Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/145

 Reviews. 127

Folk-dramas in Southern Europe.

Les Pastorales Basques. Notice, Catalogue des Manuscrits et Questionnaire. Par G. Herelle. Bayonne, 1903, in 8° de p. 86.

1. Vendetta, Racconto Campagnnolo Siciliano. By G. Crimi

Lo GiUDiCE. Aci Reale, Tipografia Umberto I., 1903.

30 PP-

2. Magheria, o Amore Per Forza. Scene Popolari Siciliane

in 2 alti. Idem. 48 pp.

The above catalogue of open-air plays, performed in the French Basque country by amateurs, is prefaced with an interesting account of their general characteristics. About one hundred are named ; one of them only is mentioned as having been printed. They are versified, meant to be sung with a musical accompaniment, the performance lasting all day, sometimes longer. The subjects are varied ; religious and secular, ancient and modern ; truth and fiction, tragedy, comedy, and farce, intermingled with dances. The acting of the tragedies is strikingly conventional and archaic. It is noticeable that the catalogue does not mention nativity plays, the sort called Pastorales elsewhere in France, and performed in the winter on the Riviera about Christmas time. The Pastorales Basques take place in the spring usually, sometimes in the autumn.

This work is announced as preliminary to a more extensive one, presumably a critical study of the contents of the plays. The origin of the older ones will probably be discovered in the interminable mediaeval mystery-plays, also founded on a great variety of themes. Many of the Basque pieces bear the same titles as known mystery plays, others are probably fragments. Some of the manuscripts are said by the writers to be translations. The stage directions and the interludes are frequently not in Basque.

These Pastorales belong especially now to the valley of La Soule. Its chief town is Mauleon, guarded by the castle of the Mains Leo, as some archaeologists will have it. Not far distant lies Roncevalles, where the paladin Roland was slain ; the hero's death is commemorated in one of these " trageries."

Of the little Sicilian books, the first is a story, the second a play.