Elegiac comedy was a

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. It was also the administrative language in the former Western Roman Empire, Roman Provinces of Mauretania, Numidi ...

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

—or

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

—represented by about twenty texts written in the 12th and 13th centuries in the liberal arts schools of west central France (roughly the

Loire Valley The Loire Valley (, ), spanning , is a valley located in the middle stretch of the Loire river in central France, in both the administrative regions Pays de la Loire and Centre-Val de Loire. The area of the Loire Valley comprises about . It is r ...

). Though commonly identified in

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

s as ''comoedia'', modern scholars often reject their status as

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

. Unlike Classical comedy, they were written in

elegiac couplet The elegiac couplet or elegiac distich is a poetic form used by Greek lyric poets for a variety of themes usually of smaller scale than the epic. Roman poets, particularly Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid, adopted the same form in L ...

s. Denying their true comedic nature, Edmond Faral called them Latin ''fabliaux'', after the later

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

''fabliaux'', and Ian Thomson labelled them Latin comic tales. Other scholars have invented terms like verse tales, rhymed monologues, epic comedies, and Horatian comedies to describe them.Roy (1974), 258 n. 2 The Latin "comedies", the dramatic nature of which varies greatly, may have been the direct ancestors of the ''fabliaux'' but more likely merely share similarities. Other interpretations have concluded that they are primitive romances, student juvenilia">Romance (heroic literature)">romances, student juvenilia, didactic poems, or merely collections of elegies on related themes. Some elegiac comedies were adapted into vernacular language in the later Middle Ages, and retold by major vernacular writers such as Boccaccio, Chaucer, and John Gower, Gower. The poem ''Pamphilus'' has Venetian language, Venetian and

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th lyric complaints only sometimes mixed with amorous content. They combined the plot and character types of the Greek "new comedy" practised by Terence">New comedy">Greek "new comedy" practised by Terence and Plautus">Terence.html" ;"title="New comedy">Greek "new comedy" practised by Terence">New comedy">Greek "new comedy" practised by Terence and Plautus, but the greatest influence on them was Ovid. His ''Ars amatoria'', ''Amores (Ovid), Amores'', and ''Heroides'' were highly influential. Plautus, though less widely read in the Middle Ages, was also an influence, as were the Scholasticism, Scholastic debates concerning the nature of

universals In metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things. For exa ...

and other contemporary philosophical problems, with which the elegiac comedies often dealt, always humorously but no doubt sometimes to a serious end. The elegiac dramatists delight in "showing off" their Latin skills. Their use of rhetoric, logic, and various grammatical constructions suggest that they may have been used in the schools as exercises in poetic composition and philosophical argument. The language of their "fools" can be deliberately outlandish, and their deft use of puns is frequently sexual in nature.

Parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

is another typical element of elegiac humour. Persons of low rank are often placed in positions unsuited to them. Their bumbling, as when a rustic attempts to speak philosophically or the commoner pretends he is a chivalrous gentleman, is portrayed for its satiric effect. Satire is often employed in long digressions criticizing the corruption of the times, specifically targeting the selling of church offices, political corruption at court, sycophants’ attempts to rise in society, and aristocrats’ attempts to philosophize. In the Middle Ages, satire was usually considered a breed of comedy.

Dramatic features

The comedies were often about a sexual conquest, in which the lover must use his guile to overcome obstacles such as guardians, rivals, and reluctance on the part of the woman. The setting is some unspecified time contemporary with the poet, and the characters are all typical and have names descriptive of their traits and function in the story. The lack of resources on the part of the hero forces him to resort to deception and to employ intermediaries (as Ovid did in his narratives) in order to win the object of his desire. The elegiac comedies bear limited dramatic features. Thompson denies their theatricality, saying that "no ancient drama would ever have been written in elegiacs." A similar opinion is that the comedies are

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

al exercises. Medieval poetic theory, however, did not regard comedy and elegy as mutually exclusive, nor identical. John of Garland wrote "all comedy is elegy, but the reverse is not true." Other arguments raised against the dramatic performance of the comedies is, in general, their large number of narrative segments as opposed to dialogue. Arnulf of Orléans, one of the elegiac writers, seems to have considered his work to have been made for the stage. These performances may have been narrated, mimed, or sung.

List of elegiac comedies

*'' Alda'' by William of Blois *'' Asinarius'' *''

Aulularia ''Aulularia'' is a Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The title literally means ''The Little Pot'', but some translators provide ''The Pot of Gold'', and the plot revolves around a literal pot of gold which the mi ...

'' by Vitalis of Blois *'' Babio'' *'' Baucis et Traso'' *'' De Afra et Milone'' *'' De clericis et rustico'' *'' De Lombardo et lumaca'' *'' De mercatore'' *'' De nuncio sagaci'' *'' De tribus puellis'' *'' De tribus sociis'' *'' De vetula'' *''

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'' by Vitalis of Blois *'' Lidia'' by Arnulf of Orléans *'' Miles gloriosus'' by Arnulf of Orléans *''

Milo Milo may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Milo (magazine), ''Milo'' (magazine), a strength sports magazine * ''Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze'', a 2011 children's novel by Alan Silberberg * Milo (video game), ''Milo'' (video game) * Milo ( ...

'' by Matthew of Vendôme *''

Pamphilus de amore ''Pamphilus de amore'' (or, simply, ''Pamphilus'' or ''Pamfilus'') is a 780-line, 12th-century Latin comedic play, probably composed in France, but possibly Spain.Vincente Cristóbal, "Ovid in Medieval Spain", in ''Ovid in the Middle Ages'', ed. ...

'' *'' Pamphilus, Gliscerium et Birria'' *'' De Paulino et Polla'' by Richard of Venosa *'' Unibos'' *''

Ysengrimus ''Ysengrimus'' is a Latin fabliau and mock epic, containing a series of anthropomorphic fables thought to have been written in 1148 or 1149 CE by the poet Nivardus. Its chief character is Isengrim, the Wolf. The plot describes how the trickster ...

'' by Nivardus

Notes

References

*Elliot, Alison Goddard (1984). ''Seven Medieval Latin Comedies''. Garland Library of Medieval Literature, Series B, Volume 20. New York: Garland Publishing. . *Roy, Bruno (1974). "Arnulf of Orleans and the Latin 'Comedy'." '' Speculum'', 49 2: 258–66.

External links

* {{authority control Medieval drama Medieval Latin literature Comedy Literary genres