Pl. choruses. [a. L. chorus dance, band of dancers and singers, etc. (in med.L., choir of a church), a. Gr. χορός dance, band of dancers, chorus (sense 1), etc. Cf. CHOIR.]
1. Gr. Antiq. An organized band of singers and dancers in the religious festivals and dramatic performances of ancient Greece. b. The song sung by the chorus.
In the Attic tragedy, the chorus were ‘interested spectators,’ sympathizing with the fortunes of the characters, and giving expression, between the ‘acts,’ to the moral and religious sentiments evoked by the action of the play.
1606. Bryskett, Civ. Life, 149. He [Plato] introduceth Poets to sing Himnes to their Gods, and teacheth the maner of their Chori in their sacrifices.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., II. Introd. 39. Intermingling her solemn Scenes and Acts with a sevenfold Chorus of halleluja’s and harping symphonies.
a. 1789. Burney, Hist. Mus. (ed. 2), I. ix. 158. The great choruses, or interludes were generally four in number.
1807. Robinson, Archæol. Græca, I. xxii. 100. Fifteen persons were to constitute a tragic chorus.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, III. xviii. 74. Æschylus … superintended the evolutions of his chorusses.
c. In English drama, imitated or adapted from the chorus of Attic tragedy, as in Gorboduc, and Milton’s Samson Agonistes; by Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists reduced to a single personage, who speaks the prologue, and explains or comments upon the course of events.
1561. Norton & Sackv., Gorboduc (1565), A ii. The names of the Speakers. Gorboduc … [etc.]. Chorus, Foure auncient and Sage men of Brittayne.
c. 1590. Marlowe, Faust. (1601), D 3. Enter Chorus.… What there he did in triall of his art, I leaue vntold.
1594. Kyd, Cornelia, III. D 3. Cornelia. Say gentle sisters, tell me, and belieue It grieues me that I know not why you grieue. Chorus. O poore Cornelia, haue not we good cause For former wrongs to furnish vs with teares?
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., Prol. 32. Admit me Chorus to this Historie. Ibid. (1602), Ham., III. ii. 255. Y’are as good as a Chorus, my Lord. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T. IV. i. Enter Time, the Chorus.
1671. Milton, Samson. The Persons … Chorus of Danites.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., xviii. 470. He is also accustomed to introduce a character as a sort of chorus, to detail the progress of events to his audience.
1878. H. James, Fr. Poets & Nov., 294–5. In this tale,… the poet never plays chorus; situations speak for themselves.
d. fig.
1602. Return fr. Parnass., II. i. (Arb.), 21. Sighs are the Chorus in our Tragedie.
1634. Massinger, Very Woman, IV. iii. But your’s is pity, A noble chorus to my wretched story.
† 2. fig. [L. chorus, Gr. χορός.] Applied to the company of planets, moving in rhythmical and regular order round the sun. (Cf. CHOIR 6.)
1660. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 10. The True System of the Universe, which places the Sun in the Center, and the Earth in the Planetary Chorus.
1720. Waterland, Eight Serm., 87. The Sun, with its planetary Chorus dancing round it.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., § 5. 80. The chorus of planets moving periodically, by uniform laws, in their several orbits about [the sun].
3. An organized band of singers, a choir; spec. the collective body of vocalists who sing the choral parts in an opera, oratorio, etc.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Chorus, a Company of Singers or Dancers, a Quire.
1738. Pope, Epil. Sat., II. 242. While Heaven’s whole chorus sings.
1862. Lady Wallace, trans. Mendelssohn’s Lett., 17 May 1831. The orchestra and chorus here are like those in our second-rate provincial towns. Ibid., 23 Nov. 1834. The choruses got drunk … and rebelled against the manager.
1880. Grove, Dict. Mus., II. 286. [Mendelssohn’s] Antigone was brought out at Covent Garden on Jan. 2, 1845…. Musically its success was not at first great, owing to the inadequate way in which the chorus was put on the stage.
4. The simultaneous utterance of song by a number of people; anything sung by many at once.
1711. Pope, Univ. Prayer, 188. One chorus let all Being raise.
1848. Lytton, Harold, I. i. Again broke, loud, clear, and silvery, the joyous chorus.
1862. Lady Wallace, trans. Mendelssohn’s Lett., 21 Jan. 1832. His organ … sounded like a full chorus of old women’s voices.
b. transf. The simultaneous utterance of any vocal sounds, as speech, laughter, etc., by a number of persons; the sounds so uttered. Also of animals, e.g., the ‘music’ of hounds in full cry.
1735. Somerville, Chase, II. 249. Hark! now again the Chorus fills.
1783. Johnson, Lett. Mrs. Thrale, 5 July. Eight children in a small house will probably make a chorus not very diverting.
1862. Lady Wallace, trans. Mendelssohn’s Lett., 1 March 1831. [They] broke into a chorus of loud laughter.
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., III. 97. A general chorus of bad language.
1881. J. Grant, Cameronians, I. iv. 58. All the dogs … kept up a chorus of mingled whining and barking.
c. In chorus: with simultaneous utterance; (singing, speaking, etc.) all together.
1805. Foster, Ess., II. iv. 166. If all the nation were to laugh in chorus.
1851. Kingsley, Yeast, xiii. [A song] of the lowest flash London school … was roared in chorus.
5. Mus. A vocal composition for a considerable body of singers, written in any number of parts, but most usually in four, each part being sung by a number of voices. A double chorus is a chorus written for two choirs, usually in eight parts.
1744. Handel, Lett. Jennens, 2 Oct. Would not the words, ‘Tell it out among the Heathen that the Lord is King,’ be sufficient for our Chorus?
1862. Lady Wallace, trans. Mendelssohn’s Lett., 16 Oct. 1830, 40. If I were to take the first verse of ‘Vom Himmel hoch’ as a separate grand chorus.
1879. Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 354/2. Choruses for 2 choirs are called double choruses…. The two choirs answer one another, and the effect is quite different from that of 8 real parts. Ibid., 646/2. The Hallelujah Chorus in the Messiah is known to every one.
6. The refrain or burden of a song, which the audience join the performer in singing.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev. Palinode, Amo. From spanish shrugs … and all affected humours. Chorus. Good Mercury defend us.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic., ii. The commodore, the lieutenant, and landlord, joined in the chorus.
1840. Lever, Chas. O’Malley, vi. Mr. Bodkin … bespoke a chorus to his chaunt.
1851. Kingsley, Yeast, xiii. ‘Coorus, boys, coorus!’ and the chorus burst out, ‘Then here’s a curse on varmers all.’
a. 1876. G. Dawson, Lect. Songs Shaks. (1888), 45. The chorus of a song must be nonsense, or how could you expect the company to join in?
b. transf.
1790. Burns, Tam O’Shanter, 50. The souter tauld his queerest stories: The landlord’s laugh was ready chorus.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, § 1. 20. Unextinguishable laughter forms the chorus of conversation.
7. Comb., as chorus-leading vbl. sb., -like adj. and adv., -master, -singer, -teacher, etc.
1884. Graphic, 13 Sept., 278/2. The *‘chorus-ladies’ fair and numerous.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, v. 147. A father taught the trade of flute-playing and *chorus-leading and verse-making to his son.
1853. Hickie, trans. Aristoph. (1872), II. 505. I will celebrate thee with *chorus-loving odes.
1820. T. Mitchell, Aristoph., I. 202. The office of choregus, or *chorus-master, was both honourable and expensive.
1813. Exam., 10 May, 297/2. The lowest order of *chorus-singers at Drury-Lane.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, v. 147. Simonides exercised his calling of *chorus-teacher at Carthæa in Ceos.
