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Key Examples in Every Man in His Humour
Genre
Explanation and Analysis—Comedy of the Humours:
Every Man in His Humour is a comedy. More specifically, it belongs to a subcategory known as the "comedy of the humours" a term derived from the medieval medical concept of the humors. In this context, "humours" refer to four bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile). The balance or imbalance of these fluids was believed to influence a person's temperament and behavior. Jonson employs humor-related comedy by creating characters who embody exaggerated and often absurd traits associated with the different humors. These characters include the choleric, the sanguine, the melancholic, and the phlegmatic, each representing a particular temperament. Stephen, for example, displays excessive melancholia throughout the play, and the easily irritated Downright embodies the choleric personality type.
