FARCITURA. - From the French farce, it refers to a series of interpolations into a liturgical text that is sung or recited: "Kyrie farcito," "Epistola farcita." The technical term most used is "trope" when it concerns sung texts, while the expression "farce" applies preferably to texts read with modulations or to recitatives (Epistle, Gospel, Preface, lessons of the Office).
Tropes in the strict sense go back to the 9th century; there are, however, no traces of farced readings before the 11th century. At the beginning the f. is nothing other than a paraphrase, an amplification of the sacred text; little by little things alien to the sacred concept and even of a burlesque or satirical character are introduced into it. The Council of Trent, together with tropes and sequences, suppressed farced readings. In the modern sense the farce has become principally a comedy that can go as far as triviality. The passage of the term from ecclesiastical use to the profane theater may have occurred in the 13th century or shortly before. Through the work of the "cleres de la Basoche," attached to the registries at the Parliaments of Paris and other cities, there developed the practice of contaminating Latin with vernacular words for the purpose of hilarity; the "farce" was one of the many types of "jeux" and "fabliaux" that remained in vogue under various names down to our own days. The French comic theater in which this genre prevailed and from which it passed to other countries still owes much to the "farce" in its highest exponent Molière, who began his brilliant career precisely with "farces." From the end of the 15th century with the celebrated Farce de l'avocat Pathelin to the 20th century with the vaudevilles and the "revues," one may say that the spirit of the farce has always remained alive.
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Pietro Thomas