EARLY PLAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 306, 28 December 1939, Page 9

EARLY PLAYS.

A farce is a form of the drama which seeks to provoke mirth by dialogue and incident more ludicrous and less natural and refined than is admissible in comedy. The Greek satyric plays were essentially farces. Saturae, or farces combining conversation with music and dancing, w«re the most popular of the Roman dramatic entertainments and even under the Caesars gave publicity to political feeling in their ribald, vigorous dialogue. In the Middle Ages profane dramatic performances were common and from these arose the farces of the Clercs de la. Basoche—a society founded in Paris in 1303. These early French farces were short, seldom exceeding 500 lines, mostly indecent, but without stinging wit. Coarse and frequently impromptu farces prevailed on the French stage until Moliere founded genuine French comedy. In Italy the term farsa was applied to comic plays, which seem to have been modified from the ancient Roman plays and which were greatly developed at the end of the fourteenth century by Sannagarro. In medieval Germany farce denoted a song chanted during divine service. In England farces appear distinct from comedy about the beginning of the eighteenth century. Perhaps the most notable name in English farcical literature is that of Samuel Foote.