‖ tableau, n.
(tablo, ˈtæbləʊ)
Pl. tableaux (tablo, ˈtæbləʊz).
[F. tableau (tablo), OF. tablel, dim. of table.]
1. A picture; usually fig. a picturesque or graphic description.
| 1699 Lister Journey to Paris 39 The History of Maria of Medicis is Painted by Rubens... The Allegoric assistants in all the Tableaux are very airy and fancifully set out. 1801 Fuseli in Lect. Paint. iii. (1848) 429 The Massacre of the Innocents by Baccio Bandinelli..is a complicated tableau of every contortion of human attitude. 1855 H. R. Schoolcraft in Longfellow's Life (1891) II. 301 Exhibiting these fresh tableaux of Indian life. 1886 F. Harrison Choice Bks. iii. 54 They epitomise civilisation in a regular series of striking tableaux of the past. |
2. a. A group of persons and accessories, producing a picturesque effect.
| 1813 Sir R. Wilson Pr. Diary II. 458 [In the battle of Leipzig] the whole arrangement and execution were perfect, presenting the grandest tableau ever contemplated. 1867 Baker Nile Tribut. viii. (1872) 130 All now halted, and gazed stedfastly in our direction, forming a superb tableau. |
b. = tableau vivant: see 4.
| 1828 W. Irving Life & Lett. (1864) II. 276 We had afterwards a tableau of a Sybil by Mademoiselle F. 1862 Baroness Bunsen in Hare Life II. vii. 318 After all possible singing and toasting two tableaux were given. |
c. Theatr. A representation of the action at some stage in a play, created by the actors suddenly holding their positions or ‘freezing’, esp. at a moment critical to the plot, or at the end of a scene or act; also, as a stage direction. Hence used transf. to express the sudden creation of a striking or dramatic situation, a ‘scene’, which it is left to the reader to imagine.
| c 1863 T. Taylor Ticket-of-Leave Man i. 22 Brierly is overpowered and handcuffed—Guests rush in and form Tableau. 1866 Black ey'd Susan ii. 9 fo. 30 The door opens. William enters C. Susan. Ah. William! Alive! (Tableau). 1881 P. Fitzgerald World behind Scenes i. 46 The tableaus at the end of each act..were brought about with admirable simplicity. 1885 Pall Mall G. 12 Nov. 11/1 A delay occurs in the working of the machinery [of the guillotine], when in rushes Miss Rorke, and tableau. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 18 Oct. 5/2 She overheard a gentleman ask another, pointing to two of the witnesses, ‘Which of those old cats is Mrs. C.?’ Mrs. C. leaned over and said ‘That particular tabby, sir, is behind you’. Tableau! 1982 C. Castle Folies Bergère vi. 221 There are some 45 sets and tableaux. |
d. Cards. The arrangement formed by the cards laid out on the table in the game of patience.
| 1875 A. Cadogan Illustr. Game Patience (ed. 2) 1 Having placed the tableau, take any aces that may appear on the surface of the packets and play them in their allotted spaces. 1913 ‘L. Hoffmann’ Sel. Patience Games 5 The first step, in the case of most Patience games, is to arrange a certain number of cards face upwards on the table. The cards thus arranged are known as the ‘lay-out’, or tableau. 1975 Way to Play 147/4 Spaces in the tableau (caused by the removal of an entire fan) remain unfilled. |
3. A table, a schedule; an official list. (A common use in Fr.)
| 1798 W. Tone Autobiog. (1828) 266, I was carried on the tableau of the Armée d' Angleterre. 1863 Lepsius Stand. Alphabet 75 Comprise the seven classes in a general tableau. 1888 Harper's Mag. May 924/1 Those who, belonging to the fourteen grades of the tchin, or official tableaux of rank, are exempt from certain degrading penalties. |
4. tableau vivant (tablo vivɑ̃), pl. tableaux vivants (same pron.), lit. ‘living picture’; a representation of a personage, character, scene, incident, etc., or of a well-known painting or statue, by one person or a group of persons in suitable costumes and attitudes, silent and motionless; transf. a picturesque actual scene. (In quot. 1883, applied to a group of statuary.)
| 1817 Moore Lalla R. Pref. (1850) 15 The different stories..were represented in Tableaux Vivans and songs. 1837 Sir F. Palgrave Merch. & Friar (1844) 4 The intellectual amusement of a tableau vivant. 1844 Warburton Crescent & Cross (1845) I. xii. 106 The rich colouring, the antique attitudes, the various complexions that continually present themselves, form an unceasing series of tableaux vivans in an Eastern city. 1883 C. C. Perkins Ital. Sculpt. 385 Upon canvas the group would be counted a masterpiece, in clay it is a tableau vivant. |
5. = simplex tableau s.v. simplex n. 4.
| 1953 A. Charnes in W. W. Cooper et al. Introd. Linear Programming ii. vi. 67 The coefficients of the ε-polynomial multiplying Pi..are given in due order by the entries in the Pi row of the tableau. 1971 D. C. Hague Managerial Economics ix. 186 The rule in the Simplex method is that any variable—that is, any x or any s—which appears on the left-hand edge of the tableau..has a positive value. 1980 A. J. Jones Game Theory iii. 165 The artificial variables have performed their function, and we can now drop the columns of the tableau associated with a5 and a6. |
6. Special combination. tableau curtain Theatr. (see quot. 1967); cf. tab n.4
| 1881 W. H. Rideing Dramatic Notes 45 It may here be worth mentioning that the handsome ‘tableau curtain’ made for this occasion..cost {pstlg}740. 1967 Oxf. Compan. Theatre (ed. 3) 932/1 Tabs (short for Tableau Curtain), used originally of an act-drop which parted and rose sideways towards the outer top corners, and by extension to any front curtain or, mistakenly, to curtain settings on the stage. |
Hence ˈtableau v., trans. to put into a tableau.
| 1903 Contemp. Rev. Dec. 873 ‘Tableaued’ year by year in the popular Christmas Crib,..the Ass and the Ox, have become only less familiar than the Shepherds. |