A ''sotie'' (or ''sottie'') is a short satirical play common in 15th- and 16th-century in France. The word (compare modern ''sottise'') comes from the ''sots'', "fools", who appeared as characters in the play. In the plays, these fools would make observations and exchange thoughts on contemporary events and individuals. Shorter plays, sometimes referred to as ''parades'', did not necessarily have any plot at all, but relied simply on a detached dialogue. The genre has its origin in the

Feast of Fools The Feast of Fools or Festival of Fools (Latin: ''festum fatuorum'', ''festum stultorum'') was a feast day on January 1 celebrated by the clergy in Europe during the Middle Ages, initially in Southern France, but later more widely. During the Fe ...

and other

Carnival Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Carnival typi ...

-related festivities. The purpose of these events was to present a world turned upside-down, in this case with the fools as fonts of wisdom. The fools were dressed in grey robes, and wore a hood with donkey ears. There is some scholarly debate over whether the ''sotie'' should be considered a separate genre from the

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical comedy, physical humor; the use of delibe ...

or the

morality play The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor drama. The term is used by scholars of literary and dramatic history to refer to a genre of play texts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries that feature personified concepts ( ...

, but it does have certain unique characteristics. Whereas the characters in a farce would be distinguishable individuals with proper names, the characters in the ''soties'' were pure allegories. The characters had names such as "First Fool" and "Second Fool", or "Everyman", "Pilgrim" etc. Sometime there would be a leader of the fools, called "Mother Fool" (''Mère Sotte''). These allegorical protagonists were also common to morality plays, but unlike this genre, the ''sotie'' was primarily meant to entertain. The plays also had highly complex rhyme schemes, and sophisticated verse structures. The best known ''soties'' playwright is Pierre Gringore, and the best-known play his 1511 ''Jeu du prince des sots'' (Play of the Prince of Fools). In this play, "Mother Fool" represents the papacy, and for this reason the satire was tolerated by the French king. Another renowned soties playwright was the court jester

Triboulet Triboulet (1479–1536), also known as Le Févrial or under his family name Ferrial,Some modern sources claim that Triboulet was called Nicolas Ferrial, however the accounts of the court of Francis I mention "Nicolas Le Feurial, brother of Tri ...

, whose merits were rewarded generously by

René of Anjou René of Anjou (; ; 16 January 1409 – 10 July 1480) was Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence from 1434 to 1480, who also reigned as King of Naples from 1435 to 1442 (then Aragonese conquest of Naples, deposed). Having spent his last years in Aix ...

and

Charles, Duke of Orléans Charles of Orléans (24 November 1394 – 5 January 1465) was Duke of Orléans from 1407, following the murder of his father, Louis I, Duke of Orléans. He was also Duke of Valois, Count of Beaumont-sur-Oise and of Blois, Lord of Coucy, ...

. In the 16th century, ''soties'' were banned and went out of use. The term has, however, been used also for modern works. The 20th-century author

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his begi ...

referred to his 1914 novel ''Les caves du Vatican'' as a ''sotie''.

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