Cuckoldry: Difference between revisions

The term cuckold is all over Medieval Literature; in fact, it isn’t too much of an exaggeration to say that a huge percentage of humour from this time revolves around making fun of cuckolds. Cuckoldry plays a major theme the Canterbury Tale, Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays, the 13th Century poem “The Owl and the Nightingale” to the 18th Century play “The Country Wife”.  The cuckold is often portrayed with horns, signifying failure and/or immoral behaviour.  The humor had an element of religious shaming to it. Horns are still associated with cuckolds in the modern era; in some Mediterranean countries, an obscene gesture is created by extending the index and litter finger upwards and tucking in the other fingers and the thumb. This gesture is used to imply the target of the gesture has been cuckolded, and is thus often seen as an especially grievous insult.