parabasis

American  

[puh-rab-uh-sis] / pəˈræb ə sɪs /

noun

plural

parabases

1. (in ancient Greek drama) a choral ode addressed to the audience, especially of comedy, and independent of the action of the play: usually following the agon and, in the earliest forms of comedy, serving often to end the play.

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parabasis British  

/ pəˈræbəsɪs /

noun

1. (in classical Greek comedy) an address from the chorus to the audience

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Etymology

Origin of parabasis

1810–20; < Greek parábasis a going aside, digression; see para- ¹, basis

Example Sentences

The third period, down to 388 B.C., comprises two plays in which the transition to the character of the Middle Comedy is well marked, not merely by disuse of the parabasis, but by general self-restraint.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 5 "Arculf" to "Armour, Philip" by Various

These four verses are here repeated from the parabasis of 'The Wasps,' produced 423 B.C., the year before this play.

From The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1 by Aristophanes

They were also remarkable for the absence of the parabasis and chorus.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 6 "Coucy-le-Château" to "Crocodile" by Various

The mixed form of narrative and mono-drama lends itself to this as nothing else could: and so does the author's well-known, much discussed, and sometimes heartily abused habit of parabasis or soliloquy to the audience.

From Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges by Saintsbury, George

Of the later plays of Aristophanes, three77 are without a parabasis, and in the last of those preserved to us which properly belongs to Middle comedy78 the chorus is quite insignificant.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 6 "Dodwell" to "Drama" by Various