Laughing MattersBawdy satirical playsmany starring law clerks and seminarianssavaged corrupt officials and royal policies in fifteenth and sixteenth century France. The Church and the royal court toleratedand even commissionedsuch performances, the audiences for which included men and women from every social class. From the mid sixteenth century, however, local authorities began to temper and in some cases ban such performances. Sara Beam, in revealing how theater