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The comedy of manners is an entertainment form which satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class or of multiple classes, often represented by stereotypical stock characters. For example, the ''miles gloriosus'' ("boastful soldier") in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the English Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young. Restoration comedy is used as a synonym for "comedy of manners".〔George Henry Nettleton, Arthur (''British dramatists from Dryden to Sheridan'' ) p.149〕 The plot of the comedy, often concerned with scandal, is generally less important than its witty dialogue. A great writer of comedies of manners was Oscar Wilde, his most famous play being ''The Importance of Being Earnest''. The comedy of manners was first developed in the new comedy of the Ancient Greek playwright Menander. His style, elaborate plots, and stock characters were imitated by the Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence, whose comedies were widely known and copied during the Renaissance. The best-known comedies of manners, however, may well be those of the French playwright Molière, who satirized the hypocrisy and pretension of the ''ancien régime'' in such plays as ''L'École des femmes'' (''The School for Wives'', 1662), ''Le Misanthrope'' (''The Misanthrope'', 1666), and most famously ''Tartuffe'' (1664). == Early examples == The comedy of manners has been employed by Roman satirists since as early as the first century BC. Horace's Satire 1.9 is a prominent example, in which the persona is unable to express his wish for his companion to leave, but instead subtly implies so through wit. William Shakespeare's ''Much Ado about Nothing'' might be considered the first comedy of manners In England, but the genre really flourished during the Restoration period. Restoration comedy, which was influenced by Ben Jonson's comedy of humours, made fun of affected wit and acquired follies of the time. The masterpieces of the genre were the plays of William Wycherley (''The Country Wife'', 1675) and William Congreve (''The Way of the World'', 1700). In the late 18th century Oliver Goldsmith (''She Stoops to Conquer'', 1773) and Richard Brinsley Sheridan (''The Rivals'', 1775; ''The School for Scandal'', 1777) revived the form. The tradition of elaborate, artificial plotting and epigrammatic dialogue was carried on by the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde in ''Lady Windermere's Fan'' (1892) and ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' (1895). In the 20th century, the comedy of manners reappeared in the plays of the British dramatists Noël Coward (''Hay Fever'', 1925) and Somerset Maugham and the novels of P.G. Wodehouse, as well as various British sitcoms. The ''Carry On films'' are a direct descendant of the comedy of manners style. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Comedy of manners」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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