The Erotic Language of Carajicomedia

Poetry about sexual themes is abundant in the invectives and obscene poems of the Greek lyricists and Roman authors like Lucilius, Catullus, Horace, Tibullus, Petronius, Martial, Juvenal, Persius, Aulus Gellius and Maximianus. The last three, in particular, were extensively read during the late Spanish Middle Ages and Renaissance (Sanford). In fact, Núñez quotes from Persius's third satire at the beginning of his prologue, alludes to Aulus Gellius as saying that truth is the daughter of time (Las Trezientas 1499, 1), and includes a list of many of his sources at its end. These authors, however, approached sex very differently from the medieval writers from whom Núñez also draws inspiration.

Greek and Roman authors posited two modes of burlesque poetry. One was restrained and associated with the upper class; the other was immoderate and related to popular festivities and to the lower classes. The two types were defined by Cicero (De officiis, I, 104) and were familiar to later authors like Alfonso de Cartagena, who also maintained that laughter came in two modes, “sobervia e maliciosa e suzia” (arrogant, and malicious and dirty) and “fermosa, cortés, e ingeniosa e donosa” (beautiful, courtly, ingenious and witty; Libros de Tulio, 253). Nevertheless, their awareness of these categories did not substantially alter their attitudes towards sex.

Classical satirists attributed abnormal or demeaning sexual practices to men that they wanted to denigrate, stressing their weakness or cuckoldry, and real or imagined physical infirmities. Occasionally, they would also describe women as sluts—whether young or old, married or unmarried. Their main objective, however, was always the same: laughter. Consequently, their slurs, while mordant, were not transcendent. Early Christians, on the other hand, considered sex anathema and seldom alluded to the act itself or personified the sexual organs in their writings, because discussion of the genitals outside of the medical literature was thought to be a preliminary to action and was considered sinful (Karras 1996; Brundage). Churchmen also tended to avoid laughter at all costs, because they believed it gave the Devil access to the souls of men.

When the Dark Ages waned and attitudes toward sexual representation began to change, works that treated sexual themes or personified the sexual organs started to appear in church decorations, medieval badges, the compositions of the Goliards and the early humanists, and in popular feasts.