c



Play that depicts life as meaningless, senseless, uncertain. For example, an absurdist playwright's story
generally ends up where it started; nothing has been accomplished and nothing gained. The characters may be uncertain of
time and place, and they are virtually the same at the end of the play as they were at the beginning. Here is how the genre
came about: A group of dramatists in 1940's Paris believed life is without apparent meaning or purpose; it is,
in short, absurd, as French playwright and novelist Albert Camus (1913-1960) wrote in a 1942 essay, "The
Myth of Sisyphus." Parodoxically, the only certainty in life is uncertainty, the absurdists believed. For more
about absurdist drama, see u

 
.
c One of the main divisions of a play. Shakespeare's plays each have five acts. Each act is subdivided into
scenes. An act generally focuses on one major aspect of the plot or theme. Between acts, stagehands may
change scenery, and the setting may shift to another locale.
c  Wise saying; proverb; short, memorable saying that expresses a truth and is handed down from one
generation to the next; short saying that expresses an observation or experience about life; maxim; aphorism; apothegm.
Examples of adages are the following:
Ñ  
 
 
      

 nknown author, 16th Century.


   [probably based on an observation of Robert Burton (1577-1640) in  
 : "Birds of a feather will gather together."]
 

  
   .
eorge Herbert,  

 , 1640.

 




.Benjamin Franklin.

  .. Ray, Ñ
  (1670).





 




.Of Latin origin.
      
.. Ray, Ñ
  (1670).
c 
Stage direction in a Shakespeare play (or a play by another author in Shakespeare's time) indicating the coming of a
battle; a call to arms.
c   Verse form popularized in France in which lines contain 12 syllables (and sometimes 13). Major accents occur
on the sixth and 12th syllables; two minor accents occur, one before the sixth syllable and one before the twelfth syllable. A
pause (caesura) occurs immediately after the sixth syllable.
enerally, there is no enjambment in the French Alexandrine
line. However, enjambment does occur in English translations of Alexandrine verse. The name  

 derives from a
12th Century work about Alexander the
reat that was written in this verse format. ean Baptiste Racine was one of the
masters of this format. Some English writers later adapted the format in their poetry.
c  Literary work in which characters, events, objects, and ideas have secondary or symbolic meanings. One of the
most popular allegories of the 20th Century was
eorge Orwell's 
  , about farm animals vying for power. On the
surface, it is an entertaining story that even children can enjoy. Beneath the surface, it is the story of ruthless Soviet
totalitarianism. Other famous examples of allegories are ohn Bunyan's 

! and the 15th Century morality
play, Ñ .
c   Repetition of consonant sounds. Examples: (1) But now I am abined, ribbed, onfined, bound into saucy
doubts and fears.Shakespeare. (2) Duncan is in his grave; after life's itful ever he sleeps wellShakespeare. (3) hen I
as ne-and- tentyA.E. Housman. (Note that "one" has a "w" sound. (4) I sent thee late a osy eathBen onson.
(Note that "wr" has an "r" sound.)
c
 Reference to a historical event or to a mythical or literary figure. Examples: (1) Sir Lancelot fought with
ë  strength. (Reference to the mythological hero Hercules). (2) "I have met my u ," the mountain climber
said after returning from a failed attempt to conquer Everest. (Reference to the Belgian town where Napoleon lost a make-
or-break battle). (3) Since my elementary-school days, math has always been my 
. (Reference to the weak spot
of Achilles, the greatest warrior to fight in the Trojan War. When his mother submersed him in the River Styx after he was
born, the magical waters made him invulnerable. His flesh was impervious to all harmexcept for the heel of a foot. His
mother was grasping the heel when she dipped him into the river. Because the river water did not touch his heel, it was the
only part of his body that could suffer harm. He died when a poison-tipped arrow lodged in his heel. Hence, writers over the
ages have used the term 
 to refer to a person's most pronounced weakness.
c 

(an uh dih PLOH sis) Figure of speech in which a word or phrase at the end of a sentence, clause, or line of
verse is repeated at or near the beginning of the next sentence, clause, or line of verse. Here are examples:
The peasant pledged the country his  ;   was his only possession.
.
My conscience hath a thousand several 
,
And every  brings in a several   ,
And every   condemns me for a villain.Shakespeare, [
 
""".
c 

(an ag NOR ih sis) In
reek drama, a startling discovery; moment of epiphany; time of revelation when a
character discovers his true identity. In the Sophocles play 

#[ , anagnorisis occurswhen Oedipus realizes who he
is.
c 
 c 
 See Meter .
c  (uh NAF uh ruh) Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of word groups occurring one after the
other. Examples: (1)
 wine, 
 women and 
 song. (2) For everything there is a season . . . 
 to be
born, and 
 to die; 
 to plant, and 
 to pluck up what is planted.Bible, Ecclesiastes. (3) To die, to sleep; to
sleep: perchance to dream.Shakespeare, ë . One of the most famous examples of anaphora in Shakespeare occurs in
Act II, Scene I, Lines 40-68.
c
 (uh NAS truh fe) Inversion of the normal word order, as in   (instead of  ) or as
in the opening lines of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Kubla Kahn": "$ 



%  % & # 


 (instead of "$ 

%  % 

  # 
). Here is another example, made up to
demonstrate the inverted word order of anastrophe:
In the garden green and dewy
A rose I plucked for Huey
c  A little story, often amusing, inserted in an essay or a speech to help reinforce the thesis.
c  Explanatory note that accompanies text; footnote; comment.
c 
 Character in a story or poem who opposes the main character (protagonist). Sometimes the antagonist is an
animal, an idea, or a thing. Examples of such antagonists might include illness, oppression, or the serpent in the biblical
story of Adam and Eve.
c

 (an tihn uh MAY zha) Identification of a person by an appropriate substituted phrase, such as  ' for
a queen or  
 for Shakespeare.
c

(an TIF ruh sis) See Irony, Definition 1.
c

Placement of contrasting or opposing words, phrases, clauses, or sentences side by side. Following are
examples:
I am tall; you are short.
The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.Abraham
Lincoln, "
ettysburg Address."
To err is human, to forgive divine.Alexander Pope, "Essay on Criticism."
c

Short, often witty statement presenting an observation or a universal truth; an adage. Examples: (1) Fish and
visitors smell in three daysBenjamin Franklin. (2) Many hands make light work.ohn Heywood. (3) In charity there is no
excessFrancis Bacon. (4) neasy lies the head that wears the crownWilliam Shakespeare. (See also Epigram.)
c
 Addressing an abstraction or thing, present or absent, or addressing an absent person or entity. Examples: (1)
Frailty, thy name is woman.William Shakespeare. (2) Hail, Holy Light, offspring of heaven firstborn!ohn Milton. (3)

od in heaven, please help me.
c 
  Novel that centers on the period in which a young person grows up. This type of novel was
pioneered by ohann Wolfgang von
oethe (1749-1832) in his novel u

('  (u

!
##

#)An apprenticeship novel can also be identified by its
erman name,

 , meaning novel
( ) of educational development (

).
c  (1) Original model or models for persons appearing later in history or characters appearing later in literature; (2)
the original model or models for places, things, or ideas appearing later in history or literature; (3) a primordial object,
substance, or cycle of nature that always symbolizes or represents the same positive or negative qualities.
Explanation of Definition 1: The mythical Hercules is an original model of a strong man. Consequently, he is an archetype.
Exceptionally strong men who appear later in history or literature are said to be archetypical Hercules figures because they
resemble the original Hercules. Similarly, the biblical Eve is an original model of a woman who tempts a man to commit
sin. Thus, she is an archetype. Temptresses who appear later in history or literature are said to be archetypical Eve figures
because they resemble the original Eve. Examples of archetypical Eve figures include the housewife who goads her husband
to steal from his employer and the prostitute who tempts a married man to have illicit sex. In Shakespeare¶s play   ,
Lady Macbeth is an archetypical Eve figure because she, like Eve, urges her husband to commit sinin the case of Macbeth,
to commit murder. In Shakespeare¶s ulius Caesar, Brutus is an archetypical udas (the apostle who betrayed Christ)
because Brutus betrays Caesar.
Explanation of Definition 2: The biblical Sodom and
omorrah, as well as Babylon, are original examples of cities
corrupted by sin. Thus, they are archetypes. Decadent citiesor cities perceived to be decadentthat appear later in history or
literature are said to be archetypical sin cities. Hollywood and Las Vegas are examples.
Explanation of Definition 3: Rivers, sunlight, serpents, the color red and green, and winter are examples of primordial things
(existing since the beginning of time) that are archetypes because they always symbolize the same positive or negative
qualities, according to Swiss psychiatrist Carl
ustav ung (1875-1961). Rivers represent the passage of time or life;
sunlight represents happiness, a new beginning, glory, truth, goodness, or
od; the color red represents passion, anger,
blood, or war; the color green represents new life, a new beginning, or hope; winter represents death, dormancy, or atrophy.
c
Tapestry hung on the stage to conceal scenery until the right moment. In Shakespeare's ë , an arras played a
crucial role. Polonius hid behind one to eavesdrop on a conversation between Hamlet and his mother, Queen
ertrude.
When Hamlet saw the tapestry move, he stabbed at it, thinking King Claudius was behind it, and killed Polonius.
c 
 Literary work in which a knight in the age of the legendary King Arthur goes on a quest.
c
 Words an actor speaks to the audience which other actors on the stage cannot hear. Sometimes the actor cups his
mouth toward the audience or turns away from the other actors. An aside serves to reveal a character's thoughts or concerns
to the audience without revealing them to other characters in a play. Near the end of ë , Queen
ertrude raises a cup of
wine to her lips during the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes. King Claudius had poisoned the wine and intended it
for Hamlet. In an aside, Claudiusunwilling to warn
ertrude in an effort to preserve his innocencesays, "It is the poison'd
cup: it is too late."
c

  Repetition of vowel sounds preceded and followed by different consonant sounds. se of "bite" and "like" in a
line of poetry would constitute assonance. Examples: (1) There are no tricks in #
 and simple 
.Shakespeare. (2) But
I am pigeon-

, and lack gall to make oppression
. (3) ohn met his   by the  .
c
  se of words or phrases in a series without connectives such as 
or . Examples (1) One cause, one country,
one heart.Daniel Webster. (2) Veni, vidi, vici (Latin: I came, I saw, I conquered).ulius Caesar.
c Peninsula in southeastern
reece that included Athens. According to legend, the King of Athens, Theseus, unified 12
states in Attica into a single state dominated by Athenian leadership and the Athenian dialect of the
reek language. The
adjective 
has long been associated with the culture, language and art of Athens. The great period of
reek drama,
between the Sixth and Fourth Centuries, B.C., is known as the Attic Period. Drama itself was invented by an Attic actor,
Thespis, who introduced speaking parts to accompany choral odes.
c  [oh BAHD] oyful song about dawn and its beauty; morning serenade. One of the finest aubades in literature
occurs in Act II, Scene III, of Shakespeare's play ï 
. It begins with the the famous words "Hark, hark! the lark at
heaven's gate sings" (Line 22).
ÿ   Poem that tells a story about people of a particular region and culture. Although ballads can be read or recited as
poetry, they are usually meant to be sung. The typical ballad has several stanzas that repeat phrases and themes.
ÿ   Lyric poem of French origin usually made up of three eight-line stanzas and a concluding four-line stanza called an
envoi that offers parting advice or a summation. At the end of each stanza is a refrain. Each line of the poem contains about
eight syllables. The rhyme scheme of the eight-line stanza is  The rhyme scheme of the envoi is  .Ballade
des dames du temps jadis" is an excellent example of the genre.
ÿ  Originally, a Celtic poet who sang epic poems while playing a harp. In time, 
was used to refer to any poet.
Today, it is often used to refer to William Shakespeare ( 
).
ÿ
  See Fable.
ÿ

: See Apprenticeship Novel.
ÿ

 Inflated, pretentious speech or writing that sounds important but is generally balderdash.
ÿ   Fourteenth Century English narrative poem in rhyme about courtly love that contains elements of the
supernatural. The English borrowed the Breton-lay format from storytellers in Brittany, France. A lay is a medieval
narrative poem originally intended to be sung.  is an adjective describing anyone or anything from Brittany. "The
Franklin's Tale," a story in
eoffrey Chaucer's ï   , is an example of a Breton lay.
ÿ
 Literary work, film, or stage production that mocks a person, a place, a thing, or an idea by using wit, irony,
hyperbole, sarcasm, and/or understatement. For example, a burlesque may turn a supposedly distinguished person into a
buffoon or a supposedly lofty subject into a trivial one. A hallmark of burlesque is its thoroughgoing exaggeration, often to
the point of the absurd. Cervantes used burlesque in V*
 to poke fun at chivalry and other outdated romantic ideals.
Among English writers who used burlesque were Samuel Butler (ë

 ) and ohn
ay ( +# ). Burlesque
is a close kin of parody. The latter usually ridicules a specific literary work or artistic production.
.

c   _




   

By the Author of This Web Site

.
Plot Summaries of All the Plays and Narrative Poems | Themes | Imagery | Historical Background |
lossaries
Shakespeare's Theatre | Drama Terms | Essays | Analysis of the Sonnets | and Much More
|
à 
 
 ! c
"

..
#
 Pause in a line of verse shown in scansion by two vertical lines ( || ).
#  Complete works of an author. When reasonable doubt exists that an author wrote a work attributed to him, scholars
generally exclude it from the author¶s canon. Such doubt sometimes arises when a centuries-old workfor example, a play,
poem, or novelhas survived intact to the present day without an author¶s byline or other documentation proving that a
particular author wrote it.
#  Major division division of an epic poem, such as Dante's V

ï
. The word is derived from the Latin  
(song).
#   Literary work or cartoon that exaggerates the physical features, dress, or mannerisms of an individual or derides
the ideas and actions of an organization, institution, movement, etc. The word is derived from the Italian caricare, meaning

   
 . In literature, caricature is a form of burlesque.
#  
Latin expression meaning 
,
. Literary works with a  #

 theme tell readers to enjoy life while
they can. In other words, they should eat, drink and be merry and not worry about dying. Sir ohn Falstaff, the fun-loving
and hard-drinking knight in Shakespeare's ë"- "ë"- "", and u
u

 believed in
carpe diem. An example of a poem with a carpe diem theme is Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress."
#   
See Meter.
# 


(1) Climax of a stage play.
# 
 (1) Denouement, or conclusion, of a stage tragedy; (2) denouement of any literary work.
#  In published Shakespeare plays in earlier times, a single word on the bottom of the right side of every page.
This word was the first word appearing on the next page.
#  

In literature and art, a purification of emotions. The
reek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) used the term to
describe the effect on the audience of a tragedy acted out on a theater stage. This effect consists in cleansing the audience of
disturbing emotions, such as fear and pity, thereby releasing tension. This purgation occurs as a result of either of the
following reactions: (1) Audience members resolve to avoid conflicts of the main characterfor example, Oedipus in


#[ and Creon in 
that arouse fear or pity or (2) audience members transfer their own pity and fear to the
main character, thereby emptying themselves of these disquieting emotions. In either case, the audience members leave the
theater as better persons intellectually, morally, or socially. They have either been cleansed of fear of pity or have vowed to
avoid situations that arouse fear and pity. In modern usage, catharsis may refer to any experience, real or imagined, that
purges a person of negative emotions.
# 

In the drama of ancient
reece, sleeveless outer garment, or cloak, worn by some actors.
#   (pronounced SHAN te; alternate spellings:    ) In earlier times, a song sung by sailors that
kept time with the work they were doing, such as tugging on a rope to hoist a sail. The length of chanteys varied in relation
to the length of the tasks being performed.
#   $  Character in story who has only one prominent trait, such as greed or cruelty.
#   $ Character in a story who has many aspects to his or her personality. The character may have a good side
and a bad side; he or she may be unpredictable.
#   $!  Character in a literary work who does not change his or her outlook in response to events taking place.
# 
 Tale of courtly love. In such tales, nights exhibit nobility, courage, and respect for their ladies fair, and
the ladies exhibit elegance, modesty, and fidelity. Although knights and ladies may fall passionately in love, they eschew
immoral behavior. In conflicts between good and evil, justice prevails.
eoffrey Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale," the first
story in ï   , is an example of a chivalric romance.
#


(pronounced ki AZ mis) Words in a second clause or phrase that invert or transpose the order of the first clause
or phrase. Here are examples:
I come from the rural north, from the urban south comes she.
ohn is a good worker, and a bright student is Mary.
A fop their passion, but their prize a sot.Alexander Pope.
Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlikeSamuel Taylor Coleridge.
#
%& 'à ( Bystanders in a
reek play who present odes on the action. A # 
 (or # 
) is a song sung by
the chorus when it enters. A  
 is a song sung during the play, between episodes of action. The chorus generally had
the following roles in the plays of Sophocles and other
reek playwrights: ./) #
 
.0)
#


 
   
 #

.1)
.2)  

# .3)
 
&
 
.4)
 !
. In some ways, the chorus is like the narrator
of a modern film or like the background music accompanying the action of the film. In addition, it is like text on the film
screen that provides background information or identifies the time and place of the action.
#  [KRON ih kler]: recorder of medieval events; historian
# !   
[kron EEK skan duH LOOZ]: Literary work centering on gossip and intrigue at the court of a
king.
#



In literature, a tradition espousing the ideals of ancient
reece and Rome: objectivity, emotional restraint,
systematic thinking, simplicity, clarity, universality, dignity, acceptance of established social standards, promotion of the
general welfare, and strict adherence to formal rules of composition. A classical writer typically restrained his emotions and
his ego while writing in clear, dignified language; he also presented stories in carefully structured plots. Classicism
remained a guiding force in literature down through the ages. Writers in the 15th,
16th and 17th centuries, as well as the first half of the 18th Century, highly esteemed classical ideals. In the mid-18th
Century, writers began to rebel against classical ideals in what came to be known as the Romantic Movement, or
romanticism, which advocated emotional freedom, imaginative thinking, and individuality in writing. However, neither
classical nor romantic writing was always entirely faithfully to its ideals. For example, a classical writer may have exhibited
emotional effusion from time to time or expressed himself with language less than dignified; conversely, a romantic writer
may have exhibited emotional restraint and cool objectivity on occasion. Writers today continue to use many of the
principles of both the classical and romantic schools of writing.
#) Overused expression. Examples: 

  

,    
 , 

# 


#
,    ,  
. Writers should avoid using clichés whenever possible.
#
 High point in a story. In ë , this point occurs when Hamlet and Laertes duel with swords and mortally wound
each other. In classic detective stories, this point usually occurs when Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan, Hercules Poirot, etc.,
lay out the evidence and finger the killer.
#

A drama written to be read rather than acted on a stage. An example is _ 
, by ohn Milton, a
1671 tragedy about the final days of the biblical hero Samson.
#
 (Stage) Play with a happy ending. The stage comedies in ancient and Renaissance times did not always contain
humor, the staple of the modern stage and film comedy, but they did end happily. By contrast, a stage tragedy always ends
unhappily.
#
*  
Comedy that ridicules the manners (way of life, social customs, etc.) of a certain segment of society.
An example is Oliver
oldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, in which
oldsmith pokes fun at the English upper class. The
play uses farce (including many mix-ups) to ridicule the class-consciousness of 18th Century Englishmen.
#
++c   See Apprenticeship novel.
#  à  Poetry with lines arranged to resemble a familiar object, such as a Christmas tree. Concrete poetry is also
called  #
.
# The struggle in a work of literature. This struggle may be between one person and another person or between a
person and an animal, an idea or a thing. It may also be between a person and himself or herself (internal conflict). In
Shakespeare's ë , the conflict is manifold. Hamlet struggles against the villain Claudius, against the unbecoming
conduct of his mother, and against his conscience and indecision.
# à
 Philosophical novel or philosophical story, a genre Voltaire is credited with inventing. His 
#
#
5 (which include 
6  and 7

) are characterized by a ³swift-moving adventure story in which
characterization [counts] for little and the moral (or sometimes immoral) lesson for much´ (Brumfitt, .H. -
8
ï 


. Oxford, England: Oxford niversity Press, 1968, Page 9.)
#  Funeral song (dirge) in Scotland and Ireland. In addition to being sung, it was sometimes played on bagpipes.
#(singular, ) Boots worn by actors in ancient
reece to increase their height and, thus, visibility to
theater audiences. Singular: .
#  Two successive lines of poetry with end rhyme.
# ,)- (pronounced KOO duh tay AH truh) (1) Startling development in a drama that is unforeseen and
unmotivated; (2) a cheap plot development intended solely to create a sensation.
# $.  Two successive end-rhyming lines in iambic pentameter. Following is an example:
What dire offence from am'rous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things
(Lines 1 and 2, [ #(, by Alexander Pope)
    See Meter.
 
 The outcome or resolution of the plot, occurring after the climax. In a murder mystery, the denouement may
outline the clues that led to the capture of a murderer. In a drama about family discord, it may depict the reconciliation of
family members after a period of estrangmentor the permanent dissolution of family ties if the drama reaches a climax in
which the discord worsens.
 
/*  See  
.
   
 In
reek drama, the character second in importance to the main character, or protagonist.
  Conversation in a play, short story, or novel. A literary work on a single topic presented in the form of a
conversation. Plato's [# 
, _#
, and  
 are examples of literary works that are dialogues.
 Word choice; the quality of the sound of a speaker or singer.
ood diction means that a writer pleases the eye of a
reader or the ear of a listener.
  Adjective describing a literary work intended to teach a lesson or a moral principle.

  See Meter.

 $&   See Dionysus.

 $  See Dionysus.


Patron god of
reek drama; god of wine and vegetation. Dionysus, called Bacchus by the Romans, was the son of
Zeus and one of the most important of the
reek gods. Dionysus died each winter and was reborn each spring, a cycle his

reek devotees identified with the death and rebirth of nature. He thus symbolized renewal and rejuvenation, and each
spring the
reeks celebrated his resurrection with ceremonies that eventually included drama contests. The most prestigious
of these festivals was the
reater Dionysia, held in Athens for five days and participated in by playwrights such as
Sophocles, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Euripides. Festivals held in villages and small towns were called the Rural
Dionysia.

In the drama of ancient
reece, a choral hymn that praised Dionysus, god of wine and revelry, and sometimes
told a story. In his great work 
, Aristotle wrote that dithyrambs inspired the development of
reek tragic plays, such
as those of Sophocles. The first "play" supposedly took place in the 6th Century B.C. when Thespis, a member of a chorus,
took the part of a character in a dithyramb. The action shifted back and forth between him and the chorus. See also
Thespian.
   Trivial or bad poetry.


 ÿ' [DOOMS day book] official census of the English people and their possessions, notably land, which was
completed in 1086 at the behest of King William I (William the Conqueror).
 0 (pronounced DOP l gayng er) In folklore, the spirit double of a living person. Among well-known writers
who have used doppelgängers in their works are Fyodor Dostoevski and E.T.A. Hoffman. A doppelgänger is not the same as
a ghost; the latter is an apparition of a dead person.

Literary work with dialogue written in verse and/or prose and spoken by actors playing characters experiencing
conflict and tension. The English word
  comes from the
reek word "dran," meaning "to do."

1 Failure of a character to see or understand what is obvious to the audience. The most notable example of
dramatic irony in all of literature occurs in 

# [ , by Sophocles, when Oedipus fails to realize what the audience
knowsthat he married his own mother.

* : Poem that presents a moment in which a narrator/speaker discusses a topic and, in so doing, reveals
his personal feelings to a listener. Only the narrator, talkshence the term , meaning "single () discourse
()." During his discourse, the speaker intentionally and unintentionally reveals information about himself. The main
focus of a dramatic monologue is this personal information, not the speaker's topic. A dramatic monologue is a type of
character study. Perhaps the most famous dramatic monologue in English literature is Robert Browning's "My Last
Duchess."


à 
 List of the characters in a play. Such a list is found at the beginning of each Shakespeare play, as well
as the plays of other dramatists.
/ 1

 : Terms describing published versions of newspapers and magazines. A newspaper printed on a specific
date, such as August 22, is an issue. However, the August 22 issue of the newspaper may go through several printings: one
at 6 a.m., for example, and one at 2 p.m. and one at 10 p.m. The 2 p.m. version would update or revise news in the 6 a.m.
version--or add new stories; the 10 p.m. version would update or revise news in the 2 p.m. version--or add new stories. The
newspapers printed at 6 a.m., 2 p.m., and 10 p.m. would all be editions of the August 22 issue.
/

$  : Acting in oneself¶s best interests (that is, acting selfishly) by selecting what appears to be the most
beneficial of all the choices available. Russian writer Nikolay
avrilovich Chernyshevsky (1828-1889) centered various
writings on this subject. His great contemporary, Fyodor Mikhailovitch Dostoevsky (1821-1881), attacked rational egoism
in his novel *9

. There are two types rational egoism, which are as follows:
Psychological Egoism: Belief that a person¶s nature, or biological makeup, will always cause him to act in his own self-
interest. In other words, a person has no free will; he will always end up choosing what he perceives is best for him.
Suppose, for example, that two persons each have a toothache and a fear of dentists. After reviewing the alternatives, the
first person decides to go to the dentist to have the tooth extracted because he perceives that the latter course will cause him
less pain and distress in the long run. The second person, after reviewing the alternatives, decides to pull the tooth himself
because he perceives that this course of action²despite the pain and greater risk of complications that self-treatment
poses²will cause him less mental trauma than a dentist¶s treatment. In both cases, there is no real "decision." What the
persons do is dictated by their genetic makeup and other determining factors, according to proponents of this theory.
Normative Egoism: Belief that a person will act in his own best interests if he first thoroughly educates himself about the
choices available. In this type of egoism, the second person in the example above would presumably decide to go to a
dentist because, after educating himself about both alternatives, he would realize that professional treatment is more likely
to produce a positive outcome.
The rational egoists Dostoevsky criticizes²most notably Chernyshevsky²maintained that one always acted in his own
self-interest, as in psychological egoism, but also ought to investigate the available alternatives or options in order to make
the most informed choice. However, there is a conflict here. On the one hand, psychological egoism presumes that a person
has no free will. On the other hand, normative egoism implies that a person has at least a modicum of free will and, after
educating himself, acts with "enlightened self-interest." Nevertheless, Chernyshevsky believed that a person had no free will
regardless of how he went about making his choice.
/  A somber poem or song that praises or laments the dead. Perhaps the finest elegy in English literature is Thomas

ray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."
/

%à /
 (.(1) In ancient
reece, a poem in the form of a choral song praising a victor in the Olympic
games. (2) In modern usage, any speech, essay, poem, etc., that praises a person.
/2

.Carrying the sense of one line of verse over to the next line without a pause. In the first four lines of "My Last
Duchess," by Robert Browning, enjambment joins the second and third lines (" & ) and the third and fourth lines
( 
! 
&u
):
That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
/ .Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating the entrance onto the stage of a character or characters.
/ Long poem in a lofty style about the exploits of heroic figures. Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, as well as the Old English
poem Beowulf, are examples of epics.
/# 
Literary practices, rules, or devices that became commonplace in epic poetry. Among the classical
conventions Milton used are the following:
.......(1) The invocation of the muse, in which a writer requests divine help in composing his work.
.......(2) Telling a story with which readers or listeners are already familiar; they know the characters, the plot, and
the outcome. Most of the great writers of the ancient worldas well as many great writers in later times, including
Shakespearefrequently told stories already known to the public. Thus, in such stories, there were no unexpected
plot twists, no surprise endings. If this sounds strange to you, the modern reader and theatergoer, consider that many
of the most popular motion pictures today are about stories already known to the public. Examples are  

ï
, 
 
, ï 
, , _#  ,  ë  , and  .
.......(3) Beginning the story in the middle, a literary convention known by its Latin term


 (




). Such a convention allows a writer to begin his story at an exciting part, then flash back to fill the reader
in on details leading up to that exciting part.
.......(4) Announcing or introducing a list of characters who play a major role in the story. They may speak at some
length about how to resolve a problem (as the followers of Satan do early in  

().
.......(5) Conflict in the celestial realm. Divine beings fight and scheme against one another in the epics of Homer
and Vergil, and they do so in  

( on a grand scale, with Satan and his forces opposing
od and his
forces.
.......(6) se of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is a figure of speech in which a character in a story fails to see or
understand what is obvious to the audience. Dramatic irony appears frequently in the plays of the ancient
reeks.
For example, in 

# [ , by Sophocles, dramatic irony occurs when Oedipus fails to realize what the audience
knowsthat he married his own mother. In  

(t, dramatic irony occurs when Adam and Eve happily go
about daily life in the
arden of Eden unaware that they will succumb to the devil's temptation and suffer the loss of
Paradise. Dramatic irony also occurs when Satan and his followers fail to understand that it is impossible ultimately
to thwart or circumvent divine will and justice.
/
Wise or witty saying expressing a universal truth in a few words. Following are examples of epigrams from
Shakespeare:
There's small choice in rotten apples. 
_: Act I, Scene I.
A goodly apple rotten at the heart, O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath! -
8 Act I, Scene
III.
They are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that starve with nothing. -
: Act I, Scene
II.
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. -
:
Act V, Scene I.
Every cloud engenders not a storm.ë-" """: Act V, Scene III.
Words pay no debts.
 
ï

: Act III, Scene II.
O! it is excellent to have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.  : Act II,
Scene II.
/  (1) Quotation inserted at the beginning of a poem, a novel, or any other literary work; (2) a dedication of a
literary work or a work of art such as a painting; (3) words inscribed or painted on a monument, building, trophy, etc.
/ In Shakespeare, a short address spoken by an actor at the end of a play that comments on the meaning of the
events in the play or looks ahead to expected events; an afterword in any literary work.
/%à / (: In ancient
reece, a choral ode celebrating an athletic victory. For additional information,
click here.
 /
 Scene or incident in a literary work.
/
 Letter written by an apostle in the New Testament of the Bible; any letter, especially an informal or
instructive one.
/
   Novel in which a character (or characters) tells the story through letters (epistles) sent to a
friend, relative, etc. For example, in Mary Shelley's  
, Captain Robert Walton writes letters to his sister to bring
her up to date on his expedition in the Arctic. After his ship takes Victor Frankenstein aboard, he listens to Frankenstein¶s
story and writes it down in letter form.
/  Inscription on a tomb or a written work praising a dead person; any commemoration, eulogy, or remembrance.
/

The part of a stage play that develops the characters, plot, and theme. The epitasis follows the protasis.
/ 
%/ 

$/ 
( Poem or song honoring the bride and groom on the day of their wedding.
The term is derived from
reek words referring to the bedroom of a woman. In ancient times, an epithalamion was
performed in front of the bridal chamber. However, #
  
 can also refer to a song performed during the wedding
ceremony. Surviving fragments of the
reek poetess Saphho (610-580 B.C.) indicate that she wrote wedding songs called
#
  
. In Rome, the great lyric poet Catullus (84-54 B.C.) wrote epithalamions. In the Renaissance, English poets
such as ohn Donne, Sir Philip Sydney, Ben onson, Robert Herrick, and Richard Crashaw wrote epithalamions. Many
critics believe Edmund Spenser's "Epithalamion"written in 1595 on the occasion of his second marriageis the greatest
English poem in this genre. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) wrote a famous epithalamion, which used as its title the
Latin word for the term#
  
.
/  One of the hallmarks of the style of the
reek epic poet Homer is the epithet, a combination of a descriptive phrase
and a noun. An epithet presents a miniature portrait that identifies a person or thing by highlighting a prominent
characteristic of that person or thing. In English, the Homeric epithet usually consists of a noun modified by a compound
adjective, such as the following: :

, :


, 
:
 ,  : 


, and
 :
 . The Homeric epithet is an ancient relative of such later epithets as [
 
(
:ë 
, " 

, and 
  
. Homer repeated his epithets often, presumably so the listeners of his recited tales could
easily remember and picture the person or thing each time it was mentioned. In this respect, the Homeric epithet resembles
the leitmotiv of opera composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883). The leitmotiv was a repeated musical theme associated with
a character, a group of characters, an emotion, or an idea.
/

   (es PRE duh SKAL yay): Slow wit. sed to characterize a person who thinks of the ideal reply or retort
after leaving a conversation and going upstairs (escalier). On the stairs, the ideal reply occurs to him.
/

 Short, nonfiction composition on a single topic. The typical essay contains 500 to 5,000 words, although some essays
may contain only 300 words and others 10,000 or more words. Examples of essays are newspaper or magazine articles that
inform readers about current events, newspaper or magazine editorials that argue for or against a point of view, movie
reviews, research papers, encyclopedia articles, articles in medical journals, and articles in travel magazines. There are four
types of essays: those that inform the reader without taking a position; those that argue for or against a point of view; those
that describe a person, place, thing, or idea; and those that tell a true story. Essays often require extensive research to
support claims made by the writer of the essay.
/ Speech or written work paying tribute to a person who has recently died; speech or written work praising a person
(living, as well as dead), place, thing, or idea.
/


Word or phrase that softens the hard reality of the truth, such as 


, for 
#, # 
   for


, 
  for 
, #

  for
 ,   
  for 



  during war, and
# 
## for  . The .S. Central Intelligence Agency once used the euphemism ë Ñ  
ï
 for
 
 
 . In general, good writers avoid euphemisms.
/

Ornate, high-flown style of speaking or writing.
/
 Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating that a military attack is taking place. The opening of Scene II in
Act III of Shakespeare's %
; contains such a stage direction.
/

..Short narrative in verse or prose that teaches a moral lesson or reinforces a doctrine or religious belief.
/ ..[EX e unt] Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating the departure of two or more characters from the stage.
/ Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating the departure of a character from the stage.
/
(EX uh doss): In a drama of ancient
reece, the exit scene; the final part of the play
/



In literature, expressionism is a writing approach, process, or technique in which a writer depicts a
character¶s feelings about a subject (or the writer¶s own feelings about it) rather than the objective surface reality of the
subject. A writer, in effect, presents his interpretation of what he sees. Often, the depiction is a grotesque distortion or
phantasmagoric representation of reality, for the character or writer must reshape the objective image into his mind's image.
However, there is logic to this approach for these reasons: (1) Not everybody perceives the world in the same way. What
one person may see as beautiful or good another person may see as ugly or bad. Sometimes a writer or his character suffers
from a mental debility, such as depression or paranoia, which alters his perception of reality. Expressionism enables the
writer to present this altered perception. An example of a character who sees reality through his mind's eye is oseph K., the
protagonist of Franz Kafka's novel 
.
/
 In a story, the part of the plot that introduces the setting and characters and presents the events and situations
that the story will focus on. Ñ #

 also refers to an essay whose primary purpose is to inform readers rather than to
argue a point.
  Story that teaches a lesson or rule of living. The characters are usually animals that speak and act like humans. The
most famous fables are those attributed to Aesop, a
reek, Thracian, Phrygian, Babylonian, or Lydian storyteller or a group
of storytellers who assigned the name # to a collection of fables popularized in
reece. Aesop's fables are sometimes
referred to as   .
   Short verse tale with coarse humor and earthy, realistic, and sometimes obscene descriptions that present an
episode in the life of contemporary middle- and lower-class people. The fabliau uses satire and cynicism, along with vulgar
comedy, to mock one or several of its characters. Not infrequently, the ridiculed character is a jealous husband, a wayward
wife, a braggart, a lover, a proud or greedy tradesman, a doltish peasant, or a lustful or greedy clergyman. Plot development
often depends on a prank, a pun, a mistaken identity, or an incident involving the characters in intrigue. The fabliau was
popular in France from 1100 to 1300, then went out of fashion. Chaucer revived the format in ï    to write
³The Miller¶s Tale,´ ³The Reeve¶s Tale,´ ³The Cook¶s Tale,´ ³The Shipman¶s Tale,´ and The Summoner¶s Tale.´ It is not
entirely clear whether the fabliau was a pastime of the upper classes as a means to ridicule their social inferiors or of the
middle and lower classes as a means to poke fun at themselves.
 # In Shakespeare's time, a play manuscript after it has been edited.
  Type of comedy that relies on exaggeration, horseplay, and unrealistic or improbable situations to provoke laughter.
In a farce, plotting takes precedence over characterization.
 !  Word, phrase or sentence that (1) presents a ³figure´ to the mind of the reader, (2) presents an
imaginative or unusual use of words that the reader is not to take literally, or (3) presents a special arrangement or use of
words or word sounds that create an unusual effect. Ordinary language that does not contain a figure of speech is called
literal language. Language that contains a figure of speech is called figurative language. Figurative language is also
sometimes called imagery because it presents an image to the mind. Consider the following sentences:
The leaves blew across the lawn. (Literal language)
The leaves danced across the lawn. (Figurative language)
Notice that the second sentence presents a figure to the mind of the reader: The leaves are dancing as if they were people.
Obviously, the writer does not mean that the leaves literally danced. However, they ³figuratively´ danced. Now consider the
following additional examples:
Mr. Piper harvested a bushel of green vegetables. (Literal language)
Peter Piper picked four pecks of peppers. (Figurative language)
The repetition of the "p" in the second sentence is considered a figure of speech because it presents a sound to the mind.
This glossary contains definitions of various figures of speech. The most common figures of speech are Alliteration, Irony,
Metaphor, Metonymy, Onomatopoeia, Oxymoron, Paradox, Personification, Simile, and Synecdoche.

 ' Device in which a writer describes significant events of an earlier time or actually returns the plot to an earlier
time. Flashback enables the author to inform the reader of significant happenings that influence later action. Vehicles that
writers use to return to earlier times include dreams, memories, and stories told by the narrator or a character.

 Stage direction in a play manuscript for music introducing the entrance or exit of a king or another important
person. The music may consist of a short trumpet passage.
 (1) A secondary or minor character in a literary work who contrasts or clashes with the main character; (2) a secondary
or minor character with personal qualities that are the opposite of, or markedly different from, those of another character; (3)
the antagonist in a play or another literary work. A foil sometimes resembles his or her contrasting character in many
respects, such as age, dress, social class, and educational background. But he or she is different in other respects, including
personality, moral outlook, and decisiveness. In Sophocles¶ play 
, Ismene is a foil of Antigone, her sister. Ismene is
easygoing, soft-spoken, and willing to keep her place. Antigone, on the other hand, is headstrong, outspoken, and unwilling
to keep her place. Creon is also a foil of Antigone, and Antigone is a foil of Creon. Creon represents government law and
male dominance; Antigone represents the moral law and female rights. They clash. In so doing, one foil sets off the other.
Their quarreling helps to reveal their personality traits.
 A folio is a sheet of printing paper folded once to form four separate pages for printing a book. To better visualize a
folio, hold before you a standard sheet of typing paper and fold it as you would a letter..You now have a rectangular piece of
paper. Hold it so it opens from right to left. What you are looking at is Page 1. Now turn the flap from right to left to open
the rectangle. You are now looking at Pages 2 and 3 separated by a crease. When you close the right flap over the left, you
will be looking at Page 4. A folio was considerably larger than a quarto.In 1623, friends and admirers of Shakespeare
compiled a reasonably authentic collection of 36 of Shakespeare's plays in a folio edition of more than 900 pages that was
entitled u

_ # !ï

ë

< 

. The printer and publisher was William aggard,
assisted by his son Isaac. This edition became known as The First Folio. Because of the authenticity of this collection, later
publishers used it to print copies of the plays. Other folios were printed in 1632, 1663 and 1685. In 1664, a second printing
of the 1663 folio included the first publication of 

.
' Stories, songs, and sayings transmitted by memory (that is, orally) rather than by books or other printed
documents, from one generation to the next. Folklore thrives indepently of polished, sophisticated literature in the form of
ballads, fairytales, superstitions, riddles, legends, fables, plays, nursery rhymes, and proverbs. Englishman William Thoms
invented the term  in 1846. acob and Wilhelm
rimm,
erman scholars who studied folklore in the early 1800's,
compiled many tales based on their research, including the stories of Briar-Rose (Sleeping Beauty) and Rumpelstiltskin.
 In the courts of England in Shakespeare's time, a fool was a comic figure with a quick tongue who entertained the king,
the queen, and their guests. He was allowed toand even expected tocriticize anyone at court. Many fools were dwarfs or
cripples, their odd appearance enhancing their appeal and, according to prevailing beliefs, bringing good luck to the court.
Actors William Kempe and Richard Armin became London celebrities for their performances as fools in Shakespeare's
plays. Armin wrote a book about fools entitled9#=_
__.Egypt's pharaohs were the first
rulers to use fools, notably Pygmies from African territories to the south.
  %*  ( See Meter.

  Device a writer uses to hint at a future course of action. The words    in the first line of ³The
Story of an Hour,´ by Kate Chopin, refer to a condition of the main character, Mrs. Mallard, and foreshadow the story's
ironic ending, in which Mrs. Mallard dies from shock when her husbandwhom she thought deadwalks through the front
door. Because of foreshadowing in the opening paragraph of the story, the ending becomes believable. Shirley ackson also
uses foreshadowing in the second paragraph of her outstanding short story ³The Lottery´ in the following sentence:  
 

 


# 
 

 #



This sentence foreshadows the stoning scene at the end of the story. Another example of
foreshadowing occurs in the prologue of Shakespeare's [ 
;
. An actor called ³the chorus´ recites a sonnet in
which he describes the bitter hatred separating the Montagues and Capulets and identifies Romeo and uliet as lovers who
had the misfortune to be born into warring families: ³From forth the fatal loins of these two foes [the Montagues and the
Capulets] / A pair of star-cross¶d lovers take their life" (Lines 5-6).  

 appears to have a double-meaning: first,
that they come into existence; second, in a foreshadowing of events to come, that they go out of existence by taking their
own lives.
à  
In Shakespeare's time, the original manuscript of a playwright which was later edited.

,  Story with a plot structure in which an author uses two or more narrators to present the action. The first
narrator sets the scene and reports to the reader the details of a story told by a character. (In some frame tales, the first
narrator reports the details of several stories told by several narrators.) In Mary Shelley's  
, Captain Robert
Waltona minor characteris the first narrator. He sets the scene and listens to the story told by Victor Frankenstein, the
main character. All of the information Walton reports to the reader is in the form of letters written to his sister. Thus,
 
 is a frame tale in that it is like a framed painting: Walton's story is the frame, and Frankenstein's story is the
painting. Some frame talessuch as Chaucer's ï    and Boccaccio's V have several narrators
telling stories "inside the frame." One famous frame talethe 
*
 (also called  
 
*
)
has only one narrator, a sultan's bride named Scheherazade, who tells many tales "inside the frame," including the well-
known stories of Sindbad the Sailor, Aladdin and his magic lamp, and Ali Baba and his magical command "Open sesame!"
 3 
Form of poetry that ignores standard rules of meter and rhyme in favor of the rhythms of ordinary conversation.
In effect, free verse liberates poetry from conformity to rigid metrical rules that dictate stress patterns and the number of
syllables per line. French poets originated free verse (or 
) in the 1880s, although earlier poems of Walt Whitman
(1819-1892) and other writers exhibited characteristics of free verse. Although free verse generally contains no metrical
patterns and end rhymes, it may contain other types of patterns. For examples, see Format: Free Verse "When I Heard the
Learn'd Astronomer."
&
  Excessive boasting; incessant bragging. Perhaps the most famous braggart in all of literature is Sir ohn Falstaff,
the rotund knight (ë"- "ë"- "") who is brave in words but timid in deeds.
&  Type or kind, as applied to literature and film. Examples of genres are romance, horror, tragedy, adventure, suspense,
science fiction, epic poem, elegy, novel, historical novel, short story, and detective story.
&
 Anglo-Saxon minstrel who sang or recited poetry.
leemen traveled from place to place but sometimes found
employment in the court of a monarch.
&
 (NO mik) Adjective describing writing that contains wise, witty sayings (aphorisms)
&  (
AWL yerd) Wandering student of Medieval Europe who made merry and wrote earthy or satiric verses in Latin.

oliards sometimes served as jesters or minstrels
& Literary genre focusing on dark, mysterious, terrifying events. The story unfolds at one or more spooky
sites, such as a dimly lit castle, an old mansion on a hilltop, a misty cemetery, a forlorn countryside, or the laboratory of a
scientist conducting frightful experiments. In some
othic novels, characters imagine that they see ghosts and monsters. In
others, the ghosts and monsters are real. The weather in a
othic novel is often dreary or foul: There may be high winds that
rattle windowpanes, electrical storms with lightning strikes, and gray skies that brood over landscapes. The
othic novel
derives its name from the
othic architectural style popular in Europe between the 12th and 16th centuries.
othic
structuressuch as cathedralsfeatured cavernous interiors with deep shadows, stone walls that echoed the footsteps of
worshippers, gargoyles looming on exterior ledges, and soaring spires suggestive of a supernatural presence. See also
southern
othic.
.   Book on the lives of saints; scholarly study of the lives of saints.
.
 Serious character flaw of the main character (protagonist) of a
reek tragedy. Often, this flaw is great pride, or
hubris. But it may also be prejudice, anger, zealotry, poor judgment, an inherited weakness, or any other serious
shortcoming.
.  
[OH bwah] Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating that entering characters are playing hautboys, which
are Elizabethan oboes.
. 
  See Meter.
. # . nit of two rhyming lines in iambic pentameter. Following is an example:
What dire offence from am'rous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things
(Lines 1 and 2, [ #(, by Alexander Pope)
. 
  See Meter.
.#
 Comedy that relies on wit and subtle irony or sarcasm. High comedy usually focuses on the everyday life of
upper classes. It is generally verbal rather than physical. See also Low Comedy.
.
 A clergyman's talk that usually presents practical moral advice rather than a lesson on a scriptural passage, as in a
sermon.
. 
. 

reat pride that brings about the downfall of a character in a
reek drama or in other works of literature.
. : Eight-line stanza (French).
.   Exaggeration; overstatement. Examples: (1) He [ulius Caesar] doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus,
and we petty men walk under his...huge legs.Shakespeare. (Caesar has become a giant.) (2) Ten thousand oceans cannot
wash away my guilt. (3) Oscar has the appetite of a starving lion.
1 Poem focusing on the simplicity and tranquillity of rural life; prose work with a similar focus. "
 is derived from the

reek 

>
 (little picture or image). The
reek poet Theocritus (300-260 B.C.) developed this genre.
1
 1
 See Meter.
1 In a Shakespeare play, an introductory event that precedes Act 1. For additional information, see  

_.
1* 

Latin phrase for



. It means that a story begins in the middle of the plot, usually at an
exciting part. The writer of the story later uses flashback to inform the reader of preceding events. The
reek poet Homer
originated this technique in his two great epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey.
1  # See Conflict.
1 
 See Anastrophe.
In everyday conversation, a person would say, "I plucked a rose for Huey in the green and dewy garden."
1  *
In ancient
reece and Rome, poets generally requested a muse (goddess) to fire them with creative
genius when they began long narrative poems, called epics, about godlike heroes and villains. This request appeared in the
opening lines of their poems. In
reek mythology, there were nine muses, all sisters, who were believed to inspire not only
poets but also historians, flutists, dancers, singers, astronomers, philosophers, and other thinkers and artists. If one wanted to
write a great poem, play a musical instrument with bravado, or develop a grand scientific or philosophical theory, he would
ask for help from a muse by ³invoking the muse.´ The muse of epic poetry was named Calliope [kuh LY uh pe].
1
 Dogmatic or arbitrary statement made without supporting evidence. This Latin term means ë

?
@
.
1 (1) Saying the opposite of what is meant, or verbal irony; (2) result or ending that is the opposite of what is expected,
or situational irony; (3) situation in which the audience attending a dramatic presentation grasps the incongruity of a
situation before the actors do, or dramatic irony. Examples: (1) "What a beautiful day," Maxine said, opening her umbrella.
(2) In the movie  #an astronaut who lands on another planet where intelligent apes rule discovers a
startling irony at the end of the movie: When looking over a vast wasteland, he sees the head of the Statue of Liberty and
realizes he was on earth all the time. Apparently, a nuclear war had destroyed humankind while he was time-traveling.
While in his Einsteinian time warp, the apes had evolved to an almost human level. (3) In 

#[ , by Sophocles,
Oedipus is unaware that he has married his own mother even though the audience is well aware of the incestuous union.
·  Vocabulary understood by members of a profession or trade but usually not by other members of the general public.
ï    

 is medical jargon for ; ## is police jargon for ## , a person who commits a crime.
argon can also refer to writing or speech that makes no sensegibberish.
· 
 (Pronounce the  like the  in wood; pronounce #
 as uh SPREE) Witty writing; clever wording; jest;
pun, ingenious turn of phrase. A literary work with jeu d'esprit is quick-witted but not necessarily profound. The English
translation of this French term is # #

 or # 

.
·  

(Pronounce the  like the  in wood; pronounce
 as
; pronounce as ) Pun; play on words.
·  Itinerant minstrel in medieval England and France who sang songs (his own or those written by others) and told
stories.
o  Compound expression, often hyphenated, representing a single noun. For example, the Old English epic 
uses the two-word term  :
to refer to the sea or ocean. Other examples of kennings include

!# for sinner
and 

:  for gun.
  Medieval narrative poem, written in couplets, for singing by a minstrel to the accompaniment. A lay had eight syllables
in each line.
 
 See Ñ#
 and 
.
 
The complete vocabulary of a language or a field of study.

Creation of a positive or opposite idea through negation. Examples: (1) I am    of your predicament. (2)
This is  # . (3) I'm  that you served me well.ohn Milton.
#
 Comedy that relies on slapstick and horseplay. It often focuses on the everyday life of lower classes. Low
comedy is generally physical rather than verbal. See also High Comedy.
à  (1) Poetry that presents the deep feelings and emotions of the poet as opposed to poetry that tells a story or
presents a witty observation. Sonnets, odes, and elegies are examples of lyric poems. William Wordsworth, ohn Keats,
Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Blake are among the poets who wrote lyrics. Shakespeare's sonnets are
lyric poems, although his verse plays are not; they tell a story. Lyric poetry often has a pleasing musical
quality. (2) Poetry that can be set to music. The word 
 derives from the
reek word for , a stringed
instrument in use since ancient times.
*  Armlike device in an ancient
reek theater that could lower a "god" onto the stage from the
"heavens." The
reek word for machine,  later gave rise to a pejorative Latin term,
  
 
.
  
), to describe a contrived event in a literary work or film. A contrived event is a plot
weakness in which a writer makes up an incidentsuch as a detective stumbling upon an important clue or a hero arriving in
the nick of time to save a damsel in distressto further the action. The audience considers such events improbable, realizing
that the writer has failed to develop the plot and the characters in such a way that their actions spring from their motivations.
The term (pronounced VA
 ë%
 or VÑ
 ë%
) is usually used adverbially, as in #
 



  
  






 . However, it can also refer to a character
who becomes the "god from the machine."
* 

The world as a whole; the universe. See also Microcosm.
* 
4

reat work; masterpiece; an author's most distinguished work. Latin:   ; #.
*  

nintentional use of an inappropriate word similar in sound to the appropriate word, often with humorous
effect. The word derives from the name   ##, a character in [
 , a 1775 play by Richard Brinsley
Sheridan. Sheridan invented her name from the French words  B##, loosely translated as
, 

 
, or  ###
. Mrs. Malaprop has the habit of using near-miss words. For example, she observes that she
does not have much  over her niece and refers to 
 countries as  
 countries. However, almost
two centuries before Sheridan presented a character who mixed up words in this way, Shakespeare introduced characters
who did somost notably Dogberry in 
 *
. Examples of Dogberry's malapropisms are the following:
Comparisons are 
. (
)
Our watch, sir, have indeed 
    two 

persons." (    ,


)
O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting  
 for this. ( )
*
' In the drama of ancient
reece, a face covering with exaggerated features and a mouth device to project the voice.
Actors wore masks to reveal emotion or personality; to depict the trade, social class or age of a character; and to provide
visual and audio aids for audience members in the rear of the theater.

*
   
In Shakespeare's time, a government censor who examined all plays for offensive material.
* 
Literary work or film that uses maudlin sentimentality and stereotypical characters.
*
 Type of autobiography in which the writer focuses primarily on the people (often famous personages) with whom
he or she came into contact.
*   Comparing one thing to an unlike thing without using 
  or  Examples8(1) The iron tongue of
midnight hath told twelve.Shakespeare. (The striker or clapper of the bell is being compared to the tongue of a speaking
human being.) (2) The sea being smooth, how many shallow bauble boats dare sail upon her patient breast .Shakespeare.
(The sea is being compared to a woman with a "patient breast.") (3) I am a man whom Fortune hath cruelly scratched.
Shakespeare. (Fortune is being compared to an entity that can be cruel.) (4) In battle, the soldier is a tiger. (5) Michael
Casey's face is a map of Ireland.
*  
 à  See "To His Coy Mistress" on this web site.
*   In verse and poetry, meter is a recurring pattern of stressed (accented, or long) and unstressed (unaccented, or short)
syllables in lines of a set length. For example, suppose a line contains ten syllables (set length) in which the first syllable is
unstressed, the second is stressed, the third is unstressed, the fourth is stressed, and so on until the line reaches the tenth
syllable. The line would look like the following one (the opening line of Shakespeare¶s ³Sonnet 18") containing a pattern of
unstressed and stressed syllables. The unstressed syllables are in blue and the stressed syllables in red.
 Shall 1comàc/thee ,4a !5*mer¶s c6?
Each pair of unstressed and stressed syllables makes up a unit called a . The line contains five feet in all, as shown next:
.....7..............8...............9.............:...............;
Shall 1<comàc/<thee ,4<a !5*<mer¶s c6?
.......A foot containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (as above) is called an 
. Because there are
five feet in the line, all iambic, the
  of the line is 
 
 . The prefix # in #  means 

(
reek: # 
).  is joined to words or word roots to form new words indicating five. For example, the Pentagon in
Washington has five sides, the Pentateuch of the Bible consists of five books, and a pentathlon in a sports event has five
events. Thus, poetry lines with five feet are in pentameter.
.......Some feet in verse and poetry have different stress patterns. For example, one type of foot consists of two unstressed
syllables followed by a stressed one. Another type consists of a stressed one followed by an unstressed one. In all, there are
five types of feet:
.
...Iamb (Iambic) nstressed + Stressed .........Two Syllables
...Trochee (Trochaic) Stressed + nstressed .........Two Syllables
...Spondee (Spondaic) Stressed + Stressed .........Two Syllables
...Anapest (Anapestic) nstressed + nstressed + Stressed .........Three Syllables
...Dactyl (Dactylic Stressed + nstressed + nstressed .........Three Syllables
.
The length of linesand thus the metercan also vary. Following are the types of meter and the line length:
.

..Monometer One Foot

..Dimeter Two Feet
..Trimeter Three Feet
..Tetrameter Four Feet
..Pentameter Five Feet
..Hexameter Six Feet
..Heptameter Seven Feet
..Octameter Eight Feet
.
.......Meter is determined by the type of foot and the number of feet in a line. Thus, a line with three iambic feet is known as
iambic trimeter. A line with six dactylic feet is known as dactylic hexameter. Consider now the following two lines from
William Blake¶s poem ³The Tyger´:
Tyger Tyger burning bright
In the forests of the night
These lines contain trochaic feetstressed + unstressed, as in ,6ger and ÿ5ingbut the final foot of each line is
incomplete, containing only a stressed syllable. The absence of the unstressed syllable is called    
, and 
 and

 are called   
. The meter of these lines is trochaic tetrametertetrameter because they each contain three
complete feet and one incomplete foot, for a total of four feet.
* 
 Substitution of one word or phrase to stand for a word or phrase similar in meaning. Examples: (1) In
Shakespeare's time, the crown was anti-Catholic. ("Crown" stands for Queen Elizabeth I.) (2) The White House was
severely criticized for its opposition to the tax increase. ("White House" stands for the president or the president and his
advisers.) (3) Wall Street welcomes the reduction in interest rates. ("Wall Street" represents investors.) (4) Sweat, not
wealth, earned her the respect of her peers. ("Sweat" stands for hard work.)
*

A tiny world within the macrocosm. Often a microcosm represents ideas and activities present in the
macrocosm. In Herman Melville's novel  V
, the whaling ship 5
is a microcosm. In William
olding's
novel (

, the island on which children take on the negative characteristics of adults in the world at large
is a microcosm. In Shirley ackson's short story ³The Lottery,´ the village is a microcosm representing backward ideas in
the world at large, or macrocosm. In the movie 
 
, the ship is a microcosm carrying the same kind of peopleheroes
and cowards, saints and sinnerspresent in the macrocosm.
*
  Roving medieval musician who sang and recited poetry.
*
 != [meez on sen] In a stage play, the stage set (including the walls, furniture, etc.) and the arrangement of the
actors; the process of arranging the set and the actors.
*
  See Meter.
* Recurring theme in a literary work; recurring theme in literature in general. Maltreatment of women is a motif that
appears in ³Hills Like White Elephants,´ a short story by Ernest Hemingway; ³The Story of an Hour,´ a short story by Kate
Chopin; and ³The Chrysanthemums,´ a short story by ohn Steinbeck.The love of money as the root of evil is a motif that
occurs in many works of literature. See also Ñ#
.
*'+/ Work that parodies the serious, elevated style of the classical epic poemsuch as "

or 
by
Homerto poke fun at human follies. Thus, a mock-epic is a type of satire; it treats petty humans or insignificant
occurrences as if they were extraordinary or heroic, like the great heroes and events of Homer's epics. Alexander Pope's
"The Rape of the Lock" is generally considered the finest example of the mock-epic in the English language.
*  Reason or reasons behind a character's action; what induces a character to do what he does; motives. In
Shakespeare's [ 
;
, love motivates the title characters. In Shakespeare's   , ambition (lust for power)
motivates the title character and his wife to murder the king.
   One who tells a story.
  

In literature, an extreme form of realism that developed in France in the 19th Century. It was inspired in part by
the scientific determinism of Charles Darwin, an Englishman, and the economic determinism of Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels, both
ermans. Four FrenchmenHippolyte Taine, Edmond and ules
oncourt, and Emile Zolaapplied the
principles of scientific and economic determinism to literature to create literary naturalism. According to its followers,
literary naturalism stresses the following beliefs:
(1) Heredity and environment are the major forces that shape human beings. In other words, like lower animals,
humans respond mainly to inborn instincts that influence behavior in concert withand sometimes in opposition to
environmental influences, including economic, social, cultural, and familial influences. For example, in August
Strindberg's play Miss ulie, the title character responds partly to her inborn female instinct for male companionship
and partly to her environmentally induced hatred of men. Consequently, she both desires and despises ean, causing
her deep internal conflict.
(2) Human beings have no free will, or very little of it, because heredity and environment are so powerful in
determining the course of human action.
(3) Human beings, like lower animals, have no soul. Religion and morality are irrelevant. (Strindberg, an atheist
when he wrote 
;
, later converted to Christianity under the influence of the writings of Emanuel
Swedenborg.)
(4) A literary work should present life exactly as it is, without preachment, judgment, or embellishment. In this
respect, naturalism is akin to realism. However, naturalism goes further than realism in that it presents a more
detailed picture of everyday life. Whereas the realist writer omits insignificant details when depicting a particular
scene, a naturalist writer generally includes them. He wants the scene to be as ³natural´ as possible. The naturalist
writer also attempts to be painstakingly objective and detached. Rather than manipulating characters as if they were
puppets, the naturalist writer prefers to observe the characters as if they were animals in the wild and then report on
their activity. Finally, naturalism attempts to present dialogue as spoken in everyday life. Rather than putting
³unnatural´ wording in the mouth of a character, the naturalist writer attempts to reproduce the speech patterns of
people in a particular time and place.
Naturalist writers generally achieve only limited success in adhering to Tenet 4. The main problem is that it is next to
impossible for a writer to remain objective and detached, like a scientist in a laboratory. After all, a scientist analyzes
existing natural objects and phenomena. A naturalist writer, on the other hand, analyzes characters he created; they may be
based on real people, but they themselves are not real. Thus, in bringing these characters to the stage or the printed page, the
naturalist writer brings a part of himselfa subjective part. Also, in their use of literary devicessuch as Strindberg¶s use of
symbols in 
;
 to support his themenaturalist writers again inject their subjective selves into the play. In real life,
would Miss ulie own a dog that mates with a pug, symbolizing and foreshadowing her brief sexual encounter with ean?
Would she force her fiancé to jump over a horsewhip that symbolizes her effort to dominate him?
 

[ne ALL uh jizm] Word or phraseor a new meaning for an existing word or phrasethat is accepted into a
dictionary. For example, the word  

 was a neologism in 1762 when ohn Montagua British nobleman who had
served as First Lord of the Admiraltyplaced slabs of meat between two pieces of bread as a snack to sustain him while he
was seated at a table in a 24-hour gambling marathon. His snack caught on and, because he held the rank of Earl of
Sandwich, it was named after him. Examples of neologisms that have entered the dictionary in the last 50 years include


 

  

:
 # , and C&//. Thousands of words and phrases enter the English language
each year to name an invention, a development, a process, a trend. For example, the word #   was coined upon the
invention of a device that enabled a person to jump from an airplane and fall slowly to the earth. ï # and
# entered the dictionary after the invention of a telephone that enabled a person to communicate over long distances
through a wireless device. [  (from the Czech word   , meaning 
 ) was coined to describe mechanical
"beings" that could perform tasks normally carried out by humans. In 2003, 
:u !ï
V

 
accepted the word pleather to describe a plastic material resembling plastic. William Shakespeare has been credited with
coining many words because no word existed in his day to express what he wanted to say. Among these words are

 
  
  
# 
   
 
  , #
 #
  
 






#and, .
 #
 See Old Comedy.


Nihilism (a term derived from the Latin word 

, meaning 
) is a philosophy that calls for the destruction
of existing traditions, customs, beliefs, and institutions and requires its adherents to reject all values, including religious and
aesthetic principles, in favor of belief in nothing. The term was coined in the Middle Ages to describe religious heretics. It
was resurrected in mid-19th Century Russia to describe radicals and revolutionaries. Supporters of this philosophy saw it as
a stage in the struggle against tyranny and injustice. Ivan Turgenev made nihilism a household world in Russia with the
publication of   
_ in 1861. Its main characterthe nihilist Bazarovbecame the most famous nihilist in the
world, even though he was fictional.
 
Mythological, legendary, biblical, or historical personages alluded to in literature because of their heroic
qualities. The Nine Worthies include (1) Hector, the Trojan hero slain by Achilles; (2) Alexander the
reat, the Macedonian
general who conquered the Persians and marched through Asia; (3) oshua, the successor of Moses; (4) David, the slayer of

oliath and second king of Israel and udah; (5) udas Maccabeus, a great ewish general who defeated Syrian armies and
purified and restored the temple in erusalem; (6) ulius Caesar, the great Roman general and political leader; (7) King
Arthur, ruler of Camelot in the Arthurian legends; (8) Charlemagne, king of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor; and (9)

odfrey of Bouillon, one of the leaders of the First Crusade in the Holy Land. In Love's Labour's Lost, Shakespeare
presents an entertainment in which characters take the parts of the Nine Worthies.
  !   Since ancient times, writers have often depicted aboriginal or uncivilized people as nobleuntainted by the
corrupt ways of civilization.
reek and Latin authors, such as Homer and Ovid, were sympathetic to some primitive peoples
in their writings. In 1672, the English poet, critic and dramatist ohn Dryden coined the term     in a play called
ï5  
. Between 1760 and 1780, the French writer and philosopher ean-acques Rousseau popularized
the concept of the noble savage in his writings. In  :V
, Herman Melville developed this motif with three ³noble
savages´: the harpooners Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo. For example, he depicts Queequega tattooed savage who sells
shrunken headsas being more tolerant and benevolent than the civilized Christian whalers.

 à
Pen name; pseudonym. Writers often use 
# to hide their identity or their sexor to simplify a
hard-to-remember or hard-to-pronounce name. Among writers who used noms de plume were Samuel Langhorne Clemens
(Mark Twain), William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), Eric Blair (
eorge Orwell), Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q),
François Marie-Arouet (Voltaire), and Amandine-Aurore Lucile Dudevant (
eorge Sand).
  Long fictional story told in prose. Novels typically have more characters than a short story and a more complicated
plot that might take place in various settings, sometimes over a period of months or years. Examples of novels are 

ë 
 V
    V 

ï##


ï
 

, and
_ (.
  Short prose tale that often has satire and a moral. Sometimes novellas were collected into a single work that used a
frame tale to establish a theme common to all of them. The stories then were told "inside the frame" and became part of it.
Boccaccio's V  contains novellas.
   Prose work shorter than a novel but longer than a short story. Examples of novelettes are Robert Louis
Stevenson's _ ï V; 
ë
 and oseph Conrad's ë V .
4 2  Ability of an author to keep his opinions and preachments out of a poem, a play, a short story, a novel, or any
other literary work that he writes. Modern readers tend to admire objectivity in an author.
4'

 " Principle expressed by William of Ockham (1285-1349), a
erman Franciscan, that the simplest solution
is the best.
4
  See Meter.
4  First eight lines of a Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet. Petrarch's sonnets each consist of an eight-line stanza (octave)
and a six-line stanza (sestet). The first stanza presents a theme, and the second stanza develops it. The rhyme scheme is as
follows: (1) first stanza (octave): ABBA, ABBA; (2) second stanza (sestet): CDE, CDE.
4 In ancient
reece, a lyric poem on a serious subject that develops its theme with dignified language intended to be
sung.

4  (OO vrah) The complete works of an author, a composer, a painter, etc.  is a French word for . See also
Canon.
4#
 In
reece of the Fifth Century, B.C.,a genre of comedy that displayed great imagination and used cutthroat
satire, caricature, and sometimes vulgar dialogue to ridicule public figures, politics, ideas, trends, and institutions.
Aristophanes was the unsurpassed master of old comedy. In the Fourth Century, old comedy was succeeded by a lighter,
less caustic form of comedy that centered on fictional characters drawn from everyday life rather than on public figures,
politics, and so on. This genre was appropriately labeled 
.
4/
3 
  nrhyming verse, without stanzas, with a caesura (pause) in the middle of each line. The lines
contain caesuras to represent the pauses that speakers normally use in everyday speech. Thus, each line is divided into two
parts. Each part is called a hemistich (HEM e stick), which is half a line of verse. A complete line is called a stich. Each
hemistich contains two stressed (accented) syllables and a varying number of unstressed (unaccented) syllables. Following
are the opening three lines of  in Old English, with the space in the middle representing the caesura.


4/
 !   #
 , 
 

Hwæt! We
ar-Dena in geardagum, Lo. we have heard of the glory in days of old
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, of the Spear-Danes, of the kings of the people,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. how the athelings did deeds of valor.

4'
Headdress worn by some actors in ancient
reece to increase their height and, thus, visibility to theater audiences.
4
  Figure of speech in which (1) a word mimics a sound or (2) an arrangement of words in a rhythmic pattern
suggests a sound or an image. Examples of No. 1: # 
 

# ,
# 
#5 
5  ,,, and ,. Example of No. 2, from Sylvia Plath's poem
"Daddy," in which the the rhythm of the words in one stanza imitates the chug of a locomotive:
An engine, an engine
Chuffing me off like a ew.
A ew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen
I began to talk like a ew.
I think I may well be a ew.
Notice that the words mimic the rhythm of a chugging locomotive 
 
=
 ; ;.
4  Plural of #, Latin for . An opera is a play set to music. The words are sung and sometimes presented in
dialogue that resembles conversation but sounds like singing.
4
See Opera.
4  Speech delivered with great emotion to spur listeners to action.
4
 [OH she ohss] Extremely wordy writing in which the author is too lazy to edit for conciseness.
4
 Combining contradictory words to reveal a truth. Oxymoron is a form of paradox. However, unlike paradox,
oxymoron places opposing words side by side. Examples: (1) Parting is such .Shakespeare. (2) Working in a
coal mine is 


 . (3) The hurricane turned the lush island retreat into a 
# 

.
à 

se of body movements and facial expressions by actors to convey a message without speaking.
à 
See Quill.
à 

(puh RAB uh sis) In the drama of ancient
reece, an ode in which the chorus addresses the audience to express
opinions of the author, including his views on politics, social trends, and other topics.
à 
(PAIR uh doss) In the drama of ancient
reece, a song sung by the chorus when it enters; also, the moment when
the chorus enters.
à   Contradictory statement that may actually be true. Paradox is similar to oxymoron in that both figures of speech
use contradictions to state a truth. However, paradox does not place opposing words side by side, as oxymoron does.
Examples: (1) They called him a lion. But in the boxing ring, the 
    . (2) For slaves, 
 
 , and
 
 
.
à  

 (PAIR uh no MAY zhuh) Pretentious term for pun.
à  Imitation of a literary work or filmor the style used by a writer or filmmakerin order to ridicule the work and its
writer or producer. The Austin Powers movies are parodies of spy films.
à
 à
Poem focusing on some aspect of rural life. It may center on the love of a shepherd for a maiden, on the
death of a friend, or on the quiet simplicity of rural life. The writer of a pastoral poem may be a highly educated city dweller
who longs for the peace and quiet of the country or who extolls the virtues of a shepherd girl.    is derived from the
Latin word # , meaning #
.
à 
See Nom de Plume.
à  ' In the drama of ancient
reece, a prism having surfaces painted with pictures. When it revolved, it changed the
scenery on a stage.
à    (also #
#
or #
#) In a stage tragedy in ancient
reece, a sudden reversal of fortune from good to bad.
Persona In a literary work, a narrator or speaker who presents the work to the reader. The persona may be an active
character in the work, or he may be an unidentified narrator or commentator. The persona may or may not represent the
views of the author. In the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, the persona--the person describing the action in first-person
point of view--is often a madman.
In some cases, the persona is not even human.
 à   (1) Concluion of a speech in which the speaker summarizes the main points. (2) Long, pompous
speech; bombastic speech.
à 
 
iving humanlike qualities or human form to objects and abstractions. Personification is a
form of metaphor. Examples: (1) Thou has done a deed whereat  
#.Shakespeare. (Notice that
 , an abstraction, weeps.) (2)  
 in some boats that are not steeredShakespeare. (3) Because I could not
stop for V ë kindly stopped for me. Emily Dickinson. (4) The #

for a new coat of paint.
à Speech that bitterly denounces, blames, accuses, or insults a person; speech that viciously attacks a person or his
ideas. The word 

##
 is derived from the
reek 

##
 ( 


#). In 351 B.C., the Athenian orator
Demosthenes (384-322) began making speeches against the encroachment of King Philip of Macedon (382-336 B.C.) on

reek territory. These speeches became known as "Philippics."
à  Expression of grief or sorrow in a poem. Such an expression is said to be #

, a word that is a cousin of the
word #

, a legal term for a person who brings a suit, or complaint, in a court of law against a defendant.
à The events that unfold in a story; the action and direction of a story; the story line.
à  Important work by Aristotle written about 335 B.C. It analyzes
reek theater and outlines its origin and
development. One of its theses is that literature and other forms of art imitate the activity of humans. Tragedy is the higher
form of the playwright's craft, Aristotle says, because it imitates the action of noble persons and depicts lofty events.
Comedy, on the other hand, focuses on ordinary humans and events.
à  Language that expresses powerful emotions and ideas in a stanza or stanzas that may use rhythm and rhyme, as well
as other rhetorical devices. For a full discussion of prose, poetry, and verse, click here.
à.Wordiness, long-windedness.
à Introduction to a play or another literary work. In Shakespeare's ë-, a chorus (one person) speaks a prologue
that encourages the audience members to use their imaginations to create what an Elizabethan stage cannot: battlefields,
clashing swords, the might of warriors. Shakespeare writes, "Think when we talk of horses, that you see them printing their
proud hoofs i' the receiving earth."
à
In the drama of ancient
reece, a prologue that begins the play with dialogue indicating the focus or theme of the
play.

à
 'à
# In Shakespeare's time, the edited version of a play in which an acting company inserted
stage directions.
à
 
(1) The stage of a theater; (2) the part of the stage extending out toward the audience; (3) the arch over the
stage that separates the stage from the audience. The proscenium arch helps create the illusion that the audience viewing a
play is looking into real world just as the frame around a television screen helps TV viewers do the same.
à
Language of everyday speech and writing. For a full discussion of prose, poetry, and verse, click here.
à 
%& 'à ( Main character in an ancient
reek play who usually interacts with the chorus. In a tragedy, the
protagonist is traditionally a person of exalted statussuch as a king, a queen, a political leader, or a military herowho has a
character flaw (inordinate pride, for example). This character flaw causes the protagonist to make an error of judgment.
Additionally, the typical protagonist experiences a moment of truth in which he or she recognizes and acknowledges his or
her mistakes, failures, or sins.
à 
%* ! 
( Main character of a novel, play, or film.
à

Opening part of a stage drama in which the characters and focus of the play are introduced.
à

See Nom de Plume.
à Play on words; using a word that sounds like another word but has a different meaning. Examples: (1) Marriage is a
wife sentence.
They went and told the sexton and the sexton tolled the bell.Thomas Hood.
>  A quarto is sheet of printing paper folded twice to form eight separate pages for printing a book. To better visualize
a quarto, hold before you a standard sheet of typing paper and fold it as you would a letter. You now have a rectangular
piece of paper. Fold the paper again to form it into a square (or near square). Now unfold the paper and lay it flat before
you. Notice that the sheet of.paper now has four sections on one side and four on the other. In Shakespeare's time, printing
paper was folded in this way. Each of the four sections on one side became a page, and each of the .four sections on the
other side became page. Thus, there were eight pages in all. Each of these pages was about a foot high. William
Shakespeare's plays were first published in quarto and folio texts. Some of the quarto texts are based on inferior,
unauthorized copies of Shakespeare's plays. For example, an unscrupulous publisher named ohn Danter, hoping to make
money by selling [ 
;
, used notes taken during a performance of the play to piece together a copy of it for sale
in a 1597 quarto edition. What resulted was Shakespeare "as you hate him"full of errors and inconsistencies.
>   Stanza or poem of four lines. A quatrain usually has a rhyme scheme, such as abab, abba, or abcb.
> Writing instrument used before the invention of the fountain pen, the ballpoint pen, and other writing instruments. A
quill was the hollow, rigid shaft of a bird¶s feather. The word ³pen´ is derived from the Latin name for ³feather´³penna.´
Shakespeare and other writers of his day used a variety of quills that they dipped in an ink container (
) on a stand
( 

) that held all the writing materials. If a writer¶s pocket lacked jingle, he invested in a goose quill. If he could
afford something better, he invested in a swan quill. Writers or artists who needed quills to produce fine lines purchased
crow quills. Quills from ducks, eagles, turkeys, hawks and owls also served as ³word processors,´ producing plays, poems,
and sometimes revolution. Quills were the writing instruments of choice between 500 A.D. and 1850 A.D. (In the ancient
world, writers used a variety of other instruments to write history, literature, announcements, bureaucratic records, and so
on. These instruments included shaped twigs or branches that impressed words into clay, mallet-driven chisels that etched
words in stone, brushes that wrote on pottery and other smooth surfaces (such as plaster and animal skins), sharpened bone
or metal that inscribed words on wax surfaces, and sharpened reed stems dipped in ink that wrote on papyrus, an Egyptian
water plant whose pith (the soft center of a stem) was dried and pressed to make thin sheets suitable for receiving
impressions. The introduction of the quill in the 500's (an event recorded by St. Isidore, a Spanish theologian) greatly eased
the task of writers, much as personal computers did when they replaced typewriters in the last half of the 20th Century.)
   Writing flaw in which unnecessary wording is used. Examples: Wrong: Her dress was green . Right:
Her dress was green. Wrong: The president will arrive at 3 p.m. 
  . Right: The president will arrive at 3 p.m..
Wrong: Please repeat that statement  . Right: Please repeat that statement.
 +/  Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating the re-entrance onto the stage of a character or characters.
  
roup of words repeated at key intervals in a poem, such as Dylan Thomas's "Do Not
o
entle Into That
ood
Night."
 

In literature, a movement that stressed the presentation of life as it is, without embellishment or idealization.
However, it was not as extreme in this presentation as Naturalism.
   Quick, witty, often amusing reply; a conversation full of witty replies; verbal fencing or sparring.
  Art of effectively using words in speech and writing; the study of language and its rules. [
 can also refer to
insincere or deceptive language, as in this sentence: The senator promised to tell the truth, but in his news conference he
spouted nothing but political rhetoric.

$#
  A special type of rhyme (consonance) in which pairs of words with different vowel sounds have the
same final consonants. Example: be
, fir
.

$/ Rhyme in which the final syllable (or syllables) of one line mimic the sound of the final syllable (or syllables)
of another line.

$/ Form of rhyme in which the pronunciation of the last syllable of one line is different from the pronunciation
of the last syllable of another line even though both syllables are identical in spelling except for a preceding consonant. For
example, the following end-of-line word pairs would constitute eye rhyme: cough, rough; cow, mow; daughter, laughter;
rummaging, raging.

$
 Rhyme in which the final two syllables of one line mimic the sound of the final two syllables of another
line. Examples: # 
#;   ;  = .

$1   Rhyme that occurs inside a line. Example: The knell of the bell saddened me.

$*
 Rhyme in which the final yllable of one line mimics the sound of the final yllable of another line.
Examples:   ; =   

?# @*c. o/.A Novel in which real persons are thinly disguised as fictional characters with fictional
names. For example, if an author wrote a roman à clef about the private lives of movie stars, he would base the novel on the
lifestyles of real actors and actresses but give them fictitious names.



In literature, a movement that championed imagination and emotions as more powerful than reason and
systematic thinking. ³What I feel about a person or thing,´ a romantic poet might have said, ³is more important than what
scientific investigation, observation, and experience would say about that person or thing.´ Intuitionthat voice within that
makes judgments and decisions without

the aid of reasonwas a guiding force to the romantic poet. So was nature. Romanticism began in the mid-1700's as a
rebellion against the principles of classicism. Whereas classicism espoused the literary ideals of ancient
reece and Rome
objectivity, emotional restraint, and formal rules of composition that writers were expected to followromanticism promoted
subjectivity, emotional effusiveness, and freedom of expression . ³I want to write my way,´ the romantic poet might have
said, ³not the way that writers in ancient times decreed that I should write.´ In English literature, Wordsworth and his
friend, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, were pioneers in the development of the Romantic Movement. However, neither romantic
nor classical writing was always entirely faithfully to its ideals. For example, a classical writer may have exhibited
emotional effusion from time to time whereas a romantic writer may have exhibited emotional restraint on occasion. Writers
today continue to use many of the principles of both the classical and romantic schools of writing.
! 

Form of verbal irony that insults a person with insincere praise. For example, a cruel person might tell a homely
woman wearing dowdy clothes, "I see, Miss America, that you are wearing the latest Dior ensemble."
!  Literary work that attacks or pokes fun at vices and imperfections; political cartoon that does the same. Satire may
make the reader laugh at or feel disgust for the person or thing satirized. The TV program _ 
*
(
 often uses
satire to expose abuses and follies.
! à  In the drama of ancient
reece, a play that pokes fun at a serious subject involving gods and myths; a parody of
stories about gods or myths. Fragments of Sophocles's satyr play "  ( ) survive along with his seven
complete tragedies.
!   Plot outline of a play, opera, motion picture, or TV program.
!  (1) Part of an act of a play; (2) a setting in a literary work, opera, or film; (3) a theater stage in ancient
reece or
Rome; (4) part of a literary work, opera, or film that centers on one aspect of plot development.
One of the main divisions of a play. Shakespeare's plays each have five acts. Each act is subdivided into scenes. An act
generally focuses on one major aspect of the plot or theme. Between acts, stagehands may change scenery, and the setting
may shift to another locale.
!   Literary genre focusing on how scientific experiments, discoveries, and technologies affect human beings
for better or worse. Science fiction differs from pure fantasy in that it presents events that appear to be scientifically
plausible. Traveling to another galaxy in a spaceship is scientifically plausible. Riding to the moon on a winged horse is not
scientifically plausible.
! Old English poet often attached to a monarch's court. A scop composed and recited his own poetry.
!   Stage direction in a play manuscript to signal a trumpet flourish that ntroducess the entrance of a character, such as
the entrance of King Lear (Act 1) in Shakespeare's play.
! 
  A flaw in a literary work or film in which the author relies on tear-jerking or heart-wrenching scenes rather
than writing talent or cinematic skill to evoke a response in readers.
! 
 A clergyman's talk centering on a scriptural passage.
!
  Final six lines of a Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet. Petrarch's sonnets each consist of an eight-line stanza (octave) and a
six-line stanza (sestet). The first stanza presents a theme, and the second stanza develops it. The rhyme scheme is as follows:
(1) first stanza (octave): ABBA, ABBA; (2) second stanza (sestet): CDE, CDE.
!  Setting is the environment in which a story unfolds. It includes (1) the time and period of history, (2) the place, (3)
the atmosphere, (4) the clothing, (5) the living conditions, and (6) the social climate. Sometimes the setting is extremely
important. For example, the atmosphere can influence characters in a ghost story; the living conditions can influence
characters in a story about class conflicts or life in prison.
!  3 
See Concrete Poetry.
! Word inserted in a quoted statement in a research work (essay, magazine article, doctoral thesis, book, etc.) to indicate
that the quotation contains an error. _
 appears in brackets after the error. Following is an example of the use of 
:
The president wrote in his diary that "my critics refuse to acknowledge that the econommy [sic] is improving."
!
 Comparing one thing to an unlike thing by using 
, , or  Examples: (1)The barge she sat in, like a
burnished throne, burned on the water.Shakespeare. (2) And the muscles of his brawny arms are strong as iron bands
Longfellow. (3) His hand was small and cold; it felt like wax.Margaret Truman. (4) In the morning the dust hung like fog,
and the sun was as red as ripe new bloodohn Steinbeck.
! Recitation in a play in which a character reveals his thoughts to the audience but not to other characters in the
play.
!
Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating a character is alone on the stage.
!  Form of lyric poetry invented in Italy that has 14 lines with a specific rhyme scheme. The Italian Petrarchan sonnet
consists of an eight-line stanza (octave) and a six-line stanza (sestet). The first stanza presents a theme, and the second
stanza develops it. The rhyme scheme is as follows: (1) first stanza (octave): ABBA, ABBA; (2) second stanza (sestet):
CDE, CDE. The Shakespearean sonnet (also called the Ñ
) has three four-line stanzas (quatrains) and a two-line
unit called a couplet. A couplet is always indented; both lines rhyme at the end. The meter of Shakespeare's sonnets is
iambic pentameter (except in Sonnet 145). The rhyming lines in each stanza are the first and third and the second and fourth.
In the couplet ending the poem, both lines rhyme. All of Shakespeare's sonnets follow the same rhyming pattern.
!   In a comedy (a play or an opera), a maid or servant girl involved in intrigue affecting the central characters. She
usually has a quick tongue, common sense, and a good sense of humor. One of the most famous soubrettes in the history of
theater is Suzanne in  

  (play by Beaumarchais and opera by Mozart).
! &.Fictional genre with a setting in the Southern nited States that vests its stories with foreboding and
grotesquerie. Begun in the twentieth century, southern
othic replaces the romanticism of nineteenth-century
othic works
with realism. However, southern
othic retains the disturbing elements of earlier
othic works, whether in the form of a
deranged character, a forbidding forest, or a sense of impending doom. Among the writers associated with this genre are
Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, and Tennessee Williams.
southern-
othic story may call up ghosts of the past, as Bailey¶s mother does when she apparels herself in the finery of an
Old South grande dame and when she persuades her family to visit a Civil War-era plantation with a secret panel.
!  !  See Meter.
! 

Slip of the tongue in which a speaker transposes the letters of words. 

 is a spoonerism for 

#

! 
 ! " A stanza with eight lines in iambic pentameter and a ninth line in iambic hexameter. Edmund Spenser
(1552-1599) originated this format in his great allegorical poem  
*. The rhyme scheme of the stanza is
ababbcbcc.
!

 (pronunciation: STASS uh mon): In a
reek play, a scene in which the chorus sings a song, uninterrupted by
dialogue.
!  
 
  In Shakespeare's time, a book in which the English government required printers to register the title of
a play before the play was published. The full official name of the _ 
![
 was the ë u
#
ï# _ 
.
! " Lines that form a division or unit of a poem. Stanzas generally have four lines.
!   Character in a literary work or film who thinks or acts according to certain unvarying patterns simply because of
his or her racial, ethnic, religious, or social background. A stereotype is usually an image that society projects or imposes on
every member of a group as a result of prejudice or faulty information. Examples of stereotypes are the Irish drunk, the
Italian mobster, the dishonest car salesman, the plain-ane librarian, the shyster lawyer, the Machiavellian politician, and the
dumb blonde.
!
 (stik uh MITH e uh) In a stage play brief, alternating lines of dialogue spoken in rapid-fire succession. It
occurs frequently in
reek drama, especially when characters are arguing or expressing strong emotions. Following is an
example of stichomythia in ï
., by Aristophanes, in which two characters njust Cause and ust Causeare
insulting each other:
nj. You are a dotard and absurd.
ust You are debauched and shameless.
nj. You have spoken roses of me.
ust And a dirty lickspittle.
nj. You crown me with lilies.
ust And a parricide.
nj. You don't know that you are sprinkling me with
gold.
ust Certainly not so formerly, but with lead.
nj. But now this is an ornament to me.
ust You are very impudent.
nj. And you are antiquated.
!
  (Storm and Stress): In Eighteenth Century
ermany, a literary movement characterized by a rejection of
many classical literary conventions (in particular the three classical unities adhered to strictly by French writers but often
ignored by William Shakespeare), by great passion and enthusiasm, by disquiet and impatience, and by an exposition of folk
themes
! Style is the way an author writes a literary work. It manifests itself in the author¶s choice of words and phrases, the
structure of sentences, the length of paragraphs, the tone of the work, and so on. ust as painters, singers, and dancers have
different styles, so too do authors. One author may use a great deal of dialogue while another author uses little. Some
authors use difficult vocabulary; others use simple vocabulary. Ernest Hemingway uses simple words, but the story they tell
may be complex. Charles Dickens describes people with unusual names and memorable characteristics. riah Heep has
slimy hands; Mr. Murdstone, who is vicious and cruel, dresses in black. To describe people and places, the author of
 uses a special figure of speech called a kenning. A kenning combines two nouns, usually separated by a hyphen, to
create an image. Thus,  becomes  :
and   becomes  : .
!  Secondary or minor plot in a story usually related to the main plot.
!
 
Anxiety about what will happen next in a story. In Poe's short story "The Pit and the Pendulum," the main
character is strapped to a board in a dark cell while a pendulum in the form of a steel blade swings over him. With each
swing, the pendulum descends closer to his body. The reader is kept in suspense about how the character will free himself.
!
 In a literary work or film, a person, place, thing or idea that represents something else. Writers often use a snake as
a symbol for evil, as in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young
oodman Brown." Commonly used symbols include the eagle
(strength), a flag (patriotism), and the sea (life).
! Omitting letters or sounds within a word. The word ! as a shortened version of  
 (a naval officer) is
an example of syncope.
!  Substitution of a part to stand for the whole, or the whole to stand for a part. Examples: (1) The Confederates
have  in Lincoln's government. (The word "eyes" stands for spies.) (2) ack bought a new . ("Wheels"
stands for a car.) (3) The  #
the bank robbers from Maine to Florida. ("Law" stands for police.)
,  Wordiness, needless repetition. See also prolixity and redundancy.
,  .In poetry, a unit of three lines that usually contain end rhyme. (Examples of tercets are the three-line stanzas of terza
rima, defined below.)
, " 
Italian verse form invented by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). It consists of a series of three-line stanzas in
which Line 2 of one stanza rhymes with Lines 1 and 3 of the next stanza. The rhyme scheme progresses in the following
pattern: aba, bcb, cdc, ded, efe, ghg, and so on. The following English translation of the first lines from the V

ï
D
with the original Dante lines on the rightdemonstrate the rhyme scheme:
Along the journey of our life half way.................Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
I found myself again in a dark .................mi ritrovai per una selva 

Wherein the straight road no longer lay.............ché la diritta via era smarrita.

Ah, tongue can never make it  
:........Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa 
So harsh and dense and savage to 
.......esta selva selvaggia e aspra e  
That fear returns in thinking on that ..........che nel pensier rinova la   !

It is so bitter death is hardly

....................Tant'è amara che poco è più  ;
But, for the good it was my chance to gain,........ma per trattar del ben ch'i' vi trovai,
The other things I saw there I'll  
.............dirò de l'altre cose ch'i' v'ho  

English translation: Dale, Peter. The Divine Comedy. London: Anvil Press, 1996.

,   In the drama of ancient
reece, four plays (three tragedies and one satyr play) staged by a playwright during a
drama competition. (See Dionysus.)
, 
  See Meter.
,  $& ' Open-air structure in which plays were performed. The stage faced the afternoon sunlight to illuminate a
performance while allowing the audience to view the action without squinting. A
reek theater consisted of the following:
Skene: Building behind the stage. First used as a dressing area for actors (and sometimes an
entrance or exit area for actors), the skene eventually became a background showing appropriate scenery.
Paraskenia: Extensions or annexes on the sides of the skene.
Proscenium: Acting area, or stage, in front of the skene.
Orchestra:
round-level area where the chorus performed. It was in front of the proscenium.
Parados: Passage on the left or right through which the chorus entered the orchestra. (Also, a song sung by the
chorus when it entered or the moment when the chorus enters.
Thymele: Altar in the center of the orchestra used to make sacrifices to Dionysus.
Theatron: Tiered seating area built into a hillside in the shape of a horseshoe.
Machine: Armlike device on the skene that could lower a "god" onto the stage from the heavens.
,   c
 Term coined in 1965 by critic Martin Eslin to describe the plays of Samuel Beckett and other
writers who believed that life is meaningless. For more information about this genre, see u

 
.
,
Main idea of a literary work; the thesis.
,
  Actor or actress. Also, an adjective referring to any person or thing pertaining to
reek drama or drama in
general. The word is derived from #
, the name of a
reek of the 6th Century B.C. who was said to have been the first
actor on the
reek stage.
, Prevailing mood or atmosphere in a literary work. One may compare the tone of a poem, a novel, a play, or an essay
to the tone of the human voice as it projects the emotions of the speaker or to the appearance of the sky as it dispenses rain
or sunlight. Thus, the tone of a literary work may be joyful, sad, brooding, angry, playful, and so on. The tone of Thomas

ray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is somber; the tone of Voltaire's ï 


 is mocking and sarcastic; the
tone of Shakespeare's u
u

 is jocund and farcical.
,.
In Shakespeare's time, dressing rooms of actors behind a wall at the back of the stage. 
 means 
D
that is,  
.Sometimes, the wall of the tiring house could stand as the wall of a fortress under siege.
,
Stage direction in a Shakespeare play indicating that entering characters are carrying lit torches.
,  %& '( Verse drama written in elevated language in which a noble protagonist falls to ruin during a struggle
caused by a flaw (hamartia) in his character or an error in his rulings or judgments. Following are the characteristics of a
Sophocles tragedy: (1) It is based on events that already took place and with which the audience is familiar. (2) The
protagonist is a person of noble stature. (3) The protagonist has a weakness and, because of it, becomes isolated and suffers
a downfall. (4) Because the protagonist's fall is not entirely his or her own fault, the audience may end up pitying him or her.
(5) The fallen protagonist gains self-knowledge. He has a deeper insight into himself and understands his weakness. (6) The
audience undergoes   
, a purging of emotions, after experiencing pity, fear, shock and other strong feelings. The
people go away feeling better. (7) The drama usually unfolds in one place in a short period of time, usually about a day.
, 
   

Belief that every human being has inborn knowledge that enables him to recognize and understand
moral truth without benefit of knowledge obtained through the physical senses. sing this inborn knowledge, an individual
 can make a moral decision without relying on information gained through everyday living, education, and
experimentation. One may liken this inborn knowledge to conscience or intuition. American author Henry
David Thoreau believed that this inborn knowledge served as a moral guiding forcethat this inner knowledge
was a higher, transcendent form of knowledge than that which came through the senses. Because Thoreau and
his fellow transcendentalists trusted their own inner light as a moral guiding force, they exhibited a fierce spirit of self-
reliance. They were individualists; they liked to make decisions for themselves. If the government adopted a policy or a law
that offended their consciences, they generally reacted strongly. Thoreau's essay ³Civil Disobedience´ expresses his reaction
and measured response to government dictums that legitimized slavery and the Mexican War. Transcendentalism did not
originate with Thoreau or his fellow American transcendentalists but with the
erman philosopher Emanuel Kant. He used
the
erman word for  
  to refer to intuitive or innate knowledgeknowledge which is #

rather than 
#

.
, 
 (1) Play, novel, poem, skit, film, opera, etc., that trivializes a serious subject or composition.
enerally, a travesty
achieves its effect through broad humor and through incongruous or distorted language and situations. Examples of works
that contain travesty are Cervantes¶s Don Quixote de La Mancha and Shakespeare¶s 

*
+V  (the Act
V staging of  
 

  by the bumbling tradesmen). Literary works that mock trivial or unimportant subjects are
not travesties; travesties mock only serious, dignified, or noble subjects. (2) A work in literature, music, or art that is so
poorly done that it fails to meet even the minimum standards for style, technique, form, etc. (3) Any gross distortion or
misrepresentation of a procedure, a custom, an approach, a method, a system, or a course of action. For example, a trial in
which the judge is incompetent and the jury is biased may be termed a travesty.
,
  See Meter.
,  ,  See Meter.
, Figure of speech; figurative language.
,  Lyric poet/musician of southern France or northern Italy; minstrel.
5 ! 9
 is Latin for where are. The term is applied to poetry that laments the passing of people, places, things, or
ideas by rhetorically asking where they are now in order to call attention to the inexorable passage of time and the
inevitability of death, decay, and obsolescence. François Villon's Ballade des dames du temps jadis" is a fine example of
this genre.
5
Three key elements of dramatic structure: time, place, and action. These unities, formulated in part by Aristotle in
his commentary on
reek drama and in part by the Italian Renaissance humanist Lodovico Castelvetro, suggested that a
play should have one setting with a single plot thread that unfolds in one short time period, about a day. However, some
playwrights began ignoring these ancient rules. Shakespeare observed them in some of his plays but ignored them in others.
For example, in u
! , Shakespeare not only shifts the setting, but he also leaps ahead 16 years.
5 
 Appealing to readers and audiences of any age or any culture. For example, although Robert Louis Stevenson's
_ ï V; 
ë
 is set in London of the late 19th Century, its messagethat each human being
has a good side and dark sideapplies and appeals to people today in every country. Likewise, the central conflict of
Sophocles¶s 
, the individual vs the state (or moral law vs man-made law), has remained relevant since its first
performance more than 2,400 years ago.
3 

 Having the appearance of truth; realism. In a fictional work, a writer creates unreal characters and situations
and asks the reader to pretend that they are real. To help the reader in this task, the writer tells his tale in such a way that he
makes it seem crediblethat is, he gives it ³verisimilitude.´ -




 is derived from the Latin words 
  ()
and 


 (

 ). Thus, verisimilitude in a literary work confers on it the quality of appearing true or similar to the truth.
3 
Collection of lines (as in a Shakespeare play) that follow a regular, rhythmic pattern. For a full discussion of prose,
poetry, and verse, click here.
3   Form of poetry popularized mainly in France in the 16th Century. It usually expressed pastoral, idyllic sentiments
in imitation of the Italian villanella, a type of song for singers and dancers that centered on rural, peasant themes. When
French writers such as oachim du Bellay (1522-1560) and Philipe Desportes (1546-1606) began writing villanelles, these
poems did not have a fixed format. However, when ean Passerat (1534-1602) wrote a villanelle whose format caught the
fancy of critics, that format became the standard for all future villanelles. The format is as follows:
Number of Stanzas: six
Lines in Each Stanza: three in each of the first five stanzas, four in the last. A three-line stanza is called a tercet; a
four-line stanza, a quatrain.
Refrains: two lines, the first and third of the first stanza, must be repeated in the other stanzas. Here is the pattern:
Line 1 of the first stanza is repeated as Line 3 of the second stanza, as Line 3 of the fourth stanza, and as Line 3 of
the sixth stanza. Line 3 of the first stanza is repeated as Line 3 of the third stanza, Line 3 of the fifth stanza, and
Line 4 of the sixth stanza.
End Rhyme: in the first five stanzas; in the last stanza. "Do not
o
entle into That
ood Night," by
Dylan Thomas, is an example of a villanelle.
 Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating that a person speaking or being spoken to is behind a door or inside a
room
B 
se of one word (usually an adjective or a verb) to serve two or more other words with more than one meaning.
Example: 
 5  
  

+# 
. Explanation: _5  describes the dance
floor and the bandleader¶s personality with different meanings.