Wann—The Influence of French Farce 359 
traced to the general class of Middle English Satires on women 
very accessible to the dramatist of the fourteenth centuryd^ 
The fact that the only sources so far found for these secular 
episodes are either English or the common property of English¬ 
men and others is of much importance in connection with the 
endeavor to find the sources for the remaining plays whose 
sources have till now remained unidentified. The ten plays 
above-mentioned, then, contain material, secular or farcical in 
nature, whose source has defied identification. 
In the attempt to account for these farcical elements, all of 
which by the way are attributed to the one author (the genius 
of Wakefield) we should turn first of all to England itself. 
And upon examining the English drama of the period, we 
readily find parallels for seven of these ten scenes in either the 
cycle or non-cycle plays of England. These parallels may be 
conveniently tabulated as follows: 
Towneley 2 = York 7 ; the Croxton play of The Sacrament. 
' ^ 3 = '' 9 ; Chester 3; Newcastle. 
' ‘ 12 -= 15 ; Chaster 7 ; Newcastle. 
(Shearmen and Tailors’) 
“ 13 = no parrallel. 
‘‘ 16 = cf. York 9; Towneley 13; Chester 3; New¬ 
castle. 
21 = York 31; Cornish. 
22 = cf. York 31. 
23 = cf. York 31. 
‘' 24 = no parallel. 
‘ ‘ 30 = no parallel. 
With the sources substantially determined for all but ten 
plays (and it will be noted that these sources were either com¬ 
mon property of all Europeans or definitely English in origin), 
and with English parallels found for the secular elements of 
seven of the Wakefield group of ten, there remain but three 
plays whose secular elements have hitherto found neither source 
nor parallel in England. These are: the farce in Secunda 
Pastorum, the dieing scene in the play of The Talents, and the 
Play 23 may also have been influenced by the same source. 
