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  Putting it all together, Aristophanes appears to us today as particularly modern. His nose-thumbing at narrative, drama, and character development and his celebration of fantasy and festivity suggest a strong "meta-theatrical" view that characterizes the postmodern world. A closer look at the ancient Greek comic bard can be especially fruitful for television writers, for, as we shall see, so many programs, from The Simpsons to the ensemble shows such as Cheers, Northern Exposure, M*A *S*H and Friends to the comedian-centered sitcoms like The Cosby Show and Seinfeld, are only loosely concerned with plot and are much more open to zany experimentation than feature film comedies.

  Romantic Comedy

  Menander, Greece, and Rome

  As noted, romantic comedy has since the mid-193os dominated American film comedy, and indeed has been the major form of European stage comedy since the time of Menander in late classical Athens. The focus of such comedy is on boygirl relationships, particularly as related to the conflict between personal desire and family and social institutions. Traditionally the goal of young (for the genre celebrates youth!) couples is to reach that most official of all unions, marriage. But whether or not the knot is actually tied on camera or stage, overcoming personal differences within the couple and triumphing over blocking figures-familial or social or both-is the stuff of the tight plotting that romantic comedy requires. In comparison to Aristophanic comedy, therefore, plot and character development count for a lot more. Add one more important dimension: romantic comedy concerns the domestic more sharply than does anarchistic comedy, which tends toward a much broader sociopolitical canvas.

  Finally, in American screenwriting particularly, it is difficult to find films that do not include romance-comic or dramatic-as either the main plot or the secondary one. Thus romantic comedy becomes the playing field upon which we can explore the contradictions between love and sexuality, honesty and deceit, personal desire and social decorum, private obsessions and public customs. Romantic comedy's spotlight on the seemingly opposite pull between sexual gratification (which is nondiscriminating) and idealized love of one individual can provide all the tension, pathos and comedy you need to devise a story in this popular genre. Romantic comedy calls for laughter, but because of its subject and approach it demands pathos as well. Anarchistic comedy tickles the mind; romantic comedy wants to warm the heart and, yes, in its extreme form, to produce a few tears as well. As Steve Neale and Frank Krutnik point out, the line between comedy and romantic melodrama is often thin (io8).

  Menander is the acknowledged father of the genre. Born in 342 B.c., he was several generations behind the master of Old Comedy and thus grew up with a diminished realm of possibilities due to the defeat of Athens by Sparta and the subsequent loss of many freedoms.

  Until 1959 we had no complete play by the founder of "New Comedy," but the publication that year of the recently discovered manuscript of The Dyskolos (The Grouch) changed all that. The play makes it possible for us to say with certainty that as the father of romantic comedy, Menander is also the parent of the well-plotted comedy. Furthermore, his comedy allows for a lot more individualization and character-shading than did Aristophanes' brush-stroke cartoon fig ures. Anyone wanting to write the next popular comic romance will profit from grasping Menander's accomplishments.

  The Dyskolos, set in the countryside outside of Athens, revolves around the efforts of a handsome young lad, Sostratos, to wed a striking young lass, Myrrhine, whose father, Knemon, an old farmer, happens to be a dyskolos (a misanthrope or "difficult one"). (Yes, Moliere's Misanthrope echoes Menander!) Sostratos enlists the aid of an earthy trickster-friend, Chaireas, to help him reach his love and deal with the obstructing father. Chaireas is pure laughs, interested in only immediate sexual gratification. As he says: "A friend of mine is horny for a whore: my plan's abduction. I get loaded, burn her door down, am totally irrational. I get him laid before they're introduced. Delay can only swell his love: a swift relief cures swift amours" (8).

  But warnings are brought by Sostratos' slave that the Grouch is piping mad and very dangerous. We soon are treated to Knemon himself, who bellows about his desire to be left alone. Yet when Sostratos is about to give up, Myrrhine appears and takes away his breath. Many of his lines are asides to himself, including "Can any of the honored gods save me now from love?" (1.205). The plot thickens as we learn the Grouch has a jealous stepson, Gorgias, who learns of Sostratos' interests from his slave, Daos, at the beginning of act 2. When Gorgias tries to push Sostratos away, our young lover says he's wealthy enough to ask for Myrrhine's hand in marriage without a dowry. This impresses Gorgias, who confides that his father will marry Myrrhine to the man most like himself. Some witty dialogue follows:

  SOSTRATOS: But tell me, man, have you ever been in love?

  GORGIAS: I can't imagine it.

  SOSTRATOS: Why not? Who is stopping you?

  GORGIAS: A realistic look at hardship, which is all I have in life.

  (2.342- 44)

  Among the elements we shall track that have remained standard in the genre over the centuries are (1) the triumph of love over adversity; (2) the representation of "adversity" in terms of difficult parents or parental figures; (3) the doubling of romance-literally in this case, with two weddings presented in the conclusion; (4) a focus on male friendship, complete with a debate of the various points of view in regard to love and practical life; (5) the location of the drama in a country or nonurban setting; (6) the use of slaves and servants, not just in the courting/romance plots but also as comic relief and thus a kind of self-parody of love from within the story itself; (7) sudden conversions and swift plot reversals (the Grouch falls into the well and subsequently has a change of heart in terms of his estate and daughter's future); (8) the inclusion of the gods or nonhumans, seen here in the prologue delivered by the god Pan, whose shrine and surrounding area mark the location of much of the romance; and (9) in contrast to Aristophanic comedy, a sense of realism that is true to life as we generally know it.

  The limitations are also clear, the largest being the lack of development of the female protagonist, Myrrhine. (As critics have pointed out, however, this has more to do with the subservient position of women in classical Greek society than with an individual failing in Menander.) And while the characters are clearly individualized, we are not, with Menander, speaking of complex comic character development.

  The same may be said of the great Roman comic playwrights Plautus and Terence, who imitated and appropriated Menander's comic art. They tended to keep the plots and many of the characters but dropped much of the Greek atmosphere and locale, infusing these works with Roman details. Thus, "Latin comic drama is singularly unreal, as unreal as certain English adaptations from the French and the German, in which we feel a blank incongruity between the foreign code of manners on which the story is conditioned and the supposedly AngloSaxon characters by which it has to be carried out" (Matthews, 97).

  We will soon see how Shakespeare was able to bring a marvelous complexity to these romantic formulas and traditions. But the Latin authors developed in the opposite direction, simplifying everything so that even the thickest member of the audience would catch the comedy and follow the basic plot. Why? For a very realistic reason: Plautus, Terence and the other Roman comic writers had to write for a tough crowd: The audiences they faced were full of foreigners who spoke Latin badly and riffraff who wanted straightforward bawdy and simplistic fare. Plautus especially succeeded in bringing a thorough knowledge of Roman lowlife, complete with its slaves, braggart soldiers, and clowns, into his comedies. Under the Romans, "comedy" triumphed much more than any idealized sense of romance.

  Shakespeare and Comedy of the Green World

  Theseus in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (5.1)

  Our brief close-up on Menander helps us see how far Shakespeare brought romantic comedy in his dramatic and comic consideration of "lovers and madmen" almost two thousand years later.

  The scholar of drama C. L. Bar
ber has explored how we can view Shakespeare's romances as comedies of "the green world" (21). Barber and others explain how Shakespeare was creatively playing with both the Menander and Roman traditions of romantic comedy. But he was infusing these sources with a rich British festive tradition of "the green world": country carnivals, folklore, songs, dances, customs, tales, and humor. In short, Shakespeare practiced the theme of this book: know your traditions and then allow yourself the freedom to let your personal fantasies and imagination soar!

  Our representative example will be A Midsummer Night's Dream (16oo). The whole play is cast as a kind of carnival taking place within the framework of a wedding feast as Theseus, Duke of Athens, is to wed Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. This "romance" between the Duke and Queen is a given, never really developed or questioned. In this sense Theseus and Hippolyta become the bedrock and thus the center of stability, loving acceptance and good humor around which the comic and romantic chaos is created. Theseus sets both the romantic and comic tone for the whole play as he informs Hippolyta that he plans to wed her "With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling" (i.i).

  Shakespeare's comedy is layered both in plots and subplots, and in characters and minor characters. What follows is not just a doubling of lovers, as in Menander, but a true multiplying of them, beginning with the initially at-odds youthful foursome: Lysander loves Hermia, who is also loved by Demetrius, who in turn is loved by Helena. Before Theseus' marriage can take place, he must help negotiate the confusions of desire and parental wishes, as Hermia's father brings his case to the Duke, demanding his daughter marry Demetrius.

  As these plots unfold through twists and turns and various scenes, the location switches (as in Menander) to the countryside outside of Athens, where Lysander and Hermia hope to flee the obligations of Athenian law. This "green world" becomes the space where freedom reigns and where fantasy and festivity can be acted out. Of course, Shakespeare's Athenian countryside resembles nothing so much as the forested English countryside he knew so well, having little in common with its Greek namesake. But as we have pointed out, William is simply following the Roman tradition of turning "Athens" into a distant nevernever land.

  Within this green world, anything goes ... and does! Shakespeare weaves in hilarious comic relief with the band of country bumpkins who are to perform for the wedding festivities. Thus we have Quince, Bottom, Snout, Starveling, Snug and Flute-the Six Stooges, for sure-providing a farcical visual and verbal parody not just of romance but of theater itself as they ponder the very nature of acting, performance and audience reception. Yet as Norman Sanders so well observes in discussing the clowning figures in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, "It can therefore be argued that the comic scenes do not simply satirize and belittle the love and friendship codes subscribed to in the main plot, but reveal them in a new light" (35)• This troupe within a troupe performs Pyramus and Thisbe (our fourth couple, so far), evoking belly laughs and Hippolyta's memorable line "This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard." But in its green-world simplicity, the troupe further points out the splendor of the kind of all-embracing love the Duke and Queen are celebrating in their marriage.

  All of this would seem more than enough for even a talented playwright. But Shakespeare dusts all with the fanciful magic of Puck and the realm of country fairies and woodland spirits. Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the Fairies, offer us yet another lens through which to enjoy and perceive romance, serving as otherworldly doubles of Theseus and Hippolyta.

  There is no need to review all of Shakespeare's clever and well-plotted intrigue of crossed purposes and mixed-up magic (the wrong lovers woo unintended recipients once Puck's love-altering drugs are administered, leading up to the most comic and simultaneously surreal and bizarre union of all-Titania's love for Bottom, whose head has become transformed into that of an ass). But let us simply acknowledge that Shakespeare is a master of comedy in part because he can manage such comic density without missing a beat and with a perfect sense of timing, moving between farce and true romance, anger and forgiveness.

  Note that on one level Shakespeare and Aristophanes share a vision of comedy as embracing a full range from the lyrical to the satirical and farcical. The young lovers speak some of the finest lines on love in the English language, while at the same time the Bard from Stratford-on-Avon can delight in the mischief of fairies and country clowns who, in their silly behavior, are given lines that speak clearly about the nature of love. Bottom, for instance, informs us of one of the basic truths of the play:

  and yet, to say the truth, Reason and love keep little company together now-a-days;

  (3.1)

  And Shakespeare's conclusion is as festive as anything Aristophanes devised: song, dance and lovers reunited rule the day. We can also suggest that both Aristophanes and Shakespeare understood the importance of a driving pace, though they employed such comic speed through different means: increasingly complex plotting for Shakespeare, sequential agons mixed with choral appearances, all focused on a single theme, for Aristophanes.

  The similarities end there, however, for Shakespeare has masterfully explored the human heart, revealing both the complexity of love and its lighter, magical side as well. The sudden transformations, the disguises and "friendship" discussions, the victory of lovers over adversity, and the intrusion of the other world, plus the comic use of servants, all echo Menander and the Roman comic poets. But the end result is both an affirmation of love and a lingering questioning of the seemingly randomness of it all.

  Puck's direct address to the audience at the conclusion is absolutely in comedy's tradition of establishing a special relationship with its audience. But Shakespeare has injected much more, as we have suggested. Not only has he included British country festivals, songs and folklore, but in Puck's closing words the romance and comedy are given an edge, a philosophical brush, as he makes us all finally aware not just of the theatricality of the production we have viewed but of life as a stage as well:

  (5.2)

  So we leave the theater, not laughing out loud, but with perhaps a wry smile and the beginnings of a tear or two.

  What lessons are to be learned by writers of comedy from the Bard of Stratford? Let us list just a few. These points have roots in the tradition that went before him, but they are worth restating and examining, even in Shakespeare's relatively weak comedies, such as The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

  i. Don't be afraid to be experimental. Fairies? Asses' heads? Bumpkin actors? Shakespeare took chances and made them all pay off! Shakespeare isn't afraid to go over the top with an idea. The holiday green world he creates onstage in A Midsummer Night's Dream and other comedies appears to spring from the spirit of carnival within himself as he wrote.

  2. Explore the complexity of relationships caught in the jaws of blind passion and idealized love. Shakespeare never allows his characters to fall into the sentimental or melodramatic. But the comic and "fantastic" (magical) frame of the play allows for a surprising number of sharply etched short scenes in which we come to know each of the four lovers more completely, both as couples and as individuals. In other words, unlike Aristophanic comedy, Shakespearean comedy explores the realm of the psychological.

  3. Go for straight-on zany farce for the fun of it and to highlight the reality of the love stories. Clearly Shakespeare had fun going over the top with his comic country folk from the green world. And yet he manages to capture even these minor characters so that we do not simply laugh at them as caricatures but sense the character in them as well.

  4. Create female characters as bright or brighter than the male leads. We noted that the women in Menander are shadows, and women in the Roman comedies are not much better. But Shakespeare creates fully realized women who are as intelligent and articulate as they are sensitive and emotive. Take Hermia's comment to Lysander on his apparent fickleness (he is smitten with Helena once Puck has done his magic mischief):

  HERMIA: Hate me, wherefore? 0 me, what new my Love? Am not I Her
mia? Are not you Lysander? I am as fair now, as I was erewhile. Since night you lov'd me; yet since night you left me. Why then you left me (0 the gods forbid) In earnest, shall I say?

  (3.2)

  It has always been one of the deep pleasures of reading or viewing Shakespeare that none of the males can rest easy or believe they can get away with outrageous schemes, for the women do see through them and, more often than not, top the males and set them straight.

  5. Give the surreal or the magical a shot if you wish. Comedy is rooted in the real, but in romantic comedy the magical can help you illuminate, explore and highlight the center to your script. Puck remains one of Shakespeare's most memorable characters, and certainly the confusion he brings down on the various lovers makes the sudden reversals of the romantic comic genre less "unbelievable," since we understand the game we are privy to. Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) plays at Christmas every year in large part because of the magical realism of angels coming down to check on small-town America. And the wings for John Travolta in Michael (1997) and for Denzel Washington in The Preacher's Wife (1997) add both humor and insight into the worlds into which these "angels" fall.

  Comedy and the Tradition of the Novel and Print Fiction

  This section will be brief, for what applies to the stage has had a strong influence on printed comic fiction as well. Thus Charles Dickens, once an actor, moved from the stage to the study to write novels that both make us laugh and go for the tear, especially of social injustice. And while we can think of the hundred tales in Boccaccio's Decameron as short stories, they are actually presented as tales told in a group performance situation, as are Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, written shortly afterwards.

  Rather than a history of comedy in fiction, therefore, I offer my pick of eight works I personally recommend for writers of comedy. Once more, the list is meant to be provocative rather than exhaustive or traditional. Taken together, this list offers a challenge to you to try anything you want to in writing for the pure pleasure of it beyond all other reasons! Unlike drama and cinema, which are timedefined and budget-controlled, prose fiction has the freedom to go anywhere, to think and do anything it wishes. That spirit is important for screenwriters to stay in touch with.