Comedy in The Merchant of Venice

We can trace the origin of Comedy to Dionysis- the Greek God of Wine who was hilarious, satirical and irreverent in spirit. Ben Jonson in ‘Volpone’ (1605) that is considered to be the greatest comedy in English epitomized the classical spirit of comedy. Shakespeare was aware of the classical tradition by the chose to follow the Roman tradition of Petrarch and Boccacio. Shakespeare’s early comedies were classical in spirit but the later ones were more …

…Venice’ and regarding the ending of the play as E.K. Chambers said it is like “a sweet dream come rue or a bad dream gone.” As Stephano announces the return of Portia from her ‘pilgrimage’, Antonio is told of the safe return of his ‘argosies’, Lorenzo and Jessica are informed of their inheritance from Shylock’s wealth and Belmont’s music and this harmony seem to be appropriate resolutions of the play’s disharmonies.