Introduction

Preserved in one manuscript, S, Lecheor is certainly a comic and perhaps a parodic work. It is a lay about a lay, one that is composed by a group of ladies on the occasion of the annual festival of St Pantelion in Brittany. At this festival, knights and ladies traditionally exchanged stories about love and chivalry and the adventure judged to be the finest was turned into a lay. In the year in which the lay is set, the content is different, even shocking. After outlining a whole range of chivalric activities, one of the ladies concludes that they are all accomplished for the sake of just one part of a woman's body: her cunt. She adds that a woman without a cunt would never find a lover. This surprising choice of subject matter is nevertheless supported by the knights present and the lay is preserved and cherished like all the other compositions generated by the festival. The author provides for the work the commonly used title of The Lay of the Lecher (Le Lai du Lecheor, v. 118), hinting that if he (or she?) used the lay's ‘true name’ (‘droit non’, v. 119) he would be rebuked. The true name, Le Lai du Con (The Lay of the Cunt), would of course give the game away from the outset of the narrative and lessen the impact of the poem's content.

Lecheor is unusual in that it does not have a hero or a heroine. The target of the ladies’ observations is knights as a whole, but it is interesting to note that the knights actually present at the festival do not react negatively to the damning conclusion that whatever acts they perform, including deeds of bravery and attendance at tournaments, they have only one thing on their minds: their lady's con. No matter what they may have achieved personally in the last year, they all have no qualms about backing the ladies’ lay and they even contribute towards the composition of the final version. However, the earthy subject matter of the lay is surprising in that the ladies present at the festival appear to be the epitome of courtliness: they are noble, beautiful, well educated, wise and beautifully attired for the occasion.