SOURCE: “The Sacred and the Profane in Aucassin et Nicolette,” in Homenaje a Robert A. Hall, Jr., edited by David Feldman, Playor, S. A., 1977, pp. 117-31.

In the following essay, Dorfman asserts that the contradictions, inversions, and absurdities in Aucassin et Nicolette, including examples of profanity, all serve to disguise an even greater inversion: the transformation of the passive Aucassin into the “active deliverer of his people.” Elements in the poem, explains Dorfman, parallel the Hebrew Bible, and such allusions point to Aucassin as the coming Messiah.

The Lord is a gracefully hovering Presence in Aucassin et Nicolette¹, mentioned more than forty times in as many pages of text, where he is usually called upon respectfully² to observe, support, or intecede in the affairs of the protagonists. On three occasions, however, there is recourse to profanity; the shepherds of Beaucaire, who have been paid by Nicolette to transmit...