agnosticnixie
Since: Mar, 2010
Aug 23rd 2014 at 5:41:50 AM
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Yes, it's only really modern critiques who think it should be some high brow joke only for the learned. Regency and restoration drama, being largely full of Shakespeare imitators, is bawdy, raunchy and violent to the point of parody. Nobody had any doubt as to what it meant in the 17th century.
Redmess
Since: Feb, 2014
Dec 2nd 2015 at 2:15:47 PM
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I think this trope is misused here. The deliberate low brow humour was never meant to be hidden for the radar, and the radar would be aware of its mixed audience of lower and upper class.
What DID need to be hidden from the radar, however, was politically sensitive material, especially in regards to the monarchy.
Optimism is a duty.
The Shakespeare examples.. wasn't he considered very lowbrow when the plays first came out?
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