At the onset of one of those outbreaks of antiquarian enthusiasm with which western culture is periodically stricken, a friend confided to Thomas Gray his ambition to write a tragedy with a chorus. The poet's response was not encouraging:

Gray objected to the chorus because he found it unbelievable and, hence, preposterous. Ironically, realism is a significant legacy of Greek art. The development of sculpture from archaic kouroi to Praxitelean naturalism was a manifestation of the same aspiration to realism that led to the separation of the chorus from dramatic action in New Comedy. Western culture absorbed Greco-Roman realism with the Renaissance, applying it relentlessly to drama of all kinds, only countenancing a chorus within the surreal conventions of opera and ballet.