Sentence:  Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer languagenb...; his clerks ... understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a <WSD>farce</WSD>, or a "ballade", or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A motion picture or play featuring this style of humor.