Go-Betweens: The Old Woman and the Function of Obscenity in the Fabliaux

Abstract

In the fabliau La Housse partie (3.16), a rich old widower gives his son all his money, then finds himself destitute when the son decides to dismiss his father from the household. Faced with expulsion, the old man has no response but to weep and beg his son for a rag to cover himself with. He is only saved when his young grandson, directed to find the old man a horse blanket, divides it and announces his intention to give the other half to his own father, thereby frightening the son into generosity.

The scheming of the old woman in several fabliaux replicates the position of the fableor, who similarly trades sexual knowledge in an information economy.