"A Riotous Spray of Words": Rethinking the Medieval Theory of Satire

This article offers a reconsideration of the theory of satire found in medieval exegesis. While acknowledging the importance of recent scholarship on the subject, such as the studies by Paul Miller and Udo Kindermann, it also seeks to develop the findings of this criticism further. Particular attention is paid to commentaries that offer more unusual remarks on classical satire. It is argued that these observations constitute a second tendency in the medieval response to satire, which identifies more scurrilous and disruptive potential in the genre