DIALOGUE, properly the conversation between two or more persons, reported in writing, a form of literature invented by the Greeks for purposes of rhetorical entertainment and instruction, and scarcely modified since the days of its invention. A dialogue is in reality a little drama without a theatre, and with scarcely any change of scene.
The systematic use of dialogue as an independent literary form is commonly supposed to have been introduced by Plato, whose earliest experiment in it is believed to survive in the Lac/ies. The Platonic dialogue, however, was founded on the mime, which had been cultivated half a century earlier by the Sicilian poets, Soph ron and Epicharmus. The works of these writers, which Plato admired and imitated, are lost, but it is believed that they were little plays, usually with only two performers. The recently-dis covered mimes of Herodas (Herondas) give us some idea of their scope. Plato further simplified the form, and reduced it to pure argumentative conversation, while leaving intact the amusing ele ment of character-drawing. He must have begun this about the year 405 B.c., and by 399 B.C. he had brought the dialogue to its highest perfection, especially in the cycle directly inspired by the death of Socrates. All his philosophical writings, except the Apology, are cast in this form. In the 2nd century A.D., Lucian of Samosata achieved a brilliant success with his ironic dialogues "Of the Gods," "Of the Dead," "Of Love" and "Of the Courtesans." In some of them he attacks superstition and philosophical error with the sharpness of his wit ; in others he merely paints scenes of modern life. The title of Lucian's most famous collection was bor rowed in the 17th century by two French writers of eminence, each of whom prepared Dialogues des morts. These were Fonte nelle (1683) and Fenelon (171 2 ) . In English non-dramatic litera ture the dialogue had not been extensively employed until Berke ley used it, in 1713, for his Platonic treatise, Hylas and Pliilonus. Landor's Imaginary Conversations (1821-28) is the most famous example of it in the 19th century. In Germany, Wieland adopted this form for several important satirical works published between 1780 and 1799. In Spanish literature, the dialogues of Valdes (15 28) and those on painting (1633) by Vincenzo Carducci, are celebrated. In Italian, collections of dialogues, on the model of Plato, have been composed by Torquato Tasso (1586), by Galileo (1632), by Galiani (1770), by Leopardi (1825), and by a host of lesser writers. In modern times the French have returned to the original application of dialogue, and the inventions of "Gyp," of Henri Lavedan and of others, in which a mundane anecdote is wittily and maliciously told in conversation, would probably pre sent a close analogy to the lost mimes of the early Sicilian poets, if we could meet with them.