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austerity and be jocose and pleasant with an adversary. Shaftesbury. All . . . jocose or comical airs should be excluded. I. Watts.

A grotesque mask, representing a person chewing or grimacing, worn in processions and by comic actors on the stage.

Indicating or inspiring mirth; as, a mirthful face. Mirthful, comic shows. Shak. -- Mirth"ful*ly, adv. -- Mirth"ful*ness, n.

A drama, either tragic or comic, of which music forms an essential part; a drama wholly or mostly sung, consisting of recitative, arials, choruses, duets, trios, etc., with orchestral accompaniment, preludes, and interludes, together with appropriate costumes, scenery, and action; a lyric drama.

The buffoon or harlequin of a puppet show. Punch and Judy, a puppet show in which a comical little hunchbacked Punch, with a large nose, engages in altercation with his wife Judy.

n song, of a kind popular in Germany in the latter part of the 18th century. It was often comic, had modern characters, and patterned its music on folk song with strictly subordinated accompaniment.

orn by actors of comedy in ancient Greece and Rome, -- used as a sumbol of comedy, of the comic drams, as distinguished from tragedy, which is symbolized by the buskin. Great Fletcher never treads in buskin here, Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear. Dryden.

A group or series of four dramatic pieces, three tragedies and one satyric, or comic, piece (or sometimes four tragedies), represented consequently on the Attic stage at the Dionysiac festival.

Of or pertaining to Thalia; hence, of or pertaining to comedy; comic.

A kind of drama representing some action in which serious and comic scenes are blended; a composition partaking of the nature both of tragedy and comedy. The noble tragi-comedy of "Measure for Measure." Macaulay.

A letter containing professions of love, or a missive of a sentimental, comic, or burlesque character, sent on St. Valentine's Day. St. Valentine's Day, a day sacred to St. Valentine; the 14th of February. It was a very old notion, alluded to by Shakespeare, that on this day birds begin to mate. Hence, perhaps, arose t…

rtainty of success; as, it is rash to venture upon such a project. "When I venture at the comic style." Waller.