Shakespeare's Comedies

Because of his humanist education, Shakespeare was familiar with classical (Greek and
Latin) comedy. Greek "old comedy" (e.g. Aristophanes, ca.448-380 B.C.) was generally
satirical and frequently political in nature. Greek "new comedy" (e.g. Menander, ca. 343-
291 B.C.) involved sex and seduction and often showed youth outwitting old age. Although
Menander's plays have survived only in fragments, Shakespeare would have known his work
through the Latin adaptations of the Roman poet Terence (ca. 190-159 B.C.).
The Latin comedies of Terence and another Roman poet, Plautus (ca. 258?-184 B.C.), were
much studied in Elizabethan schools. (From his humanist grammar school education,
Shakespeare also learned about characters such as Theseus and Hippolyta or Pyramus and
Thisbe, whose story is found in Ovid's Metamorphoses). From Terence and Plautus,
Shakespeare learned how to organize a plot in a way modern editors may represent as a five-
act structure. Loosely speaking, it moves from:

1. A situation with tensions or implicit conflict (Exposition)

2. Implicit conflict is developed (Rising Action)
3. Conflict reaches height; frequently an impasse (Turning Point)
4. Things begin to clear up (Falling Action)
5. Problem is resolved, knots untied (Conclusion)

Thus, the action of a comedy traces a movement from conflict to the resolution of conflict,
from some sort of (generally figurative) bondage to freedom, despite obstacles,
complications, reversals, and discoveries. It ends with celebration and unity. This stage often
includes the expulsion or elimination of characters so lost or misguided that they cannot be
accommodated or restored to society (e.g. Shylock, Malvolio). Hence a touch of sadness or
reality may impinge on the final celebration.

This structure differentiates Shakespeare's comedies from earlier works that presented the
seemingly random adventures of a hero in a relatively formless way (e.g. a series of episodes
of courtship and adultery). A non-dramatic model for this sort of story is found in the
playwright Thomas Nash's prose romance, The Unfortunate Traveller (1594). The episodic
structure of early Renaissance comedy also recalls medieval Mystery cycles (series of plays
on sacred history, from Creation to the Last Judgment).

From the works of Plautus and Terence, Shakespeare learned to use certain stock
characters, e.g. the prodigal youth and his female love interest; "blocking figures" who
provide the obstacle to be overcome, such as the senex (Latin for "old man," cf. "senile"), a
parent or guardian of the hero or heroine (who may be in love with her himself). Other stock
characters include the shrewish wife, the pedant, the braggart soldier, the parasite, clowns,
outlaws, clever servants, female confidantes. In classical and Shakespearean comedies, the
hero and heroine may have socially inferior helpers. The hero and heroine's supporters are
frequently led by a jester, fool or buffoon (e.g. Touchstone, Feste). Pompous sour types
(doctors, lawyers, clergymen, police - and sometimes professors!) uphold the dignity of the
institutions they represent and are frequently mocked for their self-importance. Shakespeare's
youthful works make extensive use of stock characters; they also appear (less extensively) in
the works of his dramatic maturity.
The Conventions of Shakespearean Romantic Comedy

Conventions assist us in understanding literary works belonging to a particular genre; they

help to categorize them and illuminate their common features. Genres set up certain
expectations because of their shared characteristics. For example, you know to expect
specific features when reading or viewing a western (good guys and bad guys; shoot-outs or
duels), a detective thriller (false clues that lead in the wrong direction; ingenious solution to a
mystery), science fiction (humans and aliens; futuristic technology; special effects). One's
judgment of a given work is affected in part by how it meets or fails to meet generic
expectations. An artist may deliberately manipulate or play with conventions, parodying or
transcending the limits of a literary genre: Monty Python's Holy Grail parodies Arthurian
romances; Blazing Saddles parodies Westerns; the Pyramus and Thisbe play in A Midsummer
Night's Dream parodies Shakespeare's own Romeo and Juliet. The Purple Rose of
Cairo transcends sentimental romance by raising questions about the boundaries of art,
reality and fantasy; Hamlet transcends previous Renaissance revenge tragedy.

The major conventions of Shakespearean Romantic Comedy are:

1. The main action is about love.

2. The would-be lovers must overcome obstacles and misunderstandings before being
united in harmonious union. The ending frequently involves a parade of couples to
the altar and a festive mood or actual celebration (expressed in dance, song, feast,
etc.) A Midsummer Night's Dream has four such couples (not counting Pyramus and
Thisbe!); As You Like It has four; Twelfth Night has three; etc.
3. Frequently (but not always), it contains elements of the improbable, the fantastic,
the supernatural, or the miraculous, e.g. unbelievable coincidences, improbable
scenes of recognition/lack of recognition, wilful disregard of the social order (nobles
marrying commoners, beggars changed to lords, women wearing trousers),
instantaneous conversions (the wicked repent), enchanted or idealized settings,
supernatural beings (witches, fairies, Gods and Goddesses). The happy ending may be
brought about through supernatural or divine intervention (comparable to the deus ex
machina in classical comedy, where a God appears to resolve the conflict) or may
merely involve improbable turns of events.
4. In the best of the mature comedies, there is frequently a philosophical
aspect involving weightier issues and themes: personal identity; the importance of
love in human existence; the power of language to help or hinder communication;
the transforming power of poetry and art; the disjunction between appearance and
reality; the power of dreams and illusions).
Shakespeare's Four Final Plays:

The Romances

"Romance" was not a generic classification in Shakespeare's time. The modern term
"romance" refers to a new kind of play, a hybrid of comic and tragic elements, developed and
popularized by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher between 1607 and 1613
(their Philaster, 1609, is typical of the genre). At the end of his theatrical career,
Shakespeare wrote four such plays which are now commonly grouped together as the
Romances:

 Pericles (1607-1608); not included with SH's works until F3 (1664)

 Cymbeline (1609-1610); published in F1 as one of the Tragedies
 The Winter's Tale (1610-1611); published in F1 as one of the Comedies
 The Tempest (1611); published in F1 as one of the Comedies

Because romances combine both tragic and comic elements, Fletcher called them "tragi-
comedies" (a term which he coined in the preface to The Faithful Shepherdess, 1608;
According to Fletcher, a tragi-comedy "wants deaths, which is enough to make it no tragedy,
yet brings some near it, which is enough to make it no comedy." Like comedy, romance
includes a love-intrigue and culminates in a happy ending. Like tragedy, romance has
a serious plot-line (betrayals, tyrants, usurpers of thrones) and treats serious themes; it
is darker in tone (more serious) than comedy. While tragedy emphasizes evil, and comedy
minimizes it, romance acknowledges evil - the reality of human suffering.

Romance is a natural step in describing human experience after tragedy. Tragedy involves
irreversible choices made in a world where time leads inexorably to the tragic conclusion. In
Romance, time seems to be "reversible"; there are second chances and fresh starts. As a
result, categories such as cause and effect, beginning and end, are displaced by a sense
of simultaneity and harmony. Tragedy is governed by a sense of Fate (Macbeth, Hamlet)
or Fortune (King Lear); in Romance, the sense of destiny comes instead from Divine
Providence. Tragedy depicts alienation and destruction, Romance, reconciliation and
restoration. In tragedies, characters are destroyed as a result of their own actions and
choices; in Romance, characters respond to situations and events rather than provoking them.
Tragedy tends to be concerned with revenge, Romance with forgiveness. Plot structure in
Romance moves beyond that of tragedy: an event with tragic potential leads not to tragedy
but to a providential experience.

The providential "happy ending" of a Romance bears a superficial resemblance to that of

a comedy. But while the tone of comedy is genial and exuberant, Romance has a muted tone
of happiness - joy mixed with sorrow. Like comedies, Romances tend to end with
weddings, but the focus is less on the personal happiness of bride and groom (the culmination
of an individual passion) than on the healing of rifts within the total human community.
Thus, whereas comedy focusses on youth, Romance often has middle-aged and older
protagonists in pivotal roles. Similarly, while tragedy deals with events leading up to
individual deaths, Romance emphasizes the cycle of life and death. While tragedy explores
characters in depth (emphasis on individual psychology), Romance focuses instead
on archetypes, the collective and symbolic patterns of human experience. Compared to
characters in a Shakespearean tragedy (or comedy), romance characters may seem shallow or
one-dimensional. But Romance characters are not meant to be psychologically credible;
their experiences have symbolic significance extending beyond the limits of their own lives
and beyond rational comprehension. In Romance, the emphasis shifts from individual human
nature to Nature.

Romance is unrealistic. Supernatural elements abound, and characters often seem "larger
than life" (e.g. Prospero) or one-dimensional (e.g. Miranda and Ferdinand). Plots are not
particularly logical (cause and effect are often ignored). The action, serious in theme, subject
matter and tone, seems to be leading to a tragic catastrophe until an unexpected trick brings
the conflict to harmonious resolution. The "happy ending" may seem unmotivated or
contrived, not unlike the deus ex machina ("God out of the [stage] machinery") endings
of classical comedy (where a God appears at the end of the play to "fix" everything).
Realism is not the point. Romance requires us to suspend disbelief in the "unrealistic" nature
of the plot and experience it on its own terms.

The Conventions of Shakespeare's Romances

Some of the characteristics of SHAKESPEAREAN ROMANCE include:

 an enveloping conflict (war, rebellion, jealousy, treachery, intrigue) that may cover a
large timespan (conflict begun a generation or more before the events of the play) and
is resolved at the end of the play
 happy endings to potentially tragic situations (e.g. apparent resurrection, sudden
conversions, etc.);
 improbable plots; rapid action; surprises; extraordinary occurrences (shipwrecks;
disguises; riddles; children/parents lost and found; supernatural events/beings)
 characters of high social class; rural and court settings; extremes of characterization
(exalted virtue and deep villainy)
 love of a virtuous hero and heroine; "pure" and "gross" loves often contrasted