Staging disorder: charivari in the N-Town Cycle

Comparative Drama, Summer, 2001 by Richard I. Moll

The ridicule of these accusers stresses the difference between the ages of Mary and Joseph, and thus echoes the stories of January-May marriages, a popular subject of fabliaux. The Bairds have noted the importance of this element of fabliau within the play "Joseph's Doubt" but Joseph himself fears the effects of such a marriage even before his betrothal: "An old man may nevyr thryff / With a zonge wyff, so God me saue" (10.278-79). The N-Town Joseph is unique in fearing for his marriage even before he is married.

In the play "Joseph's Doubt," the portrayal of the foolish old man is completed by Joseph's discovery of a pregnant wife, as he assumes, not unnaturally, that Mary has been unfaithful. His response to the situation firmly establishes a link between his age and Mary's pregnancy as he laments the harm to his own reputation more than his wife's supposed promiscuity. He does this in a direct address to the audience:

   Za, za, all olde men to me take tent,
   And weddyth no wyff in no kynnys wyse
   Pat is a zonge wench, be myn asent,
   For doute and drede and swych servyse.
   Alas, alas, my name is shent!
   All men may me now dyspyse
   And seyn, `Olde cokwold, pi bowe is bent
   Newly now aftyr pe Frensche gyse.' (12.49-56)

Rosemary Woolf argues that, while the fabliau motif is used, "the fabliau world exists only in Joseph's imagination, while Mary still lives in the spotless and serene world of the Annunciation." (8) But the fabliau world does exist beyond Joseph's own fears in the many detractors and accusers who defame the couple throughout the plays. In "The Trial of Mary and Joseph" the first Detractor appeals to the logic of fabliau and states:

   A zonge man may do more chere in bedde
   To a zonge wench pan may an olde.
   Pat is pe cawse such lawe is ledde,
   Pat many a man is a kokewolde. (14.102-05)

And the crude words of the Summoner hardly allow Mary to avoid contact with the `fabliau world':

   Fayre mayde, pat tale ze kan best telle.
   Now be zoure trowth, telle zoure entent:
   Dede not pe archere plese zow ryght well? (14.167-69)

The Detractors even appeal to the literature of fabliau to attack Mary as they suggest that her pregnancy might have been caused by a snowflake (14.306-13). This accusation recalls the popular legend of the snow-child, which first appears in Latin poetry and is retold in French fabliaux. (9) Although fabliau does inform much of the tone of the plays that deal with the life of the holy family, (10) its primary function in the text is to demonstrate social outrage at the pregnancy of Mary. Though basically a comedic form, the fabliaux treated subjects that were generally frowned upon by society as a whole. The social nature of Mary's presumed transgression is emphasized as Joseph laments, "my name is shent! / All men may me now dyspyse" and the Detractors take inordinate delight at the discovery of some juicy gossip to spread (14.67-73).

The exact nature of Mary's presumed sin is unclear, however, and the Detractors can think of two reasons why Mary might be pregnant. The second Detractor blames Joseph: