ABSTRACT
Nothing attests so accurately to the continuing popularity of Alain Chartier's poem (1424) as the debate and the imitations it continued to inspire for more than a century. It is doubtful, however, that it caused as much of a scandal as has sometimes been claimed; the debate rather suggests a literary game like those that continued to be popular into the 17th century. Quercy's advantageous geographic position assured it an important economic role. By the close of the Middle Ages, it possessed two major centers of commerce, Montauban, founded in 1144, and Cahors. Quercy suffered extensively in the campaigns of the Hundred Years' War. The Quinze joies seems to have contributed less to the formal development of narrative prose genres at the close of the Middle Ages and more to the popularity of fictional inventories of misfortunes. The work's anecdotal character and its satirical stance on domesticity guaranteed its appeal both in England and France.
