Humours comedy
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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. Some single psychophysiological humour or exaggerated trait of character gave the important figures in the action a definite bias of disposition and supplied the chief motive for their actions. Thus, in Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour (acted 1598), which made this type of play popular, all the words and acts of Kitely are controlled by an overpowering suspicion that his wife is unfaithful; George Downright, a country squire, must be "frank" above all things; the country gull in town determines his every decision by his desire to "catch on" to the manners of the city gallant. In his "Induction" to Every Man out of His Humour (1599) Jonson explains his character-formula thus:
Some one peculiar quality Doth so possess a man, that it doth draw All his affects, his spirits, and his powers, In their confluctions, all to run one way.
The comedy of humours owes something to earlier vernacular comedy but more to a desire to imitate the classical comedy of Plautus and Terence and to combat the vogue of romantic comedy. Its satiric purpose and realistic method are emphasized and lead later into more serious character studies, as in Jonson’s The Alchemist. It affected his plays (Leontes in The Winter’s Tale is a good example) – and most of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes are such because they allow some one trait of character (such as jealousy or fastidiousness) to be overdeveloped and thus to upset the balance necessary to a poised, well-rounded personality. The comedy of humors, closely related to the comedy of manners, influenced the comedy of the Restoration period.
The humours each had associated physical and mental characteristics; the result was a system that was quite subtle in its capacity for describing types of personality.
