INTRIGUE, COMEDY OF

also called comedy of situation in dramatic literature, a comic form in which complicated conspiracies and stratagems dominate the plot. The complex plots and subplots of such comedies are often based on ridiculous and contrived situations with large doses of farcical humour. An example of comedy of intrigue is William Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors (first performed 159293), a humorous exploitation of the confusion resulting from twin masters and their twin servants. Shakespeare's play is itself a version of two plays by the Roman comedy writer Plautus (c. 254184 BC), Menaechmi and Amphitruo. In the hands of a master such as Molire, the comedy of intrigue often shades into a comedy of manners. Thus, Le Mdecin malgr lui (1666; The Doctor in Spite of Himself), which begins as a farce based on the simple joke of mistaking the ne'er-do-well woodcutter Sganarelle for a doctor, gradually becomes a satire on learned pretension and bourgeois credulity as Sganarelle fulfills his role as a doctor with great success.