The Secular Theatre. Origin (from the 11th to the 14th Century).— The secular theatre — wrongly styled the comedy theatre inasmuch as all subjects are treated by it except those which fell into the category of the miracle or misfire — is of very humble origin. It orig inated more particularly from those strolling players who peddled their wares from town to town in the shape of tales, monologues, dis putes and debates. Traces can also be found of the influence of the ancient Greek and Roman theatre, known vaguely to the univer sity scholars. The first works with which we are acquainted are 'le Jeu de la Feuillee,' and 'le Jeu de Robin et de Marion,> both by Adam de la Halle, the former produced in 1262 and the latter about 1285. The first play repro duces with a fair amount of spirit the adven tures and misfortunes of the author's life. The second, of quite a different character, is a pastoral play, a kind of comedy-ballet inter spersed with songs wherein is related the sim ple story of a shepherdess who prefers her shepherd-lover to her Seigneur. This play, as has been rightly stated, is the first of our comic operas.
No comedy has been handed down to us from the 14th century, but we find a play with the title (Histoire de Griselidis,' a sentimental story of a wife unjustly condemned and de serted by her husband hut to whom justice is finally rendered. It contains some passages of exquisite tenderness, as, for instance, that in which the forsaken wife begs her husband to treat his second wife less harshly than he dealt her: more frail and more ((delicately nur tured" she cannot °suffer as I have suffered." Merrymakers Clubs (Les Societes Joy euses).—In the 15th century considerable in terest in comedy was revealed in plays of a satirical, moral and farcical nature. Numerous amateur clubs supplied the actors, the most important being (la Basoche' and 'les Enfants sans souci.) The Basochians were clerks to the attorneys attached to the Paris Parliament. They formed an important corporation which elected its king, and every year, in spring and July, played farces and moralities at the Palais de Justice. The En fants sans souci, or Sots, were young men of good family, having literary and artistic tastes. They were arrayed in green and yellow like the Court Jesters. At their head was the Prince of Sots, assisted by Mother Sot. They played what were called Soties, a kind of satirical comedy or revue with a contemporary tendency.
The The morality play was less a comedy than a drama, or rather a melo drama. Its characters were allegorical: Hope, Faith, Pity, Wealth, Poverty, the Prodigal Son, the Ungrateful Child. Like all self respecting melodramas, these morality plays always punished vice and rewarded virtue; as for instance the greedy son who offers his father a piece of coarse bread while reserving for himself a succulent pie, but this pie when opened contains a toad which jumps out, strik ing the boy in the face. Or again, in the
de Banquet, in the person of Gluttony, is condemned to be hanged by Diet.
The the morality plays were pedantic and morose, the Soties were alert and realistic and the dialogue satirical. The plot, based on a feint, permitted great liberty of treatment; the characters were all represented as being mad, the dialogue was free and easy. The Prince of Sots took the role of King Louts XII, mad, Mother Sot impersonated the Holy Mother of the Church, mad. The community was also represented as mad, or Sotte Com mune, the soldier, Sot Glorieux, the merchant, Sot Corrompu, the woman, Sotte Folle.
All the eccentricities and abuses of the epoch were criticized. The voluminous works handed down to us by the Sotie plays furnish us to-day with the record of a period when journalism did not exist.
The
The morality and sotie plays quickly disappeared but the farce remained. We find it in all our later day comedies, es pecially those of Moliere. It expresses the French, or rather Gallic, temperament and finds its embodiment in that hearty laugh so dear to Rabelais "pour ce que mire est le propre de l'homme" ("laughter belongs to man"). Nothing escapes it, everyone and everything is subjected to its raillery and wit: commoners, soldiers, the clergy, tradesmen. But its ani mated spirit and biting humor, which never fear to employ the right word, coarse or not, arc above all reserved for matrimonial affairs and domestic wranglings. In these farces we are shown the husband, flouted, beaten, de ceived by his wicked wife . . . against whom he is revenged. In the