afterlude

Updated: June 3, 2025

But the poet was unwilling to dismiss his audience with the gloomy impressions which Antonio's acquittal, effected with so much difficulty, and contrary to all expectation, and the condemnation of Shylock, were calculated to leave behind them; he has therefore added the fifth act by way of a musical afterlude in the piece itself.

August Wilhelm Schlegel - Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature