# Tirade > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Tirade > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Tirade.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirade > Source revision: 1356010686 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) A '''tirade''' ({{langx|fr|tirade}}, from {{langx|it|tirata}}, meaning a pull) is a brief and powerful [monologue](/source/monologue), typically in a [drama](/source/drama). It is a long phrase delivered in an elevated tone, notable for its resonance and calculated for external success.{{sfn|Arkady Gornfeld|1907|p=224}}{{sfn|Prokhorov|1976}} In a broader sense, a tirade is any long train of words or sequence of expression on a single theme, especially if it contains [censure](/source/censure) or reproof.{{sfn|Rines|1911}} Due to its loose connection with the development of the drama's action and acting as an extraneous element, the tirade met with condemnation from the ancients. They strictly adhered to the principle of unity of action (''semper ad eventum festinat'', always hastening to the resolution). However, it found a place in the oratorical addresses of the ancient [parabasis](/source/parabasis).{{sfn|Arkady Gornfeld|1907|p=224}} French tragedy is imbued with a rhetorical element and filled with brilliant tirades. These provided an opportunity for the author to display new aspects of their talent, for the actor to showcase their declamatory art, and for the audience to greet a resonant commonplace with sympathetic applause.{{sfn|Arkady Gornfeld|1907|p=224}} == Examples of famous theatrical tirades == Within a play, certain tirades serve as "bravura pieces" for both the author and the actors, and are anticipated by the audience as a dramatic climax of the performance. * The tirade where [Phaedra](/source/Phaedra_(mythology)) declares her love for [Hippolytus](/source/Hippolytus_(son_of_Theseus)) in act 2, scene 5 of [Jean Racine](/source/Jean_Racine)'s ''[Phèdre](/source/Ph%C3%A8dre)'': {{quote|Yes, Prince, I languish, I burn for Theseus (...)}} * [Don Juan](/source/Don_Juan_(Moli%C3%A8re))'s tirade on hypocrisy in act 5, scene 2 of [Molière](/source/Moli%C3%A8re)'s ''[Don Juan](/source/Don_Juan_(Moli%C3%A8re))'': {{quote|There is no longer any shame in it now; hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtues. (...)}} * The "{{ill|tirade of the nose|ru|Тирада о носе}}" in act 1, scene 4 of [Edmond Rostand](/source/Edmond_Rostand)'s ''[Cyrano de Bergerac](/source/Cyrano_de_Bergerac_(play))'': {{quote|Ah! no! that is a bit short, young man!
One could say... Oh! God! ... many things in short...
By varying the tone, -for example, look
Aggressive: "Me, Sir, if I had such a nose,
I would have to amputate it at once!"
(...)}} * In [William Shakespeare](/source/William_Shakespeare)'s ''[A Midsummer Night's Dream](/source/A_Midsummer_Night's_Dream)'', spoken by [Puck](/source/Puck_(A_Midsummer_Night's_Dream)) to a fairy in act 2, scene 1: {{quote|I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon and make him smile
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab,
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
(...)}} * ''Khlestakov'': The tall-tale tirades of the dandy [Khlestakov](/source/Khlestakov) regarding his imaginary life in Saint Petersburg.{{sfn|Koshel|2002|p=222}} == References == {{reflist}} == Sources == * {{ВТ-ЭСБЕ|Тирада|[Arkady Gornfeld](/source/Arkady_Gornfeld)|Tirade|том=XXXIII|страницы=224}} * {{cite book |last=Koshel |first=P. |year=2002 |title=Bolshaya shkolnaya entsiklopediya. Gumanitarnye nauki |trans-title=Great School Encyclopedia: Humanities |location=Moscow |publisher=OLMA Media Group |page=222 |isbn=5-224-03215-6 |url=http://books.google.fr/books?id=VeJkzV0ObUMC&pg=PA222| language=ru}} * {{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Prokhorov |editor-first=A. M. |year=1976 |title=Тирада |trans-title=Tirade |encyclopedia=Great Soviet Encyclopedia |volume=25 |edition=3rd |location=Moscow |publisher=Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya| language=ru}} * {{Source-attribution|{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Rines |editor-first=George Edwin |year=1911 |title=Tirade |encyclopedia=The United Editors Perpetual Encyclopedia: A Library of Universal Knowledge |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_United_Editors_Perpetual_Encyclopedi/Nwo9PdJGVskC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tirade+encyclopedia&pg=PP234&printsec=frontcover}}}} Category:Rhetoric Category:Monologues Category:Literary terminology {{theatre-stub}} --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Tirade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirade) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirade?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.