C'est li chevaliers au poisson: Richars li biaus as a Model of Speculative Chivalry

Abstract

Richars li biaus is a late medieval romance that exemplifies the verisimilitude, even realism, that had crept into the genre by the thirteenth century. Concentrating on the dialectic of wealth and poverty, this article analyses the suggestive lexical choice treating the theme of economy in the text and, more widely, feudal, urban culture and economics, and how the hero must overcome issues of class, rank, and cash-flow as he speculates in order to accumulate, as he speculates in order to accumulate. The text's attitude to money mirrors social changes of the thirteenth century, and a parallel can be drawn with the content of contemporary medieval sermons critical of the misuse of money. Attention is paid to philology: the names of major and minor characters are dissected in order to suggest a programmatic intention on the part of the mysterious author, Mestre Requis. Richars taps into the matrix of words connected to the idea of richness, and the verb querre, central to the action, also conceals the pseudonym of the author. This curious secondary romance deserves more attention, and illustrates how much such texts have to reveal about the cultural context of the Middle Ages.