1. commedy (French entry by John Palsgrave 1530)

   Commedy of a christmas playe commedie s fe.

2. comedy (English entry by Richard Mulcaster 1582)

   comedie [no explanation]

3. comedy (English entry by Edmund Coote 1596)

   COMEDY: comedy k. stage playe.

4. comedie (English entry by Robert Cawdrey 1604)

   cmedie, (k) stage play,

5. comedie (French entry by Randle Cotgrave 1611)

   Comedie: f. A Comedie; a Play, or Enterlude (that begins in dissention, or sorrow, and ends with agreement or meriment.)

6. comedie (English entry by John Bullokar 1616)

   COMEDY: Comedie. A play or interlude, the beginning whereof is euer full of troubles, and the end ioyfull. Among the Greekes Eupolis, Aristophanes and Cratinus, were the chiefe comicall Poets, among the Latines Plautus and Terence.

7. comedie (English entry by Henry Cockeram 1623)

   COMEDY: Comedie. A Play or Enterlude, whose beginning is full of trouble, the end thereof is mirth and ioy.

8. comedy (English entry by Thomas Blount 1656)

   COMEDY: Comedy (comaedia) a Play or interlude. It is a kind of fable representing, as in a Mirror, the similitude of a civil and private life, begining for the most part with some troubles, but ending with Agreement or joy. These Plays are called Comaediae from , which signifies Villages, because Comaedians did go up and down the Country, acting these Comaedies in the Villages, as they passed along. Godwin. See Tragedy.

© Feb. 1999