Roman De Fauvel Satire

Around 1310, Roman de Fauvel, attributed to Gervais de Bus, began circulating through Europe. This extended medieval poem split into two books is full of symbolism and mockery of higher institutions and the government. This story includes a visual satire that is accompanied by beautiful, carefully chosen, polyphonic music. Roman de Fauvel is basically a symbol of everything wrong with France in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The two books can be described as underlyingly anti-establishment and suggest corruption of societal institutions. Roman de Fauvel helps historians make sense of the cynicism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and targets some aspects of the hierarchy of the church and society. The story is political with a key focus indirectly on the king. The contemporary criticism of the church and government must have been seen as refreshing, …show more content…
The audience has to recognize the irony of the characteristics of this story. Fauvel represents the higher level of institution or power; he wears a crown and nice clothes and is worshipped by all of the people around him. People from all around would even come to clean filth off of him when he was dirty. Fauvel is a symbol of trickery, murder, treachery, robbery, perjury, ill faith, heresy, sodomy, and what seems to be every other negative aspect of higher institutions in thirteenth and fourteenth century France. This story of Roman de Fauvel was written to entertain and poke fun at the governing and leading powers of society. Roman de Fauvel is still viewed by historians as entertaining, puzzling, and magnificent. The music for the manuscript was chosen very carefully and is noted to be the “single most important collection” of polyphony in the fourteenth century. This story is still read and found interesting, which is a testament for literature throughout the