Greek comedy Ancient Greek comedy () was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece; the others being tragedy and the satyr play. Greek comedy was distinguished from tragedy by its happy endings and use of comically ex ...

, the parabasis (plural parabases; , plural: ) is a point in the play when all of the actors leave the stage and the chorus is left to address the audience directly. The chorus partially or completely abandons its dramatic role, to step forward (parabasis) and talk to the audience on a topic completely irrelevant to the subject of the play.

Structure

A parabasis usually consists of three songs (S) alternating with three speeches (s) (or

recitative Recitative (, also known by its Italian name recitativo () is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat lines ...

s) in the order S-s-S-s-S-s. The first speech, or parabasis proper - generally in anapaest - often ends with a passage which is to be rattled off very quickly (theoretically in one breath - called a ''πνῖγος – pnigos'').

Examples

*In ''

The Knights ''The Knights'' ( ''Hippeîs''; Attic: ) was the fourth play written by Aristophanes, who is considered the master of Old Comedy. The play is a satire on the social and political life of classical Athens during the Peloponnesian War, and in thi ...

'', we find

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

offers a survey of the Athenian comic tradition, thereby enhancing his own role: “if one of the old comic poets had tried to force us Knights to address the public in the parabasis he wouldn’t have got away with so lightly. But this time the poet is worthy...”. *In the play ''

The Wasps ''The Wasps'' () is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes. It was produced at the Lenaia festival in 422 BC, during Athens' short-lived respite from the Peloponnesian War and shortly before the death o ...

'' by the same author, the first parabasis is about Aristophanes' career as a playwright to date; while the second parabasis is shorter, and contains a string of in-jokes about local characters who would be well known to the ancient Athenian audience (e.g. the politician Cleon).

Authorial voice

The chorus in the parabasis sometimes uses its own voice, sometimes that of the play's author, to address the audience. How far the latter is to be taken as ‘authentic’ is a matter for debate. The old view was that Aristophanes is speaking directly to his fellow-Athenians in the parabasis; and that as a result, as

Northrop Frye Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century. Frye gained international fame with his first book, ''Fearful Symmetr ...

put it, “his opinions on every subject are written all over his plays”. A postmodern interpretation would see the authorial voice as metatheatrical, offering a parody of rhetorical debating points, rather than unmediated criticism.

Decline

The parabasis is exclusively a feature of

Old Comedy Old Comedy is the first period of the ancient Greek comedy, according to the canonical division by the Alexandrian grammarians.Mastromarco (1994) p.12 The most important Old Comic playwright is Aristophanes – whose works, with their daring pol ...

, and its decline can be charted in the plays of Aristophanes. The second parabasis is gradually abandoned, the chorus ceases to speak out of character in the parabasis itself, and finally the latter is abandoned altogether. Where the diminishment in the role of the chorus was traditionally linked to the financial pressures of wartime, more recently Stephen Halliwell has preferred to see the decline in terms of theatrical evolution.S Halliwell ed., ''Birds and Other Plays'' (Oxford 1998) p. xxxix

References

, ''Poetics''. * Feder, Lillian, ''The Handbook of Classical Literature'', (uniform title: ''Meridian Handbook of Classical Literature''), New York : Da Capo Press, 1998. . Cf. especially the articles on "Comedy", "The Clouds", pp.100-105. * Freund, Philip, ''The Birth of Theatre'', London : Peter Owen, 2003. {{ISBN, 0-7206-1170-9. Cf. Chapter 6, ''Greek Laughter'' * Gassner, John, and Quinn, Edward, ditors ''The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama'', New York, Crowell, 1969. Cf. article on "Comedy", p.140 * Harsh, Philip Whaley, ''A Handbook of Classical Drama'', Stanford University, Calif., Stanford university press; London, H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1944. Cf. Chapter V, ''Introduction to Old Comedy''. * Harsh, Philip Whaley
''The Position of the Parabasis in the Plays of Aristophanes''
in ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'', Vol. 65, (1934), pp. 178–197, The Johns Hopkins University Press

External links

- Mark Damen, Utah State University Ancient Greek theatre Ancient Greek comedy