What is/are Bicorn and Chichevache?

The Bicorn and Chichevache were mythical beasts first conceived in the Middle Ages by primarily French romance writers. One of the beasts, the Bicorn, part panther, part cow, and with a human face, was fabled to become very fat through its diet of living on good and tolerant husbands of which there was an abundant supply.

On the other hand, the Chichevache, a huge cow with a human face, was the anti-type of the Bicorn. Because it lived entirely on patient wives, its food was extremely scarce. Consequently, the Chichevache was all skin and bone. The original French word was “chichefache” (thin face, ugly face).

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s – 25 October 1400) was an English poet and author and widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, best known for his work “The Canterbury Tales”. In one of the Tales, “The Clerk’s Tale”, Chaucer changed the French “chichefache” into “chichevache”, meaning lean cow, ugly cow.

In the poem, “Bicorn and Chichevache”, by John Lydgate (1370 - 1450) a monk and poet (a near contemporary and admirer of Chaucer) born in Suffolk, England, the author casts Bicorn as the husband of Chichevache. The poem is a good example of medieval satire, conveyed by fable at the time.