According to Samuel Johnson, why is comedy is valued over tragedy in "Preface to Shakespeare"?

Samuel Johnson contends that writing comedies has been more agreeable to Shakespeare's intrinsic nature and proclivities.

In tragedy he [Shakespeare] is always struggling after some occasion to be comick; but in comedy he seems to repose, or to luxuriate, as in a mode of thinking congenial to his nature. ("Preface to Shakespeare")

Because Shakespeare's drama is "the mirror of life" that it is, Johnson explains that there is a mingling of tragedy with comedy in...

Samuel Johnson contends that writing comedies has been more agreeable to Shakespeare's intrinsic nature and proclivities.

In tragedy he [Shakespeare] is always struggling after some occasion to be comick; but in comedy he seems to repose, or to luxuriate, as in a mode of thinking congenial to his nature. ("Preface to Shakespeare")

Because Shakespeare's drama is "the mirror of life" that it is, Johnson explains that there is a mingling of tragedy with comedy in the plays. But, unlike the tragedies, the comedies have not suffered from the changes of time and the interpretations of history. The characters of comedy are, therefore, more natural. Further, Johnson argues that in the tragedies, Shakespeare has a "disproportionate pomp of diction" and much circumlocution. He adds that there is a tedious quality to the longer narration in tragedy, and it is "unanimated."

Moreover, Johnson feels that Shakespeare's real literary strength is in "the power of nature," a power that is better demonstrated in his comedies with their spontaneity. For, in the tragedies, the speeches are set and "cold and weak." Then, too, certain deviations from historical truth--"his disregard for distinctions of time and place"-- are perceived as flaws by Johnson. For instance, Johnson writes,

We need not wonder to find Hector quoting Aristotle, when we see the loves of Theseus and Hippolyta combined with the Gothick mythology of fairies. ("Preface to Shakespeare")

Johnson ends his "Preface to Shakespeare" by conceding that some allowances should be made to the Bard because of the age in which he lived.