Le Garçon et l'aveugle

Le Garçon et l'aveugle (The Boy and the Blind Man) is the name of a 13th century French play; considered the oldest surviving French literature farce, it is by an anonymous author.

In the play there are two scoundrals, a "blind" beggar and his servant boy. The blind begger has a secret horde of coins, which the boy tricks away from him. The boy decieves, robs then beats his master — the trickster has become the tricked.

It was a simple play with no props and could be performed by two actors anywhere. It probably is one of many performed by wandering jongleurs catering to the tastes and theme of market days and fairs. An important business for the actors was to collect money from spectators, and the actors beggar-man occupation allowed for audience comic participation in the play.

Because the deciver is decieved, along with slapstick action, it is considered the oldest surviving farce in French literature. This means it is the oldest to survive in written form, but is part of a much older oral tradition.

This "trickster is tricked" theme, and that of the cuckolded husband, were the main preoccupations of the medieval farceur.

References

• Le Garcon et l'Aveugle. Trans. Richard Axton and John E. Stevens. In Medieval French Drama. Oxford: Blackwell, 1971. Pp. 195–206.
• "The Beggar Boy and the Blind Man: A French Farce of the Thirteenth Century." Trans. Reginald Hyatte. Allegorica: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Literature 9 (1987–88): 165–93.
• D. Whitton (2003). "Theatre in France before 1300 (MS Doc).