The Court Jester

In Freire Denise le cordelier , Rutebeuf offers a poetic takedown of every dude who uses God to get laid. A teenage girl dreams of holy life; a Franciscan friar sees an opportunity. Disguised as “Brother Denise,” she enters the monastery—and his bed—until a sharp noblewoman spots the girl under the tonsure. A darkly comic tale of religious abuse, drag, and divine retribution, this is one of the me...

In Le sentier batu , Jean de Condé tells the story of a knight who gets roasted at a party by the woman he once hoped to marry—and absolutely cooks her back. A lesson in why public shame is a blade that cuts both ways—and why some roads are better left untraveled. 📜 Text: Translation by Nathaniel E. Dubin 🎵 Title music: “Celebration” by Alexander Nakarada 📲 Updates & mischief: @kpethainou.b...

When a well-dressed knight visits his lover while her husband is at court, all goes to plan—until the husband unexpectedly returns. What follows is a spiraling comedy of cover-ups, in which the lady spins a web of lies so convincing she not only protects her secret lover but manages to convince her husband that he’s possessed, demented, and in need of a religious pilgrimage. In Le chevalier à la r...

In Berangier au lonc cul , Guérin (the creative mastermind behind this amazing story) delivers a humiliating farce about one man's lie, one woman’s vengeance, and one monumental butt. This knight might wear armour, but his guts are all gone—literally scared into kissing what he thought was a man’s “long butthole.” That’s right: the title is not a metaphor. 📜 Text: Translation by Nathaniel E. Dubi...

When a miserly hunchback marries far above his station, his obsession with control meets its match in his wife's quick wits and a sturdy bed with three drawers. In Les iii boçus , bodies pile up, a porter loses his mind, and a husband learns (posthumously) that money can’t buy loyalty. One of the fabliaux’s tightest murder farces, this is slapstick with a corpse count. 📜 Text: Translation by Nath...

In L’evesque qui beneï le con , the bishop of Bayeux learns the hard way that abusing power for sex can blow up in your face—especially when the woman’s husband is hiding behind the bed, waiting to say Amen.  God sees everything, and so does the guy behind the curtain. 📜 Text: Translation by Nathaniel E. Dubin 🎵 Title music: “Celebration” by Alexander Nakarada 📲 Updates & mischief: @kp...

When God made the world, He gave jobs to knights, peasants, and priests—and forgot the whores and the entertainers. So they complained. The result? Harlots got Church patronage, jugglers got tossed some bones, and the moral order of the universe got pantsed in public. Jean de Condé’s Des putains et des lecheors is divine bureaucracy at its pettiest. 📜 Text: Translation by Nathaniel E. Dubin 🎵 Ti...

A master woodcarver leaves his wife alone for one afternoon, and she decides it’s open season for clergy. Unfortunately for the priest, her husband’s home early and his hands are very good with a blade. Le Prestre crucefié (The Crurcified Priest) is a righteous tale of cuckold rage, divine justice, and testicles left at the foot of the cross. 📜 Text: Translation by Nathaniel E. Dubin 🎵 Title mus...

God made man from dust, woman from bone—and then promptly forgot a key anatomical detail. Luckily, the Devil had a spade, a fart, and a very strange sense of customer service. Du con qui fu fait a la besche explains why women talk so much and why you should always check who's handling the divine blueprints. 📜 Text: Translation by Nathaniel E. Dubin 🎵 Title music: “Celebration” by Alexander Nakar...

When a sheltered young lady learns the forbidden word for a man's genitals, things quickly get nutty. Robin, a strapping lad with a wild imagination and an even wilder metaphor, offers her a lesson in squirrel-taming that starts with mischief and ends in a mess. L' Escuirue l is a fabliau of slippery language and more slippery morals, where talking about sex is dangerous—but doing it is absolutely...

Warning: Wearing strange jewellery found by a river may lead to catastrophic boners. Ask your medieval doctor if this fabliau is right for you. I give you L’anel qui faisoit les viz grans et roides (The ring that controlled erections), by Haiseau. 📜 Text: Translation by Nathaniel E. Dubin 🎵 Title music: “Celebration” by Alexander Nakarada 📲 Updates & mischief: @kpethainou.bsky.social | @the...

Hosted by Kleio Pethainou, the Court Jester brings you saucy stories from the Middle Ages. Join Kleio on twitter @kpethainou, and talk about each week’s story.  Become a patron and get bonus episodes, additional material and other perks at patreon.com/CourtJesterPodcast . Or you throw some coins to your jester at ko-fi.com/thecourtjesterpodcast . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mor...