BALET, or BALETTO, a kind of dramatic poem, representing some fabulous action or subject divided into several entries; wherein several persons appear, and recite things under the name of some deity, or other illustrious character.

BALLET is more particularly used for a kind of comic dance, consisting of a series of several airs of different kinds of movements, which together represent some subject or action. They are performed chiefly by masks representing satyrs, tritons, nymphs, shepherds, and the like; and consist of three parts, the entry, figure, and the retreat. The word is of Greek origin, formed from βάλλειν, jaceere, to cast, throw, or toss; whence, also in writers of the middle ages, we find ballationes for saltationes, dancings; and ballare for saltare, to dance.