Wann—The Influence of French Farce 367 
any farcical material containing either shepherd scenes similar 
to that in Secunda Past or nm or non-shepherd scenes with plots 
similar to those of Secunda Pastorum and Pathelin. Further¬ 
more, I have examined the texts themselves of those plays 
whose analysis in the above repertoires gave any promise of 
such parallels being found.^^ The results of this examination 
were surprisingly meagre. 
Of 253 extant moralities, farces, sotties, monologues and 
sermons joyeux listed by Petit de Julleville only ten contain 
matter that is at all reminiscent of the farcical material in 
Secunda Pastorum or Prima Pastorum. These ten pieces are 
distributed as follows: moralites, 4 (P. deJ. nos. 21, 24, 48, 58) ; 
farces and sotties, 3 (P. deJ. nos. 74,135,150) ; monologues and 
sermons joyeux, 3 (P. deJ. nos. 215,221,230). There is no 
indication of any parallel in the list of non-extant pieces, in 
the surviving notes on stage representations of comic drama, 
or in the list of non-dramatic pieces excluded from the other 
lists. In the same author’s analyses of French mysteres there 
are found in the long list of plays: none of the 12th or 13th 
century, only one of the 14th (vol. II, 254-5), only ten in the 
15th century (II„ 362-3; 388; 401-4, 408; 412; 417; 430; 433, 
436; 436; 495; 513), and none in the 16th which contain ma¬ 
terial of a farcical nature resembling that in the Towneley 
shepherd plays.^® 
An examination of the above-cited passages leads quickly to 
the conclusion that outside of the imitations of Pathelin itself, 
which of course come still later than Pathelin, there is nothing 
in French medieval drama in the slightest degree approaching 
the plot structure of the Mak farce. Furthermore, there is 
no one of the above-cited resemblances to incidents in Secunda 
Pastorum which cannot be duplicated in other English cycle or 
non-cycle plays. The conclusion seems irresistible that, if we 
are to find the source of the farcical material in the Wakefield 
group of the Towneley plays, we are not likely to find it in 
22 The main collections and separate texts examined are as follows : Jacob, 
P. K, Recueil de Farces, Sotties et Moralites du XVe siecle (1859) ; Fournier 
Ed., Le Theatre frangais avant la Renaissance (1872) ; Viollet le Due, E., 
Ancien theatre frangais (1854) ; the texts of the Societe des Anciens Textes 
frangais (for the mysteres, particularly). 
** Owing- to the requirements of space a detailed examination of this dra¬ 
matic material is reserved for a separate article which I hope to publish in 
the near future. 
