A type of serious theatrical work, particularly a French historical play that combines tragic and comic elements, popular in the 18th-19th centuries.
From French drame, from Latin drama, from Greek dramata (things done, actions). The French used it to describe a specific genre of domestic or historical plays.
The French invented 'drame' as a middle ground between formal tragedy (where only nobles died) and comedy—they wanted to show ordinary people's serious problems on stage, which was revolutionary because it suggested regular people's lives mattered as much as kings' lives.
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