ABSTRACT
Comedy, as a form of art, originated, like tragedy, in ancient Athens, and has a parallel history, both having developed from rituals in the worship of the god Dionysus. The chief master of the Old Comedy (which may be said to have died with him) was Aristophanes. He is a very great figure in literature, but his direct influence necessarily all but disappeared with the extinction of that form of art in which he excelled and which he so largely helped to create. The modern reader, who expects a comedy to be funny, is very apt to be puzzled by Plautus and Terence. A curious feature of the New Comedy is the appearance in it of a very modern-looking sentimentality. It is no more than what people call a ‘streak’ of sentimentality, but it is distinctly there. A kind heart is supposed to atone for almost all offences; many a young man in the Roman comedies anticipates Charles Surface.
