Cançoner Popular: Vilafranca
Vilafranca de Bonany

Some fragments of Entremeses became part of the memory of the people in the form of a gloss. The Entremés d'en Roegó Florit and na Faldó is a sample.

'Good evening, Madò Pereta;

What are you up to around here?'

'We're sewing, This girl and I.'

'And you call that a girl?

A spinster I would call her.

I wouldn't be scared

To meet her in the cowshed!

Would you have a fire going,

In the kitchen, or the brazier?'

'You wait there,

I'll have a look,

And if I don't, I'll make one,

Just so you can smoke a bit!

See here fire and smoke;

For your hot pipe,

I'm never happier,

Than when I see you happy.'

“En Roegó Florit i na Faldó”

Cançoner popular de Mallorca, Rafel Ginard

Translated by Richard Mansell. Performed by Mateu Matas 'Xuri' & Maribel Servera.

Gloses populars

Rafel Sastre Clar (Llucmajor, 1735-1787), known as Rafel des Puigderós, was a “glosador” and linen weaver, and author of this Entremès d’en Roegó Florit y na Faldó, compost per en Tomas Mut natural de la vila de Llucmajor (Short farce about Roegó Florit and Faldó, written by Tomas Mut, from the town of Llucmajor). It is, then, popular theatre that entered into people’s memories as a rhyme. “Entremesos” were short dramatic pieces written in a plain language and aimed at a rural and working-class audience. Here, Roegó Florit is a violent individual who is fond of a drink, and he tricks Faldó, a girl desperately looking for a husband, making her believe he is rich and free of vice. Various characters enter into the story and complicate matters further. This piece combines a recurrent theme, poor marriages, with others such as deceit during courting, as well as a moral message about the evils of vice. These are also common themes in Majorca’s oral poetry. So, it is not strange that the two genres overlap in popular literature, just as they do with the anonymous short farce by Llorenç Malcasadís.

 

La Vila

The town of Vilafranca de Bonany did not exist before 1620, when a new settlement was built for the workers of the Barony of Sant Martí d'Alenzell, an enormous estate that was part of the region of Petra. The name answers the will of the Sureda family, the owners of Sant Martí, to give certain privileges and freedoms to the new town to attract residents. Bonany refers to the hill of Bonany, the most important hill in the area with a sanctuary dedicated to the Mother of God at its summit.

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