Aristophanes, Lysistrata

     The father of comedy turned his eye on sexual warfare. Proto-feminist?

 Plautus, The Comedies, take your pick

     Father of the sitcom. Important because he influenced a lot of writers.

 Terence, The Comedies, take your pick

     “Terence, this is stupid stuff,” says A. E. Housman. Is that really the word he wants?

 William Shakespeare. A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Twelfth Night; As You Like It; Much Ado about Nothing; The Tempest

     Some of his best comic writing is found in Henry IV, especially Part One; Falstaff easily his best comic creation. And try reading Hamlet as comedy.

     The Merry Wives of Windsor? Don’t bother. Rumor has it Shakespeare wrote it to please QE1, who wanted to see Falstaff in love. He held his nose but obliged. Wouldn’t we all.

 Ben Jonson, Volpone

     Had the bad luck of being Shakespeare’s contemporary.

 Molière, anything, but especially The Miser, The Bourgeois Gentleman, and A Doctor in Spite of Himself

     Among the top two comic playwrights. Farcical satire a specialty of the house.

 George Bernard Shaw, Androcles and the Lion

     Genius, or tiresome preacher? He thought genius; others not so sure.

 Gogol, The Inspector General

     Proved that Russian authors can laugh.

 Georges Feydeau, A Fitting Confusion

     French master of the complex, ludicrous plot; worthy successor of Molière.

 Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

     What Dorothy Parker might have written if she’d have been a gay Irish anti-gentleman.

 Eugene Ionesco, The Bald Soprano

     Comedy reduced to absurdity reduced to the banal. Where can you go from here? Oh, lots of places.

     For instance:

 Neil Simon, The Collected Plays, especially The Last of the Red Hot Lovers.

     What a burden, keeping the theater alive all by oneself!