ABSTRACT
In contrast to the Noh of Dengaku, the Noh of Sarugaku left an abundant literary legacy, now carefully cherished by devotees of Noh as a dramatic art. Originally, the characters which are read Sarugaku (猿樂) and which signify monkey music, were used to designate spontaneous actions of a humorous or comic nature. To this popular Sarugaku, dialogue had been added before the beginning of the fourteenth century; but gradually, under the influence of literary priests, the dialogue lost its comic nature and gave way to a more poetically austere recital, in the interpretation of which the action also became refined, while still retaining the original name.
