Also 9 -tett. [a. F. quartette, ad. It. quartetto: see next.]
1. Mus. A composition for four voices or instruments, esp. one for four stringed instruments.
1790. Coleridge, Inside the Coach. We snore quartettes in ecstasy of nose.
1845. E. Holmes, Mozart, 245. A single quartet for stringed instruments.
1867. Macfarren, Harmony, i. 14. Beethoven’s Quartet in A, &c.
attrib. 1872. Browning, Fifine, cxvi. Inspect this quartett-score!
fig. 1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xxxix. A quartette of ‘Shameful!’ with which the Dianas concluded.
2. a. Mus. A set of four singers or players who render a quartet. b. transf. A set of four persons.
1814. Sir R. Wilson, Priv. Diary, II. 304. We are a quartett of miserables.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, I. 294. The parties are arranged in messes of four, each of which quartets has its piece of beef.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., II. xv. When the quartette of gentlemen … met on the terrace.
3. A set of four things; e.g., of lines in a sonnet, of runs at cricket, etc.
1837–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., II. II. v. § 44. 208. The first lines or quartets of the sonnet excite a soft expectation, which is harmoniously filled by the tercets, or last six lines.
1882. Daily Tel., 17 May, 3/7. Shaw, letting out at that bowler’s next delivery, drove it to the boundary for a quartette.
1889. Grove, Dict. Mus., IV. 341. A glass case containing two quartets of stringed instruments.
