"It is but a step from the sublime to the ridiculous," said Napoleon, when he was convinced that he was mere man; and that outburst of a soul on fire illumines art and history at once; that cry of anguish is the resume of the drama and of life.
It is a striking fact that all these contrasts are met with in the poets themselves, taken as men.

By dint of meditating upon existence, of laying stress upon its bitter irony, of pouring floods of sarcasm and raillery upon our infirmities, the very men who make us laugh so heartily become profoundly sad.

These Democrituses are Heraclituses as well.

Beaumarchais was surly, Moliere gloomy, Shakespeare melancholy.
The fact is, then, that the grotesque is one of the supreme beauties of the drama.

It is not simply an appropriate element of it, but is oftentimes a necessity.