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Elegiac comedy was agenre ofmedieval Latinliterature—ordrama—represented by about twenty texts written in the 12th and 13th centuries in the liberal arts schools of west central France (roughly theLoire Valley). Though commonly identified inmanuscripts ascomoedia, modern scholars often reject their status ascomedy. UnlikeClassical comedy, they were written inelegiac couplets. Denying their true comedic nature,Edmond Faral called themLatinfabliaux, after the laterOld Frenchfabliaux, andIan Thomson labelled themLatin comic tales. Other scholars have invented terms likeverse tales,rhymed monologues,epic comedies, andHoratian comedies to describe them.[1] The Latin "comedies", the dramatic nature of which varies greatly, may have been the direct ancestors of thefabliaux but more likely merely share similarities. Other interpretations have concluded that they are primitiveromances, studentjuvenilia, didactic poems, or merely collections of elegies on related themes.
Some elegiac comedies were adapted intovernacular language in the later Middle Ages, and retold by major vernacular writers such asBoccaccio,Chaucer, andGower. The poemPamphilus hasVenetian andOld French versions.
These comedies were composed in a high style, but they were typically about low or unimportant subject matter;lyric complaints only sometimes mixed with amorous content. They combined the plot and character types of theGreek "new comedy" practised byTerence andPlautus, but the greatest influence on them wasOvid. HisArs amatoria,Amores, andHeroides were highly influential.Plautus, though less widely read in the Middle Ages, was also an influence, as were theScholastic debates concerning the nature ofuniversals 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 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 itssatiric 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.
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 arerhetorical 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.
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