"Berenger Au Long Cul" and the Pastourelle‪.‬

SCHOLARS have long recognized the role of parody in the MS D version of the fabliau "Berenger au long cul." Specifically, Roy J. Pearcy has suggested allusions to the epic cycle of Guillaume d'Orange and to the Estoire de Merlin for parts of the text, (1) while Keith Busby has instead posited a direct relation of parody between the first half of the fabliau and three of Chretien de Troyes's romances: Erec et Enide, Yvain, and the Conte du Graal. (2) None of these models fully addresses the central episode of the tale, that of the encounter between husband and wife in the forest which results in the "baiser honteux." To this list of sources for parody I would add another for the central episode of "Berenger au long cul": the pastourelle. While the MS D version of "Berenger" owes much of its humor to parodies of epic poetry and romance, the structural model of the pastourelle supplies the impetus for the inversions of gender, social rank, and the sexual encounter present in this version, and to a lesser degree in the other two manuscript versions. I do not mean to imply that the pastourelle replaces courtly or heroic models as the only source for "Berenger au long cul," but rather that it coexists with these other parodies. The episode which results in the "baiser honteux" depends for its humor on epic, romance, and pastourelle elements.