"Comedy and Morality in Medieval Literature: Analyzing Laughter and Satire in Roman de Renart and Erotic Fabliaux"

Extract

[...] Firstly, the priests described there are the opposite of what one would expect from a priest. The second reason is that the fabliaux often portray the clergy as being involved in sexual activities, which was considered scandalous and humorous at the time.that the E?church, which generates laughter. Secondly, the encounter between the cunning priest and the wicked peasant (who represents the population) provokes laughter once again by the dichotomy of this strange duo of adversaries. The fabliaux also use laughter to free the fear of hell. [...]

[...] However, an humorous discrepancy is observed between the object of the adventure of the knights and the reason that pushes the fox to leave on the roads: hunger. Several narrative situations suggest the courtly novel. The ring that Fière entrusts to Renart in the branch I recalls the gift of Laudine to Yvain. However, the fox promises nothing to the queen, and dishonors her in the next branch. De me?me, the triangle formed by Renart, Hersent and Ysengrin - which is at the origin of the conflict between the fox and the wolf - takes up the legend of Tristan and Yseult. [...]

[...] Morality being the science that differentiates good from evil, by proposing a set of rules of conduct considered good. To this must be added the notion of comedy in literature. Comedy being a genre that aims to provoke laughter. In French literaturecjoy of the Middle Ages, the Roman de Renart occupies a first place. The Roman de Renart is a collection of poems of unequal lengths, written in octosyllabic rhyming couplets. There is no single Roman de Renart, in the sense that this collection of poemsmy a éhas been grouped into fourteen different and complete collections. [...]

[...] The branch I met isalso the greed of the sovereign in lumière. Finally, religion is widely criticized in the Roman of Renartend>. Firstly, the clergy members are turneds en délaughter, we have already seen this with Hersent's remark about the nuns. Most often, the clerics in the collection are rural priests, who are more like peasants than men of the Church. Like the peasants, they own a farm, and they often live in concubinage: they do not respect the duty to lead a modest life, nor that of celibacy. [...]

[...] The dissonance effect in relation to this writing of the world upside down creates an essential laughter to medieval literature, allowing to imagine another realityalité, which is precisely that described by the authors of erotic fabliaux. In the erotic fabliaux that concern us, two characters, one main and the other secondary, serve adulterous women and support their enterprises. These are Aubérée and a bourgeoise in The Tresces. In this fabliau, the bourgeoise, although she is not the initiator of the plot, complies with Aubérée's requests.4. [...]