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ATELLANAE FABULAE (" Atellan fables ")
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ATELLANAE FABULAE (" Atellan fables ") , the name of a sort of popular See also:comedy amongst the See also:ancient See also:Romans. The name is derived from See also:Atella, an Oscan See also:town in See also:Campania; for this See also:reason, and from their being also called Osci ludi, it has been supposed that they were of Oscan origin and introduced at See also:Rome after Campania had been deprived of its See also:independence. It seems highly improbable that they were performed in the Oscan See also:language. See also:Mommsen, however, rejects their Oscan origin altogether; he regards them as purely Latin, the See also:scene merely being laid at Atella to avoid causing offence by placing it at Rome or one of the Latin cities. These plays, or rather sketches, contained humorous descriptions of See also:country as contrasted with town See also:life, and found their subjects amongst the See also:lower classes of the See also:people. The subjects alone were decided upon before the performance began; the See also:dialogue was improvised as it proceeded. The Atellanae contained certain stock characters, like the See also:Italian harlequinades: Maccus (the See also:fool), Bucco (See also:fat-chaps), Pappus (daddy), Dossennus (sharper); monsters and bogeys like Manducus, Pytho, See also:Lamia also made their See also:appearance. The performers were the sons of See also:Roman citizens, who did not lose their rights as citizens, and were allowed to serve in the See also:army: professional actors were excluded. The See also:simple See also:prose dialogues were probably varied by songs in the See also:rude Saturnian See also:metre: the language was that of the See also:common people, accompanied by lively gesticulation and movements. They were characterized by coarseness and See also:obscenity. In the See also:time of See also:Sulla a See also:literary See also:form was given to the Atellanae by See also:Pomponius of See also:Bononia and Novius, who made them See also:regular written comedies. Living persons seem to have been attacked, and even the doings of the gods and heroes of See also:mythology burlesqued. From this time the Atellanae were used as after-pieces and performed by professional actors. In 46 B.C. they were ousted by the mimes, but regained popularity during ,the reign of Tiberius (chiefly owing to a certain See also:Mummius), until they were definitelysuperseded by and merged in the mimes. They held their ground in the small towns and villages of See also:Italy during the last days of the See also:empire; they probably lingered on into the See also:middle ages, and were the origin of the Italian Commedie dell' arte. . The scanty fragments of Pomponius and Novius are collected in See also:Ribbeck's Comicorum Romanorum Reliquiae; see also Munk, De Fabulis Atellanis (184o) ; and See also:art. LATIN LITERATURE. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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