FARCITURA. – From the French farce, this is said of a series of interpolations in a sung or recited liturgical text: “Kyrie farcito,” “Epistola farcita.” The more commonly used technical term is “trope” when sung texts are concerned, whereas the expression “farce” is preferably applied to texts read with modulations or to recitatives (Epistle, Gospel, Preface, lessons of the Office).
Tropes in the strict sense go back to the ninth century; there is, on the other hand, no evidence of farced readings before the eleventh century. At first, f. was nothing more than a paraphrase, an amplification of the sacred text; gradually, elements alien to the sacred concept, including burlesque or satirical material, were introduced into II. The Council of Trent suppressed farced readings, together with tropes and sequences. In the modern sense, the farce has become principally a comedy that may descend into triviality. The term may have passed from ecclesiastical usage to profane theater in the thirteenth century or somewhat earlier. Through the work of the “clerks de la Basoche,” employed in legal writing at the Parlements of Paris and other cities, the practice developed of mingling Latin with vernacular words for the purpose of provoking laughter; the “farce” was one of the many types of “jeux” and “fabliaux” that remained in vogue under various names down to the present day. French comic theater, in which this genre prevailed and from which it passed into other countries, still owes much to the “farce” in its greatest exponent, Molière, who began his brilliant career precisely with “farces.” From the end of the fifteenth century, with the celebrated Farce de l’avocat Pathelin, to the twentieth century, with vaudevilles and “revues,” it may be said that the spirit of the farce has remained constantly alive.