The comedy of humours is comedy based on the exaggeration of the greek explantaion for health -the body was balance by the four humours black bile, yellow bile/cholor, blood and phlegm. If any of these were out of balance, the body and the personality were influenced.
Volpone is lustful - sin of meloncholia (too much black bile)
and decietful - sin of sanguine (too much blood)
Mosca is covetous - sin of choloric (too much cholor/yellow bile) reference 1
the characters also draw from beast characters, and the italian commedia del arte (italian commedia del art reference
T.F. Heck, 1988, Commedia dell’arte: a guide to the primary and secondary literature, IUniverse, New York, p155)
Ben Jonson does move away from the strict comedy of humours after 1603, but they still remain a basis for his characters - refence . O. Brockett and F. Hildy, 2008, History of the Theatre, 10th edition, Allyn & Bacon, Boston , p110
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