The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Comedy

COMEDY, a dramatic representation of alight and amusing nature, in which aresatirizedpleasantly the weaknesses or manners ofsociety and the ludicrous incidents of life.Comedy took its origin in the Dionysian festivals,with those who led the phallic songs ofthe band of revelers (Gr. kōmos) who, at thevintage festivals, gave expression to theexuberant joy and merriment by parading about,dressed up, and singing jovial songs in honorof Dionysus. These songs were frequentlyinterspersed with extemporized jokes at theexpense of the bystanders. Comedy first assumeda regular shape among the Dorians. The firstattempts at it among the Athenians were madeby Susarion, a native of Megara, about 578B.C. Epicharmus first gave comedy a new formand introduced a regular plot. That branchof the Attic drama known as the Old Comedybegins properly with Cratinus. It lasted from458 B.C. to 404 B.C. The later pieces ofAristophanes belong to the Middle Comedy. Thechorus in a comedy consisted of 24. The MiddleComedy lasted from 404 B.C. to 340 B.C. andthe New Comedy till 260 B.C. Middle Comedyfound its materials in satirizing classes ofpeople instead of individuals. New Comedyanswers to the comedy of the present day. Themost distinguished of Roman comic writerswere Plautus and Terence, whose plots weremainly derived from the Greek. See Drama;Literary Forms.