The Italian comedy is strongly indica tive of the disposition of the people. Points of honour, amours, revenge for falsehood in affairs of gallantry, furnish abundance of perilous intrigues for lo vers, and of endless play for the coque tries of valets and waiting women. The rage of pantomime and caricature is con spicuous in all the comedies of the Ita. lians, and they indulge it at the expense of their better judgment. Their plots are devoid of ingenuity, sense, and wit. There is hardly one among the immense collections of their pieces, which a man of taste would bear to read to the end. Indeed, the Italians at last began to be sensible of this, and Florence set the ex ample of substituting for these miserable farces the best comedies of Moliere translated into Italian. Other states fol lowed the example, and in all probability the French comedy will soon become ge neral in Italy.
A nation, formerly counted the first in politeness and refinement, when every individual made it a duty to conform his sentiments and ideas to the manners of society, when prejudices were princi ples, and usages laws ; this nation could afford few originals, its characters were softened by deference, and its vices pal. Hated by good-breeding. The French comedy has, however, served to improve the English stage as much as the differ ence of manners would allow. Moliere is certainly a just model of comic excel lence : he possesses that philosophic penetration, which seizes extremes as well as their intermediate degrees, and that power of contrast, which gives force to his painting, which the delicacy of his pencil might otherwise have lost.
In a country like ours, where every in dividual glories in his privilege of think ing for himself, originals must always abound. Hence the English comedy ex cels all others ingstrength of character, and in the true expression of nature : it is simple, consistent, and philosophical. The genius of Shakespeare has been con sidered by some as most happy in come dy ; the truth is, that in every depart ment of the drama he is supreme. Clouds and mists may at times obscure him, but he is still the sun of the poetic hemi sphere, and all other luminaries before his splendour must dwindle to the mag nitude of stars.
The plays of his contemporary, Jon son, though antiquated and obsolete, contain sallies of the finest satire, and strokes ofgenuine comic humour. Those of Fletcher and Massinger, and of other poets of that age, had the merit of con tributing to the advancement of our dra ma, and laid the foundation of its present excellence.
After a dark period of puritanical fanaticism, the English comedy revived in the reign of Charles IL ; but the stage was but too faithful a mirror of his licen tious court. The comedies of Dryden are tinged with this alloy ; indeed, in other respects, they add little honour to the name of that poet. Those of Ot way are too obscene to be acted, or even read. The comic muse of Con greve has been equally blamed for licen tiousness and for exuberance of wit. The
latter reproach may perhaps justly apply to the best comic productions of the pre sent age.
Comedy has been divided into three kinds, according to the ends which it proposes. By pourtraying vice, it ren ders it contemptible, as tragedy renders crime odious : this is characteristic come dy. When men are represented as the sport of fortune, it is called incidental comedy. When the domestic virtues are drawn in amiable colours, and in si tuations where misfortune renders them interesting, it may be termed sentimental comedy.
The first of these is the most useful to manners, and at the same time the strong est, the most difficult, and of course the rarest. It traces vice to its source ; it at tacks it in its principle ; it presents the mirror to mankind, and makes them blush at their own image. Hence it sup poses in its author a consummate know ledge of human nature, a prompt and ac curate discernment, and a vigour offancy, which seizes at once what penetration could not comprehend in detail.
Incidental comedy is perhaps the most successful and popular, as it keeps the attention continually awake by lively and unexpected changes, and as it furnishes a source of amusement and mirth, when the sallies of wit might fail in their effect by too frequent recurrence, if not reliev ed by such aid.
Sentimental comedy is perhaps more useful to morals than even tragedy, as it excites a deeper interest, because the examples it holds forth affect us more nearly. But as the style of comedy can neither be sustained by the grandeur of objects, nor animated by the strength of incident and situation, as it should be at the same time familiar and interesting, there are two different extremes to be avoided—of being cold, and of being ro mantic. Simple nature is the true mid dle path, and it is the highest effort of art to be at the same time artful and na tural.
A style of comedy superior to these is that which unites characteristic with in cidental comedy. Here the characters are involved by the foibles of the mind and the vices of the heart in the most humi liating cross purposes, which expose them to the laughter and contempt of the audience. A happier specimen of this style could not be found than in the School for Scandal.
Such are the three kinds of comedy. There are others, which we have pur posely omitted to enumerate. First, that obscene comedy, which is no longer suffered on the stage but by a sort of prescription, and which cannot excite a smile without raising a blush ; secondly, that drama of false sentiment, the off spring of the German school, which once threatened to destroy our taste for ge nuine comedy, but which has now hap pily passed into oblivion ; and, lastly, that comedy of low fun and pantonsine trick, the feeble resource of minds without genius, talent, or taste, which it is the disgrace of the British stage of the pre sent day to bring forward, and the re proach of the British public to tolerate and encourage.