American comic poetry: history, techniques and modern masters

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (07) ◽  
pp. 53-2979-53-2979
Keyword(s):  
Comic Poetry

The Invention of Sosia for Terence's First Comedy, The Andria

Ramus ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 10-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
William S. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Good Evidence ◽  
Comic Poetry

In connection with the beginnings of the Andria, there have been anecdotes and scholarly theories ever since the time of Suetonius and his sources for the Life of Terence, and they intrigued Donatus in his commentary. Naturally, then, they have developed their own influence in the scholarly tradition. An anecdote recounted by Suetonius, who does not name his source, reports that when Terence delivered his play to the aediles of 166 BCE (who would be producing the comedy at the Megalensian Games), he was ordered (or invited, iussus) to read it first to Caecilius Statius (the current grand old man of Latin Comedy). It happened that Caecilius was dining when Terence appeared, dressed with no distinction and therefore earning the coolness of Caecilius. The old man treated him like a servant and had him seat himself on a stool next to his couch and start reading, so as to disturb his dining as little as possible. However, once Terence began reading his play, after only a few verses, he was invited up to Caecilius' couch and proceeded to read through the remainder of the play to the considerable admiration of his host. Now, scholars have had several things to say about this story. First and most commonly, they have pointed out that good evidence fixes the death of Caecilius in 168, roughly two years before the performance of the Andria; and accordingly this story has no factual substance. Good, there is no reason to try to combat facts: this interesting meeting of Caecilius and Terence never happened. However, we do not need to throw away the Suetonian story as useless trivia. The reason someone devised the story was evidently to bring the older generation of comic poetry into contact with the new and to voice its strong approval of its successor's first product, the Andria. Although Caecilius himself may never have known Terence, the plays of the two were linked by a common impresario, Lucius Ambivius Turpio. The didascaliae to all six plays of Terence credit him with being the producer, and in the so-called second prologue of the Hecyra Ambivius reports that he had troubles producing the plays of Caecilius, as he had recently had with Terence's.

Laughter, Humor, and Comedy in Ancient Philosophy

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Social Function ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Third ◽  
Educational Role ◽  
Comic Poetry ◽  
Do So

Ancient philosophers were very interested in the themes of laughter, humor, and comedy. They theorized about laughter and its causes, moralized about the appropriate uses of humor and what it is appropriate to laugh at, and wrote treatises on comedic composition. Further, they were often merciless in ridiculing their opponents’ positions, often borrowing comedic devices and techniques from comic poetry and drama to do so. The volume is organized around three themes or sets of questions. The first set concerns the psychology of laughter. What is going on in our minds when we laugh? What background conditions must be in place for laughter to occur? Is laughter necessarily hostile or derisive? The second set of questions concerns the ethical and social norms governing laughter and humor. When is it appropriate or inappropriate to laugh? Does laughter have a positive social function? Is there a virtue, or excellence, connected to laugher and humor? The third set of questions concerns the philosophical uses of humor and comedic technique. Do philosophers use humor exclusively in criticizing other rivals, or can it play a positive educational role as well? If it can, how does philosophical humor communicate its philosophical content? This volume aims not to settle these fascinating questions but more modestly to start a conversation about them, in the hope that the volume will be both a reference point for discussions of laughter, humor, and comedy in ancient philosophy and an engine for future research about them.

Comic poetry

1870 ◽  
Vol s4-V (124) ◽  
pp. 466-466
Author(s):  
Hugh Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Comic Poetry

Fish, Sex and Revolution in Athens

1993 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Fish Consumption ◽  
Hippocratic Corpus ◽  
Capital Charge ◽  
Comic Poetry

Anyone who picks up a collection of fragments of comic poetry is likely to be struck by the large number of references to eating fish. There are shopping-lists for fish, menus for fish and recipes for fish-dishes, with the ingredients and method of preparation graphically described. Aristophanes and others dwell in several places on the charms of eel wrapped in beet-leaves. Other writers describe preparations for a great fish-soup, or the dancing movements of fish as they are fried. Undoubtedly Athenaeus is responsible for this preponderance among the fragments of Comedy of passages concerned primarily with food, especially fish, but some of the fragments are rather long in themselves and indicate, at the very least, that cooks were important characters in many plays, and that dinner-parties must have figured significantly in many plots. Outside Comedy, references to fish-consumption are somewhat fewer in number, but perhaps even more surprising when they do occur. It seems strange that Demosthenes, in discussing Philocrates' betrayal of his city, should think it at all relevant to state that he spent his ill-gotten gains on fish, or that Aeschines, attacking Timarchus on a capital charge, should dwell on his fondness for fish. Moreover, references to fish occur also in philosophy and the Hippocratic corpus. In fact, the frequency with which ancient authors seem to have written about fish reveals almost a preoccupation. The consumption offish clearly held a significance for the Athenians which needs to be uncovered and explained.

scholarly journals Jeff Morgan. American Comic Poetry, History, Techniques and Modern Masters. McFarland & Company, 2015

2016 ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
José María Balcells Doménech
Keyword(s):  
Comic Poetry

Estudio de la historia de la poesía irónica estadounidense

scholarly journals Sex and Symbol in Andalusian Comic Poetry

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
David D. Gilmore
Keyword(s):  
Comic Poetry

Este artículo presenta unas coplas de chirigota compuestas por desempeño público durante el carnaval en una villa agraria de la provincia de Sevilla. Las coplas están compuestas entre los años 40 y 90. Representando un género folklórico burlesco social específicamente andaluz, las coplas son una prerrogativa solamente masculina, escritas por los «maestros de murga» e interpretadas por cantores masculinos («murguistas»). Basadas en imágenes eróticas, metáforas genitales y alegorías obscenas, las letras comunican una ideología masculina sobre la sexualidad, las relaciones entre el hombre y la mujer y la domesticidad. Concluye el artículo con una breve interpretación de las letras de chirigota, basándose el análisis en el concepto de «realismo grotesco» propuesto por el crítico ruso Bakhtin.

Humour, Satire, and the Rise of the Bad Poet

2019 ◽  
pp. 174-205
Author(s):  
Kirstie Blair
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
The Press ◽  
Comic Poetry ◽  
A Site

This chapter considers the use of satire in newspaper poetry columns and correspondence columns, and editorial interventions in relation to poetic critique. It shows how newspapers became a site for the exploration of poetic norms and standards, and how the rise of a culture of deliberately ‘bad’ comic poetry both reinforced and questioned these standards. The first subsection examines correspondence columns and their commentary on poetic standards. The second shows how poets responded to these columns by producing fake bad poems, and how these became a popular genre across the press. It focuses particularly on the work of Alexander Burgess under the pseudonym ‘Poute’. The final section of this chapter demonstrates that William McGonagall was part of this culture of bad verse and drew on it in his own self-representations.

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