comedy of humours

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Dramatic genre inspired by the theory of humours. Each character is the embodiment of a ‘humour’ and what it represents, such as melancholy or anger. The most famous example of a comedy of humours is Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour (1598). Comedies of humours are vehicles for satire, especially of materialistic society.

To some extent, this genre could be compared to expressionism in that personality is allowed to shape appearance, manner, and behaviour. Such drama is not naturalistic since the characters are grotesque, and this is intended to be seen as a portrait of the vices of society.

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