Shakespeare and the Theatre Going Public

Shakespeare himself and his contemporaries would have been aware of the confluence between genres. Practically everybody could afford to see a play on a regular basis. There was a voracious theatre going public who demanded novelty, an escape from their day-to-day lives. The funniest Shakespeare plays to me are tragedies. Hamlet with the right actor is hilarious. King Lear, Shakespeare's bleakest play has its moments of hilarity.