Jean Bodel Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Grace Frank

Critical Essay by Grace Frank

SOURCE: "Wine Reckonings in Bodel's Jeu de Saint Nicolas," in Modern Language Notes, Vol. L, No. 1, January, 1935, pp. 9-13.

In the following essay, Frank considers the humor and trickery in the tavern scenes from Jeu de Saint Nicolas.

Schulze, Guesnon and Jeanroy have all tried to solve the reckonings of the tavern-keeper in the Jeu de S. Nicolas, but with results none too satisfactory even to themselves.¹ As Jeanroy says, these accounts are "volontairement boîteux, et c'est en cela précisément que doit consister le comique de la scène." If we are to share in this fun, however, it seems worth while attempting to discover just wherein these accounts do limp. Moreover, it appears from looking into them that Bodel is not only satirizing the mathematics of publicans, as Jeanroy suggests, but is also playing upon the Pathelinian theme of the cheater cheated, or, he robs best who robs...
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