Bitching about Medieval Literature

In this episode, a particularly long story (3.7) is skimmed, summarised, and bitched at. The protagonist, having been blanked by his lover, disappears for seven years, and comes back to find that he has apparently been recently murdered, and his lover's husband has been convicted of the deed. Rather than clear things up immediately, he takes the opportunity to manipulate everyone involved.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Manipulative behaviour. The protagonist (in disguise) convinces his lover that he is God's representative and spends a long time berating her for abandoning him in the first place, implying that she had no right to end their relationship.

Abuse of justice. A character is accused of murder without strong evidence, and it is strongly implied that the accusation is upheld because the magistrates care more about their reputation than the truth.

Today's stories (3.4 and 3.5) both feature men who managed to arrange liasons with married women under their husbands noses. In the first, the husband is preoccupied by prayer in the next room; in the second, the lover carries on both parts of the conversation himself.

In today's story (3.3), a woman decides she wants to have an affair with a particular gentleman. So she informs his friend, a friar, very specifically of all the things he really shouldn't do to such a respectable lady! (The gentleman gets the hint; the friar doesn't.)

CONTENT WARNING: False accusations of sexual harassment, relying on the fact that the one who is told won't take direct action. 

Day 3 begins with two stories about men who satisfied their desires through deception, and got away with it. In the first (3.1), a labourer pretends to be deaf-mute in order to get hired by a nunnery, and quickly gets co-opted by the nuns to see to more than the garden. In the second (3.2), a groom disguises himself in order to sleep with a queen, and despite the king realising what happened almost immediately afterwards, remains unidentified thanks to his quick wits.

CONTENT WARNINGS: In the first story, dismissive language around the protagonist because he appears to be deaf, mute, and 'simple'. In the second story, a man sleeps with a woman who thinks he is her husband. 

In this story (2.10), a young woman is kidnapped from her old and unsatisfactory husband by a pirate, who proves to be far more satisfactory. Repeatedly, and at considerable length. When her husband arrives and tries to reclaim her, she informs him of that fact. Repeatedly, and at considerable length.

In today's story (2.9), locker room talk turns into a boast, then into a bet, then sneaking into someone's bedroom, stealing their stuff, and accusing them of adultery, which is followed by attempted murder, a secret escape, living in disguise, dramatic revelations, and a gruesome punishment for...ONE of the guys responsible? Unsurprisingly, this is accompanied by a lot of bitching.

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Locker room talk, throughout.

Sexual harrassment: a character sneaks into a woman's room and examines her body while she's sleeping, takes some of her stuff, and uses that to convince people he slept with her.

Domestic violence: a character believes his wife has cheated on him, and so orders a servant to murder her. This becomes widely known and is not punished.

Gore: a character (bad guy, we don't like him) gets executed by being covered in honey and bitten to death by insects. This is described in a fairly gruesome way between 30:30 and 30:50 (after the main character returns home and is celebrated by her community).

REFERENCES:

In this episode, I refer to the 'Visions of Medieval Trans Feminism' issue of the Medieval Feminist Forum journal, which is freely available online at www.ir.uiowa.edu/mff/vol55/iss1 

After skipping story 2.7 (due to intolerable values clash), this episode picks up with story 2.8, a truly Shakespearian plot of deceit, hidden identities, convenient illnesses, and dramatic revelations at the very end. 

In today's story (2.6), a family is split up by war, shipwreck, and piracy, and experiences increasingly implausible adventures in the decade and a half before they are all reunited. 

In our first story (2.4), a failed merchant turns pirate, gets captured by other pirates, gets shipwrecked, and quits the trading life altogether once he makes it home. In our second (2.5), a well-meaning but foolish young man has a hell of a night in Naples, but loses no more than he gains. 

In this episode, in a single story (2.3), we encounter:

There's also an unusually large amount of historical commentary, on the investiture controversy, interest rates, and a rising class consciousness that created the Renaissance.