Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Wayne Turney
Nov. 22 2010
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roots in Roman drama and the minstrelsy. Even though little record of
the plays that formed the basis for this genre in the Thirteenth
century is extant, the pieces that do exist have had a wide reaching
where even today there is a French essence to the farce. The recent
film, Dinner for Schmucks is based off what was originally a french
play, Le Diner de Cons. The Thirteenth century French farce was the
dialects (Brocket 79). At the same time the earliest extant secular
The use of the common vernacular may be partially responsible for the
public drama since its demise at the beginning of the dark ages.
purpose is to excite laughter, and the other being: forced meat. This
was a type of dish that was served as filling within another dish.
century.
These stories were plentiful in the poetry of the time period. The
verse form.
tu prieras, je canterai;
mime plays. These plays were at times violent, bawdy, obscene, and
profane, much like the Roman Mime plays that Tertullian and others
(Wheatley). Perhaps part of the reason for this was the cultural
nature. They were meant to mock and thus educate human weaknesses.
They were typically obscene and crude. Once the fabliaux made the
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that dealt with themes of real life. It was an important step for
One of the primary plots of the fabliaux and in turn the farce
deceiving wife, and lover. The titles of several extant french farces
suggest this subject matter, for example The Farce of the Fart and
These french farces were usually short and only required a few
Enfants Sans Souci. They were known for their hooded costume
through ventriloquism, who then robs and beats him (Brocket 92). The
play begins with a blind man lamenting that he has no guide. A boy
arrives and agrees to help him. The boy then tests the beggar to see
disability were common at the time (Wheatley). When offended, the boy
his voice back and feigns innocence. Then when they arrive at the
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beggar's home. The boy offers to buy food and have the beggar's robe
mended. The blind man gives the boy the money. The boy in turn leaves
in the manuscript.
The amount of work and time that went into the preservation of
this drama demonstrates both how important this play must have been
and also why more examples of this beginning of farce Although most
during
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In this version of the story a young boy become the guide to blind
beggar who mistreats him. The boy tricks the man into running into a
jongluers.
imagine that the work of master playwrights like Moliere would have
France during the high middle ages all the way to the renaissance.
Gloucester tries to jump off he simply fall down on the ground. Edgar
he was rescued from death by the gods and thereby dissuading him from
borrowed many plots throughout his career, for example the source of
language lesson scenes in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V and
which is entered in the course of the play. He states that, “As soon
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difference from the set of the religious drama of time. Just as the
religious drama had begun to move out of the doors of the church it
props were provided by the actor who used them (Brockett 84). It
productions in Massachusetts.
two sources of extant drama from the time period, Adam de la Halle
birthplace for modern european drama. Many scholars would put the
Century. While these theorists and authors were using Seneca and
source nearly as old, the roman mime plays. The influence came not
from study but from oral tradition. The farce holds in important
The French farce dates from at least 1270. With the first known
the fabliaux, and minstrelsy. The farce grew into one of the most
Works Cited
Baldwin, John W. “The Image of the Jongleur in Norther France around
1200” Jstor. Web. 21 Nov. 2010 <http://
www.jstor.org.trexler.desales.edu/stable/pdfplus/3040757.pdf?
acceptTC=true>.
Bermel, Albert "farce" The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and
Performance. Ed. Dennis Kennedy. © Oxford University Press 2003,
2005. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance: (e-
reference edition). Oxford University Press. DeSales University.
22 November 2010 <http://0-www.oxford-
theatreandperformance.com.trexler.desales.edu/entry?
entry=t177.e1284>
Brockett, Oscar G., and Franklin J. Hildy. History of the Theatre
(10th Edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2007. Print.
“The Basochians and Enfants Sans Souci” The Drama: Its History,
Literature and Influence on Civilization, vol. 7. ed. Alfred
Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 10-11.
TheatreHistory.com. Web. 21 Nov. 2010.
<http://www.theatrehistory.com/medieval/bates001.html>
"Fabliau, the." Online 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 26 Nov.
2009. <http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/677/Fabliau-
the.html>.
"Fabliaux." Web. 21 Nov. 2009. <http://user.phil-fak.uni-
duesseldorf.de/~holteir/companion/Navigation/Text_Groups/
Fabliaux/fabliaux.html>.