School for Scandals” (1777)

• It was written in the 1700 by William Congreve
• The protagonists are the two levers:
 Mirabell (mira-bell  He who is beautiful to see him)
 Millamant (mill-amant  She who has a lot of lovers)