Shakespeare and the Fart: Flatulence in World Literature
William Shakespeare is considered the greatest dramatist in the English language — and he had a remarkable fondness for bodily humor. Farts, belching, digestion, and bodily functions play a surprisingly prominent role in his comedies. This is no accident: for Elizabethan audiences, bodily humor was everyday and socially acceptable. A look at farts in world literature — from Chaucer to Rabelais to Shakespeare.
Chaucer: The First Great Fart Poet
Before Shakespeare, there was Geoffrey Chaucer — and few medieval authors treated farts more extensively in literature. In the Canterbury Tales (c. 1390), the most famous fart scene is in the 'Miller's Tale': the protagonist Nicholas releases a fart directly into his rival's face — who retaliates with a red-hot iron. The scene is detailed, comic, and anything but incidental; Chaucer devotes several stanzas to it. For medieval audiences, this was not scandalous literature — bodily humor was a recognized literary genre (fabliau), popular at courts and among the bourgeoisie alike. Chaucer's farts are precise, plot-driving, and structurally important to the narrative.
Shakespeare: Farts in the Comedies
Shakespeare used flatulence humor more subtly than Chaucer, but quite regularly. In 'The Comedy of Errors' there are several double meanings on 'wind' (wind/fart), immediately comprehensible to Elizabethan audiences. In 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', Bottom (the name already a pun) plays a role rich in physical gags. The phrase 'cutting wind' appears in several plays. Shakespeare's most famous fart joke is found in 'The Comedy of Errors' (Act 3), where a lawyer is ironically described as someone who 'has made so many winds that he now discharges blasts'. For Elizabethan audiences this was an unmistakable fart joke — the double meaning of 'wind' was standard slang.
Rabelais: The Mother of All Fart Literature
François Rabelais (1494–1553) surpasses all others: his work 'Gargantua and Pantagruel' is a literary ode to all bodily functions, and farts occupy a broad space within it. In a famous passage, the giant Gargantua farts so powerfully that he shakes an entire city — Rabelais describes the smell, sound, and aftermath in epic detail. Rabelais is regarded by literary scholars as the founder of 'grotesque realism' (Bakhtin) — a literary tradition that celebrates the body and its functions as part of the vitality and comedy of human existence. Without Rabelais, no Voltaire, no Swift, no Sterne — and possibly no modern satirical comedy.
Modern Literature: The Fart as Serious Metaphor
In the 20th century, the fart in literature is increasingly used metaphorically. Samuel Beckett uses flatulence in 'Molloy' as a sign of physical decay and the absurdity of existence. James Joyce — known for his shameless treatment of bodily functions — writes in 'Ulysses' about farts as expressions of intimacy and normality. In contemporary literature, authors like Philip Roth have used bodily functions as instruments to destigmatize the human body. The literary history of the fart is therefore not a trivial history of slapstick humor — it is a history of how cultures negotiate the body, shame, and comedy.
Did you know?
- Chaucer's 'Miller's Tale' contains one of the most detailed fart scenes in medieval literature — comic and plot-driving.
- Shakespeare regularly used the word 'wind' as a fart euphemism, immediately understood by Elizabethan audiences.
- Rabelais describes a giant fart in 'Gargantua' in such detail that it is considered a literary model for grotesque realism.
- James Joyce treated bodily functions including flatulence in 'Ulysses' as part of the normality of human life.
Fun Fact
Benjamin Franklin — otherwise known for the Constitution and the lightning rod — wrote a satirical essay in 1781 titled 'Fart Proudly', in which he urged the Royal Academy of Brussels to study the science of intestinal gases and develop methods to make farts pleasantly perfumed. Franklin argued in all seriousness that this would be more useful than many academic research topics of his time. The essay (also known as 'A Letter to a Royal Academy') was never officially published, but circulated as a handwritten pamphlet and is considered one of the earliest connections between literature and gut gas research.
Sources
- Bakhtin, M. (1984). Rabelais and His World. Indiana University Press.
- Partridge, E. (1968). Shakespeare's Bawdy. Routledge.
- Olson, P.A. (1986). The Canterbury Tales and the Good Society. Princeton University Press.