good and bad behavior. Farces and fools plays, called sotties, provided collective release
by making satirical thrusts at social abuses. Perhaps the simplest of the comic pieces were
the dramatic monologues, which required only a single actor. Among these, one finds the
sermons joyeux, festive parodies of the sermons heard in church on Sundays.
The serious plays treating historical subjects were often called mystery plays. The
most important type of mystery play in French was that which dramatized the Passion of
Jesus. In Paris, the staging of these plays was the exclusive right of the Confrérie de la
Passion. Elsewhere, it was usually the municipalities that subsidized these lengthy and
costly plays. Though most of the surviving medieval plays are anonymous, the authors of
several of the Passion plays are known. Eustache Marcadé is the presumed author of a
Mystère de la Passion from the first part of the 15th century. Arnoul Greban wrote the
best known of the Passion plays ca. 1452, then collaborated with his brother, Simon
Greban, in writing the Mystère des Actes des Apôtres. Toward the end of the century,
Jean Michel wrote another important Passion play. André de La Vigne wrote a Vie de
saint Martin and two other plays that were staged in the Burgundian town of Seurre in
- Guillaume Coquillart, a writer of comic debates and dramatic monologues, was
also active around this time. The masterful Farce de Maistre Pathelin, however, despite
the sleuthing of many scholars, remains resolutely anonymous.
One of the well-known dramatic writers of the early 16th century was Pierre Gringore,
who attacked Pope Julius II in his sottie of 1512 and who later wrote a lengthy Vie
monseigneur saint Louis for the stage. The Renaissance seems to have had little impact
on the continued writing and performance of late-medieval dramatic genres. All of them
flourished until about mid-century. In 1548, however, the playing of biblical plays was
forbidden in Paris, and the subsequent religious wars effectively stopped all such
productions in most parts of France. Morality plays, which were not affected by the ban,
continued to be played, showing some signs of development toward the newly introduced
genre of tragedy. Even at the beginning of the century, the delightful morality play
Condamnation de Banquet, pointed toward a new secularism. Farces also continued to be
played, changing little throughout the period. Because of their stability as a genre, the
farces of the early 17th century were able to transmit the medieval comic tradition to the
young Molière.
Alan E.Knight
[See also: ADAM DE LA HALLE; BASOCHE; CONFRÉRIE DE LA PASSION;
COQUILLART, GUILLAUME; COURTOIS D’ARRAS; FARCE; GREBAN, ARNOUL;
GREBAN, SIMON; GRINGORE, PIERRE; HISTORY PLAYS; JEHAN BODEL; JEU
D’ADAM; LA VIGNE, ANDRÉ DE; LITURGICAL DRAMA: MARCADÉ,
EUSTACHE; MICHEL, JEAN; MIRACLE PLAYS; MORALITY PLAYS; MYSTERY
PLAYS; PASSION DES JONGLEURS; PASSION PLAYS; PATHELIN, FARCE DE
MAISTRE; PROCESSIONAL THEATER; SAINT PLAYS; SEINTE RESURECCION;
SERMONS JOYEUX; SOTTIE; SPONSUS; STAGING OF PLAYS; THEATER, LATIN]
The Encyclopedia 1715