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MONOLOGUE (from Gr. µovos, alone, and...

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 731 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MONOLOGUE (from Gr. µovos, alone, and X yos, speech)  , a passage in a dramatic piece in which a personage holds the See also:scene to himself and speaks unconsciously aloud . The theory of the See also:monologue is that the See also:audience overhears the thoughts of one who believes himself to be alone, and who thus informs them of what would otherwise be unknown to them . The word is also used in cases when a See also:character on the See also:stage speaks at See also:great length, even though not alone, but is listened to in silence by the other characters . The old-fashioned tragedies of the 17th and 18th centuries greatly affected this See also:convention of the monologue, which has always, however, been liable to ridicule . There is something of a lyrical character about the monologue in See also:verse; and this has been See also:felt by some of the classic poets of See also:France so strongly, that many of the examples in the tragedies of See also:Corneille are nothing more or less than odes or cantatas . The monologues of See also:Shakespeare, and those of See also:Hamlet in particular, have a far more dramatic character, and are, indeed, essential to the development of the See also:play . Equally important are those of See also:Racine in Phedre and in Athalie . The See also:French critics See also:record, as the most ambitious examples of the monologue in two centuries, that of See also:Figaro in See also:Beaumarchais's Le Mariage de Figaro and that of See also:Charles V. in See also:Victor See also:Hugo's Hernani, the latter ex-tends to 16o lines . In the Elizabethan See also:drama, the popularity of See also:Kyd's See also:Spanish Tragedy, in which Hieronymo spouts interminably, set a See also:fashion for ranting monologues, which are very frequent in Shakespeare's immediate predecessors and contemporaries . After 1600 the practice was much reduced, and the tendency of solitary heroes to pour forth columns of See also:blank verse was held in check by more complex stage arrangements . After the Restoration the classic tragedies of the See also:English playwrights again abused the See also:privilege of monologue to such a degree that it became absurd, and See also:fell into desuetude .

End of Article: MONOLOGUE (from Gr. µovos, alone, and X yos, speech)
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