[f. STAGE sb. + -ESE.] The ‘dialect’ peculiar to the stage.
1876. Times, 6 Jan., 11/3. Such phrases as … ‘I would have speech with thee’ … may … be described as accepted stagese.
1882. Pall Mall Gaz., 6 Dec., 4. The rest mopping and mowing in what was not to be called English but rather stagese.
