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New page: '''Farce'''. Type of rude comedy in which all rules of propriety, likelihood, and common sense are equally violated. The absurd and obscene are to farce what the ridiculous is to [[comedy]...
'''Farce'''. Type of rude comedy in which all rules of propriety, likelihood, and common sense are equally violated. The absurd and obscene are to farce what the ridiculous is to [[comedy]].
One asks if it is good that this sort of performance be in a well-policed state in legitimate and decent theatres. Those who protect farce give as their reason that we go to the theatre to be amused, that everyone is not in a state of tasting good comedy, and that one must leave a choice of amusement to the public.
That one has a good time at the performance of a farce is an undeniable fact. The Romans deserted the theatre of [[Terence]] to run to the acrobats, and in early modern France, [[Mérope]]<ref>Tragedy by Voltaire first presented at the Comédie Française on February 20, 1743. Mérope was parodied March 16, 1743 at the Théâtre de l’Opéra Comique in a play entitled Marotte by Pannard, Gallet and Pontau. The Marionettes of Bienfait also presented a parody by Valois entitled Javotte at the Foire St-Germain in 1743.</ref> and [[Le Méchant]]<ref>Comedy by Jean-Baptiste Gresset first presented at the Comédie Française on April 15, 1747.</ref> in their novelty had scarcely drawn a crowd for two months, while the most montrous farce has sustained its performance for two whole seasons.
And so it is certain that that part of the public of whom the taste is invariably decided for the true, the useful, and the beautiful, has only been a very small number all this time, and that the crowd chooses the extravagant and absurd. Thus, far from disputing the success that farce enjoys, we shall add that as soon as one likes this show, one no longer likes the other; and it would be just as surprising if a man who found his daily delights in these rude absurdities were deeply touched by the beauty of the [[Misanthrope]]<ref>Le Misanthrope ou l’Atrabilaire amoureux , by Molière, was first presented June 4, 1666 at the Théâtre du Palais Royal.</ref> and [[Athalie]]<ref>Biblical tragedy by Jean Racine first performed at St-Cyr in 1690. The first performance at the Comédie Française was on March 5, 1716.</ref> as to see a man nourished by debauchery find pleasure in the company of a virtuous woman.
We are going, so we say, to relax at a farce; a reasonable performance works and tires the mind; farce amuses, makes one laugh, and doesn’t invade at all. We avow that there are minds that a regular chain of ideas and feelings must tire. The mind has its libertinage and its disorder where it is most at ease, and the mechanical and rude pleasure found without reflection dulls the taste for the honest and useful; one loses the habit of reflection like that of walking, and the soul benumbs and unnerves itself like the body, in a lazy indolence. Farce exercises neither taste nor reason: for this reason it is pleasing to lazy souls; and it is for this very reason that this performance is pernicious. If it had nothing attractive about it, it would simply be bad.
Farce is the performance of the rude populace, and it’s a pleasure we must leave to them, but in the form that suits them, that is to say with barnstormed crossroads for a theatre; in this way it happens to correspond to the propriety of the spectators which it attracts. To give them decent theatres and a legitimate form, to garnish it with music, danse and nice decorations is to gild the rim of the cup from which the audience is going to drink the poison of bad taste.
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
One asks if it is good that this sort of performance be in a well-policed state in legitimate and decent theatres. Those who protect farce give as their reason that we go to the theatre to be amused, that everyone is not in a state of tasting good comedy, and that one must leave a choice of amusement to the public.
That one has a good time at the performance of a farce is an undeniable fact. The Romans deserted the theatre of [[Terence]] to run to the acrobats, and in early modern France, [[Mérope]]<ref>Tragedy by Voltaire first presented at the Comédie Française on February 20, 1743. Mérope was parodied March 16, 1743 at the Théâtre de l’Opéra Comique in a play entitled Marotte by Pannard, Gallet and Pontau. The Marionettes of Bienfait also presented a parody by Valois entitled Javotte at the Foire St-Germain in 1743.</ref> and [[Le Méchant]]<ref>Comedy by Jean-Baptiste Gresset first presented at the Comédie Française on April 15, 1747.</ref> in their novelty had scarcely drawn a crowd for two months, while the most montrous farce has sustained its performance for two whole seasons.
And so it is certain that that part of the public of whom the taste is invariably decided for the true, the useful, and the beautiful, has only been a very small number all this time, and that the crowd chooses the extravagant and absurd. Thus, far from disputing the success that farce enjoys, we shall add that as soon as one likes this show, one no longer likes the other; and it would be just as surprising if a man who found his daily delights in these rude absurdities were deeply touched by the beauty of the [[Misanthrope]]<ref>Le Misanthrope ou l’Atrabilaire amoureux , by Molière, was first presented June 4, 1666 at the Théâtre du Palais Royal.</ref> and [[Athalie]]<ref>Biblical tragedy by Jean Racine first performed at St-Cyr in 1690. The first performance at the Comédie Française was on March 5, 1716.</ref> as to see a man nourished by debauchery find pleasure in the company of a virtuous woman.
We are going, so we say, to relax at a farce; a reasonable performance works and tires the mind; farce amuses, makes one laugh, and doesn’t invade at all. We avow that there are minds that a regular chain of ideas and feelings must tire. The mind has its libertinage and its disorder where it is most at ease, and the mechanical and rude pleasure found without reflection dulls the taste for the honest and useful; one loses the habit of reflection like that of walking, and the soul benumbs and unnerves itself like the body, in a lazy indolence. Farce exercises neither taste nor reason: for this reason it is pleasing to lazy souls; and it is for this very reason that this performance is pernicious. If it had nothing attractive about it, it would simply be bad.
Farce is the performance of the rude populace, and it’s a pleasure we must leave to them, but in the form that suits them, that is to say with barnstormed crossroads for a theatre; in this way it happens to correspond to the propriety of the spectators which it attracts. To give them decent theatres and a legitimate form, to garnish it with music, danse and nice decorations is to gild the rim of the cup from which the audience is going to drink the poison of bad taste.
==Notes==
{{reflist}}