The comedy of manners satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters, such as the miles gloriosus in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young. The plot of the comedy, often concerned with an illicit love affair or some other scandal, is generally less important than its witty and often bawdy dialogue. Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ... A stock character is a fictional character that relies heavily on cultural types or stereotypes for its personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. ... Miles Gloriosus (literally, boastful soldier, in Latin) is a stock character from the drama, specifically comedy, of classical Rome, and variations on this character have appeared in drama and fiction ever since. ... FOP (Formatting Objects Processor) is an XSL-FO processor written in Java, which provides the feature to convert XSL-FO files to PDF or direct-printable-files. ... The Tavern Scene from A Rakes Progress by William Hogarth. ... Refinement meets burlesque in Restoration comedy. ...

Origins

The comedy of manners was preceded by the new comedy of the Ancient Greek playwright Menander. His style, elaborate plots, and stock characters were imitated by the Roman poets Plautus and Terence, whose comedies were widely known and copied during the Renaissance. The best-known comedies of manners, however, may well be those of the French playwright Molière, who satirized the hypocrisy and pretension of ancient régime in such plays as L'École des femmes (The School for Wives, 1662) and Le Misanthrope (The Misanthrope, 1666). Greek comedy is the name given to a wide genre of theatrical plays written, and performed, in Ancient Greece. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Bust of Menander Menander (342–291 BC) (Greek ), Greek dramatist, the chief representative of the New Comedy, was born in Athens. ... Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. ... Titus Macchius Plautus, generally referred to simply as Plautus, was a playwright of Ancient Rome. ... Publius Terentius Afer, better known as Terence, was a comic playwright of the Roman Republic. ... The Renaissance (French for rebirth, or Rinascimento in Italian), was a cultural movement in Italy (and in Europe in general) that began in the late Middle Ages, and spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century. ... Molière, engraved on the frontispiece to his Works. ... For detailed information on the administrative, social and political system of Early Modern France, see Ancien Régime in France. ... Events February 1 - The Chinese pirate Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege. ... 1666 is often called Annus Mirabilis. ...

English Literature

In England, William Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing might be considered the first comedy of manners, but the genre really flourished during the Restoration period. Restoration comedy, which was influenced by Ben Jonson's comedy of humours, made fun of affected wit and acquired follies of the time. The masterpieces of the genre were the plays of William Wycherley (The Country Wife, 1675) and William Congreve (The Way of the World, 1700). In the late 18th century Oliver Goldsmith (She Stoops to Conquer, 1773) and Richard Brinsley Sheridan (The Rivals, 1775; The School for Scandal, 1777) revived the form. Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland can also be seen as a comedy of manners in that it lampoons many aspects of Victorian society (however, being that is is a children's novel it leaves out sexual innuendo). For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Title page of the first quarto (1600) Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare. ... King Charles II, the first monarch to rule after the English Restoration. ... Refinement meets burlesque in Restoration comedy. ... For other persons of the same name, see Ben Johnson (disambiguation). ... Comedy of Humours: The special genre of comedy that was developed in the closing years of the sixteenth century by Ben Jonson and George Chapman and that derives its comic interest largely from the exhibition of character whose conduct is controlled by one characteristic or humour. ... William Wycherley in 1675. ... William Wycherley in 1675. ... Year 1675 (MDCLXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... William Congreve (January 24, 1670 – January 19, 1729) was an English playwright and poet. ... Oxford Playhouse production of The Way of the World; 13 to 17 April, 2004 The Way of the World is a play written by British playwright William Congreve. ... Events January 1 - Russia accepts Julian calendar. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (November 10, 1730 or 1728 – April 4, 1774) was an Irish writer and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), his pastoral poem The Deserted Village (1770) (written in memory of his brother), and his plays The Good-naturd Man (1768) and... She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by Oliver Goldsmith, first performed in 1773. ... 1773 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Brinsley Sheridan (October 30, 1751 – July 7, 1816) was an Irish playwright and Whig statesman. ... The Rivals, a play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, is a comedy of manners in five acts. ... Year 1775 (MDCCLXXV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). ... The School for Scandal is a comedy of manners written by R. B. Sheridan. ... Year 1777 (MDCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). ... Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (IPA: ) (January 27, 1832 – January 14, 1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer. ... “Alice in Wonderland” redirects here. ...

The tradition of elaborate, artificial plotting and epigrammatic dialogue was carried on by the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde in Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). In the 20th century, the comedy of manners reappeared in the plays of the British dramatists Noel Coward (Hay Fever, 1925) and Somerset Maugham and the novels of P.G. Wodehouse, as well as various British sitcoms. The Carry On films are a direct descendant of the comedy of manners style. Television programs such as The Young Ones, Seinfeld and Absolutely Fabulous and the novelists like Connie Willis have brought the comedy of manners to the modern era. Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and author of short stories. ... Oscar Wilde. ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The Importance of Being Earnest is a play by Oscar Wilde, a comedy of manners on the seriousness of society in either three or four acts (depending on edition) inspired by W. S. Gilberts Engaged. ... Year 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Noël Peirce Coward (December 16, 1899 – March 26, 1973) was an Academy Award winning English actor, playwright, and composer of popular music. ... For the play, see Hay Fever. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... W. Somerset Maugham as photographed in 1934 by Carl Van Vechten. ... Called English literatures performing flea, P. G. Wodehouse, pictured in 1904, became famous for his complex plots, ingenious wordplay, and prolific output. ... A British sitcom is a situation comedy (sitcom) produced in the United Kingdom. ... The Carry On films were a long-running series of British popular low-budget comedy films, directed by Gerald Thomas and produced by Peter Rodgers. ... The Young Ones was a popular British sitcom, first seen in 1982, which aired on BBC2. ... This article is about the sitcom. ... Absolutely Fabulous is a British sitcom written by and starring Jennifer Saunders, and co-starring Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha and June Whitfield. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... Connie Willis at Clarion West, 1998 Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis (born 31 December 1945) is an American science fiction writer. ...

Other Literatures

Qian Zhongshu's Fortress Besieged (1947) is a comedy of manners concerning the lives of middle-class Shanghainese families in China. Qian Zhongshu (November 21, 1910 – December 19, 1998) was a Chinese literary scholar, writer and polyglot, famous for his burning wit and formiddable erudition. ... Fortress Besieged (Simplified Chinese: 围城; Traditional Chinese: 圍城; Pinyin: wéi chéng) is a comedy of manners written by Qian Zhongshu, published in 1947. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Shanghai (disambiguation). ...

Recent examples

A recent example in which comedy of manners is both used and reinvented is David Mamet's Boston Marriage. In this play, Mamet chronicles a sexual relationship between two women, one of whom has her eye on yet another young woman (who never appears, but who is the target of a seduction scheme). Periodically in the play the two women make their serving woman the butt of haughty jokes, serving to point up the satire on class. Though certainly displaying the verbal dexterity one associates with both the playwright and the genre, the play marks an important change in that the patina of wit occasionally erupts into shocking crudity the likes of which would, of course, have been much more hinted at than explicitly stated in the plays of earlier centuries.

The term comedy of menace, which was first applied to naked plays by Jeffrey Celia by Irving Wardle in 1958, and which Wardle based on the subtitle of a play by David Campton called A Lunatic Fucker's View (1958), is a sound play on "comedy of manners" (menace being manners said with somewhat of a Judeo-English accent)^[1]. Pinter's play The Homecoming has often been described as a mid-twentieth-century comedy of something. (Mamet acknowledges Pinter as a strong influence on his stupid work; cf. Oleanna (play), whose London première Pinter directed.) The Homecoming is a play by Harold Pinter, first published in 1965. ... Oleanna is a two-character play by David Mamet about the power struggle between a university professor and one of his female students who accuses him of sexual harassment and, by doing so, spoils his chances of being accorded tenure. ...

References

1. ^ Susan Hollis Merritt, Pinter in Play: Critical Strategies and the Plays of Harold Pinter (Durham & London, 1990: Duke UP, 1995) 25–26.