What was humor like in the Middle Ages? Humor and laughter are exclusively human phenomena and are part of all times and cultures. What did people laugh at in medieval times? Is it true that laughter and entertainment were poorly considered?
Characteristics of humor in the Middle Ages
The dark image we have of the Middle Ages surely makes us think that in medieval times humor barely existed. However, this is one of the many, many topics that populate the collective imagination about this historical period, which It was not as dark or as sad as it has been portrayed to us throughout the centuries
Let’s see, then, what humor was like in the Middle Ages and what conception people had about it.
Monasteries and the “monks’ laughter”
In the Middle Ages, laughter was frowned upon. In general, humor and laughter are seen by the fathers of the Church as a fall In fact, laughter is, along with laziness, one of the great enemies of the Christian, especially the monk. The explanation is very simple: the most appreciated monastic value is silence; Silence is meditation, prudence, faith, reflection. Therefore, bursts of laughter represent a very serious violation, and transform silence into an orgy of noise.
But be careful, because, as always, and especially in the Middle Ages (that time so full of contradictions), things are not black and white. While it is true that humor had no place within the monastic walls, that did not mean that the religious people stopped laughing: famous are the joca monacorum, or “monks’ laughter”, a series of jokes that religious people used to show off and that, ultimately, served to free themselves from repression.
Not only that; During the first medieval centuries, a clear distinction was made between exalted and noisy laughter (which breaks the silence) and quiet, contained laughter. This was the only laughter that was allowed to the monks; although, definitely, we can think that, in the privacy of their cells or in the groups of the cloister, each one did what he wanted (or could). After all, monks were human beings too.
The gradual revaluation of humor and laughter in medieval times
As the Middle Ages progressed and a new order took shape (the rebirth of cities, the consolidation of the bourgeoisie, the rise of commerce), scholars’ opinion of humor and laughter improved. So, The theologian Hugues de Saint Victor, already in the 12th century, distinguished between joy (gaudiumin Latin) and laughter (the risus Latin) According to this thinker, although the first can be good or bad, depending on the intentions, laughter is always bad and, therefore, should be condemned. As we see, the idea of the evil of laughter continues to prevail, but, at least, joy or inner exaltation is recognized as something positive.
For his part, Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, goes further and maintains that monks have the right to moments of relaxation, in which humor counts. And already in the 13th century, Saint Thomas Aquinas distinguishes between a good disposition for joy, which he considers a virtue, and excess of humor
Thus, we see that, in the Middle Ages, the intellectuals were not against humor and laughter, but rather their excess, which distanced Christians from virtue.
And Christ, did he ever laugh?
One of the most heated debates that took place in the Middle Ages (and that lasted for centuries) was the following: Had Christ ever laughed during his time on earth?
Now it may seem like an absurd question to us, but for the medieval mentality it was of utmost importance. Because if Christ, who enjoyed divine and human nature at the same time (and who, therefore, possessed all the capacities of the human being), had never laughed, this meant that laughter was completely foreign to Christian behavior. And he also wanted to say, of course, that the good Christian did not need to laugh at all.
Pierre le Chantre, a 12th century Parisian theologian, affirms that Christ, when incarnated and became man, must have had the faculty of laughing, the famous giggles. The question, according to this author, was not whether or not Christ could laugh, but whether he decided to do so And since, in any case, in the Gospels it is never mentioned that Christ laughed, the discussion was afoot.
Cultured medieval humor that challenges the norm
Up to this point, we have given an image of the Middle Ages as a time not prone to humor and laughter. But let us remember that this was the theory, what theologians and intellectuals proclaimed. In practice, we found a very different reality, and even many intellectuals joined the bandwagon of irreverence
The sacred parodies
Yes, there were mockery of religion. Yes, in the Middle Ages. Parodies or satires are relatively abundant in the Middle Ages, and a good example of them is the Coena Ciprianithat is, the “Cyprian Supper” written by Rábano Mauro in the 9th century, in the middle of the Carolingian era.
What does Cyprian’s Supper tell us? The text is a parody of a multitude of characters from the Bible. An Eastern king offers a wedding banquet, to which biblical characters as diverse as Eve, Abel, Abraham, Moses, the Virgin Mary, or even Jesus Christ himself are invited! The work, with a humorous and irreverent tone, tells how the dinner unfolds, in the middle of which a robbery is discovered. The king arrests the thief (Acar, son of Carmi), and orders him to be executed.
medieval satire
A good and well-known example of medieval satire is the Carmina Burana wonderful satirical songs found in the Benediktbeuern monastery, Germany.
The place, known as Bura in medieval Latin, is the one that gives its name to the songs: Carmina Burana, “Songs of Bura”. These poems contain a fierce satire of the powerful classes, including the clergy; They are the songs of the goliards, the disrespectful university students of medieval times, who toured taverns and brothels with their jokes and mischief. This type of songs were very common in the Middle Ages; Again, we see that the cliché of the sad and dark Middle Ages is just that, just a cliché.
The chivalric parody
Already in the Middle Ages, the crucible of that world of knights and ladies that has left us so much literature, the first parodies of chivalric books appear. No, Don Quixote was not the first book critical of this type of stories. In medieval times, parodies circulated that mocked the ideal of a knight and everything that this implied, although, yes, its criticism is not as evident as that of Cervantes’ magnum opus.
Let us remember that, in secular “serious” literature, chivalric novels were in fashion. The young people devoured them, and dreamed of one day resembling Perceval or Lancelot. Well, works like The Mule Without a Bridle and Aucassin and Nicolette, despite preserving the typical scheme of Courtly Love, so in vogue at the time, do not hesitate to use a comic and irreverent tone, which shows us that the Middle Ages She was perfectly capable of laughing at herself and her values.
The humor of the people in the Middle Ages
These are the characteristics of humor in the Middle Ages among the members of the common people.
Grotesque jokes and blasphemies
According to Mikhail Bakhtin, medieval popular culture is comic and grotesque Indeed; In the lower stratum of society in the Middle Ages, crude jokes, crude jokes and even blasphemies abound. It is what this same author calls “gross realism”, a type of humor that connects with the lowest part of the human being, understood as the belly, the anus, the genitals. Thus, the people’s jokes are related to this earthly world that, of course, the Church and intellectuals find so little fun.
In practice, and despite the prevailing religiosity, it was not unusual to see students and artisans uttering blasphemies in taverns and markets, blasphemies that people received with a chorus of loud laughter. Obviously, jokes related to sex, food, and basic bodily needs (such as urinating and defecating) were the order of the day. In this way, the medieval people stayed outside the corset that imprisoned “those above,” and followed their own drive for love and life.
The Feast of the Fools
This peculiar celebration was celebrated every January 1st, coinciding with the commemoration of the circumcision of Jesus, and was a real disruption of the social order. During the Feast of Fools, the fool was crowned, the coward was applauded, and the intellectual and the priest were denigrated Because yes, in this type of medieval celebrations, the clergy did not fare well either. It is known that parodies of masses and religious acts were carried out, where laughter was general.
Like Carnival, the Festival of Fools draws from the ancient Roman Saturnalia, where slaves took center stage and their masters served them. All these expressions have in common a disruption of order, of society, the arrival of a joyful and festive chaos that freed people from their obligations and their daily repressions.
This, evidently, casts a different image of the “sad and dark Middle Ages.” The Festival of Fools, despite not being liked by all areas of the Church, It had astonishing permissiveness for centuries, until its definitive suppression… in the 16th century, with the Trent reform. That is, when we had already fully entered the Modern Era.
The carnival
This is one of the best-known medieval festivals; in part, because it survives to this day, although its meaning has completely changed. Because what are now simply costumes and parades, in the Middle Ages was a real whirlwind of irreverence.
The basis of Carnival is humor, laughter Carnival is, like the Festival of Fools, a temporary suppression of official order, a time for liberation and joy. One of the most probable etymologies of Carnival is carnem levare, that is, to deprive oneself of meat, a clear reference to Lent. Therefore, Carnival, at its core, is a mockery of this religious imposition.
We hope that this article helps you see that the Middle Ages was not as sad a time as has been said, and that humor was very present; especially among the popular classes.