ABSTRACT
The image of the blind beggar in medieval society was not a flattering one. The thirteenth-century French farce Le garçon et l’aveugle [The Boy and the Blind Man] portrays the blind beggar as miserly, vulgar, and sexually grotesque, a character completely unworthy of charity.1 This depiction of blind beggars as immoral and ripe for ridicule is common throughout much of medieval farce and has greatly influenced the prevailing modern understanding of blindness in medieval society as a state of sinfulness.2 Medieval preachers reinforced this image as they warned that disabled male beggars were actually able-bodied men who faked disabilities in an attempt to garner more alms and avoid real work. Even worse, preachers asserted that such beggars did not actually pray for the souls of almsgivers.3
