6.1.

2 Existing traditions in Shakespeare’s time

6.1.2.1 “Roman comedy” or “New comedy”
The Latin comedy (Plautus) helped to shape a genre already established in Greece (Aristophanes
and Menander) which gained popularity in English literature thanks to the Renaissance. The comic
and dialectic force and the emphasis in the opposition and contrasts, characterize the oldest
comedies, while those of Menander are more erotic.
Everything will be combined with the confusions that complicate the plot-line of the Latin comedy
that focuses on the recovery of something caught at the beginning of the action. This "New
comedy" is ‘costumbrista’ and focuses on the problems of an urban middle class and its concerns:
money, property, domestic conflicts. Takes "type" characters of Greek comedy and is naturalistic
and satirical. The interest focuses on a conflict and how it is resolved. The complication of the
vicissitude is the key.

6.1.2.2 Pastoral comedy

It is another genre of popular comedy in which a bucolic social background of nature coexists with
the ambitions of the city or the court, and the vicissitudes and strategies of loss, recovery, discovery
or anagnorisis. This comes from Theocritus and Virgil, where the rural and urban life were in
contrast.
It presents an idealized vision of rural life, simple, against the sophistication and hypocrisy of the
urban. The contrast lends itself to the critique of social values. The theme focuses on the exploration
of the feeling of love in an environment away from other concerns and free of restrictive social
codes. This freedom is related to the abandonment of realism and the possibility of resorting to
wonderful elements, fantasy, the world of romance.

6.1.2.3 General characteristics of the Renaissance comedy and the Shakespearean comedy
On top of these elements, other features are added. First, compared to the thematic concentration of
the tragedy, the comedies offer a wider social vision. Tensions allow us to explore the diversity of
human nature and the complexity of social relations in conflict.
The tone is light and comical. The intention is to show the danger without falling into it, exposing
the irrationality of the human being and the possibilities of repentance. The kinder side of existence
is emphasized but the rest is not hidden. The punishment remains in ridicule and the prize is
generous. The outcomes are celebrated festively.
The dramatic tone and tempo are usually alive. The movement is expressed in dances, sparkling
language, puns, wit, etc. The dramatic tension is achieved with games of oppositions and double
perspectives. Changes are rapid and there are many changes of fortune, identities, pretences, etc.
The element of representation is enhanced andwonderful coincidences are aboundant. The aim is to
please the audience whose collaboration is required, the "voluntary suspension of disbelief"
(Coleridge).
The tradition of celebrating festivities is very ancient and the performances coincided with religious
and popular festivities, rites of change of season, etc. The rites implied an element of purging vice
and regeneration. It is not strange that comedies end in weddings. In As you like it we are told about
a new flood and the ark. A new life is promised. The structure is circular when, that is, we return to
the initial situation after which experience has been acquired.
The tropes that predominate are parody and irony. The parody exhibits the play of tensions between
different visions of life and the balance between possible and unreal aspirations. Irony attacks
blindness. It is the instrument to polish fantasy and error. It is the concession that is given to the
audience by allowing them to know more than the characters. Shakespeare exploits the ignorance of
the characters and the knowledge of the public. The discoveries are parallel to the mistakes, which
intensifies humour.
The structure is organized around the disturbance of the natural social order. The vicissitude
revolves around the alteration and the outcome seeks a satisfactory resolution. There is a critical
element (corrective of the disorder) and an utopian element (the possibility of restoration and
positive transformation of the initial order). But the action of the play is conservative because the
disturbance is transient and the order is never questioned.
In more than half of his comedies, the main characters of Shakespeare are torn from his family or
have to leave and escape to an unknown place. They flee from the usurpation by a tyrant or by a
storm. The violence of separation ends in the recovery of the lost.
The social environment is reduced. The basic opposition is the court and an alternative space where
the protagonists are safe and change in order to improve their luck. Other characters are also
transformed, they repent, they convert. This can be wonderful. The characters are of two types:
leading roles and rustic, who also reserve more comical roles or moral antagonists.
One of the most characteristic characters is the fool (Touchstone) indispensable, not necessarily
deformed but with a sharp mind and expressing the truths that others could not enunciate. It
represents the instinctive side of the human being in contrast to the sophistication of the cultured
character. His satire is direct but no less sharp, detecting hypocrisy. In general, it is opposed to
another character (Jaques).