What is the difference between a Goliard Song and “chanson?
Goliard Song and Chanson (de Geste) are in effect each other’s diametrical opposites. Whereas the chanson de geste occupies itself with relating heroic deeds of kings and knights (errant or otherwise) in verse of epic scale, goliard song sets itself the task of mercilessly lampooning Church (and secular) authority and casting scurrilous aspersions on the habits and (supposed or ascribed) vices of those in authority within that Church and aristocracy. Many of the goliards who took to the road with their mediaeval form of protest song or ‘tabloid exposé’ equivalents, were themselves (at times defrocked) student clerics of high birth, so in many ways they knew the targets of their biting satire from the inside, often the best and most on-target form of satire and lampoonery to this very day. The derivation of ‘goliard’ is uncertain, ranging from latin for gluttony (gula) through a version of ‘Goliath’ in the form of a mythical bishop ‘Golias’ to an association with ‘gaillard’ (note sp. Fr
