
comic relief Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (4 ed.)
... relief The interruption of a serious work, especially a tragedy , by a short humorous episode. The inclusion of such comic scenes, characters, or speeches can have various and complex effects, ranging from relaxation after moments of high tension to sinister ironic brooding. Famous instances are the drunken porter’s speech in Macbeth (Act II, scene iii), and the dialogues between Hamlet and the gravediggers in Hamlet (Act V, scene i). Other playwrights of Shakespeare ’s time made frequent use of this technique, which can also be found in some prose...

Comic Relief Reference library
Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase & Fable (2 ed.)
... Relief . The first television programme so titled was screened in 1986 , the aim being to entertain the viewer while raising money for famine relief. Many famous comedians were involved, offering their services free. The concept sprang from the charity Band Aid , organizers of Bob Geldof's rock-music event Live Aid staged for the same purpose the previous year. Subsequent Comic Relief programmes have been of marathon length with the scope widened to raise money for all kinds of needy causes both at home and abroad. See also Red Nose Day...

comic relief

16 The History of Illustration and its Technologies Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Book
...the Icones Historiarum Veteris Testamenti ( 1547 ), largely derived from *Froschauer ’s folio Bible (Zurich, 1538 ), containing Holbein’s designs. In the same year the firm also published the celebrated and influential Dance of Death . The great advantage of woodcut (a relief method of printmaking) was that illustration and text could be printed together in the same press—a feature not provided by *intaglio and printing from metal. Generally, with 15 th - and 16 th -century European woodcut printing, artists such as Dürer and Holbein drew...

22 The History of the Book in France Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Book
...to reissue titles from its own considerable list. Another notable postwar change has been the growth of children’s literature and the parallel development of children’s libraries since the first, ‘L’Heure joyeuse’, was opened in Paris in 1924 by a branch of the American Relief Committee. A landmark in this respect was the creation of the association La Joie par les livres in 1963 . A private initiative, it led to the opening of a model children’s library in the Paris suburb of Clamart in 1965 . In addition to specialized houses like L’École des...

Iro

A King and No King

Stepin Fetchit

Casina

Helen Fielding

David Ross Locke

Punch

terracottas

plagiarism

catharsis
