PRINCIPLE TYPES OF COMEDY – SENTIMENTAL COMEDY
Sentimental comedy represents a comic subgenre that emerged to prominence in England during the closing years of the 17 th century. The playwright cum actor Colley Cibber’s work Love’s Last Shift (1696) is widely regarded as heralding the vogue for this type of comedy on the English stage. The Careless Husband (1704) also by Cibber and Richard Steele’s The Lying Lover (1703) and The Conscious Lovers (1722) represent noteworthy instances of sentimental comedy that serve to establish the cannon in the drama of England. In tackling sentimental comedy, there are specifically two factors that we require to take into advisement. The first is exemplified by the moral reform movements of the 1690s, which came down heavily on English plays particularly the comedy of manners. The most notable instance of such an attack is arguably the pamphlet A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698) by the clergyman Jeremy Collier. In this work, Collier levels