[In the essay below, Wilkins argues for a reinterpretation of the tavern scenes in Jeu de Saint Nicolas.]

It might well be imagined that by now the topic of Bodel's tavern reckonings had been completely exhausted; as L. Foulet wrote in 1944-45¹: "On a tourné et retourné ces comptes plus d'une fois sans parvenir à y voir très clair. Sont-ils "volontairement boiteux" (Jeanroy), ou y a-t-il quelque chose qui nous échappe dans ces "additions" si souvent reprises et si souvent contestées?" However, despite the discussions by Foulet and Foulon in Romania LXVIII², Foulon's critical study of 1958³ and the editions of Warne (1951)⁴ and Henry (1962)⁵, a completely satisfactory explanation of these reckonings is still lacking. It has perhaps not always been remembered that they form part of a play, a dramatic performance, put on before a bourgeois if not rustic audience. The original spectators had no opportunity for long scrutiny and complex calculation; the money matters which have occupied so much of the time of modern scholarship passed by in a matter of minutes before their eyes and yet we cannot doubt that their significance was well appreciated.

The tavern reckonings are far more than a touch of local colour, of course, informative as they are concerning Arras tavern life. They constitute a positive sub-plot in themselves, running for a considerable length within the play, skilfilly interwoven with the equally perfect threads of the dice games, the brawls, the Saint Nicolas legend and the crusading themes. This sub-plot of the tavern bills has long been recognized as one of the main sources of humour in the play, but in what exactly does the humour of the situation taken as a whole consist? It is certainly untrue that the Taverner's accounts are "volontairement boiteux". Although the Taverner never neglects his own interests and loses few chances of making profit, his reckonings, and those of Caignet also, are consistently accurate; they could hardly be otherwise, for thieves as sharp as Clikés, Pincedés and Rasoirs, no matter what the state of their inebriation, would hardly be likely to be caught out over money matters. Contemporary difficulties of coinage, brought out by the argument between the Taverner and Auberon over the impossibility of splitting a maille, are merely a source of incidental humour subsidiary to the main thread. Thus it cannot really be said that "Bodel is … satirizing the mathematics of publicans" or exactly "playing upon the Pathelinian theme of the cheater cheated"⁶. The humour of the situation is of a rather more subtle kind, though, through Bodel's masterly control, it is nonetheless clear and obvious to the audience.

One of Auberon's first questions to the Taverner is "How much does it cost?" when he is invited to drink some Auxerre wine. The answer is (25 8)⁷: "Au ban de le vile", that is "at the official town price" or "at the tariff of the town". He orders a pinte (262) and drinks it standing. He again asks the price (272) and the Taverner's answer is (274-277):

Paie denier et a l'autre eure
Aras le pinte pour maaille;
C'est a douze deniers sans faille:
Paie un denier ou boi encore.

(Pay one denier (now) and another time
You shall have a pinte for one maille;
Twelve deniers is its price, no mistake:
Pay a denier or drink again).

In other words, two pintes will cost a denier plus a maille, or 1½ deniers, since two mailles make one denier. The price of one pinte is therefore ¾ denier. No coin being available for the quarter denier (parti), the host wants to make sure of not losing on the deal, as he would if Auberon only gave him the maille. On the other hand, if Auberon gave a denier, he would have overpaid by ¼ denier. It is this predicament which gives rise to the ensuing argument, the first dice game between Auberon and Clikés and the transference of the ¾ denier debt to Clikés (308) for the rest of the play. When the Taverner says that his wine is "a douze deniers", he must mean that a standard measure of four lots or 16 pintes (since one lot contains four pintes) would cost twelve deniers, as indeed it would at the rate of ¾ denier per pinte.

In lines 672-3 Clikés says:

Bevons un denier, toute voie.
Saque nous demi lot, Caignet!

(Let's drink a denier's worth anyway.
Draw us half a lot, Caignet!)

Here the sly Clikés is hoping to receive a demi-lot, or two pintes (one each for himself and Pincedés) for the price of one denier—i.e. he hopes to get a pinte for the 'reduced price' of one maille instead of the correct ¾ denier. His hopes are dashed by the Taverner, though, when Caignet has appealed to him for an up-to-date total for Clikés' debts before he begins again, who tells him that he owes for one whole lot (presumably Clikes drank four pintes while he was seated in the tavern throughout the whole of the duration of the battle!) and for this charges him the proper price of 3 deniers, as can be seen from the addition contained in lines 676-679:

Cliquet, tu devoies un lot… 3 d

Et puis un denier de ton gieu.… 1 d

Et trois partis pour le courlieu … ¾ d

Che sont cinc deniers, poi s'en faut.…5 d (4¾ d)

Again, the Taverner is careful not to lose on the ¼ denier. Caignet meanwhile can be paying little attention for, as we shall see, this original 5d debt, calculated by the Taverner, later slips his memory.

Pincedés orders a candle (690), for which the charge (693) is V/2d, making 2d with the ½d price of the wine already ordered by Clikés (673). Rasoirs enters, on top of the world; he is invited to drink and Clikés tells him he is lucky (725-7), for they are still on the first round and he will soon be able to catch them up. "I wouldn't mind if ten rounds had been consumed", replies the crafty Rasoirs (728-733), "I wouldn't avoid paying your bill—is it time to pay up? Caignet, draw a whole lot. God willing, you shall be repaid". The reckoning (748-749) is presented, of course, by Caignet the pot-boy, not by Rasoirs as printed by Warne in error.

Tenés Cliquet! Cinc denier sont,

Trois de chest vin et devant deus…

3d (for the lot just ordered by Rasoirs (732))

2d (for the demi-lot (673) and the candle (693) - 1½d plus ½d)

5d

At this stage, then, no money has changed hands but two separate bills, each for a total of 5d, have been presented, one by the Taverner himself and one by the pot-boy, Caignet. It can surely be no coincidence that each bill happens to come to the same total: the simplicity of the plan is admirable—10 deniers is the real total owing to the establishment. The Taverner, however, is unaware of the 5d totalled by Caignet; Caignet is unaware or forgetful of the 5d totalled by Caignet. The plot thickens.

Money matters next occur in lines 806-7. Clikés wishes to borrow from the Taverner in order to have stakes with which to play at dice.

Biaus ostes, preste me une onzainne,
Si devrai dis et set par tout.

He asks for a loan of 11 deniers; the standard practice would be to charge Id commission on the loan. Clikés would then owe:

12d (11d loan plus Id commission)

5d (for wine he already owes as totalled previously by the Taverner)

17d

The Taverner objects: Clikés has added up wrongly—he adds up what he knows is owing (808-814):

The first lot drunk by Clikés… 3d

The charge for the dice game with Auberon 1d

Auberon's transferred wine debt… ¾d

5d

(4¾d)

"Exactly", says Clikés, out to take advantage of the Taverner's ignorance of the second 5d debt incurred when Caignet did the serving, "5d plus 11d loan (plus 1d commission) makes 17d, isn't that fair reckoning?" Unfortunately at this moment Pincedés, befuddled with Auxerre wine, commits a faux-pas (824-7):

Ostes, ostes, nous savons el,
En autre lievre gist li bus.
Nous avommes cinc deniers bus,
Faisons les, tout avant, a des.

(Host, we know something else,
The bush lies in another hare.
We have (just) drunk Sd worth,
Let's play dice to see who is to pay for them).

Nevertheless, with much grumbling, the Taverner makes the loan, so that at this stage the real debts outstanding are 5d for the first debt (reckoned by the Taverner), 5d for the second debt (reckoned by Caignet) and 12d for the loan (ll d plus ld commission), a total of 22d in all.

When the treasure is brought into the tavern, the host expects to more than make good his losses. He moves to take a handful of the glittering gold besants:

(1070-1071) Segneur, or doi jou apongnier
          Mais mout bien nous en convenra.

          (Sirs, now I must take a handful,
          We shall easily come to terms).

But he is prevented—"Wait for the share-out" says Clikés (1072). The thieves begin to gamble with the treasure in earnest; Clikés magnanimously promises Caignet a denier from each of them if luck prevails (1100-1101). The simple pot-boy blurts out⁸:

(1102-1103) But will each of you give me
          One of those deniers which are
           red?
          (red pennies, i. e. the golden
           besants).

Have you ever heard the like of
 this ninny,
Will he never stop?

asks Pincedés (1104-5)

Avés oï de chele augouche?
Fineroit il ore ja mais?

The host gives instructions (1106-7):

Caignet, lais les jouer en pais:
Plus atenc jou en eus de bien.

(Caignet, let them play in peace:
I expect better things from them).

After settling the gaming brawl the Taverner again attempts to get his share of the treasure (1180-81):

Or en prengne se part chascuns …
Que doit que vous tant atendés?

(Now let each of us take his share …
Why are you waiting so long?)

Rasoirs puts him off this time, insisting that they should first get some sleep (1185-6):

Bien partirommres conmme ami,
Mas nous arons anchois dormi.

The final reckoning comes in lines 1328-9:

     Dis et set:
Cinc du yin et douze du prest.

This time, however, it is made by Caignet, who remembers the 5d from the account he totted up (748-9) and also the 12d for the loan, but forgets the original 5d reckoned by the Taverner. He asks for 17d only and Clikés plays again on the lack of liaison between the Taverner and his potboy, who have both seen a 5d debt incurred for separate items but apparently forget the details of each other's reckonings. 22d is still the real amount outstanding.

Nevertheless, despite all this, Pincedés and Rasoirs slip out of the tavern unnoticed (1330) and Clikés, still having no money, has to leave his cape as a pledge. "You have no equal from here to Damme for giving short measure and making faulty reckonings", he blusters (1336-7). So, in the end, the Taverner receives no deniers at all for all his pains—poetic justice perhaps!

Opinions have differed concerning these transactions; for my part I cannot agree that the Taverer, figure of duplicity though he may be, cooks his accounts. It is the mathematics of Jeanroy and Grace Frank that have been rigged. The humour lies in the way in which Clikés plays the Taverner off against Caignet Apart from the loss of his cape (which he will no doubt replace before long, perhaps at the expense of the mayor of Fresne) he is no worse off financially and certainly better off in his experience of wine-drinking!

Notes

¹ L. Foulet, Les scènes de taverne dans le Jeu de Saint Nicolas, in Romania, Vol. LXVIII (1944-45), pp. 422-438.

² L. Foulet op. cit., & Ch. Foulon, Les comptes du tavernier dans le Jeu de Saint Nicolas, in Romania, Vol. LXVIII (1944-45), pp. 438-443.

³ Ch. Foulon, L'oeuvre de Jehan Bodel, Paris 1958.

⁴ F. J. Warne, Le Jeu de Saint Nicolas, Oxford 1951.

⁵ A. Henry, Le "Jeu de Saint Nicolas" de Jehan Bodel, Bruxelles-Paris 1962.

⁶ Grace Frank, Wine reckonings in Bodel's Jeu de Saint Nicolas, in Modern Language Notes, Vol. L (1935), p. 9. Cf. also C. E. Cousins, Tavern bills in the Jeu de Saint Nicolas, in ZRPh LVI (1936), pp. 85-93.

⁷ Line Nos. refer to Warne's edition.

⁸ Caignet attempts to take money from the thieves on other occasions and it is not really clear from the text whether he succeeds or not; the comedy would be enhanced if his attempts were each time frustrated. At all events, the money involved does not enter into the main thread of the wine reckonings sub-plot which remains unchanged whether or not the pot-boy succeeds in making a little extra behind his master's back.

In lines 886-9 Caignet picks up a coin from the gaming-table, claiming it as payment for the extra candle he provided (at his own instigation!) in lines 876-7:

Alumera on vous pour nient?
Chis est miens, comment qu'il en kieche;
Mais on ne m'i hucast a pieche:
Dehés ait atrais de tel gent!

Preumably, Clikés forces him to put it down again (890-91):

Caignés, metés jus no argent,
Tant que nous l'otrions nous troi.

In line 944 Caignet repeats his bid to seize coins from the table:

Toutes eures sont cist doi mien;

and, again, we may well imagine that his move is frustrated by the restraining hand of one of the thieves.