An amusing spectacle, probably is the passage on the nature of comedy, unfortunately lost, but if we can trust loose hints on the the subject mentioned, comedy can run parallel to that of tragedy, and describe the art as a purification of certain affections of our nature, not by terror and pity, but by laughter and ridicule. Then, is it that "amusing play or performance," which is similar to the modern one, to mean poems and stories in a generalised sense of "quality of being amusing”, with which it presents life as we know it, farce at raising laughter by the outrageous absurdity of the situation or characters exhibited, and burlesque at tickling the fancy of the audience by caricaturing plays or actors with whose style it is familiar?
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