Literary notes about enact (AI summary)
The word "enact" in literature is remarkably versatile, serving both a legal and a performative function. In legal and governmental contexts, it is used to describe the formal establishment of laws and regulations, as seen when legislative bodies "enact" statutes to govern society ([1], [2], [3], [4]). At the same time, authors also employ "enact" in a theatrical sense—characters are seen re-enacting roles or historical scenes, effectively bringing ideas and narratives to life on stage ([5], [6], [7], [8]). Moreover, the term often extends into metaphorical realms where life itself is portrayed as a performance, with individuals enacting grand, sometimes even tragic, dramas ([9], [10], [11]). This dual usage allows literature to intertwine the realms of law and art, illustrating that both governance and human behavior can be directed, staged, and made manifest.
- Suppose he does re-enact the same law which the Court has pronounced unconstitutional, will that make it Constitutional?
— from The Great Conspiracy, Complete by John Alexander Logan - The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows :
— from Two Decades A History of the First Twenty Years' Work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the State of New York by Frances W. Graham - I mean that governments enact their own laws, and that every government makes self-preservation its principal aim.
— from Laws by Plato - To this end the Congress should enact a law for "educated suffrage" for our native-born as well as foreign rulers.
— from The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV - While Gertrude and Frau Willmers go in search of witnesses, the pair of lovers enact a regular comedy in front of the cupboard.
— from The Standard OperaglassDetailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas by Annesley, Charles, pseud. - She is much changed, indeed, since last July, when I saw her enact with no little spirit the part of a very killing fine gentleman.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë - If you enact this scene of their meeting you will first have to find a name for him.
— from Public Speaking by Clarence Stratton - I did enact Julius Cæsar: 68 I was killed i'the Capitol; Brutus killed me.
— from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare - Thus, as we do nothing but enact History, we say little but recite it.—
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - "From Homer," said Goethe, "I learn every day more clearly, that in our life here above ground we have, properly speaking, to enact Hell."
— from The EpicAn Essay by Lascelles Abercrombie - Each human soul has in a sense to enact for itself the gigantic humility of the Incarnation.
— from What's Wrong with the World by G. K. Chesterton
