Humors Comedy - James D. Redwine, Jr. (essay date 1961)

James D. Redwine, Jr. (essay date 1961)

SOURCE: Redwine, James D., Jr. “Beyond Psychology: The Moral Basis of Jonson's Theory of Humour Characterization.” ELH 28, no. 4 (December 1961): 316-34.

[In the following essay, Redwine contends that Jonsonian humors characterization, whether considered as an account of human behavior or a form of dramatic characterization, has its basis not in psychology or aesthetics but in morality.]

One critic has recently averred that Jonson's humours are among the most stifling subjects in literary history.1 That is very stifling indeed. Nevertheless, it is with his humours that an analysis of Jonson's theory of characterization must begin. As Enck himself goes on to point out, “no other psychology prevails” in the comical satires, or at least in the first two of the three comical satires. Whether Jonsonian humours actually constitute a “psychology” and whether they prevail in two or...

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