The
explanation does not lie merely in the contrast between "conventional"
comedy and "realistic" drama. Our forefathers (whatever Lamb may say)
did not consciously place their comedy in a realm of convention, but
generally considered themselves, and sometimes were, realists. The
fashion of label-names, if we may call them so, came down from the
Elizabethans, who, again, borrowed it from the Mediaeval Moralities.[1]
Shakespeare himself gave us Master Slender and Justice Shallow; but it
was in the Jonsonian comedy of types that the practice of advertising a
"humour" or "passion" in a name (English or Italian) established itself
most firmly. Hence such strange appellatives as Sir Epicure Mammon, Sir
Amorous La Foole, Morose, Wellbred, Downright, Fastidius Brisk, Volpone,
Corbaccio, Sordido, and Fallace. After the Restoration, Jonson, Beaumont
and Fletcher, and Massinger were, for a time, more popular than
Shakespeare; so that the label-names seemed to have the sanction of the
giants that were before the Flood.
Pages:
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119