ABSTRACT
The comic spirit may be defined as something so indigenous to our species that any attempt to pin down its essence by the scholarly tracing of sources and influences is bound to be wide of the mark; comedy itself may be investigated as a specific dramatic genre with clearly defined boundaries and an interesting history. It is not quite clear when the literary critics of the ancient world began attaching the labels Old, Middle and New to Greek comedy, and it is probable that the authors themselves were not always conscious of making decisive breaks with tradition precisely where the later grammarians placed these divisions; nevertheless the terms have proved convenient and remain in general use. ‘All Comedy’, wrote Gilbert Murray in 1933, ‘involves what modern psychologists call a Release’.
