Dramatic terms and Shakey Lingo

Apostrophe

When an inanimate object or absent person is addressed as if the person or object would respond

Aside

A comment made by a character that is heard by the audience or another character but is not heard by other haracters onstage (private thoughts)

Foil character

A character who provides a strong contrast to another character to emphasize a character's traits

Chorus

Used by Elizabethan dramatists to comment on play's actions and describe events not shown on stage (actor(s) speak in unison and deliver a prologue)

Comic relief

A short, funny episode that interrupts an otherwise serious or tragic work of drama. Break of tension

Dramatic irony

When a reader is aware of something that a character isn't

Monologue

When a character delivers a long speech to another

Prologue

Sonnet at the beginning act of a play; exposition or summary if the play

Pun

A play on words that sounds the same or spelled the same

Shakespeare sonnet

A lyric poem of 14 lines following a strict pattern of 10 syllables and division and rhyme (abab cdcdc efef gg) three quatrains and a couplet

Soliloquy

A long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage; private thoughts and emotions of a character

Tragedy

A play which a main character called a tragic hero suffers a downfall from external or internal forces called tragic flaws

Act strange

Act distant and cold

Biting your thumb at someone

Equivalent to shooting the middle finger at someone

Fahsionmongers

Crowd-pleasers

Foe

Enemy

Fray

Fight

Haste

Hurry

I beseech you

I'm asking you

I pray thee

I ask you

Jest

Joke

Jove

Zeus

Live in chaste

Virginity

Nuptial

Wedding

Nurse

Nanny

Plague

Fatal disease

Queen Mab

Fairy godmother

Rapier

Sword

Saucy

Rude, obnoxious

Save

Except

Scorn

To make fun of or criticize

Slain

Killed by the sword

Thou, thee

You

Wench

Nasty girl

Woe

Anguish and sadness