The Atellan Farce (Latin: Atellanae Fabulae or Fabulae Atellanae, "favola atellana"; Atellanicum exhodium, "Atella comedies",) also known as the Oscan Games (Latin: ludi Osci, "Oscan plays"), were masked improvised farces in Ancient Rome. The Oscan athletic games were very popular, and usually preceded by longer pantomime plays. 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. Most historians believe the name is derived from Atella, an Oscan town in Campania. The farces were written in Oscan and imported to Rome in 391 B.C. In later Roman versions, only the ridiculous characters speak their lines in Oscan, while the other characters speak in Latin.
History and surviving evidence
The Atellan Farce was a masked farce that originated in Italy by 300 B.C.and remained popular for more than 500 years. Originally, the farces were improvised and not recorded. While the actors in Atellan Farce were known to be Oscan, evidence of language-switching from Oscan to Latin is evident in a literary Atellana. We can also surmise that the plots of the sketches included ridiculous situations consisting of puns, horseplay, and riddles of a vulgar and crude nature.
Stock characters and origins
Some of the hypothesized stock characters included:
- Maccus – Believed derived from either the Greek term makkoan, meaning "to be stupid" or the Greek prefix mac-, that denotes greed.
- Buccus – Although the origin of this name is not definitely known, the Latin word bucca, meaning "cheek" or "mouth" is a common consideration, Possibly Manducus and Dossennus are the same character and Manducus is simply the description for Dossennus.
The characters may have connections to similar roles in Commedia dell'arte and Punch and Judy. Both Atellan Farce and Commedia were improvised masked comedies. Stock characters in Atellan Farce are speculated as the beginnings of the Commedia dell'arte stock characters. For example, theorized character progressions include:
- Pappus → Pantalone
- Maccus + Buccus → Pulcinella
- Manducus → il Capitano
However, these connections remain speculative and are contested in ongoing research. There are similarities between Punch and the Commedia dell'arte character Pulcinella. However, there is no consensus that Punch's derivation can be traced back to Pulcinella. The character Cicirrus, the Oscan word for "gamecock", is thought to be a stock character.
Authorship
The subjects and characters were decided upon just before the performance began and the dialogue was improvised. The performers were the sons of Roman citizens who were allowed to serve in the army: professional actors were excluded. The simple prose dialogues were supplemented by songs in Saturnian metre, the common language, accompanied by lively gesticulation. The plays were characterized by coarseness and obscenity. Atellan play acting contained much pantomiming. All roles were played by males.
Atellan plays first became popular in Rome in the third century B.C, with a revived popularity in literary form in the first century B.C.
Influenced by Palliata Fabius Dorsennus, Lucius Pomponius of Bologna composed several Atellan plays, including Macchus Miles (Macchus the Soldier), Pytho Gorgonius, Pseudoagamemnon, Bucco Adoptatus, and Aeditumus. Quintus Novius and a "Memmius" also authored these comedies. Ovid and Pliny the Younger found the work of Memmius to be indecent.
Pomponius is speculated to be the "founder" of the Atellan Farce plays.
Nonetheless, a mask portraying Pappus appears in a fresco unearthed in the ruins at Pompeii that dates to the volcanic eruption in 79 A.D. that covered the city in ash.
The Augustan History records that Hadrian furnished performances of Atellan Farces at banquets.
Contemporary comparisons
Due to the outlandish nature and brevity that the Atellan Farces are believed to have, they are comparable to the sketches that one would see on a variety show such as Saturday Night Live or Whose Line Is It Anyway? Oftentimes the improvised play would center on an uncomplicated situation such as eating too much, becoming intoxicated, or stealing.