We live in big cities, in concrete blocks, not knowing who lives next to or opposite. O holiday of privacy! It wasn't like that before. On one street, everyone knew everyone, and what was happening within the four walls was a public matter and nothing escaped the public's attention. What about household dirt? Well - they were washed in public, sometimes ... on a donkey.
The title donkey unfortunately fell victim to stereotypes. This biblical one was humble, hard-working, and one would like to say "meek and humble, animal heart." Our contemporary is as stubborn as ... a donkey, wayward or as stupid as a dead donkey. In addition, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the poor man became a synonym of licentiousness. Faced with such nasty cultural connotations, he had no choice but to participate in mocking rituals. However, he was not their main character.
The ideal family model in the 15th-18th centuries is a husband, wife and children. She obeys him, he is wise and hardworking. They are both faithful to each other, not embarrassing each other. They settle all matters behind the door of the house, they resolve every dispute there. All right. We already know the ideal, but what was the practice like?
In private life with shoes
The public opinion of a small town, village, district or one of the streets of the city pressed into the lives of the spouses with their shoes, and it was she who decided what was right and what was not. Moreover, there were excellent, customary methods of seating wayward members of the community or "straightening out" their family relationships. It was enough for the marital quarrel to go beyond the house or the neighbors realized that the traditional head of the family was sitting humbly under the slipper of his neck, and the frolics began.
Now let's move to Provence - a land associated more with the image of endless lavender fields and sun-lit vines, bending under the weight of ripe grapes, rather than with home quarrels. And yet! The ubiquitous idyll did not always prevail there.
It must have been Herod's baba!
In 1762 a certain Mr. Raymond de Blasy, who marked textiles in a French town, looked for refreshment in a ham where he wanted to play a game of cards. He sat down quietly at the table and took up this pleasant pastime with his friends. Then his lovely spouse showed up. She wanted to quietly distract her wedding from the game. She even made up a neat excuse - Raymond was needed very urgently because someone wanted to talk to him. The husband saw the trick, because he did not think to leave his companions and calmly intended to continue playing. Madame Blasy went berserk. She began to tear cards at everyone in the bar, then grabbed her husband and dragged him home.
Idyllic Provencal town. Well, maybe not such idyllic for everyone…
Unfortunately for the poor, battered gambler, this was not the end of the humiliation. Witnesses of the incident in the tavern threatened that for his passivity towards his wife, they would "transport him on a donkey". And they kept their word. Two days later, the official proclaimer solemnly announced that next Sunday, the donkey would be put to run through de Maugoubert Abbey and that anyone wishing to attend and watch the show was invited (quoted after:"The history of private life. From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment", edited by Roger Chartier).
Parade, parade, (almost) fun for everyone…
On Sunday, Raymond de Blasa was unceremoniously ridiculed. A parade has begun in the town. A group of boys carrying two drums opened it. Behind them rode two-wheels, and on it singers, full-throated reciting accusations against the unfortunate. Behind the cart were a donkey and a horse, carrying two actors. There was a figure on the donkey to symbolize Raymond. On the other hand, the actor who played the role of his wife was riding:a man dressed in a woman's robes, holding a distaff in view.
At one point, "Madame Blasy", pulling his hair, throws the second actor off his donkey and starts hitting him with the distaff. After a while, the parade participants play another picture - a memorable batch of cards in a ham, this time on a donkey's back. Then the tireless "wife" enters, tears the cards and starts the distaff fencing again.
Well… an unenviable fate. On the other hand, this farce had some ritual significance. Faithless wives, cuckolds, slippers and even widowers or widows, wishing to get married again, were put on the donkey. All of this is for stigmatization and the expression of non-acceptance by the community. All participants of the rite-parade had a good time. Well, maybe apart from ... the prisoner.
Source:
- History of private life. From Renaissance to Enlightenment , edited by Roger Chartier, Ossolineum, Wrocław 1999.