COM 



COM 



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 of genuine 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 IF. ; 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 firat 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 of fancy, 

 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 sam.e 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 pantoraine 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 Hritisu public to tolerate 

 and encourage. 



COMKT. See ASTRONOMF. 



COMETAUIUM, a curious machine, 

 exhibiting aji idea of the revolution of a 

 comet about the sun. It is contrived in 

 such a manner, as by elliptical wheels to 

 shew the unequal motion of a comet in 

 every part of its orbit. The comet is re- 

 presented by a small brass ball, carried 

 by a wire, in an elliptic groove, about the 

 sun in une of its foci, and the years of its 

 period are shewn by an index moving 

 with an equable motion over a graduated 

 silver circle. 



COMETES, in botany, a genus of 

 the Tetrandria Monogynia class ami or- 

 der. Natural order of Tricoccae. Es- 

 sential character : involucre four-leav- 

 ed, three-flowered ; calyx four-leaved ; 



