Gautier Le Leu's Du C[on], an Old French Fabliau of the Thirteenth Century

This article provides a background to Gautier le Leu himself and to his poem Du C[ on] (About the Cunt), the most acclaimed of the ten fabliaux attributed to him. The text of Du C[ on] is provided here, together with my annotated translation of it, the first translation of the poem into another language. Gautier was probably affiliated with a Benedictine community in northern France or Belgium, but either left or was dismissed. Du C[on], written probably in the 1240s, reflects Gautier's disillusionment with the Church and disenchantment with celibacy. Most of Du C[on] is a paean to the con as the source of all good things, but the poem shows an enduring ambivalence towards sexuality that Gautier may never have resolved.