Perhaps the central question about Shakespeare's comedies is whether they form a single group we can meaningfully call "Shakespearean comedy." The problem arises in locating a unifying principle that is not so broad as to lack interpretive value. In "Shakespeare's Comic Changes," Roger L. Cox argues that the thread connecting almost all of Shakespeare's comedies is a plot in which character change is presented metaphorically instead of realistically. Violating classical dramatic rules about the consistency of character, Shakespeare offers character changes that are improbable and unrealistic....