Dumbshow, also dumb show or dumb-show, is defined by the ''

Oxford Dictionary of English The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''ODE'') is a single-volume English dictionary published by Oxford University Press, first published in 1998 as ''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''NODE''). The word "New" was dropped from the titl ...

'' as "gestures used to convey a meaning or message without speech; mime." In the theatre the word refers to a piece of dramatic

mime A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...

in general, or more particularly a piece of action given in mime within a play "to summarise, supplement, or comment on the main action". In the ''Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance'', Michael Dobson writes that the dumbshow was originally "an allegorical survival from the

morality play The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor drama. The term is used by scholars of literary and dramatic history to refer to a genre of play texts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries that feature personified concepts ( ...

". It came into fashion in 16th-century English drama in interludes featuring "personifications of abstract virtues and vices who contend in ways which foreshadow and moralize the fortunes of the play's characters".Dobson, Michael
"dumb show"
''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance'', Oxford University Press, 2003, retrieved 29 November 2015 There are examples in ''

Gorboduc Gorboduc ('' Welsh:'' Gorwy or Goronwy) was a legendary king of the Britons as recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was married to Judon. When he became old, his sons, Ferrex and Porrex, feuded over who would take over the kingdom. Porrex tri ...

'' (1561) throughout which dumbshow plays a major part, and in

Thomas Kyd Thomas Kyd (baptised 6 November 1558; buried 15 August 1594) was an English playwright, the author of ''The Spanish Tragedy'', and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama. Although well known in his own time, ...

's ''

The Spanish Tragedy ''The Spanish Tragedy'', or ''Hieronimo is Mad Again'' is an Elizabethan tragedy written by Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592. Highly popular and influential in its time, ''The Spanish Tragedy'' established a new genre in English theatre: the re ...

'' (1580s),

George Peele George Peele (baptised 25 July 1556 – buried 9 November 1596) was an English translator, poet, and dramatist, who is most noted for his supposed, but not universally accepted, collaboration with William Shakespeare on the play ''Titus Andronic ...

's '' The Battle of Alcazar'' (1594) and '' The Old Wives' Tale'' (1595), Robert Greene's ''

Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay ''Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay'', originally entitled ''The Honorable Historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay'', is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy written by Robert Greene. Widely regarded as Greene's best and most significant play, ...

'' (1594) and the anonymous ''A Warning for Fair Women'' (1599).Cuddon, pp. 244–245

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

used dumbshow in ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

,'' for the

play within a play A story within a story, also referred to as an embedded narrative, is a literary device in which a character within a story becomes the narrator of a second story (within the first one). Multiple layers of stories within stories are sometime ...

staged by Prince Hamlet and the players for King Claudius. That, like Revenge's dumbshow in ''The Spanish Tragedy'', suggests by mime the action soon to take place in the main spoken drama.Birch, Dinah
"dumb show"
''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', Oxford University Press, 2009, retrieved 29 November 2015 In Dobson's view the dumbshow was becoming old-fashioned by Shakespeare's time, and the playwright's most elaborate dumbshows are in ''

Pericles Pericles (; ; –429 BC) was a Greek statesman and general during the Golden Age of Athens. He was prominent and influential in Ancient Athenian politics, particularly between the Greco-Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, and was acclaimed ...

'', a play intentionally constructed in "a mock-medieval dramatic idiom". In the 17th century, dumbshow survived as an element of the courtly

masque The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A mas ...

, and in the Jacobean tragedies of Webster and Middleton dumbshows are featured in masque-within-the-play episodes. From the 1630s the dumbshow no longer featured in mainstream British drama, but it resurfaced in

harlequinade ''Harlequinade'' is an English comic theatrical genre, defined by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' as "that part of a pantomime in which the harlequin and clown play the principal parts". It developed in England between the 17th and mid-19th ce ...

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...

s and

melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...

s in the 19th century. Thomas Holcroft introduced a dumb character in his play ''A Tale of Mystery'' (1802), and the device of using a mute to convey essential facts by dumbshow became a regular feature of melodramas. In his ''Dictionary of Literary Terms'' (first published in 1977), J. A. Cuddon lists 19th century plays with the titles ''The Dumb Boy'' (1821), ''The Dumb Brigand'' (1832), ''The Dumb Recruit'' (1840), ''The Dumb Driver'' (1849) and ''The Dumb Sailor'' (1854). Cuddon notes three 20th century instances of dumbshow in

André Obey André Obey (; 8 May 1892 at Douai, France – 11 April 1975 at Montsoreau, near the river Loire) was a prominent French playwright during the inter-war years and into the 1950s. He began as a novelist and produced an autobiographical novel about ...

's ''Le Viol de Lucrece'' (1931),

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

's ''

Waiting for Godot ''Waiting for Godot'' ( or ) is a 1953 play by Irish writer and playwright Samuel Beckett, in which the two main characters, Vladimir (Waiting for Godot), Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters w ...

'' (1953) and

Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (; born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...

's '' Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'' (1966).

Notes

Sources

* {{Hamlet Theatre of the United Kingdom Stage terminology Mime