| 释义 |
‖ parabasis|pəˈræbəsɪs|
Pl. -bases |-bəsiːz|.
[a. Gr. παράβασις lit. a going aside, digression, stepping forward, f. παραβαίνειν to go aside, step forward.]
In ancient Greek comedy, A part sung by the chorus, addressed to the audience in the poet's name, and unconnected with the action of the drama. Also transf., any digression in which the author addresses the audience on personal or topical matters.
1820T. Mitchell Aristoph. I. p. cvi, What steps were used in their parabases to give effect to the rhythm. Ibid. p. cxiv, The play originally condemned has come down to us with part of a parabasis (or address to the audience). 1866Lowell Swinburne's Trag. Pr. Wks. 1890 II. 130 Something similar in purpose to the parabasis was essayed in one, at least, of the comedies of Beaumont and Fletcher, and in our time by Tieck. 1877Ward in Encycl. Brit. VII. 407/2 The distinctive feature of Old, as compared with Middle Comedy, is the parabasis, the speech in which the chorus, moving towards and facing the audience, addressed it in the name of the poet, often abandoning all reference to the action of the play. 1949Oxf. Classical Dict. 216/2 Parabasis (addresses to audience separated by brief chants). 1952F. H. Dudden Henry Fielding I. p. v, In the frequent parabases intercalated in his novels..[Fielding] has laid open his inner⁓most self. 1965New Statesman 30 Apr. 694/2 This is Coward's exercise in parabasis form: a lightly fictionalised justification of his way of theatre, acting and life. 1974Encycl. Brit. Micropædia VII. 511/1 The parabasis, in which the chorus addresses the audience on the topics of the day and hurls scurrilous criticism at prominent citizens. |