Farce (French farce, from Lat.

FARCE(French farce, from Latin farcio - stuffing, minced meat), the term has several meanings.

1. View folk theater, which became widespread in most Western European countries in the 14th–16th centuries. Light entertaining skits performed by masked actors acting within the framework of permanent characters originate from folk rituals and games. During the period of the formation of Christianity, this type of spectacle was preserved in the performances of traveling actors called different countries in different ways (histrions, buffoons, vagantes, shpilmans, mimes, jugglers, francs, huglars, etc.). Such ideas were brutally persecuted by the church, and existed practically in an “underground” position. However, with the development and growing popularity of mystery plays (14th–16th centuries), comedic and everyday elements and sideshows, loosely connected with the main religious action, began to occupy an increasing place in them. Actually, it was then that the term “farce” arose - the main pathetic and solemn action “began” with comedic inserts. Thus began the revival of folk theater. Farce gradually developed into a separate genre, not only within the framework of professional, but also amateur theater - associations of townspeople who were widely involved in comedic episodes of mystery plays and carried out organizational work on their conduct (in France - fraternities and clownish societies, in the Netherlands - chambers of rhetoricians, in Germany - Mastersingers). Farce has become a truly popular, democratic genre of entertainment and theatrical art. Thus, in France in the 15th and 16th centuries, along with mystery plays and morality plays, the farcical theater of sotie (French sotie, from sot - stupid), where all the characters acted in the guise of “fools”, allegorically depicting social vices, became widespread. Farcical scenes were no less widespread in mass holidays, especially the carnivals that preceded the beginning of Lent. Farce is characterized by crude humor, buffoonery, improvisation, and an emphasis not on the individual, but on the typical traits of the characters. The most famous French farces are: Lohan, a series about lawyer Patlen, etc. The aesthetics of medieval farces had a serious influence on the development of European theater (in Italy - commedia dell'arte; in England - interludes; in Spain - pasos; in Germany - fastnachtspiel; etc.). Farcical motives are clearly visible in literary creativity playwrights of the Renaissance (Shakespeare, Moliere, Cervantes, etc.).

2. From the 19th century. the term farce is used as the name of a separate genre of drama and theater performances, preserving the main features of a medieval farce: lightness and unpretentiousness of the plot, slapstick humor, unambiguous characters, external comic devices. Often serves as a synonym for vaudeville, stage jokes, sitcoms, theatrical and circus clownery, etc.

3. At the everyday level, the word “farce” is used to define a rude joke, a shocking prank.

Tatiana Shabalina

farce

Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, Dal Vladimir

farce

m. farces pl. French joke, funny prank, funny prank of a joker. To farce, to break down, to fool around, to imitate, to make people laugh, to make jokes or things. Farsun, farsun, who farses, throws out farces.

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. D.N. Ushakov

farce

farsa, m., and (obsolete) FARSA, farces, w. (French farce).

A theatrical play with light, playful, and often frivolous content (lit., Theatre). Comedy and farce theater.

portable, units only An obscene, shameful, cynical spectacle (public). In most capitalist states, the so-called. "free" elections have turned into a pathetic farce.

A rude joke, a buffoonish trick (colloquial obsolete). He will make everyone laugh with his inflated speech, grimace, and common farce. Lermontov.

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. S.I.Ozhegov, N.Yu.Shvedova.

farce

A theatrical play of light, playful content with external comic effects.

trans. Something hypocritical, cynical. Rude f.

adj. farcical, -aya, -oe (to 1 meaning).

New explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova.

farce

trans. An obscene, shameful, cynical spectacle.

decomposition A rude joke, a clownish trick.

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

farce

FARCE (French farce, from Latin farcio - I start: medieval mysteries were “filled” with comedic inserts)

a type of medieval Western European (mainly French) folk theater and literature of an everyday comedy-satirical nature (14-16 centuries). Close to the German fastnachtspiel, Italian commedia dell'arte, etc.

In the theater of the 19th-20th centuries. a comedy-vaudeville of light content with purely external comic techniques.

farce

historical region in southern Iran. Before the Arab conquest (7th century) it was called Parsa, Persis. In the Middle Ages - the core of the states of the Buyids, Mozafferids, Zends and others.

Farce

Farce- a comedy of light content with purely external comic techniques.

In the Middle Ages, farce was also called a type of folk theater and literature, widespread in the 14th - 16th centuries in Western European countries. Having matured within the mystery, farce gained its independence in the 15th century, and in the next century it became the dominant genre in theater and literature. The techniques of farcical buffoonery were preserved in circus clowning.

The main element of the farce was not conscious political satire, but a relaxed and carefree depiction of urban life with all its scandalous incidents, obscenity, rudeness and fun. The French farce often varied the theme of a scandal between spouses.

In modern Russian, a farce is usually called profanation, an imitation of a process, for example a trial.

Farce (stop)

Farce (- Fars, or پارس - Pārs), Parsi- one of the 31 provinces (stays) of Iran, as well as a historical region. Located in the south of the country, near the Persian Gulf. Area - 122,608 km², population - 4,596,658 people (2011). The administrative center is the city of Shiraz.

Fars province is the historical homeland of the Persians and the Persian language, as well as the cradle of Iranian statehood. Latinized name Persia comes from the ancient Persian name for this area - Parsa or Parsuash.

Farce (disambiguation)

Farce- ambiguous concept:

Farce is a comedy of light content.
- The genre of medieval drama - see Farce in the Middle Ages.
Fars is an ostan and historical region in Iran.
Fars is a river in Adygea and Krasnodar region.

“Farce” - picture (1988) folk artist Russia Valeria Balabanov (1939-2009).

Fars (river)

Farce- a river in Adygea and the Krasnodar Territory, a left tributary of the Laba (Kuban basin).

Length - 197 km, drainage basin area - 1450 km². The total fall is 910 m, the slope is 4.61 m/km. According to the State Water Register of Russia, it belongs to the Kuban Basin District, the water management section of the river - Laba from the confluence of the Chamlyk River to the mouth, the river sub-basin of the river - there is no sub-basin.

There are large villages on the river: Novosvobodnaya, Makhoshevskaya, Yaroslavskaya, Dondukovskaya, as well as the large village of Khakurinokhabl.

The river has many tributaries. The largest of them: Psefir, Seraglio.

In the upper reaches of Fars you can see the remains of the “Turkish Wall”, the place where the Circassian defense line was during the Caucasian War. The famous bear hazel grove is located here. In the Fars Valley there is a historically famous Bogatyrskaya Polyana, which had over 400 dolmens.

Examples of the use of the word farce in literature.

Farce, which Tumas and Birgitta Karolina play on a tiny toy projector, I had myself as a child.

Soon Bhutto was arrested on clearly trumped-up charges of complicity in political murder and after a long trial farce hanged

The hero's father is familiar from Aristophanes, the Atellans and folk farce an old man, grumbling and stingy, often amorous himself.

Shrugging his shoulders and smiling awkwardly, he extended his hands forward, as if he wanted to say: so what if solar system disintegrates, that we are in an unusual gravitational field, on an unusual ship, in the middle of cosmic emptiness, that I am now in the middle of some kind of boudoir farce.

Hella Vuolijoki, who was at first distrustful of Brecht's adaptation, having read the play translated into Finnish, admitted that her hero had become a truly national type and that the comedy from farce turned into a deeply meaningful social play.

From afar his torment seems farce- the leaps from wisdom to stupidity and the use of the fruits of reason to play on the stomach like a drum, run around on a hundred legs or line the walls with the brain are painfully funny.

Hilda turned to Zeb and calmly asked: - First pilot, was I chosen? farce?

For the first time, citizen Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov for trying to tell the truth, similar to farce, the lads fought to the death.

And isn’t it a table, isn’t it a kind of throne and ciborium - the wooden stage of the Italian farce, covered with a canopy, with steps below?

The audience roared wildly, responding, however, not so much to the essence farce, whatever it consisted of, as much as the violent, amazingly chaotic dances of the commune girls, whose bare ankles and ankles were clearly visible under the frayed hems of their sweeping robes.

Terborkh, Metsu, Stan and others - chose secular and elegant subjects for their paintings or depicted frivolous fun, pranks, farces and festivities.

Playing with mannerist contrasts, Middleton introduced into the tragedy the features of a satirical comedy of manners, in places bordering on farce.

Between you and me, I would never have staged this play: it’s kind of trivial farce.

I desperately wanted to go home, to Foldora's farm, where I could hide from the whole world, do my work, where there were no wizards, long futile searches, nothing reminiscent of Aunt Paul and rude farce what she turned his life into.

About Caron, who reprinted rare antiques in small editions farces, facets, etc.

Farce

FARCE (French farce, Latin farsa) is one of the comic genres of medieval theater. In the 7th century, in ecclesiastical Latin, farsa (farsia) denoted an insertion in a church text (Epistola cum farsa, Epistola farsita, etc.), later these insertions became common in prayers and hymns. The assignment of the term F. to a dramatic interlude can be attributed to the 12th century. The undoubted source of F. are French games (jeux), known already in the 12th century under different names: dits, debates, etc. “The Game under the Leaves” (Jeu de la feuillee, c. 1262) by Adam de la Gal (1238-1286) has a number of purely farcical features, both in terms of plot and witty situations, and the interpretation of individual characters (the predecessor of the Italian Harlequin is the devil Herlequin Croquesots, “physicist”, monk). The content of farces, as well as fabliaux, which are extremely close to them, was borrowed from everyday reality; F.'s themes are varied - family relationships and relationships between master and servants, deception of his wife, trickery in trade and in court, the adventures of a boastful soldier, the failures of an arrogant student; the images are colorful - monks and priests, traders and artisans, soldiers and students, peasants and farm laborers, judges, officials; a comic situation is achieved by introducing an external effect - a fight, altercation, etc.; often many complications are brought into play by the use of several dialects, professional vocabulary, and Macaroni Latin; The individualization of the speech of F.'s characters was carried out quite consistently in most cases. There are no developed characters in the farce; as in fabliau, F.'s heroes act more, exchange puns and witty remarks; The plot grows due to the rapid transfer of action from one place to another, unexpected clarifications. In contrast to the large forms of medieval city theater, F. did not know the lengthy preparation of the performance, did not have an equipped stage area, and made do with the most primitive staging means. French farce and those close to F. were the lot of small brotherhoods and were staged from the 14th century. mainly parliamentary clerks (clercs de Basoche) and actors (enfants sans souci). Among the early F. are “The Free Shooter from Bagnolet” (Franc Archer de Bagnolet, 1468) and “Trois galants et Philipot”, where the old motif of a boastful soldier is beautifully developed. The number of F. has increased greatly since the end of the 15th century; F.'s original cycle about Patelen dates back to this time. Three farces - “Monsieur Pierre Patelen” (1470), “New Patelen” (c. 1480), “Patelen’s Testament” (c. 1490) - paint the immortal image of a rascal lawyer - avocat sous l’orme. The obvious popularity of these farces, especially the first, is evident from the numerous editions (16 editions from 1489 to 1532) and those references to the main F. that are found in the “New Patelen” and in the “Testament”.
The question of authorship has not yet been resolved, and the names of François Villon, Adam de la Salle, and Pierre Blanchet as the authors of Patelin are equally unlikely. By the 16th century include the farces of Margaret of Navarre, of which one, entitled “Comedy,” is an example of edifying F. (an old woman teaches two girls and two married women, how to deal with family difficulties), and the other - “Trop, prou, peu, moins” (Too, much, little, less) - an example of political farce. Under the name Trop and Prou are the Pope and Emperor Charles V, while in the person of peu and moins are small, ordinary people; in F. the greed and arrogance of “these two halves of God” - the pope and the emperor - are ridiculed. More than 130 French f. date back to the 15th-16th centuries. Undoubtedly, F. undergoes a certain evolution under the influence of the Italian “comedy of masks” in the work of the authors-actors Gros Guillaume, Gualtier Garguille, Turbepin and later Moliere; Molière even has comedies late period In many respects they retain echoes of F. (“The Tricks of Scapin”, “The Imaginary Invalid”, etc.), but he combines the external comedy of random situations with a deep demonstration of reality and the vividness of the images. In France XVII V. is critical for the development of F.; the latter is being replaced by literary comedy.
Similar genres of fiction are represented in the literature of other countries. In Germany, Maslenitsa games are close to F. - “fastnachtspiel” (see). F.'s spread in Italy dates back to the 15th and 16th centuries; for the Aragonese court, F. of an allegorical nature wrote Sannazzaro in eleven-syllable verses; this farce penetrated into Mantua and Venice. Semi-dialectal F. with amusing content was written by Pietro Caracciolo (“Il magico”). There is no doubt about the connection between the F. tradition and the comedy of masks; there is a certain closeness to F. in the work of Ruzante (q.v.) of the first period (1520-1530). In Spain genre features F. can be observed in the works of Lope de Rueda, Gilles Vicente and in the famous interludes of Cervantes (“Theater of Miracles”, “Two Chatterboxes”, etc.). Bibliography:

I. F.'s texts were published in the collections: Recueil de farces, moralites et sermons joyeux, publ. p. Leroux de Lincy et Fr. Michel, 4 vls, P., 1831-1838; Ancien theater francais, publ. p. E. Viollet le Duc, 10 vls, P., 1854-1857; Recueil de farces, soties et moralites, publ. p. P.-L. Jacob, P., 1859; Le theater francais avant la Renaissance (1450-1550), publ. p. E. Fournier, Paris, 1872; Picot E. et Nyrop Chr., Nouveau recueil de farces francaises des XV-e et XVI-e siecles, Paris, 1880.

II. Petit de Julleville L., Les comediens en France au moyen age, P., 1885; Teatro italiano dei secoli XIII, XIV, XV a cura di F. Torraca, Firenze, 1885; Schamburg K., Die Farce Pathelin und ihre Nachahmungen, Diss., Lpz., 1887; Brotanek R., Die englischen Maskenspiele, Wien, 1902; Beneke A., Das Repertoir und die Quellen der franzosischen Farcen, Diss., Jena, 1910; Croce B., Teatri di Napoli dal rinascimento alla fine del Secolo XVIII, Bari, 1916; Holbrock R. T., etude sur Pathelin (Essai de bibliographie et d'interpretation), Baltimore, P., 1917; Steele M. S., Plays and Masques at Court during the reigns of Elizabeth, James and Charles, New Haven, 1926; see also French literature.

Literary encyclopedia. - At 11 t.; M.: Publishing House of the Communist Academy, Soviet encyclopedia, Fiction. Edited by V. M. Fritsche, A. V. Lunacharsky. 1929-1939 .

(Latin farcio – I’m filling: medieval mysteries were “stuffed” with farces), a genre of folk theater in Western European countries of the 14th–16th centuries. The farce is full of comic effects, buffoonery, often contains satirical allusions to specific individuals. The heroes of the farce are masked images, the first attempt at typification in drama.

Literature and language. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Edited by prof. Gorkina A.P. 2006 .

FARCE. - Everyone's hero dramatic work, embraced by a single, integral desire, passion, encountering the confrontation of the environment, inevitably violates the norms, customs and habits of this environment. The heroes of the comedy violate socio-psychological norms; A farce is usually a comedy in which the hero violates social and physical norms. public life. Thus, in Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata,” the heroine seeks to force men to end the war by encouraging women to refuse them love. Thus, Argan (“The Imaginary Invalid” by Molière) sacrifices the interests of his family to the interests of his imaginary sick stomach. The field of farce is primarily eroticism and digestion. Hence, on the one hand, there is an extreme danger for farce - to fall into greasy vulgarity, on the other - the extreme sharpness of farce, which directly affects our vital organs.

In connection with the physical element of the farce, it is naturally characterized on stage by an abundance of externally effective movements, collisions, hugs, and fights. Farce is by its nature peripheral, eccentric - it is an eccentric comedy. Animal fuss in the stage interpretation turns into physical action, ennobled by rhythm and plasticity: the farce on stage takes on the character of a buffoonery. Since physical standards human society Incomparably less changeable than socio-psychological norms, farce (or eccentric comedy) requires incomparably less everyday development than everyday comedy. For the same reason, a good farce is more durable than a domestic comedy. In its design, farce is thus closer to tragedy (see Tragedy), everyday comedy to drama (in the narrow sense of the word).

History of farce. Farces developed from everyday scenes introduced as independent sideshows into medieval plays of a religious or moralistic nature. Farces supported the tradition of comic performances coming from the Greco-Roman stage, and gradually transformed into the comedy of new centuries, remaining as a special type of light comedy. Farce performers in former times were usually amateurs. This is, for example, the Bazoche society in France; probably belonged to him, unknown by name, the author of the famous French farce “Lawyer Patelin” (1470), published many times with alterations of the text and under different titles. Lists of farces appear only from the end of the 15th century: the Catholic clergy mercilessly fought against them. However, farces were played already in the 13th century. J. d'Abondance, the author of the farce "La cornette" (1545), which has family troubles as its theme, also belonged to the Bazoche society. The same is true for another famous farce (anonymous): "Le cuvier". The German "Shrovetide performances" are similar to French farces. (Feschnachtspiele), the best of which were written by Hans Fogli, Hans Sachs, Rosenbluth. Reuchlin gave a German adaptation of the farce about Patelen under the name "Neppo". Spanish literature is rich in farces. They were introduced by H. Visenier (first half of the 16th century). Exemplary farces can be see Cervantes in Interludes. Among the Italians, farce often merged with commedia dell'arte. In the old English theater Foote's many farces were famous. Most of our farces are translations and adaptations of Western ones. German and French farces have been published in several collections, some of which contain about a hundred farces.

V. Volkenshtein., I. E. Literary Encyclopedia: Dictionary literary terms: In 2 volumes / Edited by N. Brodsky, A. Lavretsky, E. Lunin, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, M. Rozanov, V. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky. - M.; L.: Publishing house L. D. Frenkel, 1925

In modern literature there is a large number of genres and their branches. Some of them arose relatively recently, while the history of others goes back centuries. This article will describe the history of the origin of just one of these genres - farce.

The emergence and development of farce as a genre

Farce is a comedy genre that originated in Western European medieval theater. It arose back in the seventh century, but as an independent genre it emerged only in the second half of the fifteenth century. The main period of its development is considered to be the XIV-XVI centuries. Among the origins of farce are the performances of traveling comedians and carnival games during Maslenitsa. The comedians' stories determined the themes and dialogues, and the carnival acts determined its mass character and dynamic playful nature. Later, mysteries begin to be filled with farces (hence its name), from which it emerged as an independent genre.

Farce in a medieval theater

Unlike other genres of medieval theater, farce was completely devoid of allegories and didacticism. After all, it is based on real life events, jokes. Farcical plays reflect completely realistic everyday situations. However, there are no individualized images here yet. Instead, there are mask types, such as a cunning servant, an unfaithful wife, a boastful soldier, an unlucky student, a pedantic scientist, a charlatan doctor and others. The heroes of farces act directly: they fight, swear, argue, and exchange puns. The show contains a lot of physical collisions, eccentricities, buffoonery, acute and dynamic situations that quickly replace each other. Due to such changes, as well as the free transfer of action from one place to another, the plot unfolds quite quickly. Moreover, the heroes of the farces not only made fun of the comedy of the situations, but also ridiculed certain phenomena and features.

Farce in European and Japanese theaters

European farces were staged mainly by amateur actors. The authors of medieval comic plays are mostly unknown (farces were often compiled collectively). It is known that farces were written by F. Rabelais and C. Marot; several farces of Margaret of Navarre have been preserved. The most popular in the 15th century was a cycle of French farces about the lawyer Patlen, who told about the adventures of a famous folk hero, vividly depicted the life of a medieval city, showed whole line colorful figures. In general, exactly on French soil this genre - farce - begins to blossom.

The farce genre (kyogen) also existed in the Japanese Noh theater: it developed in the 14th century. Japanese farce is a genre that was closely related to folklore (satirical and everyday tales, jokes). Like its European counterpart, kyogen were small everyday scenes based on material borrowed from life itself. The main characters that the Japanese farce ridiculed were charlatan monks, stupid princes, their cunning servants, and peasants. The main principle of his game kyogen put forward comedy in combination with life truth. Farces in Japan were performed as interludes between dramas.

Significance in the history of world theater

Farce is an art movement that had big influence on further development world theater. It is thanks to him that English interludes and Spanish pasos, German fastnachtspiel and Italian comedy of masks develop. In the 17th century, farce competed with “scientific” humanistic drama, not without success, and the synthesis of these two traditions led to the creation of Moliere’s dramaturgy.

Generally speaking, farce is a kind of connecting link between old and new theater. Its elements can be observed in Shakespeare and Lope de Vega, Goldoni and Beaumarchais. And although in the end XVII century the genre is losing its powers literary comedy, he is reborn again in late XIX century. The dramatic art of our time knows many works of this genre (“Suicide” by N. Jord-Man, “The Undertaking of the Big Deadviarch” by M. de Gelderod, “Zoyka’s Apartment” by M. Bulgakov, “Risk” by E. de Filippo, “The Codex was Stole” by A. Petrashkevich, etc.).

Plays in this genre continue to be created to this day. A farce is a play in literature with elements of comedy and mystery, so it is not surprising that for many centuries people continue to love and respect this branch of art. Many young creators are again resorting to the use of farce, however, they are ridiculing more modern, pressing problems that find an echo in the hearts of modern viewers.