> as lemmas

1631 J. Mabbe (title) The Spanish Bawd, represented in Celestina: or, The Tragicke-Comedy of Calisto and Melibea.

1669 J. Denham Cato Major iii. 40 On the World's Stage, when our applause grows high, For acting here, life's Tragick Comedy.

1732 Comedian Apr. 4 I shall look on the whole World as the Scene of Action on which a continual Tragic-comedy is represented.

1775 D. Garrick May-Day 36 O yes, my dear!—your tragic-comedy.

1826 W. Scott Let. 6 Feb. in J. G. Lockhart Mem. Life Scott (1838) IV. i. 5 One most laughable part of our tragic comedy was, that every friend in the world came formally, just as they do here when a relation dies.

1919 S. M. Ellis George Meredith (1920) xii. 269 She rose to the supreme height of Tragic-Comedy and a few months later married the man whose hands were stained with the blood of her lover.

2007 J. Wallace Cambr. Introd. Trag. ii. 57 Measure for Measure and The Merchant of Venice, designated comedies in the First Folio but nowadays known rather as ‘problem’ plays or tragic-comedies.