herent defect--that the products of combustion
were invariably heavier than the original substance instead of less as
the theory demanded--was ignored, and until late in the 18th century it
dominated chemical thought. Its overthrow was effected by Lavoisier, who
showed that combustion was simply an oxidation, the oxygen of the
atmosphere (which was isolated at about this time by K. W. Scheele and
J. Priestley) combining with the substance burnt.

COMEDY, the general term applied to a type of drama the chief object of
which, according to modern notions, is to amuse. It is contrasted on the
one hand with tragedy and on the other with farce, burlesque, &c. As
compared with tragedy it is distinguished by having a happy ending (this
being considered for a long time the essential difference), by quaint
situations, and by lightness of dialogue and character-drawing. As
compared with farce it abstains from crude and boisterous jesting, and
is marked by some subtlety of dialogue and plot. It is, however,
difficult to draw a hard and fast line of demarcation, there being a
distinct tendency to combine the characteristics of farce with those of
true comedy. This is perhaps more especially the case in the so-called
"musical comedy," which became popular in Great Britain and America in
the later 19th century, where true comedy is frequently subservient to
broad farce and spectacular effects.

The word "comedy" is derived from the Gr. [Greek: komoidia], which is a
compound either of [Greek: komos] (revel) and [Greek: aoidos] (singer;
[Greek: aeidein], [Greek: aidein], to sing), or of [Greek: kome]
(village) and [Greek: aoidos]: it is possible that [Greek: komos] itself
is derived from [Greek: kome], and originally meant a village revel. The
word comes into modern usage through the Lat. _comoedia_ and Ital.
_commedia_. It has passed through various shades of meaning. In the
middle ages it meant simply a story with a happy ending. Thus some of
Chaucer's Tales are called comedies, and in this sense Dante used the
term in the title of his poem, _La Commedia_ (cf. his _Epistola_ X., in
which he speaks of the comic style as "loquutio vulgaris, in qua et
mulierculae communicant"; again "comoedia vero remisse et humiliter";
"differt a tragoedia per hoc, quod t. in principio est admirabilis et
quieta, in fine sive exitu est foetida et horribilis"). Subsequently the
term is applied to mystery plays with a happy ending. The modern usage