Antilabe (from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: ἀντι "mutually" or "corresponding", λαβή, "grip" or "handle") is a

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

al technique in

verse drama Verse drama is any drama written significantly in verse (that is: with line endings) to be performed by an actor before an audience. Although verse drama does not need to be ''primarily'' in verse to be considered verse drama, significant portion ...

closet drama A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader or sometimes out loud in a large group. The contrast between closet drama and classic "stage" dramas dates back to the late eighteenth century. Al ...

, in which a single verse line of dialogue is distributed on two or more

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

, voices, or entities. The verse usually maintains its

metric Metric or metrical may refer to: * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics In mathema ...

integrity, while the line fragments spoken by the characters may or may not be complete sentences. In the layout of the text the line fragments following the first one are often indented ("

dropped line In poetry, a dropped line is a line which is broken into two lines, but where the second part is indented to the horizontal position it would have had as an unbroken line. For example, in the poem "The Other Side of the River" by Charles Wright, ...

") to show the unity of the verse line. These are three sentences spoken by two persons. But it is only one single line in

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and P ...

: :Peace then. No words. I'll rather kill myself.

In Ancient Greek drama

"The device originated in classical tragedy as a means of heightening dramatic tension." "It figures in almost all the plays of

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or co ...

and

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...

. It renders dialogue less stately and more agitated: the technique is well suited to scenes of excitement, in which one speaker is repeatedly capping, countering or following up the ideas of another." In Sophokles’ ''

Oedipus Oedipus (, ; grc-gre, Οἰδίπους "swollen foot") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby ...

'', for example, "as ''Kreon'' seizes ''Antigone'' (832), they break into an excited lyrical strophe, full of ''antilabe'' in which ''Oedipus'', ''Kreon'', and the chorus participate." "In ''

Electra Electra (; grc, Ήλέκτρα) is one of the most popular mythological characters in tragedies.Evans (1970), p. 79 She is the main character in two Greek tragedies, '' Electra'' by Sophocles and '' Electra'' by Euripides. She is also the centra ...

'' (1502-3), ''antilabe'' occurs as ''Orestes'' tries to induce ''Aegisthys'' to enter the house so that ''Orestes'' can kill him." " ntilabe isused with particular freedom in late Euripides." "In the plays of

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

, with the possible exception of ''

Prometheus Bound ''Prometheus Bound'' ( grc, Προμηθεὺς Δεσμώτης, ''Promētheús Desmṓtēs'') is an Ancient Greek tragedy traditionally attributed to Aeschylus and thought to have been composed sometime between 479 BC and the terminus ante ...

'' (line 980), this phenomenon does not occur."

In Seneca drama

"Dialogic exchanges using both ''

stichomythia Stichomythia ( grc, στιχομυθία, stikhomuthía) is a technique in verse drama in which sequences of single alternating lines, or half-lines (hemistichomythia

'' and ''antilabe'' are common in Seneca the Younger, Seneca. They occur in all the tragedies except ''Phoenissae''."

In Renaissance drama

David Eggenberger notes that "

he device He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

was frequently utilized by

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

dramatists."Eggenberger, p. 219. An extreme example from Shakespeare is:

Notes

{{reflist

References

*Bonaria, Mario. "Lantilabé nella tragedia antica." In ''Studi di filologica in onore di Giusto Monaco''. I, ''Letteratura greca''. Palermo: University di Palermo Fac. di Lettere e Filosofia, 1991, pp. 173–188. *McDevitt, A. S. "Antilabe in Sophoclean Kommoi," In ''Rheinisches Museum'' 124 (1981), pp. 19–28. *Gildersleeve, Basil Lanneau, Miller, Charles William Emil and Meritt, Benjamin Dean Meritt . ''American Journal of Philology.'' Volumes 41-60. 1939, p. 183.
Hogan, Robert. ''The Dramatic Function of Antilabe in Greek Tragedy''. Trinity College, 1998.
Drama Literary terminology Poetic forms Rhetorical techniques