ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on examining lying and its comic potential and attends to conceptual questions about the nature of lying and contextualises seventeenth-century thinking on the subject of mendacity through literary, theatrical, and religious sources. It provides an overview of theological attitudes towards lying along with an examination of one particular moral discourse on mendacity, that of anti-theatrical writings. The book examines the stage figure of the liar and underlines the literary ancestors of this depiction of guile. It also draws a distinction between the liar in the comedic and tragic genre and provides taxonomy of the figure of the liar across the comedies. The book shows the way Dorante embodies many of the techniques adopted by other liar figures and provides a good synthesis of the mendacious enterprise. It considers Dorante in comparative terms with the Matamore characters and with Dom Juan.
