Comedy Of Humours
Comedies have been written since immemorial time. Comedy is a form of drama that is intended to amuse the reader and ends always happily. Since comedy tries to amuse, wit and satire are the integral part of it. There are two views of comedy. The first view believes that the function of a comedy is just to produce laughter. The other view believes that the function of a comedy is to correct which is different of satire. Comedy is divided into various types. They are romantic comedy, Comedy of manners, comedy of humours.
By the end of the 17th century the reaction against romantic drama had started. Johnson took the side of classical comedy. He was against the public reference of romantic plays. In this play Johnson criticize the defects in the comedy of his contemporaries and came forward with his own theories based on his classical training. He deplored the lake of reality in the comedy. He became a leader of a movement that gave to realistic and starical comedy a new importance by introducing his theory of comedy of humours. Ben Johnson introduced his comedy of humours with his first great play Every Man in His Humor. In this play he implements his theory of humours.
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Meaning of the term Comedy Of Humours:
Johnson was the leader of a moment, which gave realistic and satirical comedy a new importance. As the name suggest this theory emphasized on humour. It was believed that the universe is mixture of four elements or qualities: Hot, cold, dry and moist.
1. The Combination of cold and dry qualities are found in earth. The humour is melancholy.
2. Water was regarded as the combination of cold and moist qualities. The humour is phlegmatic.
3. Air was regarded as the combination of hot and moist qualities. The humour is blood.
4. Fire was regarded as the combination of hot and dry qualities. The humour is choler.
These for qualities made all the things and they always strived for dominance. In case of human beings also the same is believed. Man’s body is composed of earth, water and his soul of fire and air. In human psychological system, the elements are present as the four ‘humours’. Is humour caused peculiar physical and mental traits in the human personality. If cold and dry colitis dominated the personality the person will be of melancholic nature. A phlegmatic temperament is the combination of cold and moist elements. This kind of person tends to be lazy, uninterested and slow to anger. The combination of hot and moist element results in blood. This kind of a person is confident and courageous. The combination of hot and dry element produced yellow bile. The person dominated by this element of hot tempered.
Thus, this term has its roots in medicine. According to this theory, a man can be healthy if this four humours are in a state of balance. The access of any fluid would misbalance the health of a person. In this way, in the time of Johnson the word humour had altogether a different meaning. Johnson used the word humour in the sense of some individual habit that dominates a person. It can be individual affection that governs a person’s behavior. It can also be some sort of eccentricity that distinguishes a man from the other man. In short, it is some sort of madness, silliness, pretension or temperamental abnormality that grips a person. Johnson introduced this theory as he believed that laughing at this follies one make a person free from it. Johnson himself talks about this humour in his prologue to the play “Every man in His Humour”. in the prologue, he says that his play aims at sporting with human follies not with crime.
In his plays, he represents various characters that are under the influence of particular habits or passions. According to Johnson it is the job of a comic playwright to show a man under the control of his humour. By showing this type of character a comic playwright can remove the particular humor from the spectator or the readers that govern their behaviour and conduct. This removal of the humour will make the readers or the spectators normal.
- The characteristics of Comedy Of Humours are as follows:
1. In this comedy, each character represents some humour ie. a passion that governs all his action.
2. The scene of comedies is real, familiar London.
3. The purpose of the writer is to satirise the follies and weaknesses and vices of contemporary society.
4. There was the strict separation of comic and tragic elements.
5. Each character is taken from low life and represents some particular society vice or folly.
To sum up, comedy of humours refers to a type of drama that focuses on characters. Each character represents a type of personality. Ben Johnson was one of the main writers of this genre.