Modest Proposals of Modern Socialists

Abstract

A noun is not an adjective, and vice versa. I affirm this persnickety truism because Modern Drama is dedicating a special issue to Modem Comedy, which is not a mere accumulation of comic techniques. Almost every play of our frivolous era sports some comic element, so broad is our ticklish spectrum. But comedy: what is that? Our two main traditions derive from classical and medieval periods: (1) classical — ridendo castigat mores, with the implication that the mores are correctable through ridicule; (2) medieval — a piece with a happy ending. Many subsequent critics blend the two, requiring that the play be funny and happy. I accept the double bind. To be a comedy, a modem play should be funny and should end happily. But “funny” and “happy” are loaded words. As funny, I therefore propose a supple embrace of all kinds of humor, especially accommodating the festive spirit that has been brilliantly studied by Bakhtine, Barber, Whitman. As happy, I am not aware of anyone who quite shares what I propose — an ending that conforms to the putative audience’s sense of propriety. Thus, melodrama can be comedy if the handsome hero is united with the imperiled heroine through the machinations of a comic character, as in Boucicault’s Shaughraun.