Antilabe

Antilabe (gr. "grip") is a technique in drama or poetry, in which a single verse line is distributed on two or more characters, voices, or entities. The verse usually maintains its metric integrity, while the line fragments spoken by the characters may or may not be complete sentences. The fragments following the first one are often indented to show the unity of the verse line.

Example:

:BRUTUS: Peace then. No words.:CLITUS: I'll rather kill myself.:(Shakespeare, "Julius Ceasar")

These are three sentences spoken by two persons. But it is only one single line in blank verse:

:Peace then. No words. I'll rather kill myself.

An extreme example from Shakespeare is:

:Death?:::My lord?:::::A grave.:::::::He shall not live.:("King John", 3.3)

External Links

* [http://roberthogan.net/books/antilabe-rebuilt.pdf "The Dramatic Function of Antilabe in Greek Tragedy by Robert Hogan"] .