a. [f. as THEATRIC + -AL: see -ICAL.]
A. adj. 1. Pertaining to or connected with the theatre or ‘stage,’ or with scenic representations.
1558. Parker, in Burnet, Hist. Ref. (1681), II. Collect. Records, II. III. viii. 355. To dispense God’s Word … in poor destitute Parishes … more meet for my decayed Voice … than in Theatrical and great Audience.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 19. The straunge fables and Theatricall fictions.
1637–50. Row, Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.), 6. There were also some theatricall playes.
1730. A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 335. The Power and Extent of the Theatrical Law.
1905. A. C. Benson, Upton Lett. (1906), 72. He drifts up to London and joins a theatrical company.
† b. = THEATRIC a. 1 b. Obs.
1766. Amory, Buncle (1770), IV. 22. In a theatrical space of about two hundred acres, which the hand of nature cut, or hollowed out, on the side of a mountain.
2. That ‘plays a part’; † representing or exhibiting in the manner of an actor (obs.); that simulates, or is simulated; artificial, affected, assumed.
1649. J. H., Motion to Parl. Adv. Learn., 37. Man in businesse is but a Theatricall person, and in a manner but personates himselfe.
1691. Boyle, Greatn. Mind, I. 6. Philosophers … can easily distinguish betwixt that real Greatness … and that Theatrical one, that Fortune may have annext to his Condition.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac., VI. iii. (1737), III. 368. The good Painter must … take care that his Action be not theatrical, or at second hand; but original and drawn from Nature her-self.
1830. Macaulay, Ess., Moore’s Byron (1887), 169. How far the character in which he [Byron] exhibited himself was genuine, and how far theatrical, it would probably have puzzled himself to say.
3. Having the style of dramatic performance; extravagantly or irrelevantly histrionic; ‘stagy’; calculated for display, showy, spectacular.
1709–10. Steele & Addison, Tatler, No. 136, ¶ 3. His Theatrical Manner of making Love.
1751. Affect. Narr. of Wager, 60. [He] read it to the Captain in a theatrical Tone.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., II. viii. 277. The signal … was given with a theatrical bravado.
1883. Mrs. Oliphant, Sheridan, ii. 57. Sheridan’s art, from its very beginning, was theatrical, if we may use the word, rather than dramatic.
B. sb. 1. pl. The performance of stage plays; now, dramatic performance by amateurs, usually in a private house (private theatricals). Also fig. doings of a theatrical character; ‘acting,’ pretence.
1657–83. Evelyn, Hist. Relig. (1850). II. 291. Turning their … services and ceremonies into theatricals.
1804. Miniature, No. 21 (1806), I. 280. Private theatricals, when many of the first personages in the land choose to make themselves fools for the good of a large company.
1808. Han. More, Cœlebs (1809), II. xxxiii. 116. What the news-papers pertly call Private Theatricals.
a. 1849. H. Coleridge, Ess. (1851), II. 12. If Charles had not carried his love of theatricals to church.
1897. Mrs. E. L. Voynich, Gadfly (1901), 30/2. It’s only the usual theatricals, because he’s ashamed to face us.
2. pl. Matters pertaining to the stage and acting; in quot. 1855 concr. = stage properties.
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 106, note. He … dedicated his mind to the study of theatricals.
1829. Censor, 224. The depressed state of theatricals.
1855. Dickens, Lett. (1880), I. 397. I have some theatricals at home.
3. A professional actor.
1859. Sala, Gaslight & D., ii. 18. How hard-working … and persevering theatricals … generally are.
1863. Dickens, Lett., 1 May, in Holman-Hunt, Pre-Raphaelitism (1905), II. 238. That hall-gipsy life of our theatricals.
1888. Harper’s Mag., Nov., 945/2. All the theatricals went there.
