Old Comedy

American  

noun

1. Greek comedy of the 5th century b.c., which derived from fertility rites in honor of Dionysus and combined robust humor with biting personal and political satire.

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Etymology

Origin of Old Comedy

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

Embracing the spirit of Old Comedy, Matt Walker, who adapted and directed this madcap update set in Malibu, encourages his troupe to pull out all the vaudevillian stops.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 13, 2021

The longest and wildest of the surviving plays of Aristophanes, the great master of the Old Comedy style, “The Birds” is best known today for introducing “Cloud-cuckoo-land” into our cultural vocabulary.

From New York Times • May 6, 2018

The Greek original is unknown; but ll. 462-86 contain a speech from the Choragus, in the style of the παράβασις of the Old Comedy.

From The Student's Companion to Latin Authors by Middleton, George

And he was an actor in the Old Comedy, a freedman of that most accomplished king Adrian, and called by him the Attic partridge.

From The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athen?us by Athen?us

Of the Old Comedy but one writer has come down to us, and we cannot, therefore, in forming an estimate of his merits, enforce it by a comparison with other masters.

From Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature by Black, John