In a grand tour of comic theater over the centuries, Erich Segal
traces the evolution of the classical form from its early origins
in a misogynistic quip by the sixth-century B.C. Susarion, through
countless weddings and happy endings, to the exasperated
monosyllables of Samuel Beckett. With fitting wit, profound
erudition lightly worn, and instructive examples from the mildly
amusing to the uproarious, his book fully illustrates comedy's
glorious life cycle from its first breath to its death in the
Theater of the Absurd.
An exploration of various landmarks in the history of a genre
that flourished almost unchanged for two millennia, "The Death of
Comedy" revisits the obscenities and raucous twists of
Aristophanes, the neighborly pleasantries of Menander, the
tomfoolery and farce of Plautus. Segal shows how the ribaldry of
foiled adultery, a staple of Roman comedy, reappears in force on
the stages of Restoration England. And he gives us a closer look at
the "schadenfreude"--delight in someone else's misfortune--that
marks Machiavelli's and Marlowe's works.
At every turn in Segal's analysis--from Shakespeare to Moliere
to Shaw--another facet of the comic art emerges, until finally, he
argues, "the head conquers and the heart dies": Letting the
intellect take the lead, Cocteau, Ionesco, and Beckett smother
comedy as we know it. The book is a "tour de force," a sweeping
panorama of the art and history of comedy, as insightful as it is
delightful to read.
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