ligdamon et lidias

This play engages in a common theatrical device of the period, mistaken identities as the crux of its drama. Ligdamon is in love with Sylvie, who pretends she doesn't love him back, while Lidias and Amerine are in love with each other. Lidias and Ligdamon are confused for each other and much physical comedy is played off of the situations they find themselves in, but it lacks the plot structure that we see in similar plays of the period, notably plays like Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. That play leans into the pure comedy of misunderstanding, while Ligdamon et Lidias tries to find a tragicomic middle ground. While the characters nearly die from the misunderstanding, this does not feel tragic, but nonsensical. I can understand why neoclassic writers believed that the mixing of comedy and tragedy were cheapening to both when presented with plays such as this. Not that I believe that humor and tragedy cannot be mixed, but like anything else, it should be constructed with some foresight, whereas this play feels like an awkward combination of two separate plots.