Middle Comedy

The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre | 1996 | 700+ words | Copyright

Middle Comedy, term applied to the last two plays of Aristophanes, the Ecclesiazusae (Women in Parliament) and Plutus, and those of his immediate successors in the early and middle 4th century BC, from which much of the spirit of revelry present in Old Comedy has disappeared. The chorus shrinks, the importance of the plot grows, and dramatic illusion is taken more seriously. The earlier Middle Comedy plays are still concerned, though to a lesser degree, with politics, but they are less personal and fantastic, and even the obscenity becomes less obvious. Judging from the remaining fragments, later Middle Comedy in general was social rather than overtly political, with a background of private life. By the middle of the 4th century it had passed into New Comedy.

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PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Middle Comedy." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Middle Comedy." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-MiddleComedy.html

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Middle Comedy." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-MiddleComedy.html

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