|
|
Encyclopedia entry: Farce
- Article from:
- The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre
- Author:
Copyright© The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information)
|
Farce,
form of popular comedy in which laughter is raised by horseplay and bodily assault in contrived and highly improbable situations. It must, however, retain its hold on humanity, even if only in depicting the grosser faults of mankind, otherwise it degenerates into
burlesque
. It deals with the inherent stupidity of man at odds with his environment, and originated in the great submerged stream of folk-drama, of which few written records remain. It stands at the beginning of classical drama (see
FABULA 1: ATELLANA
) as well as of modern European drama, and was especially popular in France in the later Middle Ages. Among the many medieval farces that were long current, the greater part no ...