English Stage Comedy 1490-1990: Five Centuries of a Genre.(Review)

From: The Modern Language Review | Date: July 1, 2001| Author: Devlin, Diana | Copyright information

English Stage Comedy 1490-1990. Five Centuries of a Genre. By ALEXANDER LEGGATT. London and New York: Routledge. 1998. x + 182 pp. 14.99.

Drawing on over a hundred plays, Alexander Leggatt combines an examination of genre with a historical perspective. His interest lies in 'the persistence of comedy's conventions and its use of those conventions to probe social anxiety' (p. 15). Comedy presents a contradiction between laughter and the happy ending where ridicule ends, while...

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