Satire--The literary art of diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn or indignation.  It takes its form from the genre it spoofs.  Satire was extremely popular during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Didacticism--Idea that literature should teach its readers/viewers the correct way to behave.

Golden mean--Idea from Arisotle's Nichomachean Ethics that one should keep to the middle, neither aiming too high or too low, and that one should live one's life in moderation.  (See Cleante's speech)

Couplets--Rhyming lines of iambic pentameter verse

Repartee--Witty, rapid-fire speech between two characters (see Dorine/Orgon interchange--note caught lines, split lines

Comic devices--conventional devices that move the plot along (dropped/missent/intercepted letters; hiding in closets)

Deus ex machina--literally "God from the machine (or device)," it is the improbably or miraculous resolution of a conflict or problem that is impeding the satisfactory conclusion of the plot.