Interlude - Literary Terms
Interlude - Literary Terms
Interlude is a short entertaining play which was performed at court, in the halls of the nobles, and in the colleges, often in the intervals of banquets and entertainments. Interludes followed the Miracle or Morality plays. Since they were to be played as entertainment, or part of an entertainment, at the banquets of the aristocracy they might be serious or moralistic, but were more likely to be rough and farcical. Sometime the term is applied to comic episodes in the medieval drama.
Among the better-known Interludes are John Heywood's farces of the first half of the sixteenth century, especially The Four Ps (that is, the Palmer, the Pardoner, the Pothecary, and the Peddler, who engage in a lying contest), and Johan Johan the Husband, Tyb His Wife, and Sir John the Priest.
Share This Post
