that branch of dramatic poetry which gives a view of common and private life, recommends virtue, and corrects the vices and follies of mankind by means of ridicule. See the article Drama.

This last kind alone was received among the Romans, who nevertheless made a new subdivision of it into ancient, middle, and new, according to the various periods of the commonwealth. Among the ancient comedies were reckoned those of Livius Andronicus; among the middle, those of Pacuvius; and among the new, those of Terence. They likewise distinguished comedy according to the quality of the persons represented, and the dress they wore, namely, into togatae, praetextae, trabeatae, and tabernariae, which last agrees pretty nearly with our farces. Among us, comedy is distinguished from farce; the former representing nature as she is, while the latter distorts and overcharges her. They both paint from the life, but with different views; the one to make nature known, the other to make her ridiculous.