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INTRODUCTION
In Shakespeares time there were female actors. This was because acting was not considered
an honourable job, so no woman would be seen doing such a thing. The role of women had to be
played by young boys who had not gone through puberty. This was because they had higher
voices. Shakespeare himself even acted in some of his own plays, but because it was such a long
time ago, it is not known which ones.
The plays of this period of time were very last minute. Some actors received their lines just
before the play. Some even got them as they were performing. They used a technique called cue
acting. This was when someone sat behind the curtains and whispered the lines to the actors.
This then led to a technique called que scripting. This was where the actors got only their lines,
instead of the entire play. Most of this was because there was very little time for the actors to
practice their lines before giving the play.
The Globe Theatre attracted many different types of audiences. It brought the young and old,
male and female. This was mainly because of the variety of plays that were performed there. At
times some of the audience members would boo at the bad characters and cheer for the good
ones.
The spectators had a range of seating options available. They could choose to pay the
cheapest ticket and be a groundling. Groundlings stood the entire duration of the play. They
crowded around the stage. The next cheapest option was to pay a bit extra and sit in the galleries.
If they wanted, they could have paid an extra penny to get a cushion to sit on. The most expensive
choice was to sit on a chair on the actual stage. This may have been the most expensive, but being

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right up close to the action made it all worth it.
At The Globe Theatre, it is believed that two plays were done every day, and that both of
them were done in the afternoon. They were not done earlier because the sun was too bright. It
was not done at night because there was no artificial lighting. This is why the plays were done
during the afternoon.

In his plays Shakespeare uses many different types of language techniques to create his
plays. Such techniques include: rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, repition, assonance and onomatopeia.
Rhythm is used alot to create a feeling almost like a beat to a song, it adds characteristics to the
otherwise boring words. Alliteration, Repition, Rhyme and Assonance are all used alongside
rhythm to help create a more distinct beat to his plays Repition is also used alongside rhytm to
help create a beat .Onomatopeia was used alot in plays because in Shakespeare's time there was
no electricity to produce sounds artificially
In the time of William Shakespeare there was a strong belief in the existence of the COMEDY.
Thus, the COMEDY is a recurring aspect in many of Mr. Shakespeare plays. In two such plays,
Hamlet and Macbeth, the COMEDY is an integral part of the structure of the plot. It provides a
catalyst for action, an insight into character, and augments the impact of many key scenes. The
COMEDY appears to the audience in many varied forms. In Hamlet there appears perhaps the
most notable of the COMEDY forms, the ghost. However, in Macbeth, not only does a ghost
appear but a floating dagger, witches, and prophetic apparitions make appearances. The role of the
COMEDY is very important in Hamlet and Macbeth. A ghost, appearing in the form of Hamlets
father, makes several appearances in the play. It first appears to the watchmen, Marcellus and
Bernardo, along with Horatio near the guardsmens post. The ghost says nothing to them and is

3

perceived with fear and apprehension; it harrows me with fear and wonder. It is not until the
appearance of Hamlet that the ghost speaks, and only then after Horatio has expressed his fears
about Hamlet following it, What if it tempts you toward the flood, my lord, or to the dreadful
summit of the cliff. The conversation between the ghost and Hamlet serves as a catalyst for
Hamlets later actions and provides insight into Hamlets character. The information the ghost
reveals incites Hamlet into action against a situation he was already uncomfortable with, and now
even more so. Hamlet is not quick to believe the ghost, the spirit that I have seen may be a devil...
and perhaps out of my weakness and my melancholy. Abuses me to damn me, and thus an aspect
of Hamlets character is revealed. Hamlet, having no suspicion of the ghost after the production by
the players, encounters the ghost next in his mothers room. In this scene the ghost makes an
appearance to whet Hamlets almost blunted purpose. Hamlet is now convinced of the ghost and he
no longer harbors any suspicion. He now listens to it, Speak to her, Hamlet. In Hamlet, the
COMEDY is the guiding force behind Hamlet. The ghosts ask Hamlet to seek revenge for the
Kings death and Hamlet is thus propelled to set into action a series of events that ends in Hamlets
death. The COMEDY occurs four times during the course of Macbeth. It occurs in all the
appearances of the witches, in the appearance of Banquos ghost, in the apparitions with their
prophesies, and in the air-drawn dagger that guides Macbeth towards his victim. Of the COMEDY
phenomenon evident in Macbeth the witches are perhaps the most important. The witches
represent Macbeths evil ambitions. They are the catalyst which unleash Macbeths evil aspirations.
Macbeth believes the witches and wishes to know more about the future so after the banquet he
seeks them out at their cave. He wants to know the answers to his questions regardless of whether
the consequence be violent and destructive to nature. The witches promise to answer and at
Macbeths choice they add further unnatural ingredients to the cauldron and call up their masters.
This is where the prophetic apparitions appear. The first apparition is Macbeths own head (later to

4

be cut off by Macduff) confirming his fears of Macduff. The second apparition tells Macbeth that
he cannot be harmed by anyone born of woman. This knowledge gives Macbeth a false sense of
security because he believes that he cannot be harmed, yet Macduff was not of woman born, his
mother was dead and a corpse when Macduff was born. This leads to Macbeths downfall. A child
with a crown on his head, the third apparition, represents Malcolm, Duncans son. This apparition
also gives Macbeth a false sense of security because of the Birnam Wood prophesies. The
appearance of Banquos ghost provides insight into Macbeths character. It shows the level that
Macbeths mind has recessed to. When he sees the ghost he reacts with horror and upsets the
guests. Macbeth wonders why murder had taken place many times in the past before it was
prevented by law -statute purged the gentle weal- and yet the dead are coming back. The final form
of the COMEDY is the air-drawn dagger which leads Macbeth to his victim. When the dagger
appears to him, Macbeth finally becomes victim to the delusions of his fevered brain. The dagger
points to Duncans room and appears to be covered in blood. The dagger buttresses the impact of
this key scene in which Macbeth slays King Duncan. The COMEDY is a recurring aspect in many
of the plays by William Shakespeare. In Hamlet and Macbeth the COMEDY is an integral part of
the structure of the plot. In these plays the COMEDY provides a catalyst for action by the
characters. It supplies insight into the major players and it augments the impact of many key
scenes. The COMEDY appeals to the audiences curiosity of the mysterious and thus strengthens
their interest.


CHAPTER -2

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LIFE AND WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in StratforduponAvon, England. From
roughly 1594 onward he was an important member of the Lord Chamberlains Men Company of
theatrical players. Written records give little indication of the way in which Shakespeares
professional life molded his artistry. All that can be deduced is that over the course of 20 years,
Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict. Known
throughout the world, the works of William Shakespeare have been performed in countless
hamlets, villages, cities and metropolises for more than 400 years. And yet, the personal history of
William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery. There are two primary sources that provide
historians with a basic outline of his life. One source is his workthe plays, poems and sonnets
and the other is official documentation such as church and court records. However, these only
provide brief sketches of specific events in his life and provide little on the person who
experienced those events.
Though no birth records exist, church records indicate that a William Shakespeare was
baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-Upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is
believed he was born on or near April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as
William Shakespeare's birthday. Located 103 miles west of London, during Shakespeare's time
Stratford-Upon-Avon was a market town bisected with a country road and the River Avon.
William was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local
landed heiress. William had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert,
Richard and Edmund. Before William's birth, his father became a successful merchant and held
official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor. However, records indicate

6

John's fortunes declined sometime in the late 1570s.Scant records exist of William's childhood,
and virtually none regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the
King's New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the classics. Being a public
official's child, William would have undoubtedly qualified for free tuition. But this uncertainty
regarding his education has led some to raise questions about the authorship of his work and even
about whether or not William Shakespeare ever existed.
William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in
Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford.
William was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it turns out, pregnant. Their first child, a daughter they
named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet
and Judith were born. Hamnet later died of unknown causes at age 11.After the birth of the twins,
there are seven years of William Shakespeare's life where no records exist. Scholars call this
period the "lost years," and there is wide speculation on what he was doing during this period. One
theory is that he might have gone into hiding for poaching game from the local landlord, Sir
Thomas Lucy. Another possibility is that he might have been working as an assistant schoolmaster
in Lancashire. It is generally believed he arrived in London in the mid to late 1580s and may have
found work as a horse attendant at some of London's finer theaters, a scenario updated centuries
later by the countless aspiring actors and playwrights in Hollywood and Broadway.By 1592, there
is evidence William Shakespeare earned a living as an actor and a playwright in London and
possibly had several plays produced. The September 20, 1592 edition of the Stationers' Register (a
guild publication) includes an article by London playwright Robert Greene that takes a few jabs at
William Shakespeare: "...There is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his
Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as

7

the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only
Shakescene in a country," Greene wrote of Shakespeare.
Scholars differ on the interpretation of this criticism, but most agree that it was Greene's
way of saying Shakespeare was reaching above his rank, trying to match better known and
educated playwrights like Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe or Greene himself. By the early
1590s, documents show William Shakespeare was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain's
Men, an acting company in London. After the crowning of King James I, in 1603, the company
changed its name to the King's Men. From all accounts, the King's Men company was very
popular, and records show that Shakespeare had works published and sold as popular literature.
The theater culture in 16th century England was not highly admired by people of high rank.
However, many of the nobility were good patrons of the performing arts and friends of the actors.
Early in his career, Shakespeare was able to attract the attention of Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of
Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first and second published poems: "Venus and Adonis"
(1593) and "The Rape of Lucrece" (1594).By 1597, 15 of the 37 plays written by William
Shakespeare were published. Civil records show that at this time he purchased the second largest
house in Stratford, called New House, for his family. It was a fourday ride by horse from Stratford
to London, so it is believed that Shakespeare spent most of his time in the city writing and acting
and came home once a year during the 40day Lenten period, when the theaters were closed.
By 1599, William Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theater on the
south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe. In 1605, Shakespeare purchased
leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60
pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe these

8

investments gave him the time to write his plays uninterrupted. William Shakespeare's early plays
were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases
that didn't always align naturally with the story's plot or characters. However, Shakespeare was
very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes and creating a freer flow of
words. With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern
consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the
same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or
simple prose. With the exception of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare's first plays were
mostly histories written in the early 1590s. Richard II, Henry VI (parts 1, 2 and 3) and Henry
V dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rulers, and have been interpreted by drama
historians as Shakespeare's way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty.
Shakespeare also wrote several comedies during his early period: the witty romance A
Midsummer Night's Dream, the romantic Merchant of Venice, the wit and wordplay of Much Ado
About Nothing, the charming As You Like It and Twelfth Night. Other plays, possibly written
before 1600, include Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew and The
Two Gentlemen of Verona.
It was in William Shakespeare's later period, after 1600, that he wrote the
tragedies Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth. In these, Shakespeare's characters present
vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal. Possibly the best known
of these plays is Hamlet, which explores betrayal, retribution, incest and moral failure. These
moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare's plots, destroying the hero and those
he loves.In William Shakespeare's final period, he wrote several tragicomedies. Among these

9

are Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. Though graver in tone than the comedies, they
are not the dark tragedies of King Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and
forgiveness.Tradition has it that William Shakespeare died on his birthday, April 23, 1616, though
many scholars believe this is a myth. Church records show he was interred at Trinity Church on
April 5, 1616.
In his will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna. Though
entitled to a third of his estate, little seems to have gone to his wife, Anne, whom he bequeathed
his "secondbest bed." This has drawn speculation that she had fallen out of favor, or that the couple
was not close. However, there is very little evidence the two had a difficult marriage. Other
scholars note that the term "secondbest bed" often refers to the bed belonging to the household's
master and mistres marital bed and the "firstbest bed" was reserved for guests.









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COMEDY PLAY OF SHAKESPEAR
There are two methods of using the COMEDY in literature. It may be used to work out results
impossible to natural agencies, or it may be employed simply as a human belief, becoming a
motive power and leading to results reached by purely natural means. The first may be fitly called
the poetical method and examples of its use may be found in most of the great poets,
conspicuously in Tasso, Milton, and Spenser. The second may be justly called the dramatic
method. In this Shakespeare stands alone, and it is thus used by him only in the two great dramas
of "Hamlet" and "Macbeth."
A fair illustration of the poetic method is found in Goethe's "Faust," his great dramatic
poem, where Mephistopheles, by COMEDY power, turns back the tide of life, makes young again
the aging Faust, and fills the new-made man with all the fire and quick.
If a spiritist medium should tell one that a certain very stable stock would suddenly and
greatly fluctuate, and he should act upon that statement, moved neither by knowledge of the
market, nor by his own judgment, but solely by superstitious confidence in the piritistic power and
knowledge of the medium, it would afford a fair example of what I have called the dramatic
method of using the COMEDY. While Shakespeare has also made use of the COMEDY as a
subtitle and mysterious poetical atmosphere, cast like a spell-working autumn haze about his two
greatest dramas, yet, viewing it from the purely dramatic standpoint, as a motive force to human
action, he has used it precisely and only as in the in dealing with this element after the first
method, creative genius is chiefly employed in construction of the COMEDY machinery. That
once wrought, the master may work out what results he will. Having once transcended the bounds
of natural life and means, he is limited only by his own taste and judgment. In the use of the
second method, the creator works within the realm of the human soul, dealing with desires,

11

thought, will, motive, beliefs and their consequences, working out into action. In the first case, the
poet brings the forces of another world to bear upon this world; in the second, he deals strictly with
the forces of this world, including man's beliefs respecting another world, without regard to.
Shakespeare, in two groups of two plays each, has exhibited marvelous skill in the use of both
methods. This is so apparent that one is almost tempted to believe that the dramatist intended a
contrast which is so patent.
In "Hamlet" and "Macbeth," while seeming to tread upon the very boundaries of an
unknown and unfathomable world, he has really confined himself rigidly to the phenomena of
superstitious beliefs working out to solution purely moral and psychological problems.
Discounting poetical illusions and waving aside the delicious spell of mystery, there is nothing left
in "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" but human beliefs translated into human action. In "A Midsummer
Night's Dream," and in "The Tempest," where he ascends to the heights of almost pure poetry, he
gives the imagination full scope in the creation of COMEDY agencies and a free, but firm-held
rein in driving on to grotesque results impossible to
In "Macbeth" the witches hail the returning warrior as Glamis and the thane of Cawdor and king
that shall be. Banquo they hail as father to a line of kings. Of the "two truths" told as "prologue to
the swelling act of the imperial theme," Macbeth knows that he is thane of Glamis and the
spectator knows, although Macbeth does not, that he is thane of Cawdor. Banquo's wholesome
soul, believing with mind as superstitious and ear as credulous as Macbeth's, hears and heeds not.
The darkly brooding soul of Macbeth hears, heeds and acts. Through a complicated train of
causation, moral, psychological and external, first, his own black desires and dream of murder, and
afterward the witch suggestion and the powerful aid of his wife, acting upon a weak nature,
culminating in assassination Macbeth becomes king. Again, the witches tell him that he need
not fear till Birnam wood shall come to Dunsinane, nor then until he shall be assailed by one not of

12

woman born. Birnam wood never does come to Dunsinane and he is never assailed by one not of
woman born, and yet he perishes miserably. This, briefly and meagrely told, is the sole part of the
apparent COMEDY in "Macbeth." It plays a far other and more important part as a poetical agency
and it serves to suggest the profoundest problems that have ever vexed human philosophy,
including the great problem of free-will and fixed fate two worlds "twixt which life hovers like
a star." Considered from a purely dramatic standpoint, it is merely a superstitious belief acting
upon a weak, wicked and wdling soul, moving to results. Considered from the poetic standpoint, it
enchains, charms and appals the spectator.

It is true that there is a further prophecy by the witches which deserves consideration. They
hail Banquo father to a line of kings and actually show that royal line to the anxious Macbeth. If
this be taken for actual prophecy, it much be remembered that its part in the drama is still solely
the effect it has upon the mind of Macbeth, driving him to seek safety in further wrong-doing, and
thus impelling him more swiftly and more surely to ruin. Within the bounds, however, of that little
world for which it exists, the drama itself, it is not prophecy, for it is not fulfilled within the limits
of the action.

The temptation of Macbeth by the weird sisters is very like the temptation of Eve by the
serpent, in Genesis. It is merely suggested to our first parents that they make the delights of the
Garden of Eden complete by eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The
witches only suggest to the soldier, flushed with victory and hurrying home in the hey-day of
success, a glittering prize, fitted to round off and complete his glory and power. It is merely, in
both cases, a shining bait cast out to free moral agents.

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Two classical instances are identical with the use of this element in "Macbeth." When the
people of Eira consulted the oracle as to their fate, they were told that their city would fall when a
he-goat drank of the waters of the Neda. In the Messenian dialect the same word means a he-goat
and a wild fig tree. When a wild fig tree, growing upon Neda's banks, had grown down until its
branches drank of the river's waters, a soothsayer announced the oracle fulfilled.
When the people of the Messenian town of Ithome appealed to the oracle, they were told
that whichever of the contending powers Messenia or Sparta should first lay before the
shrine of Jove in Ithome a hundred tripods, would be conqueror in the pending strife. For lack of
means, the Ithomeans were hindered in preparing such tripods as they deemed a suitable offering.
The Spartans, being of a practical turn of mind, hastily prepared a hundred small tripods, stole into
Ithome by night, and laid them before Jove's altar. As soon as this was noised abroad in Ithome,
the Spartans assaulted and took the town. The Ithomeans yielded to their own superstitious fears,
scarcely resisting.
In "Hamlet," the dramatist is at great pains to give his ghost thorough verification. It
appears thrice to three persons, and the third time also to Hamlet, to whom it makes ghostly
impartment of the manner of his father's death. Equal pains are taken to surround the ghost and its
appearance with all that is ordinarily circumstantial to superstitious beliefs and ghostly
appearances in popular legend. The ghost walks at midnight, and starts like a guilty thing at cock-
crow. The talk of the guard is of old-time ghostly visitations, when the "sheeted dead did squeak
and gibber in the Roman streets," and of the superstitions concerning the crowing of cocks all
night long near the time of our Saviour's birth. When it appears to the guard upon the post of
martial watch, the ghost is fitly clad in soldier's garb. When it appears to Hamlet, and to him alone,
in his mother's chamber, it is becomingly clad in night robes "My father in his habit as he lived
!" .

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This thorough verification was meant to enthral the spectator with ghostly environment; but
enough of the usual concomitants of superstitious appearances are suggested to preserve it from
suspicion of actual COMEDY power or knowledge. As in "Macbeth," it was intended that the
drama should run its course under a subtile canopy of the weird and mysterious. Thus each is
made, not only a rigidly practical drama of human life, motive and action, strictly governed by
natural laws of daily force and operation, but each is also invested with a rare poetic charm such as
no dramatist save Shakespeare has ever been able to cast about his work, with the single exception
of Goethe, in "Faust," in which, however, the purely poetic COMEDY element is employed. The
poet's warrant for thus surrounding his two great dramas with a subtile atmosphere of the occult,
the mysterious, the COMEDY, is found in the fact that human life itself is so invested. Man's life
is lived out with the physical eye guiding his way through this natural world, and with the mind's
eye fixed upon and ever glancing fearfully at the thick-crowding shadows of an unknown.
For all the witnesses that may testify to the appearance of the ghost, the suggestive point is
that it is of no importance to any but Hamlet. With the rest, merely some strange apparition, like
many strange appearances, accounted for or unaccountable, all thought of it would have faded
utterly within a brief time. To Hamlet, already brooding over his father's death, already more than
suspecting his uncle, it is revelation. To him it can speak. What is more, to him it can speak truly,
because he needs no ghostly messenger to tell him how his father died. His exclamation, "Oh ! my
prophetic soul, mine uncle !" is conclusive of his belief in murder. What would have been to
Marcellus, Bernardo, and Horatio the wonder of an hour, to Hamlet imparts the manner of his
father's death nothing more. Wonderful as is the complete investment of the entire drama with a
very "Sleepy-Hollow" spell of enchantment, the ghost actually comes from the other world merely
to tell Hamlet, that, instead of having been stung by a serpent while sleeping in his orchard, the
king was slain by a subtile poison poured into his ear. Place, circumstances, and the agent, Hamlet

15

knew and suspected already. The ghostly disclosure is of the slightest. It is enough for the
dramatist's purpose, which was chiefly to invest the drama with a mysterious spell of
COMEDYism, also using the superstitious beliefs of Hamlet as dramatic forces creating.
Thence on the ghost works only through Hamlet's belief. Even that is not without some
mingling of doubt. Hamlet's mind, suspicious and darkly brooding, treading upon the border line
between sanity and madness, is not wholly given up to hallucinations. He doubts it may be a foul
fiend he has seen. The play within the play, framed and acted before the court, whether like the
scene of his father's death or not, is near enough to "catch the conscience of a king." "I'll take the
ghost's word for a thousand pound." From the end of the third act on to the end Hamlet is wholly
absorbed in the fact of murder and the duty.
The ghost appears twice to Hamlet and the second time to him alone. When he is wrought
to passion's highest tension in the terrific scene with the queen mother, it comes again for the sole
purpose of reminding him of his duty. His mother sees nothing although her attention is especially
called to it. It appears as it appeared in the first scene, as a ghost of the mind should appear, clad
fitly with time and place. The dramatist's purpose in the second introduction was for its effect upon
the spectator, to continue the spell of mystery,
The ghost is introduced, fulfills its part as a motive power conducive to action, and its far
larger and subtiler poetical part comes again merely as a passing reminder to the spectator that
it was, and then fades out entirely and is seen no more, heard of no more. While it still
mysteriously affects the spectator to the very close of the drama, it has no other or further effect
upon Hamlet, or part in the play. Curiously, it is not even mentioned in the two concluding acts,
not when Hamlet is alone, when the over-wrought mind would have given out some note of it, if it
were still remembered, not even in the friendly communings of Hamlet and Horatio, not even in

16

the suggestive graveyard scene. There is in "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" neither veritable ghost nor
witch, but only a semblance of these; there is a subtile working out of results through human belief
in such agencies .
tempted to revel in COMEDY results. In "Jerusalem Delivered," in "Paradise Lost," In "A
Midsummer Night's Dream," and in "The Tempest," pitched far above the ordinary dramatic plane,
in the realm of almost pure poetry, Shakespeare draws nearer to the method of the great poets, in
their purely poetical works, at the same time keeping a carefully drawn dramatic line between his
COMEDY forces and his unfolding dramatic facts. Where he might have allowed the COMEDY to
run riot in results impossible to natural agencies, he yet preserved a temperance and a moderation
which are remarkable, when we consider the character of his creations and how a man of meaner
mould might have been and in the "Faery Queen," we are not shocked as the spectator of a drama
would be and the reader of a novel ought to be by monstrous creations producing monstrous
results. In these two dramas, in which Shakespeare has most wrought with COMEDY agencies, he
has been considerately careful about the manner of their use. His COMEDY agencies are so filmy
and insubstantial, or so grotesque, that the spectator almost feels that he has dozed, nodded and
dreamed some light airy dream when Puck has flitted across the stage when Caliban has
crawled into the scene, during some momentary nightmare when the senses were benumbed by
summer drowsiness, leaving the eyes yet open .
In "The Tempest" the dramatist weaves a delicious web of magic about a solid tissue of
fact. The play opens with a bit of practical navigation no expert can find flaw in. In the next scene
Prospero appears in wizard robes with magic wand. Thence on the drama runs its course under the
spell of a weird and pervasive charm that fills us with all the delights of dreamland. Prospero raises
and lays the storm, calls spirits from the vasty deep, sends his minions to plague Caliban, to lead
the shipwrecked mariners hither and thither about the enchanted isle, to bring prince and maid

17

together, to confound treason, to daze and mislead Caliban and his drunken companions, to
provide celestial music, serve celestial feasts, summon gods and goddesses, and to call nymphs and
naiads to featly dance upon the yellow sands of the shelving shore. Magical events upon a magic
island! All magic and mystery! And yet for all the sweet haze of an overhanging spirit of
incantation, investing the entire drama, through which we see every event distorted, at bottom lies
a firm, well-constructed substratum of dramatic fact, a practical chain of unfolding human life
relations, about which all this magic is thinnest gossamer web of mere delightful frill and fringe.
In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," there is more of magic and less of dramatic fact; in "The
Tempest," there is more of dramatic fact and less of magical result. While events shape themselves
which Prospero assigns directly to his occult powers, yet there is no event of any great dramatic
importance that might not have fallen out in due course of nature. The usurpation of Antonio, the
banishment of Prospero and Miranda and their landing upon a desert island, the hymeneal voyage
of the king of Naples, the storm, the shipwreck, the escape, the dispersal upon the island, the
conspiracies of Antonio and Caliban, the sweet and natural courtship of Ferdinand and Miranda,
and the denouement, romantic in themselves, are but ordinary facts of life that might well have run
the same course without magical intervention. Although the events are in themselves romantic,
how dry and barren they would seem if now divested of all the exquisite poetry of that magic !
Prospero invests the facts with a subtitle charm and then blows it away with a breath at the end
into air, into thin air leaving a solid basis of fact. It is like the making of the ring.

He mingles gold With gold's alloy, and duly tempering both,
Effects a manageable mass, then works;
But his work ended, once the thing a ring,
Oh, there's repristination. Just a spirt
O' the proper fiery acid o'er its face

18

And forth the alloy unfastened flies in fume,
While self-sufficient now the shape remains.
The train of human motive, desires, purpose, and action has all the time worked itself out
just as these might have done in ordinary life. Except as a poetic investiture none of that wondrous
COMEDY, with its weird creations, from the light, delicate Ariel down to the grotesque and earthy
Caliban, is absolutely necessary to the dramatic results sought of natural creations, running from
the pure and graceful Miranda down to the swinish Trinculo and Stephano.
In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the dramatist revels in a wild, poetic debauch, a very
midsummer nightmare, beginning m the capital and ending in the capital, leading the bewildered
and enchanted spectator, meantime, through wild wood and tangled grove, by moonlit bank, into
fairy bower shadowed with lithe vine, rank weeds and lush grass, dewy and fragrant beneath the
starlight, to repose upon flowery meads, or in leafy forest, listening to the music of hound and
horn. An exuberance of magic about a thin dramatic thread ! From the time we leave the suburbs
of Athens with the lovers until we return to Athens with the merry royal hunting and bridal party,
we are in an enchanted land, where all is grotesque and distorted, wild and extravagant. Not merely
the atmosphere and setting is magical as in "The Tempest," all is spell, charm and incantation. The
most essential parts of the meagre plot are worked out by actual COMEDY means. When we
awake upon the clear morrow of all this enchantment, we rub our eyes and look about us to find it
all vanished Bottom merely an ass without the ass's head, the lovers, who left Athens all at
cross purposes, now sweetly congenial and agreed, but no fairy king, queen, nor court, nor sportive
Puck anywhere. There is this difference, however, between .
When Prospero had blown off the iridescent bubbles of his magic and drowned his wizard
arts with his book, magic robe and staff, the fact-fabric was left just like any ordinary fact-fabric of
this world of intermingling men and women. When the spectator wakes upon the morrow after a

19

midsummer night's dream in fairyland, with Oberon, Titania and sportive Puck, where men and
women wander exposed to strange metamorphoses, due to the kindly or jealous fancies of the royal
fairy, or to the malicious mirth of fun-loving Puck, all in a land of dewy, sweet-smelling flower
and shrub, one essential fact the love of Demetrius and Helena remains as an effect due
solely to COMEDY power. In both plays there is an exuberance of fancy and imagination. In both
the dramatist leans strongly towards a highly poetical use of the COMEDY. The differences
between them, with respect to this element, are chiefly differences of degree. In other plays
Shakespeare makes minor use of the COMEDY. In two cases the denouement is made to depend
upon the prophecy or vision and pregnant disclosures. Even in these the COMEDY plays but small
part in the drama.

The ghost of Banquo, "blood-boltered," appears to Macbeth. This is mere m personification,
for stage purposes, of the diseased fancies of Macbeth. It is presentable and is sometimes
presented, without the actual appearance, although not best presented so to any modern audience.
It differs in no essential way from the dagger soliloquy, which is giving, in words and actions, the
assassin's thoughts and feelings upon the threshold of murder. No man ever speaks as Hamlet and
Macbeth speak in their two great soliloquies; but the dramatist therein unfolds with fine art their
inmost selves.
I know of no other writer who has made such use of man's belief in the COMEDY as
Shakespeare has done in "Macbeth" and "Hamlet." Bulwer has dealt in it suggestively and
effectively, but he was merely dealing with the spiritist problems of the day, rather than using the
COMEDY for its artistic value after either the poetical or dramatic method; while Shakespeare,
strangely, as rigidly practical as he was profoundly poetical, was merely dealing with humanity in
another of the many phases he touched in such infinite and picturesque variety. Latter day novels,

20

and especially many of third, fourth and fifth rate none of first rate are full of theosophy,
spiritism, mesmerism, and especially of hypnotism.
Of all forms of literature, the novel can least tolerate results worked out by other than
purely natural means. And yet the novel, the drama not excepted, in the hands of great genius, is
best fitted, as a romantic history of human life and human nature in their manifold complexity, for
such use of the COMEDY as Shakespeare has made in
"Hamlet" and "Macbeth."

I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air,
And more inconstant than the wind
(Romeo and Juliet, I, iv, 96-100)


William Shakespeare wrote these lines, but his use of the mythological tradition of
otherworldly appearances in his plays is anything but insubstantial. Sometimes he crafted them as
a permeating presence, other times passing rather quickly, but even so still an important
representation in the work. Whether the COMEDY aspect in is the appearance of a ghost or the
description of an ancient god, it often bears a connection to the larger scheme of the play.
Hamlet and Macbeth are both examples in which the COMEDY element enters the play at
the opening of the action. The way a theatrical production begins has a great effect on the
audiences perception of the play, and both of these plays emphasize the COMEDY from the start.
The witches are the first characters we see in Macbeth, already prophesying and spouting

21

paradoxical sayings. The stormy stage and odd characters establish early that this story occurs
within an eerie and unnatural place. Hamlet brings the Ghost of the dead king to the plots fore in
the first few scenes, beginning with a silent, awe-inspiring appearance in the first scene. Although
the Ghost does not speak and is only onstage briefly, attention is directed toward that strange
vision as soon as we meet Horatio. The eager introduction of the otherworldly being does two
important things. One, it makes the audience pay attention. Two, it creates a somewhat
uncomfortable atmosphere as we recognize these plays as stories in which the world is not quite
natural. As Hamlet puts it, Something is rotten in the state of Denmark (I, iv, 67). Or in
Scotland, as the case may be.
Both of these presences carry through multiple scenes, and the sights are at one point
confirmed by multiple witnesses, but later seen only by the plays title character. Hamlet is
actually the last to see the Ghost of all characters who report the sight. The first to see it are the
guards Marcellus and Barnardo, who bring in Horatio, Hamlets school friend, to confirm the
appearance. When it appears in Queen Gertrudes room in Act III, it is visible only to Hamlet.
As Macbeth opens, the audience sees the weyard sisters before any of the plays characters. When
Macbeth crosses paths with them, Banquo is there as a witness to their presence and their
prophecy. When Macbeth approaches the lair of the witches he is alone, and they are the only
others present when they show him the visions that describe his defeat. When Banquos ghost
appears closely following his murder, Macbeth alone can see the apparition. This could very well
be a factor in the portrayal of the madness of Hamlet and Macbeth, or it may attest to the
unpredictability of the COMEDY or both.
Such visions incite the curiosity of any observers, who want to know whether the sights are
real, and to understand their nature. In Hamlet and Macbeth, the origin of any of these COMEDY
elements is always questioned, and never determined. The weyard sisters never actually reveal

22

what they are: we know they are strange, and are witches, but beyond that we are told nothing.
They make no effort to answer What are you? (I, iii, 45), and when Macbeth demands that they
explain what they have declared, they vanish. Hamlet believes that the Ghost is either truly the
ghost of his father or a devil, and expresses that doubt even with his resolve.
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou comst in such a questionable shape
That I will speak with to thee (HAMLETI, iv, 21-25).
However, although distrusting the COMEDY visions themselves, the characters are put in a
position to believe the words of ghosts and witches. Hamlet forestalls that belief until he has
tricked Claudius into a show of remorse, but after the trick he will take the Ghosts word for a
thousand pound (III, ii, 264). In his mothers chamber, he addresses the Ghost as his father, but he
still displays an air of reservation. Although he never determines the true nature of the spirit, he
sees the truth of its words. Macbeth first speculates in wonder, to be king/ stands not within the
prospect of belief,/ no more than to be Cawdor (I, iii, 71-73). When he learns that he has in fact
been named Thane of Cawdor, he reasons that the rest of their foresighted speech must be true as
well. That belief leads him to conspire with Lady Macbeth, to kill King Duncan, and later to kill
Banquo. This seems a fundamental difference between Hamlet and Macbeth. As soon as a part of
the witches address to him comes to pass, Macbeth takes all of it as truth, so early trusting in that
which should still be shrouded in uncertainty. Hamlet takes much more time to believe the Ghosts
revealing words. More than anything else this indicates Hamlets tendency to doubt, and
Macbeths ambition.
We see all of these parallels in the dramatic functions of COMEDY beings
inHamlet and Macbeth, yet COMEDY characters represent different thematic elements of each
play. Hamlets Ghost is an embodiment of uncertainty, a very strong force in the dramatic action.

23

As previously stated, the nature of the Ghost is continuously questioned. Hamlet speaks, The
spirit that I have seen/ may be the devil, and the devil hath power/ tassume a pleasing shape, i.e.,
the shape of his father (III, i, 575-577). Later, he described the Ghost as it leaves the scene, My
father, in his habit as he lived, but it appears a more superficial description than a real trust in the
form (III, iv, 126).
Uncertainty pervades Hamlet, questions infusing the text from the first line, Whos
there? (I, i, 1). It faces the characters at every turn. Hamlet comes under scrutiny for his actions as
others try to determine the cause of his madness. Polonius speculates to Ophelia, Mad for thy
love? (II, i, 86); Claudius states What hath put him/ so much from thunderstanding of
himself, I cannot deem of (II, ii, 7-10); Gertrude believes that the cause is his fathers death and
our oer-hasty marriage (II, ii, 57). In Claudiuss prayer scene, both he and Hamlet have
important questions to ask: Claudius wonders how he can repent for his deed, while Hamlet
hesitates in that moment to make the killing blow, asking, Am I then revenged? (III, iii, 84).
In many other ways uncertainty rears its head in this play. Claudius becomes so unsure of
what to do about Hamlet, once he suspects that Hamlet knows what he has done, that he ships him
off to England. Equal consideration could be given to accident and suicide as the cause of
Ophelias death, since no one witnessed her drowning. Hamlet offers one of the most famous
literary uncertainties known: To be, or not to be (III, i, 58). Here he is questioning the very
purpose of existence, and what happens after death, the existential question that no philosopher has
yet been able to answer with surety. Shakespeare brings all of this questioning into focus with the
Ghosts presence. The characters at first search for confirmation that the spirit is not a trick of the
eyes, and then must wonder at its origins and its intentions. Uncertainty is so prevalent that we
may begin to understand Hamlets troubled state: it would be difficult to reconcile ones existence
in a world in which everything must be questioned.

24

The weyard sisters are illustrations of the duality and paradox that melds reality and fantasy
in Macbeth. Within their first lines comes a confusion of nature, as they tell us Fair is foul, and
foul is fair (I, i, 10) a mixed-up sentiment Macbeth echoes at his first entrance: So foul and fair
a day I have not seen (I, iii, 36). Their physical appearance reflects that confusion as well. When
Banquo addresses them, he remarks, You should be women,/ and yet your beards forbid me to
interpret/ that you are so (I, iii, 42-44). Very plainly there on the stage for the audience to see, the
witches do not share the same kind of existence as Macbeth or Banquo. They seem instead to exist
between the corporeal world and another, less tangible plane, a mingling of being and non-being
exemplified by the dagger Macbeth envisions in his hand. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still
(II, i, 35). The remainder of that speech makes it clear to us that the dagger is not a literal presence,
but the sight of it is real enough to Macbeth that it is in question. The same sort of question occurs
in the encounter with the weyard sisters: Are ye fantastical or that indeed/ which ye outwardly
show? (I, iii, 51-52). Their nature is so mysterious as to allow us to believe that they are both.
That duality of being is an important facet of the drama of Macbeth, and it manifests in the
concealment of intentions. Lady Macbeth advises, Look like the innocent flower,/ but be the
serpent undert (I, v, 63-64). After Duncan arrives at Macbeths home, Macbeth goes to mock
the time with fairest show, and declares, False face must hide what the false heart doth know (I,
vii, 81-82). In this we see the necessity for things not to appear as they are. This is a prevalent need
for Macbeth. His faltering leads him to plead,
Stars, hide your fires,
Let not light see my black and deep desires;
The eye wink at the hand (I, iv, 50-52).
He wishes not only for his thoughts to be hidden from others knowledge, but from his own
for his hand to carry out the murder while his eye looks the other way. The concept of
concealment may seem to escape the weyard sisters, as they never hesitate to proclaim their

25

wicked deeds aloud, but they support the theme by hiding their true natures. They are secret,
black and midnight hags (IV, i, 64). That one word, secret, is a potent presence in Macbeth.
In other ways, too, we see the blurring of the real world with those of a more fantastical
variety. Lady Macbeths sleepwalking affliction brings the dream world into that of the waking;
ironically, it is the appearance of that indefinite world through which the character reveals the
reality of her actions. The conflation of fantasy and reality is even more apparent in the
advancement of Birnam Wood. A messenger reports to Macbeth,
As I did stand my watch upon the hill
I looked toward Birnam, and anon methought
The wood began to move (V, v, 31-33).
The image is strange and wonderful, but although Macbeth buys into the fantasy of this
account, the audience knows better. In the previous scene, we witness Malcolm command that
every soldier hew him down a bough/ and beart before him (V, iv, 4-5). The approach of
Birnam Wood to Dunsinane is both logical and extraordinary.
Beyond that, the weyard sisters interrupt the natural order of things, to some extent.
Macbeth reacts against the use of nature after the first meeting with them (I, iii, 136), and they
cause him to start and seem to fear/ things that do sound so fair (I, iii, 49-50). The entire
kingdom is thrown into chaos as Macbeth is driven to kill the king. The witches talk of the trouble
they cause to people with glee, leading their unfortunate targets unto a dismal and a fatal end
(III, v, 21). The final outcome, if predestined, will come to pass no matter what the witches do, as
one of them indicates when she speaks of a man whose sea vessel she intends storm: Though his
barque cannot be lost,/ Yet it shall be tempest-tossed (I, iii, 23-24). They are therefore as limited
as Macbeth, who manages to kill Banquo but not his son Fleance. To rid the world of both would
be impossible by the terms of the play, as Banquos descendants are fated to wear the crown.

26

Other COMEDY images in Macbeth, namely Banquos ghost and the visions the weyard
sisters show to Macbeth, could be viewed as striking representations of fear. The word fear
appears often in Macbeth. Both Macbeth and his wife feel fear surrounding the murder of Duncan,
he in its contemplation and she in the act itself. Malcolm and Donalbain, the sons of the king, flee
in fear at their fathers death, as does Fleance at Banquos (granted that Banquo instructs him to
run). When the spirit of Banquo appears to Macbeth, we see him respond hysterically, insisting
that the ghost not lay blame on him Never shake thy gory locks at me (III, iv, 49-50). Lady
Macbeth exclaims to him, This is the very painting of your fear (III, iv, 60). The apparition only
occurs because Macbeth and his lady are still in the midst of their murderous scheme. He has
already said, If it were done when tis done wed jump the life to come (I, vii, 1-7). The evil
of the deed itself is not enough to quell Macbeths desires. His problems begin because the act will
have to extend to others, and because he will have to live with the murders. Therein lies his fear,
and brings about this vision of Banquos ghost.
The apparitions, the first two rather fearful in appearance, create an intriguing paradox as,
in revealing what Macbeth should fear, they in fact defer his fears. Beware Macduff, the armed
head tells him; no man of woman born will harm you, says the bloody child; a crowned child with
a branch probably a representation of Malcolm assures him that he will be defeated only when
Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. Macbeth appears to accept the interpretation that he will
remain undefeated, yet he retreats to Dunsinane and fortifies its defenses as an extra precaution. In
retrospect, it would seem that Dunsinane was the one place he should have avoided to keep the
visions words from coming to pass.
Elements of the COMEDY appear in Shakespeares plays in more than the visual staging; they
sometimes appear in fantasy-laden speeches of the characters. The beauty of the words alone is
commendable, but COMEDY images in Shakespeares speech are more than mere

27

flowery language. These emergences of the COMEDY usually extend for a few lines, unlike the
ongoing images of Hamlets Ghost and Macbeths witches, but they can still have marvelous
impact on an attentive audience and a solid connection with the rest of the plays content.
Romeo and Juliet contains one notable speech of that variety. Mercutio talks of a fairy
called Queen Mab, a tiny creature that stirs dreams and desires. Immediately we see a connection
to the work at large: desire has a significant role in the story. However, the contents of the dreams
Mab invokes go beyond simple wish fulfillment. The way Mercutio describes it, Mab is in the
business of inflaming natures. She makes lovers dream of love and lawyers of lawsuits,
And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pigs tail
Tickling a parsons nose as a lies asleep;
Then dreams he of another benefice.
Sometime she driveth oer a soldiers neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscoes, Spanish blades (I, v, 79-84).
This inducement of disposition-appropriate dreams calls to mind the argument that Romeo
is only responding to his lovers nature when he meets Juliet. Witnessing the swift transfer of his
hopeless pining for Rosaline to his incredible longing for Juliet, it does not seem much of a stretch
to believe that he is merely following his lust. Chasing women is an inborn quality in Romeo.
Mercutio deems, You are a lover (I, iv, 17). If we accept this as an explanation for Romeos
pursuit, then Juliet is another Queen Mab, inciting Romeos nature to seduce her.
The dreams that Mab reportedly sets on offset the possibility of pure love with their
depravity. When the fairy rides in her hazelnut chariot across the lips of ladies, oft the angry Mab
with blisters plagues/ Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are (I, iv, 75-76). These
ladies are indulgent and impure; their breath is tainted. The lawyer Mercutio describes will go to
smelling out a suit, like a predatory animal catching the scent of blood (I, iv, 78). The soldier is
disturbingly bloodthirsty, and once Mercutios speech has built up he talks of Mab as follows:

28

This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,/ That presses them and learns them first to bear
(I, iv, 92-93). The descriptions of the dreams begin simply, and increase in detail and immorality
with each new dreamer. In an account of a societal structure that is being pulled apart by desires,
Mercutios language deteriorates accordingly. The construction of his speech becomes less
coherent as the speech continues. Eventually, it becomes obvious that he is ranting. At this point,
Romeo cuts him off.
The way in which this speech ends speaks quite powerfully to Romeo and Juliet as a whole.
Romeo interrupts Mercutio mid-sentence, saying, Thou talkst of nothing (I, iv, 96). The idea
that speech is an insufficient medium recurs throughout the play. We witness the concepts
expression in the infamous balcony scene. Romeo begins to profess his love by the moon, but
Juliet interjects, O, swear not by the moon (II, i, 151). After a short exchange, she then bids him
not swear at all: I have no joy of this contract tonight (II, i, 159). She has enough intelligence to
see that she cannot trust an oath made so impulsively. The contract that will bring her joy is a vow
of marriage, the promise of a lifetime together. Being the romantic he is, Romeo is all too willing
to prove his words.
Unsupported talk means nothing; actions show the character - and this is true not only
in Romeo and Juliet. Hamlets vow to kill Claudius is barely convincing until he carries it out;
Lady Macbeth asks, Art thou afeard/ to be the same in thine own act and valour/ as thou art in
desire? (I, vii, 39-41); Hamlet and Macbeth question the tidings of their otherworldly visions until
they have seen sufficient evidence. Still, we see a difference here: Romeo can tell Mercutio that he
talks of nothing, but neither Hamlet nor Macbeth can extricate themselves from the grips of the
fantasies they experience.
When the COMEDY appears only in language, rather than in the plays reality, it has a
very different effect on the characters. Romeo is allowed to dismiss the strange fairy Queen Mab

29

because it is clear that she is Mercutios invention, and does not have any bearing on the real
world. Because Romeo does not see her with his own eyes, she does not dwell in his mind.
In Macbeth and Hamlet, the witches and ghosts are waking apparitions, not so easy to ignore. It is
difficult to disregard such things as unreal, because in order to do so they would have to admit that
they cannot trust their sight.
Indeed, we find that the guards Marcellus and Barnardo call for Horatio to approve our
eyes unable either to dismiss the Ghost or to believe in it on their own (Hamlet: I, i, 27).
Macbeth, too, must doubt what he sees: Mine eyes are made the fools oth other senses,/ or else
worth all the rest (II, i, 44-45). Inevitably the characters of these plays decide that they really do
see Ghosts and weyard women, dreamlike visions in waking moments. These COMEDY beings
they see look not like thinhabitants oth earth/ and yet are ont (Macbeth: I, iii, 39-40). The
world of Romeo and Juliet remains one in which we can trust our eyes and set expectations for
what may appear before us; that is how a COMEDY presence functions when it is contained in
another characters language. When the fantastic vision appears before us and speaks its own
speeches, we know that we have entered a different and unpredictable world.










30


CONCLUSION

The aim of this thesis was to present Shakespeares use of COMEDY elements in his plays from a
perspective of the whole composition of the particular play and in consideration of the socio-
cultural background and the literary and dramatic traditions from his era. The objective was not to
recapitulate the numerous findings from already available publications, but instead of discussing
the particular references to COMEDY phenomena and the ways of their interpretation, to rather
consider the involvement of the COMEDY in respect to the focus of the author. Shakespeares
plays were thus compared to plays by different authors, which share with the Shakespearean plays
a certain amount of similarities. Existence of certain shared elements and aspects (plot, characters,
and a message) made it possible to discuss the role and importance of COMEDY features within
the individual pairs of plays.
The analyses imply that each of the respective authors focussed on different aspects, which
he attributed to his play. The author of the anonymous play chose to present an historical account
of Richards seize of power and to describe the intrigues that helped him to become the King.
Jonson preferred to give a moral statement about the moral corruption of the inhabitants of Rome,
which he manifested primarily in the rhetorical qualities and perfections of his dialogues and
utterances. And finally Daniel built up his Tragedy of Cleopatra on the emotional lamentations and
contemplations of wretched Cleopatra. Additionally to their respective focuses, each of these three
authors also employed in their plays some extent of COMEDY influence. However, being it just
mere references in the anonymous play, COMEDY apparitions in Sejanus or suggestions of
subordination of people to COMEDY influence, such references are, in respect to the main focus

31

of the play, only marginal and their inclusion does not significantly influence or alter the already
existing course of the play.
On the other hand, the importance and meaning of the COMEDY elements used in
Shakespeares plays is different from their counterparts. In each of the three plays presented,
Shakespeare attributed the COMEDY a function, which is aimed at enhancing the presented focus
of the play. In Richard III Shakespeare focuses on the character of Richard as well on the other
villains of the plot, which are confronted with the moral pressure conveyed by prophetical signs,
exerted through a dream and employed by the apparitions of ghosts of the people murdered. Each
of these apparitions constitutes a part of the conscience of the respective villain. In Julius Caesar
Shakespeare introduces a whole range of COMEDY features, which together form a complex and
elaborated COMEDY background. This atmosphere of unnatural signs and apparitions functions as
a catalyst for the actions of the characters and as means of exerting a pressure and influence upon
them. And finally in the third play, in Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare moves on a different
level, but he portrays his main characters so that it is possible to sense the double nature of the
individuals, in particular their spirit, which is able to steer the actions of the characters.
From the above included recapitulation implies that the use of the COMEDY in plays by
Shakespeare, and not only by him, needs to be considered in broader context, not only in respect to
the particular references themselves. In particular, it is necessary to consider the difference
between the use of the COMEDY as a mere reference to cultural traditions and the directed
employment of COMEDY elements with attributed dramatic functions. In this respect, the
analyses demonstrated that Shakespeares use of the COMEDY has an important attribute that of
a dramatic device. In his plays he successfully differentiates between the reflections of popular
beliefs and popular traditions of that time society and use of the COMEDY as a dramatic tool,
which helps him to enhance his play and give it an added value.

32

Shakespeare does not use the COMEDY elements with their attributed COMEDY
functions and characteristics, but he actually converts their meaning and functions to an ordinary,
natural level. His ghosts, dreams and other COMEDY apparitions introduce to the respective
plays rather very natural and common aspects in a majority of cases concepts of conscience and
morality.











REFERENCE


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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Daniel, Samuel. The Tragedie of Cleopatra. In: Materialien zur Kunde des lteren
Englishen Dramas, 51. edition, ed. M. Lederer. Louvain: A. Uystpruyst, 1911.
Jonson, Ben. Sejanus: His Fall. BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2006. Available at Google Books:
<http://books.google.com/>
Shakespeare, William. Antony and Cleopatra. The Arden Shakespeare, ed. John Wilders. London:
Routledge, 1995.
Shakespeare, William. King Richard III. The Arden Shakespeare, ed. Antony
Hammond. London: Routledge, 1994.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Ed. Norman Sanders. Harmondsworth:
Penguin Books, 1967.
True Tragedy of Richard III. 1594. 22
nd
February 2009.
<http://www.elizabethanauthors.com/truetragedy01.htm>
Secondary Sources:
Boyer, Clarence Valentine. The Villain as Hero in Elizabethan Tragedy. London: Routledge,1852.
Clark, Cumberland. Shakespeare and the COMEDY. London: Williams & Norgate, Ltd.,
1931.
Gibson, John Paul Stewart R. Shakespeares Use of the COMEDY. Cambridge: Deighton, Bell &
Co., 1908.

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Lucas, Frank Laurence. Seneca and Elizabethan Tragedy. Cambridge University Press, London,
1922.