"Bathtub Humor of the German High Middle Ages"

[bunnyjadwiga]

(I couldn't make these things up.)
J.W. Thomas, in Germanic Notes and Reviews vol 23, no 2, Fall 1992, p. 72-74.

Excerpt:
... in Gottfried's Tristan. The dauntless hero, who... had recently slain the fierce dragon with sword and spear, sits helpless in a bathtub, desperately attempting to reason with the angry and distraught Isolde while she waves his own sword above him and tries to get up courage to behead him...

Other instances from romances the author cites are:

• The royal couple divinely commanded never to have sex, but instead to keep a tub of water by the bed and jump into it whenever overwhelmed by attraction
  
• The embarrassed young heroes in Wolfram's Parzival and The Pleier's Tandareis und Floribel refusing to leave the bathtub until the noble female attendants have left the room
  
• Heinrich von Kempten by Konrad von Wuerzburg, where the hero saves Emperor Otto's life, leaping naked from his bath, siezing his sword and fighting off the assailants who have ambushed Otto so he may escape.-- and then returning to his bath.
  
• Der nackte Kaiser by Herrand von Wildonie, where an unjust emperor has his clothes and retinue stolen by an impersonating angel while he is visiting the bathhouse
  
• in Meleranz, where a 12 year old queen 'arranges to be bathing in splendid canopied tub under a linden tree' and have her attendants run when the 12 year old Meleranz comes by so she can press him into service as a bath attendant...*
  

* Hm... does that count as improperly discussing teen sexuality? You gotta wonder.