Free Republic

A Cambridge University scholar was examining medieval manuscripts in the hushed rooms of the National Library of Scotland when he found himself laughing out loud. What he'd found were some jokes written down in the 15th century by a priest and scribe who had heard them during a live performance. Host Marco Werman speaks with James Wade, the scholar who discovered them, who is a medieval literature professor at Girton College at the University of Cambridge in England.

An unprecedented record of medieval live comedy performance has been identified in a 15th-century manuscript. Raucous texts—mocking kings, priests and peasants; encouraging audiences to get drunk; and shocking them with slapstick—shed new light on Britain's famous sense of humor and the role played by minstrels in medieval society.The texts contain the earliest recorded use of "red herring" in English, extremely rare forms of medieval literature, as well as a killer rabbit worthy of Monty Python. The discovery changes the way we should think about English comic culture between Chaucer and Shakespeare.Throughout the Middle Ages, minstrels traveled between fairs, taverns and...