ABSTRACT
When Aristophanes composed a play, his aim was not to create a work of literature for readers but to produce a performance for the entertainment of spectators. Some of the activity in a scene like Wasps might be called 'jack-in-the-box clowning'. For different types of clowning different explanations may be suggested. In some cases one might say that the spectator feels relief and satisfaction at seeing an action done on stage which he would like to do himself but is prevented or inhibited from doing in real life; this is a theory of 'comic catharsis'. In other cases the spectator feels complacent that he himself is not in the awkward or unpleasant situation of the character on stage. There is probably no one psychological explanation which covers every type of clowning; but the whole subject deserves much more study than it has yet received.
