What is Tragicomedy?
A '''Tragicomedy''' is a story that is both a [[Tragedy (Greek theatre)|tragedy]] and a [[comedy]] at the same time. == Origin of the Word == [[Plautus]] invented the word Tragicomedy for his [[Play (theatre)|play]] [[Amphytrion]]. In it [[Mercury (element)|Mercury]] notices that there are gods in a play that’s supposed to be a comedy and says that it should be a tragicomedy instead. == Renaissance == In [[Italy]], a man named [[Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio]] said that people should write tragedies with happy endings. He called them “Tragicomedies”. He said tragedies were better as books but tragicomedies were better as plays. In 1590, [[Giovanni Battista Guarini]] wrote a play called The Faithful Shepherd. People weren’t sure if it were a comedy or a tragedy, so they called it a tragicomedy. == Shakespeare == Some people criticized [[William Shakespeare]] for putting [[Joke|jokes]] in tragedies and sad things in comedies. So they said that some of his plays were not tragedies or comedies. They called them tragicomedies. [[Category:Theater]] [[Category:Comedy]] {{Literature-stub}}