“Comedy,” says he[32], “is a representation of common life:  its end is to show the faults of particular characters on the stage, to correct the disorder of the people by the fear of ridicule.  Thus ridicule is the essential part of a comedy.  Ridicule may be in words, or in things; it may be decent, or grotesque.  To find what is ridiculous in every thing, is the gift merely of nature; for all the actions of life have their bright, and their dark sides; something serious, and something merry.  But Aristotle, who has given rules for drawing tears, has given none for raising laughter; for this is merely the work of nature, and must proceed from genius, with very little help from art or matter.  The Spaniards have a turn to find the ridicule in things, much more than we; and the Italians, who are natural comedians, have a better turn for expressing it; their language is more proper for it than ours, by an air of drollery which it can put on, and of which ours may become capable, when it shall be brought nearer to perfection.  In short, that agreeable turn, that gaiety, which yet maintains the delicacy of its character, without falling into dulness or into buffoonery; that elegant raillery, which is the flower of fine wit, is the qualification which comedy requires.  We must, however, remember that the true artificial ridicule, which is required on the theatre, must be only a transcript of the ridicule which nature affords.  Comedy is naturally written, when, being on the theatre, a man can fancy himself in a private family, or a particular part of the town, and meets with nothing but what he really meets with in the world; for it is no real comedy in which a man does not see his own picture, and find his own manners, and those of the people among whom he lives.  Menander succeeded only by this art among the Greeks:  and the Romans, when they sat at Terence’s comedies, imagined themselves in a private party; for they found nothing there which they had not been used to find in common company.  The great art of comedy is to adhere to nature, without deviation; to have general sentiments and expressions, which all the world can understand; for the writer must keep it always in his mind, that the coarsest touches after nature will please more, than the most delicate, with which nature is inconsistent.  However, low and mean words should never be allowed upon the stage, if they are not supported with some kind of wit.  Proverbs and vulgar smartnesses can never be suffered, unless they have something in them of nature and pleasantry.  This is the universal principle of comedy; whatever is represented, in this manner must please, and nothing can ever please without it.  It is by application to the study of nature alone, that we arrive at probability, which is the only infallible guide to theatrical success:  without this probability, every thing is defective, and that which has it, is beautiful; he that follows this, can never go wrong; and the most common faults