ABSTRACT
This chapter defines the central meaning of the dancing chorus clearly differs from the widespread claim that the chorus exists to represent the public, commentate events, or even represent the author's viewpoint. The chorus's prayers, songs and lyrical expressions of lamentation, which set the tone in ancient tragedy, did not vanish entirely with the rise of the dramatic theatre, but they faded into the background relative to dialogue between characters. Attic tragedy, which may be conceived as something like the theatrical birth of the self, demonstrates how the self is born precisely when it exalts and escalates itself, thereby losing itself in striving for untold heights. In Thomas Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, the ghost of the slain man pops up with the allegory of Revenge itself; the ghost commentates on actions and impatiently waits to see vengeance exacted within the play. In dramatic tragedy, the players portray subjects capable not just of addressing each other, but also of watching each other.
