ABSTRACT
Some of the characteristics of comedy ‘infiltrate’ tragedy towards the end of the Fifth-century. It is, the author suggests, a curious and neglected pointer to the different relation of the world of the audience to that of tragedy that fifth-century Athenians did not share their names with the characters of heroic myth. It is significant that fifth-century satyr-play has been combed in vain for Athenians and for topical allusions to the world of the audience. The synkrisis of tragedy and comedy has looked at only some aspects, leaving others virtually unconsidered. The audience of comedy is allowed, and encouraged, to express its response by laughter, and to interrupt the play when it is moved to do so. The construction of comedy tends to be uneven, unpredictable and paratactic. Old Comedy is ubiquitously self-referential: Aristophanes is probably the most metatheatrical playwright before Pirandello.
