Parabăsis
（
παράβασις). A characteristic, though not indispensable,
part of the chorus in the Old Attic comedy. About the middle of the piece, when the action of
the play had been developed up to a certain point, the chorus, which had up to this time
turned towards the actors on the stage, now turned to the audience. This stepping forward
towards the audience is itself also termed
parabasis. In this position
they made an appeal to the public on behalf of the poet, who could thus give expression to his
personal views and wishes, and offer advice, as well as explain the purport of his play, etc.
This address stood wholly outside the action of the play. When the
parabasis was complete, which was seldom the case, it consisted of seven parts, partly
spoken by the leader of the chorus, partly sung by the chorus. One of these parts was called
the
parabasis in a narrower sense, and consisted chiefly of anapaestic
tetrameters. One feature of the parabasis was the introduction of lines relating to topics of
the day, which Professor Mahaffy has compared with the “topical songs” of
the modern burlesque. See Müller,
Hist. of the Lit. of Ancient Greece,
Eng. trans. i. p. 401, and Professor Brander Matthews in
Classical Studies in Honour of
Henry Drisler, pp. 177-178
(N. Y. 1894).
