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sposition of the parts of any composition with regard to one another and the whole. Their dramatic ordonnance of the parts. Coleridge.

A dramatic representation by actors who use only dumb show; hence, dumb show, generally.

A particular character in a drama or a play; an assumed personification; also, the language, actions, and influence of a character or an actor in a play; or, figuratively, in real life. See To act a part, under Act. That part Was aptly fitted and naturally performed. Shak. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital…

To represent; to act; to play; as in drama. Perform a part thou hast not done before. Shak.

erformer; especially, one who shows skill and training in any art; as, a performer of the drama; a performer on the harp.

ic kind or manifestation of individual character, whether in real life, or in literary or dramatic representation; an assumed character. [Archaic] His first appearance upon the stage in his new person of a sycophant or juggler. Bacon. No man can long put on a person and act a part. Jer. Taylor. To bear rule, which was…

A dramatic composition; a comedy or tragedy; a composition in which characters are represented by dialogue and action. A play ought to be a just image of human nature. Dryden.

A book of dramatic compositions; a book of the play. Swift.

A dramatic actor. Shak.

One who frequents playhouses, or attends dramatic performances.

A building used for dramatic exhibitions; a theater. Shak.

A writer of plays; a dramatist; a playwright. Lecky.

Specifically: Metrical composition; verse; rhyme; poems collectively; as, heroic poetry; dramatic poetry; lyric or Pindaric poetry. "The planetlike music of poetry." Sir P. Sidney. She taketh most delight In music, instruments, and poetry. Shak.

, the prologue of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales;" esp., a discourse or poem spoken before a dramatic performance

One who takes the leading part in a drama; hence, one who takes lead in some great scene, enterprise, conflict, or the like. Shakespeare, the protagonist on the great of modern poetry. De Quincey.

The first part of a drama, of a poem, or the like; the introduction; opposed to epitasis. B. Jonson.

A drama exemplifying a proverb. Book of Proverbs, a canonical book of the Old Testament, containing a great variety of wise maxims.

A similar figure moved by the hand or by a wire in a mock drama; a marionette; a wooden actor in a play. At the pipes of some carved organ move, The gilded puppets dance. Pope.

To be in excess; to remain over and above; to be redundant; to overflow. For every dram of honey therein found, A pound of gall doth over it redound. Spenser.

or our rehearsal. Shak. Dress rehearsal (Theater), a private preparatory performance of a drama, opera, etc., in costume.