Edit page | Page history | Printable version

interlude

1. A short entertainment exhibited on the stage between the acts of a play, or between the play and the afterpiece, to relieve the tedium of waiting. Dreams are but interludes, which fancy makes When monarch reason sleeps. (Dryden)

2. A form of english drama or play, usually short, merry, and farcical, which succeeded the Moralities or moral Plays in the transition to the romantic or Elizabethan drama.

3. A short piece of instrumental music played between the parts of a song or cantata, or the acts of a drama; especially, in church music, a short passage played by the organist between the stanzas of a hymn, or in german chorals after each line.

Origin: oe. Enterlude, LL. Interludium; LL. Inter between _ ludus play, fr. Ludere to play: cf. F. Interlude. See Ludicrous.