Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The chief of the choral parts in ancient Greek comedy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The part of an
Ancient Greek comedy in which theactors leave the stage and thechorus addresses theaudience directly.
Etymologies
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Examples
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f (1) The 'parabasis' in the Old Comedy was a sort of address or topical harangue addressed directly by the poet, speaking by the Chorus, to the audience.
The Acharnians 446? BC-385? BC Aristophanes
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A literary work can do this, much as Schlegel's Lucinde had, by presenting within its scope a range of possible alternate plots or by mimicking the parabasis in which the comic playwright interposed himself within the drama itself or the role of the Italian buffo or clown (Lyceumfragment 42) who disrupts the spectator's narrative illusion.
Friedrich Schlegel Speight, Allen 2007
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Old comedy is not fit for men that are making merry, by reason of the excuses that appear in it; for that vehemency which they use in the parabasis is loud and indecent, and the liberty they take to scoff and abuse is very surfeiting, too open, and full of filthy words and lewd expressions.
Symposiacs 2004
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Old comedy is not fit for men that are making merry, by reason of the excuses that appear in it; for that vehemency which they use in the parabasis is loud and indecent, and the liberty they take to scoff and abuse is very surfeiting, too open, and full of filthy words and lewd expressions.
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Undoubtedly the comic poet who mounted the stage to praise himself in the parabasis would deserve to be handed over to the sticks or the beadles.
Peace 2000
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But let us prepare for the recital of the parabasis.
The Acharnians 2000
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[221] The _parabasis_ in the Old Comedy was a sort of address or topical harangue addressed directly by the poet, speaking by the Chorus, to the audience.
The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1 446? BC-385? BC Aristophanes
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[65] The tripping metre usually employed in the _parabasis_.
The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1 446? BC-385? BC Aristophanes
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[524] This part of the parabasis belongs to the first edition of the
The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1 446? BC-385? BC Aristophanes
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[512] The opening portion of the parabasis belongs to a second edition of the 'Clouds.'
The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1 446? BC-385? BC Aristophanes
yarb commented on the word parabasis
Muffled in our undignified
parabasis, a decorous
gesture still survives in us...
- Peter Reading, Stills, from For the Municipality's Elderly, 1974
June 22, 2008