interlude, development in the late 15th cent. of the English medieval morality play. Played between the acts of a long play, the interlude, treating intellectual rather than moral topics, often contained elements of satire or farce. The form developed in Italy as the intermedio and intermezzo, in France as the entremet or intermede and as the entrée, which involved only dance. In Spain the entremés became an independent form as in the work of Cervantes.
See E. K. Chambers, The Medieval Stage (1903); V. F. Hopper and G. B. Lahey, ed., Medieval Mysteries, Moralities and Interludes (1962).
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