been a favourite with French poets of the lighter kind.
The number of personages is never large; it sometimes falls as low as
two (in which case the farce might in strictness be called, as it
sometimes is, a _debat_ or dialogue), and rarely, if ever, rises above
four or five. From what has already been said it will be seen that it is
not easy to give any general summary of the subjects of this curious
composition. Conjugal differences of one kind and another make up a very
large part of them, but by no means the whole, and there are few aspects
of contemporary bourgeois life which do not come in for treatment. As an
example we may take the _Farce du Paste de la Tarte_[129]. The
characters are two thieves, a pastry-cook, and his wife. The farce opens
with a lamentable Triolet, in which the two thieves bewail their unhappy
state. Immediately afterwards, the pastry-cook, in front of whose shop
the scene is laid, calls to his wife and tells her that an eel-pie is to
be kept for him, and that he will send for it later, as he intends to
dine abroad. The two thieves overhear the conversation, and the token
which is to be given by the messenger, and after trying in vain to beg a
dinner, determine to filch one. Thief the second goes to the
pastry-cook's wife, gives the appointed token, and easily obtains the
pie, upon which both feast. Unluckily, however, this does not satisfy
them, and the successful thief, remembering a fine tart which he has
seen in the shop, decides that the possession of it would much improve
their dinner. He persuades his companion to try and secure it.
Meanwhile, however, the enraged pastry-cook has come home hungry and
demands his eel-pie. His wife in vain assures him that she has sent it
by the messenger who brought his token. Her husband disbelieves her;
words run high, and are followed by blows. At this juncture the first
thief appears and demands the tart, whereupon the irate pastry-cook
turns his rage upon him. The stick makes him confess the device, and
smarting under the blows, he is easily induced to make his companion a
sharer in his own sorrows. This is effected by an obvious stratagem. The
pastry-cook thus avenges himself of both his enemies, who however, with
some philosophy, console themselves with the fact that, after all, they
have had an excellent dinner without paying for it.

This piece serves as a fair example of the more miscellaneous farces, in
almost all of which the stick plays a pr