The comedy of intrigue (), also known as the comedy of situation(s), is a

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

in which dramatic action is prioritised over the development of character, complicated strategems and conspiracies drive the plot, and farcical humour and contrived or ridiculous dramatic situations are often employed. Characterisation tends to be defined only vaguely and the plot gives the illusion of dynamic, constant movement. The German philosopher

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

argued that characters pursue their aims in such comedies via the use of

deception Deception is the act of convincing of one or many recipients of untrue information. The person creating the deception knows it to be false while the receiver of the information does not. It is often done for personal gain or advantage. Tort of ...

. The genre was first developed in the theatre of classical Rome by

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...

and

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a playwright during the Roman Republic. He was the author of six Roman comedy, comedies based on Greek comedy, Greek originals by Menander or Apollodorus of Carystus. A ...

. Examples of comedies of intrigue include Niccolò Machiavelli's '' The Mandrake'' (1524), the

anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

Italian play ''

The Deceived Ones ''The Deceived Ones'', or ''The Deceived'' (), is a 1531 comedy of intrigue written collectively by the '' Accademia degli Intronati'' (the center of intellectual life in Siena). It was the Academy's first publicly hosted event, performed on th ...

'' (1531), Shakespeare's ''

The Merchant of Venice ''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan taken out on behalf of his dear friend, Bassanio, and provided by a ...

'' (c. 1596) and "

Much Ado About Nothing ''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a Shakespearean comedy, comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. ...

Thomas Heywood Thomas Heywood (early 1570s – 16 August 1641) was an English playwright, actor, and author. His main contributions were to late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre. He is best known for his masterpiece ''A Woman Killed with Kindness'', a ...

's '' The Wise Woman of Hoxton'' (c. 1604),

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

's '' Scapin the Schemer'' (1671), and the plays of

Aphra Behn Aphra Behn (; baptism, bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration (England), Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writ ...

and Thomas D'Urfey.Cohn (1998, 234), Hochman (1984, 251), and Pavis (1998, 65).

Notes

Sources

* Cohn, Ruby. 1998. "Comedy" In ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre.'' Ed. Martin Banham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . 234–235. * Hochman, Stanley, ed. 1984. ''McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama: An International Reference Work in 5 Volumes.'' Vol. 1. 2nd ed. VNR AG. . * Law, Jonathan, ed. 2011. ''The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre.'' London: Bloomsbury. . *

Merriam-Webster Merriam-Webster, Incorporated is an list of companies of the United States by state, American company that publishes reference work, reference books and is mostly known for Webster's Dictionary, its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary pub ...

. 1995. ''Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature''. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster. . * Paolucci, Anne. 1978. "Hegel's Theory of Comedy." In ''Comedy: New Perspectives''. Ed. Maurice Charney. New York: New York Literary Forum. . 89–108. * Pavis, Patrice. 1998. ''Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis.'' Trans. Christine Shantz. Toronto and Buffalo: U of Toronto P. . comedy of intrigue Comedy genres {{Drama-stub