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Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class IV. Words Relating to the Intellectual Faculties
Division (II) Communication of Ideas
Section III. Means of Communicating Ideas
3. Written Language

599. The Drama.

   NOUN:THE DRAMA, the stage, the theater or theatre, the play; theatricals, dramaturgy, histrionic art, mimography, buskin, sock, cothurnus, Melpomene and Thalia, Thespis.
  PLAY, drama, stageplay, piece, five-act play, tragedy, comedy, opera, vaudeville, comedietta, lever de rideau [F.], curtain raiser, interlude, afterpiece, exode [Rom. antiq.], farce, divertissement [F.], extravaganza, burletta, harlequinade, pantomime, burlesque, opéra bouffe [F.], ballet, spectacle, masque, drame [F.], comédie drame [F.]; melodrama; comédie larmoyante [F.]; emotional -drama, – play; sensation drama; tragi-comedy; light -, genteel -, low -, farce- comedy, comedy of manners, farcical-comedy; monodrama, monodram or monodrame, monologue, duologue, dialogue; trilogy; charade, proverbe [F.]; mystery, miracle play, morality play.
  ACT, scene, tableau, curtain; introduction, induction [archaic], exposition, expository scenes; prologue, epilogue; libretto, book, text, prompter’s copy.
  PERFORMANCE, representation, show [colloq.], mise en scène [F.], stage setting, stagery [obs.], stagecraft, jeu de théâtre [F.]; acting; gesture [See Indication]; impersonation [See Representation]; stage business, gag, patter, slap-stick [slang], buffoonery.
  THEATER or theatre, playhouse, opera house; music hall; amphitheater or amphitheatre, circus, hippodrome; moving-picture theater, moving pictures, movies [colloq.], cinematograph or cinema [colloq., Brit.]; puppet show, fantoccini; marionettes, Punch and Judy.
  AUDITORY, auditorium, front of the house, front [colloq. and professional], stalls [chiefly Eng.], orchestra seats or orchestra, pit [chiefly Eng.], parquet, orchestra circle, boxes, balcony, gallery, peanut gallery [slang]; dressing rooms, greenroom.
  SCENERY; back scene, flat; drop, drop scene; wing, screen, coulisse, side scene, transformation scene, curtain, act drop; proscenium; fire curtain, asbestos curtain.
  STAGE, movable stage, scene, the boards; trap, mezzanine floor; flies; floats, footlights; limelight, spotlight, colored light; orchestra.
  theatrical costume, theatrical properties, props [theat. cant].
  CAST, dramatis personœ [L.], persons in the play; rôle, part, character; repertoire, repertory, répertoire [F.].
  ACTOR, player; stage -, strolling- player; barnstormer, stager [rare], old stager; masker, masquer [rare], mime, mimer, mimic, mimester [rare]; artiste [F.], performer, star, headliner; comedian, tragedian, tragédienne [F.], Thespian, Roscius, ham [slang], hamfatter [slang]; utility, general utility, utility man.
  BUFFOON, pantomimist, clown, farceur [F.], buffo (pl. buffi) [It.], grimacer, pantaloon, harlequin, columbine; punch, punchinello, pulcinella [It.].
  mummer, guiser [Eng. & Scot.], guisard [Scot.], gysart [obs.], masque [obs.], mask.
  mountebank, Jack Pudding; tumbler, posture master, acrobat; contortionist; ballet dancer, ballet girl; coryphée [F.], danseuse [F.]; chorus girl, chorus singer.
  COMPANY; first tragedian, prima donna, leading lady; lead; leading man, protagonist; jeune premier [F.], débutant (fem. débutante) [F.]; light -, genteel -, low- comedian; walking gentleman or lady [obsoles.], amoroso [It.], juvenile lead, juvenile; heavy lead, heavy; heavy father, ingénue [F.], jeune veuve [F.], soubrette, farceur (fem. farceuse) [F.].
  MUTE, figurant, figurante, walking part, supernumerary, super [theat. cant], supe [theat. cant].
  manager; stage -, actor -, acting- manager; entrepreneur [F.], impresario; angel [slang].
  [THEATER STAFF] property man, prop [theat. cant]; costumer, costumier, wigmaker, make-up artist; sceneshifter, grip [U. S.], stage hand, stage carpenter, machinist, electrician, chief electrician; prompter, call boy; advance agent, publicity agent.
  DRAMATIST, playwright, playwriter; dramatic -author, – writer; mimographer, mimist [obs.]; dramatic critic.
  AUDIENCE, auditory, house; orchestra &c. n.; gallery, the gods [colloq.], gallery gods [colloq.].
   VERB:ACT, play, perform; put on the stage, dramatize, stage, produce, set; personate [See Representation]; mimic (imitate) [See Imitation]; enact; play -, act -, go through -, perform- a part; rehearse, spout, gag [slang], patter [slang], rant; strut and fret one’s hour upon the stage; tread the -stage, – boards; make one’s début, take a part, come out; star; supe [slang].
   ADJECTIVE:DRAMATIC; theatric or theatrical; scenic, histrionic, comic, tragic, buskined, cothurned; farcical, tragi-comic, melodramatic, operatic; stagy or stagey; spectacular, stellar, all-star [cant]; stagestruck.
   ADVERB:ON THE STAGE, on the boards; in the limelight, in the spotlight; before the floats, before the footlights, before the curtain, before an audience; behind the scenes.
   QUOTATIONS:

Fere totus mundus exercet histrionem.—Petronius Arbiter

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.—Hamlet

The play’s the thing.—Hamlet

Is there no play, To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?—Midsummer Night’s Dream

If it be true that good wine needs no bush, ’tis true that a good play needs no epilogue.—As You Like It

Come, sit down, every mother’s son, and rehearse your parts.—Midsummer Night’s Dream

Let gorgeous Tragedy In sceptred pall come sweeping by.—Milton

There’s a dearth of wit in this dull town, While silly plays so savourily go down.—Dryden

Thus they jog on, still tricking, never thriving, And murd’ring plays, which still they call reviving.—Dryden

The monuments of vanished minds.—Dryden

To wake the soul by tender strokes of art.—Pope

For we that live to please must please to live.—Johnson

The players are my pictures and their scenes my territories.—Steele

‘The world’s a stage,’—as Shakespeare said one day; The stage a world—was what he meant to say.—Holmes

Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD