Bicorn and Chichevache
medieval fabulous beasts used to satirize marriage relationships
Bicorn and Chichevache are fabulous beasts that appear in European satirical works of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Bicorn is a creature—part panther, part cow, with a human-like face—that devours kind-hearted and devoted husbands and (because of their abundance) is plump and well fed. Chichevache, on the other hand, devours obedient wives and (because of their scarcity) is thin and starving.
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer mentions Chichevache in the envoy of the Clerk's Tale in his Canterbury Tales, ironically warning wives against the patience and obedience shown by Griselda in the story:
Chaucer may have borrowed the French term chichifache ("thin face") and blended it with vache ("cow") to make the similar term chichevache ("thin or meagre cow"). D. Laing Purves notes that "The origin of the fable was French; but Lydgate has a ballad on the subject. 'Chichevache' literally means 'niggardly' or 'greedy cow'."
Lydgate
In the early fifteenth century John Lydgate wrote "Bycorne and Chychevache", a 133-line poem in 7-line stanzas, probably from a French original. Written "at the request of a worthy citizen of London" to accompany a tapestry or painted wall-hanging, the poem is accompanied by instructions for pictorial representations. Lydgate describes the two beasts as husband and wife.
In popular culture
A bicorn is mentioned in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Its powdered horn is used as an ingredient in Polyjuice Potion.
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