What is tragic comedy?

You will see the term tragic comedy, often shortened to
tragicomedy, in theatrical works quite often. While the overall play is a tragedy, the
playwright uses humor, sometimes satirical, to advance the storyline or to deliver a
message.

Verna Foster notes in the literary encyclopedia
that the definition of this term is often "slippery" in that is hasn't been truly
solidified, tey tragicomedy appears in even our earliest dramatic works. She
writes:

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Tragicomedy is a slippery genre. As well as
incorporating elements from tragedy and comedy, tragicomedy has often been crossed (and
sometimes confused) with pastoral, romance, satire, serious drama, black comedy, and
other genres. Not surprisingly, the term “tragicomedy” has been used vaguely and
loosely, especially as the genre seems to reinvent itself every time it appears in the
history of drama and theatre. In one sense, tragicomedy is coterminous with literature
and life itself. But in dramatic practice tragicomedy comes into being or at least can
be recognized only after tragedy and comedy have first established themselves. While
plays that combine tragic and comic effects in various ways may be identified in all
periods of
drama.

Additionally, the
encyclopedia Britannica provides a fine analysis of the history of the genre and
includes examples of plays which have been considered
tragicomedies:

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Despite its affront to the strict Neoclassicism
of the day, which forbade the mixing of genres, tragicomedy flourished, especially in
England, whose writers largely ignored the edicts of Neoclassicism. John Fletcher
provides a good example of the genre in The Faithful Shepherdess
(c. 1608), itself a reworking of Guarini's Il pastor
fido, first published in 1590. Notable examples of tragicomedy by William
Shakespeare are The Merchant of Venice (1596-97), The
Winter's Tale (1610-11), and The Tempest
(1611-12).