dramatic unities
Preserved but no longer current.
The three dramatic unities, viz. the rules governing the so-called "classical** dramas, are founded on Renaissance miscon- ceptions of passages in Aristotle's Poetics, and are hence sometimes, though very in- correctly, styled the Aristotelean 'Unities.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “dramatic unities” mean?
The three dramatic unities, viz. the rules governing the so-called "classical** dramas, are founded on Renaissance miscon- ceptions of passages in Aristotle's Poetics, and are hence sometimes, though very in- correctly, styled the Aristotelean 'Unities.
Is “dramatic unities” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.