默剧与童话剧(mime and pantomime)
仅靠肢体动作叙述剧情的戏剧表演形式。默剧最早出现在西元前5世纪的希腊，是一种主要强调模仿动作的喜剧表演，但也包括歌唱和对白。西元前100年左右开始，一种独立的罗马默剧形式发展起来，集中於粗鲁的、淫乱的题材。罗马童话剧不同於罗马默剧的地方在於它的主题更为高尚，表演中使用面具，这就要求演员透过姿态和手势来表演。从古时起，默剧在亚洲戏剧中也很重要，在中国和日本的戏剧中它是构成主要戏剧类型的要素（如日本的能乐）。罗马传统的童话剧在16世纪的即兴喜剧中得到改进，即兴喜剧先後影响了18世纪法国和英国的幕间幽默短剧；後者逐渐发展成为19世纪的童话剧，一种强调出洋相的儿童剧。现代西方默剧发展为一种纯粹的沈默艺术，仅靠手势、动作及表情来传达意念。着名的默剧演员有德布劳、德古（他发展了一套手语系统）和马叟。卓别林是一个多才多艺的默片演员，同样凯撒（S. Caesar）和马戏团小丑凯利（E. Kelly）也是默剧大师。
English version：
mime and pantomime
Dramatic performance in which a story is told solely by expressive body movement. Mime appeared in Greece in the 5th century BC as a comic entertainment that stressed mimetic action but included song and spoken dialogue. A separate Roman form developed from c. 100 BC and centered on crude and licentious subjects. Roman pantomime differed from Roman mime by its loftier themes and its use of masks, which called for expression through posture and hand gestures. Mime was also important in Asian drama from ancient times, and it forms an element in major Chinese and Japanese dramatic forms (e.g., No drama). The Roman tradition of pantomime was modified in the 16th-century commedia dell'arte, which in turn influenced the 18th-century French and English comic interludes that developed into 19th-century pantomime, a children's entertainment emphasizing spectacle. Modern Western mime developed into a purely silent art in which meanings are conveyed through gesture, movement, and expression. Famous mimes include Jean-Gaspard Deburau, étienne Decroux (who developed a systematic language of gesture), and Marcel Marceau. Charlie Chaplin was an accomplished mime, as were Sid Caesar and the circus clown Emmett Kelly.