COMEDY, the general term applied to a type of drama the chief object of which, according to modern notions, is to amuse. It is contrasted on the one hand with tragedy and on the other with farce, burlesque, etc. As compared with tragedy it is dis tinguished by having a happy ending (this being considered for a long time the essential difference), by quaint situations, and by lightness of dialogue and character-drawing. As compared with farce it abstains from crude and boisterous jesting, and is marked by some subtlety of dialogue and plot. It is, however, difficult to draw a hard and fast line of demarcation, there being a distinct tendency to combine the characteristics of farce with those of free comedy. This is perhaps more especially the case in the "musical comedy," which has been popular in Great Britain and America since the later z 9th century, where true comedy is fre quently subservient to broad farce and spectacular effects.
The adjective "comic," which strictly means that which relates to comedy, is a modern usage generally confined to the sense of "laughter-provoking." The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it, the comic, have been carefully investi gated by psychologists, in contrast with other phenomena con nected with the emotions. It is generally agreed that the pre dominating characteristics are incongruity or contrasts in the object, and shock or emotional seizure on the part of the subject. It has also been held that the feeling of superiority is an essential, if not the essential, factor; thus Hobbes speaks of laughter as a "sudden glory." Physiological explanations have been given by Kant, Spencer and Darwin. Modern investigators have paid much attention to the origin both of laughter and of smiling, babies be ing watched from infancy and the date of their first smile being carefully recorded. For an admirable analysis and account of the theories see James Sully On Laughter 0902). (See DRAMA, HUMOUR, CARICATURE, etc.)