What is "tragi-comedy"

Drama \Dra"ma\ (dr[aum]"m[.a] or dr[=a]"m[.a]; 277), n. [L. drama, Gr. dra^ma, fr. dra^n to do, act; cf. Lith. daryti.]

1. A composition, in prose or poetry, accommodated to action, and intended to exhibit a picture of human life, or to depict a series of grave or humorous actions of more than ordinary interest, tending toward some striking result. It is commonly designed to be spoken and represented by actors on the stage.

   A divine pastoral drama in the Song of Solomon.
   --Milton.

2. A series of real events invested with a dramatic unity and interest. ``The drama of war.''
   --Thackeray.

   Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last.
   --Berkeley.

   The drama and contrivances of God's providence.
   --Sharp.

3. Dramatic composition and the literature pertaining to or illustrating it; dramatic literature.

   Note: The principal species of the drama are tragedy and comedy; inferior species are tragi-comedy, melodrama, operas, burlettas, and farces.

   The romantic drama, the kind of drama whose aim is to present a tale or history in scenes, and whose plays (like those of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and others) are stories told in dialogue by actors on the stage.
   --J. A. Symonds.

also tragicomedy, "characterized by both serious and comic scenes," 1570s, from Middle French tragicomédie (1540s), from Italian tragicommedia, from Late Latin tragicomoedia, contraction of tragicocomoedia (Plautus), from tragicus (see tragic) + comoedia (see comedy).