THE PROCESSUS TALENTORUM (TOWNELEY XXIV) AND THE CULTURE OF LAUGHTER IN MEDIEVAL ENGLISH DRAMA

Abstract

This article examines the manifestations of macaronic style in medieval religious drama (“The Processus Talentorum”), in particular the comic and satiric effects of that style, the hypostases as an object of ridicule, the new meaning of the designation “dominus dominorum,” etc. Our thesis is that the strict canonical word loses its single-toned quality against a backdrop of medieval laughter and becomes merely one among other languages.