The herald., 1894-01-07
THE UNITY LECTURE COURSE,
Professor Gayley on Shake
speare's Comedies.
The Several Stages of Dramatic De-
velOpment.
An Analytical Discussion of Comedy in
General and the Comedy of
Shakespeare in Par
tfcuIar.

English comedy at the Church of the
Unity last evening to a large audience.
1t is gratifying to notice the increase in
the attendance at these lectures, as was
shown by the attentive and representa-
tive audience present last evening. Ii
the literary people of Los Angeles not
present last evening only knew OF the
rich and delightful things from some
of the bright comedies of the period be-
tween the years 1540 to 1900, as pre-
sented in that charming manner Prof.
Gayley has, they would long for repe-
tition OF last evenings. lecture, which
was the best and most enjoyed OF the
course 30 far presented.
Prof. Gayley took up the closing por-
tion of his Thursday evenings lecture,
and presented a short account OF the
national and romantic comedies, as
covered by the persons above mon
toned. embracing the dramatists inn
mediately preceding Shakespeare. He
gave many read.ngs from the, writings
OF John Still, John Lyly and others.
The professor read that bright comedy
OF, Lyly's, Alexander and Campsspe,
printed in 1854. The many humorous
sayings and scenes of the play fairly
convulsed those present. He lightly
touched Mother Bombee. by the same
author. OF George Peele's plays he
read portion of The Oh Wives Tale.
Another convulsing comedy presented
was Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay
(15S8l, by Robert Greene. From this
play he read many things from the most
humorous scenes.
Prof. Gaylev then presented the come
dies of Shakespeare. which he divided,
and spoke as follows:
sHAKEePEARE AS A COMIC DRAMATIsT.
-Four stagee in the development of
Shakespearean comedy:
First-The mechanical comedy
Second-The comedy of types.
Third-The comedy of character.
Fourth-The comedy of ideals.
The comic quality in the first two
stages may be called static, because it
exists largely in incident and crcum-
stance, independent OF character and
motive; and in typical personages whose
prominent humors or characteristics
are determined before the play begins,
and who consequently develop not at
all, or if at all, in exaggeration OF the
characteristic, onesidedly and out of
relation to human probability. What
humor there is bubbles rather from the
good nature and youth of the dramatist
than from the vital forces and motives
and characters of the play; what wit
there s lies in grotesque situation. in
somewhst boyish surprises, in prank,
clownisbness, buffoonery, and in the
lightly banded joke which, beaten
hok 30 ii olI
feathers in a. pun. Most of this
wit is put into. the situation or the
speech by the author; it does not, as
in his later plays, leap spontaneously
from the friction OF character with char
acter or motive with motive like spark
from the striking OF hints.
The third stage of Shakespeare's 3
comedy may be called dynamic in
humor, because in it, in the comedy
character Much Ado, As You Lske 1t,
IL N.)-the humor and the wit are q
vital and motive element, inseparable
from the activity and reality of the
dramatis persona; es essential to one
and another OF them as love. obedience,
prosperity, good dinner or good ap-
petite; and az changeable as chame.
leon, and as cumulative as rolling
snow ball.
The fourth stage of his comedy may be
called organic in humor, because in it
in the comedy of ideals Tempest, Win
ter's Tale) the ludicrous links arms with
the tragic and the pathetic-the skei, OF
esthetic emotions is inextricably tangled,
Joy is sister to sorrow, laughter is akin
to tears. The year is no longer made up
OF seasons abruptly apporrioned TO sum
chine and dstorm-the sun CLEANS through
the shower. Fun is not lightning fash,
it is q rainbow. Lie is not made up oi
jovisl jokes and grewsome misanthropes,
but of organic Misunderstanding oil
flesh, blood and spirit, Of intellect AID
heart, of mockery and sentiment by
turns and all at once.
But we must not imagine that the
stages of fShakespearean comedy ,mechan.
icai, typical, ideal, have but
one comic characteristic each. The me.
chanicRl comedy, comedy of design, is
marked by more than the emphatic viii
Of Loves' Labor Lost, the wit of incident
in the Comedy of Errors, the clownish
wit of Two Gentlemen of Verona, the
wit of the grotesque in the Midsummer
Nights Dream, tor already in Loves
Labors Lost, Shakespeare appreciates
the humor OF life in it's healthy. youth.
full vigor; although he has his fling al
JUS IAuthbbiC kQchibs IL LILO OOm6Qy Ol
Errors, lightest and most con
vsntional of his comedies, he paints
o background of parental bereavement
and passionate longing. and tragic for.
mality. Still in these plays, as in the
Midsummer Nights Dream and Two
Gentlemen of Verona, he holds the
comic, the tragic and the pathetic
threads carefully apart. In the Mid
summer Nights Dream we have the
frat glorious rays of the romantic fancy,
the anticipation of the idesl-interpen.
etrating the wild situation and caprice
and kissing into vital humor the clown
ishness and the conceit of Bottom
the magnifcence of Oberon, the jealousy
of Titania, the hspless quadrangular
love Of Helena, Demetrius, Hernia and
Lyaander.
Nor is ths comedy of types merely
comic in types, nor does it contain all
the types that Shakespeare has created
To be cure, his most strongly marked
types are to be found in Tanning of tht
6hrew. And the Falstaff plays but Biron
the courtier, Don Armada. the fantastic
al Spaniard, his Nathaniel the curate
Dull. Costard and Moth are all types
and in Loves Labor Lost and Dromio o
Syracuse COMEDY OF Errors) is typica
clown.
L. - - L