The Theater

British theater in the late-18th century was mostly governed by sentimental comedies.  Sentimental comedies were plays in which middle-class protagonists would successfully overcome a series of moral trials.  The purpose of these comedies was not to provoke laughter; it was to provoke tears.  The audience of such plays was supposed to believe that humans were inherently good, but were led astray by bad examples.  Playwrights of the time were following the common philosophical notion that Johnson discusses in "Rambler No. 4": people should be lead by only the best examples.

Although this type of comedy was the norm, there were people who questioned it.  Oliver Goldsmith, for example, noted how comedy in England had moved away from its purpose: to provoke laughter by exhibiting the follies of mankind.  The result of this questioning is the laughing comedy.  In these types of comedies the plot centers around a lowly character whose follies and faults were meant to be laughed at, not learned from.  Laughing comedies, as funny as they may be, did not carry on after the death of Goldsmith and Richard Sheridan (another playwright of laughing comedies).  Sentimental comedies would continue to remain on the English stage for over a century to come.

The reading for Monday gives you examples of both sentimental comedies ("The Foundling") and laughing comedies ("She Stoops to Conquer").  Also included is Oliver Goldsmith's "An Essay on Theatre; or, A Comparison Between Laughing and Sentimental Comedy."

Which type of comedy do you like better?  Why?  Do you think that one type speaks to the audience more than the other?  Why do you think that laughing comedies did not continue on after Goldsmith and Sheridan?  How do you think an audience would receive a sentimental comedy today?