, but a farce
in which the performers, arrayed in motley, and wearing the long-eared
cap, distributed between them the several roles of human folly.
Associations of _sots_, known in Paris as _Enfants sans Souci_, known
in other cities by other names, presented the unwisdom or madness
of the world in parody. The _sottie_ at times rose from a mere
diversion to satire; like the Morality, it could readily adapt itself
to political criticism. The _Gens Nouveaux_, belonging perhaps to
the reign of Louis XI., mocks the hypocrisy of those sanguine
reformers who promise to create the world anew on a better model,
and yet, after all, have no higher inspiration than that old greed
for gold and power and pleasure which possessed their predecessors.
Louis XII., who permitted free comment on public affairs from actors
on the stage, himself employed the poet Pierre Gringoire to satirise
his adversary the Pope. In 1512 the _Jeu du Prince des Sots_ was given
in Paris; Gringoire, the _Mere-Sotte_, but wearing the Papal robes
to conceal for a time the garb of folly, discharged a principal part.
Such dangerous pleasantries as this were vigorously restrained by
Francois I.

A dramatic monologue or a _sermon joyeux_ was commonly interposed
between the _sottie_ and the Morality or miracle which followed. The
sermon parodied in verse the pulpit discourses of the time, with text
duly announced, the customary scholastic divisions, and an
incredible licence in matter and in phrase. Among the dramatic
monologues of the fifteenth century is found at least one little
masterpiece, which has been ascribed on insufficient grounds to
Villon, and which would do no discredit to that poet's genius--the
_Franc-Archer de Bagnolet_. The francs-archers of Charles VII.--a
rural militia--were not beloved of the people; the _miles gloriosus_
of Bagnolet village, boasting largely of his valour, encounters a
stuffed scarecrow, twisting to the wind; his alarms, humiliations,
and final triumph are rendered in a monologue which expounds the
action of the piece with admirable spirit.

If the Mystery served to fill the void left by the national epopee,
the farce may be regarded as to some extent the dramatic inheritor
of the spirit of the fabliau. It aims at mirth and laughter for their
own sakes, without any purpose of edification; it had, like the
fabliau, the merit of brevity, and not infrequently the fault of
unabashed grossness. But the very fact that it was a t