Dumbshow, also called dumb show or dumb-show, is described in the Oxford Dictionary of English as "motions used to show meaning without speaking; mime." In theatre, the term refers to a dramatic scene using mime, or a specific action performed in mime within a play to summarize, add to, or comment on the main story.
According to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, Michael Dobson explains that dumbshow originated as a type of story from older plays that used symbols to teach lessons. It became popular in 16th-century English drama, especially in short plays called interludes that featured characters representing abstract ideas like virtues and vices. These characters acted out scenes that hinted at and explained the events and moral lessons of the main story.
Examples of dumbshow appear in Gorboduc (1561), where it plays a major role. It is also found in The Spanish Tragedy (1580s) by Thomas Kyd, The Battle of Alcazar (1594) and The Old Wives' Tale (1595) by George Peele, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1594) by Robert Greene, and A Warning for Fair Women (1599) by an unknown author. Shakespeare used dumbshow in Hamlet, where Prince Hamlet and actors perform a play for King Claudius. This scene, like the one in The Spanish Tragedy, uses mime to show events that will later happen in the main story. Dobson notes that by Shakespeare’s time, dumbshow was becoming less common, though it appears in Pericles, a play written in a style that imitates older medieval drama. In the 17th century, dumbshow remained in courtly performances called masques and in tragedies by playwrights like Webster and Middleton, which included masques within the plays.
By the 1630s, dumbshow was no longer used in major British plays. However, it reappeared in 19th-century performances like harlequinades, pantomimes, and melodramas. Thomas Holcroft included a silent character in his play A Tale of Mystery (1802), and using a mute character to show important details through mime became a common feature in melodramas. In his Dictionary of Literary Terms (1977), J. A. Cuddon lists 19th-century plays with titles such as The Dumb Boy (1821), The Dumb Brigand (1832), The Dumb Recruit (1840), The Dumb Driver (1849), and The Dumb Sailor (1854).
Cuddon also notes that dumbshow appeared in three 20th-century plays: Le Viol de Lucrece (1931) by André Obey, Waiting for Godot (1953) by Samuel Beckett, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) by Tom Stoppard.