Shakespeare's Mature Comedies: As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night
(from H. B. Charlton's Shakespearean Comedy)
-these plays are the consummation of Shakespeare's comic artistry; in them he satisfies both the
romantic and the comic instincts of his audience.
-the main characters arouse our admiration rather than our pity, scorn, ridicule, or contempt;
they inspire us to be happy with them rather than causing us to simply laugh at them.
-rather than being satirical, these plays are poetic and take us on a voyage in pursuit of
happiness not yet attained; Shakespeare is trying to take us to a brave new world where our
lives may be fuller and sensations and joys may be more widespread, more lasting, more
fulfilling.
-music, a symbol of universal harmony for the Elizabethans, takes on a more prominent role
than in the earlier comedies; music appeals to our instinctive, emotional, and intuitive faculties
as opposed to our intellectual ones; thus, these comedies use music to awaken us to our
spiritual capacities.
-there is a light-handedness to the wooing by the lovers in these plays unlike to love-madness
of the earlier lovers; indeed, playfulness is an important marker of the lovers.
-these plays limit themselves to life here and now; the world, not eternity, is the stage.
-the heroines, Rosalind, Beatrice, and Viola, are the "stars"; they are Shakespeare's images of
the best ways of love; in them
-love is seen as redemptive
-love makes us fuller human being
-love becomes the instinctive and intuitive power leading to personal and relational harmony
-we find the force that resolves the potential catastrophe in the play into happiness
-heart and brain are fused into a vital and practical union
-we see they instinctively have a finely developed mother-wit; that is, common sense inspired by sensitivity
-we see the gift of inspiring and or returning affection; they have the good will of all who know them; they are simply human and patently natural when falling in love; their own passion further sharpens the affection through which they seek the good of others
-we find nothing sentimental or vulgar; indeed, they are delightfully modest; they are generous,
guiltless, just, and open.