This book offers a close analysis of the Old French fabliaux, that medieval corpus of short comic tales in narrative verse celebrated (sometimes notorious) for their irreverence and sexual content. It picks out certain key images - such as gambling, illness, and damnation - which develop into themes and motifs running through all the texts, and which add layers of ironic patterning to the essential subject-matter and narrative of each fabliau. These elements, in many respects the 'small print' of the joke, furnish the comic text with many rhythms and echoes, all contributing to the ludic,...

The aim of Reinardus is to promote comparative research in the fields of medieval comic, satirical, didactic and allegorical literature (with emphasis on beast epic, fable and fabliau), including sources, influences and later developments into the modern period. The methods and critical interpretation that it offers are as wide-ranging as is its subject matter, since it considers discussion and the coexistence of conflicting views as more important than the defence of a specific methodological point of view. This volume contains contributions by: Jean-Marie Boivin; Massimo...