Atellan Farce

The Atellan Farce (Latin: Atellanae Fabulae or Fabulae Atellanae,[1] "favola atellana";[2] Atellanicum exhodium, "Atella comedies"[3]), also known as the Oscan Games (Latin: ludi Osci, "Oscan plays"), were masked improvised farces in Ancient Rome.[4] The Oscan athletic games were very popular, and usually preceded by longer pantomime plays.[5] The origin of the Atellan Farce is uncertain, but the farces are similar to other forms of ancient theatre such as the South Italian Phlyakes, the plays of Plautus and Terence, and Roman mime.[6] Most historians believe the name is derived from Atella, an Oscan town in Campania.[7][8][9] The farces were written in Oscan and imported to Rome in 391 BC. In later Roman versions, only the ridiculous characters speak their lines in Oscan, while the others speak in Latin.

  1. ^ Smith, Winifred (1964). The Commedia Dell'Arte. New York: Benjamin Blom. p. 24. The extemporary compositions called Fabulae Atellanae...
  2. ^ Kennard, Joseph (1964). The Italian Theatre: From Its Beginning to the close of the Seventeenth Century. New York: Benjamin Blom. pp. 5. Another early form of drama, was the Atellanian fable (favola atellana), so called from the Etruscan city Atella.
  3. ^ Oreglia, Giacomo (1968). The Commedia dell'Arte. New York: Hill and Wang. p. 78. ...the Pappus of Atella comedies
  4. ^ Smith, Winifred (1964). The Commedia Dell'Arte. New York: Benjamin Blom. p. 26. Atellnae were farces marked by improvisation and masked personages,
  5. ^ Duchartre, Pierre (1966). The Italian Comedy. New York: Dover Publications, INC. pp. 25. ISBN 9780486216799. They were later called Exodiae, because they were often given at the end of the performance.
  6. ^ Trapido, Joel (December 1966). "The Attellan Plays". Educational Theatre Journal. 18 (4): 381–389. doi:10.2307/3205265. JSTOR 3205265.
  7. ^ Kennard, Joseph (1964). The Italian Theatre: From Its Beginning to the close of the Seventeenth Century. New York: Benjamin Blom. pp. 5. Another early form of drama, was the Atellainian fable, so called from the Etruscan city Atella.
  8. ^ Duchartre, Pierre (1966). The Italian Comedy. New York: Dover Publications, INC. pp. 25. ISBN 9780486216799. The ancient city of Atella, now known as Aversa, was one of the first to have a theatre, in fact.
  9. ^ Ducharte, Pierre (1966). The Italian Comedy. New York: Dover Publications INC. p. 25. When performed in Rome they were called Atellanae, which became their accepted name.