dumb show

dumb show

dumb show a theatrical pantomime included as part of a drama, especially in Elizabethan works, from the middle of the 16th cent. well into the 17th cent. Whether presented as a spectacle, with music, or as a masque with the players as allegorical characters, the dumb show appeared as prologue, between the acts, or during the play itself. It usually either presaged the events of the play or interpreted them as a chorus does.

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"dumb show." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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dumb show

dumb show, a piece of silent action or stage business, especially in the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre. These shows, such as the one before the play scene in Hamlet, suggest by mime and symbolism what is shortly to take place and its meaning.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "dumb show." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "dumb show." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-dumbshow.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "dumb show." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-dumbshow.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

At last, proof it's not smart to play dumb!(Features)
Newspaper article from: Daily Mail (London); 10/29/2009
DUMB AND NUMBER; Obsession with 23 made Carrey ditch laughs for horror.(News)
Newspaper article from: Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland); 2/21/2007
Dumb has managed to get a whole lot dumber... Misogynistic and infantile,...
Newspaper article from: Daily Mail (London); 3/11/2011

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