Laughter and women: motifs of female humour in the Palmerín cycle

Abstract

In the study of comic elements in romances of chivalry, this work explores female humor through the identification of comic motifs related to ugliness and beauty that come from female characters of the Palmerín cycle. Therefore, the corpus that is considered includes the Spanish romances (Palmerín de Olivia, 1511; Primaleón, 1512; Platir, 1533), as well as their Italian translations (published in 1544, 1548 and 1548 respectively), composed by Mambrino Roseo da Fabriano, and the Italian sequels by the same author (Il secondo book of Palmerino d’Oliva, 1560; La quarta parte di Primaleone, 1560; La seconda parte di Platir, 1560; Flortir, 1554; Il secondo book di Flortir, 1560). By the analysis of these motives, we aim to highlight possible differences between female humor in the Spanish and in the Italian romances, in order to examine the representation of female characters in the two traditions.