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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: FAT-FLA |
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FESCENNINE VERSES (Fescennina carmina) , one of the earliest kinds of Italian poetry, subsequently developed into the Satura and the Roman comic drama. Originally sung at village
home rejoicings, they made their way into the towns, and became the fashion at religious festivals and private gatheringsespecially weddings, to which in later times they were practically restricted. They were usually in the Saturnian metre and took the form of a dialogue, consisting of an inter-change of extemporaneous raillery. Those who took part in them wore masks made of the bark of trees. At first harmless and good-humoured, if somewhat coarse, these songs gradually out-stripped the bounds of decency; malicious attacks were made upon both gods and men, and the matter became so serious that the law intervened and scurrilous personalities were forbidden by the Twelve Tables (Cicero, De re publica, iv. ro). Specimens of the Fescennines used at weddings are the Epithalamium of Manlius (Catullus, lxi. 122) and the four poems of Claudian in honour of the marriage
Fescennia
Fescennina were regarded as a protection
Nettleship , in an article on " The Earliest Italian Literature " (Journal of Philology, xi. 1882), in support of Munro's view, translates the expression " verses used by charmers," assuming a noun fescennus, connected with fas fari.The locus classicus in ancient literature is Horace , Epistles, ii. 1. 139; see also Virgil, Georgics, ii. 385; Tibullus
Hoffmann
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