SCENE

Iu Dramatic Literature (from the Gr. owfyn, arbuur), dramatic representations, having, it is supposed, originally taken place on spots of ground shaded with boughs of trees. The imaginary place in which the action of the play is supposed to pa ; also a division of a drama: properly speaking, whenever the action changes to a new scene or place. But in the French theatre, and those framed on its model (in which unity of place is observed), every entry of an actor constitutes a new scene. On the English stage, the subdivision called a scene is extremely arbitrary; the scenes in most plays being far more numerous than the actual changes of scene, while nt the same time the French rule is not observed, and actors enter in the middle of a scene. The scenes in a play are numbered as subdivisions of the act. See Act. [s. 1107]