Sagesse and Misogyny in the fabliau La dame escoillee

Abstract

The fabliau La dame escoillee is often cited as a disturbing example of the medieval attitude toward women. Although violence is often presented as comic in the genre as a whole, the physical abuse suffered by women in this poem is so brutal that most scholars find it offensive, and feminist scholars in particular find it distressing that it was a relatively popular tale, preserved in six manuscripts.' Norris Lacy has, somewhat apologetically, praised this fabliau for its narrative complexity and skilled construction, and has called for a reading of the poem that takes into account factors other than the narrator's misogyny. He adds that this fabliau is addressed to an all-male audience, which may explain its strongly negative portrait of women as grasping and controlling, a portrait that conforms to the medieval stereotype. Male characters, Lacy reminds us, are often held up to derisive laughter for their individual faults, not for traits that merely confirm their gender. Lacy also notes that although the six versions of this fabliau are similar in content, there is a marked difference in narrative tone. Nottingham MS 19152, used as the basis for both Willem Noomen's critical edition and the previous Montaiglon-Raynaud edition, contains a long prologue, essentially a diatribe against women, while authorial intrusions throughout this version continue in this misogynist tone; the other versions of the fabliau pay much less attention to the female characters. Lacy refuses to tackle the complex question of whether MS 19152, the longest and most complete of the six manuscripts, preserves the original version, but he does favour the idea that the prologue may be a later addition (p. 110).