The first book of medieval Latin beast epic, Ysengrimus , relates imaginary trials. In the episodes of the stolen ham and the fishing, the characters, Ysengrin and Renart, imagine that they would convene an ecclesiastic assembly, a synod, and that they would plead their case. Their plead reverses right and wrong ( translatio criminis ), invents speeches to denigrate each other ( sermocinatio ), and seems to take the form of large digressions. These speeches, which have been considered as “interminable” and “wordy” by J. Mann and É. Charbonnier, can be reassessed through classical rhetoric. This paper aims to demonstrate that, in spite of the extent of these speeches' apparent rambling, we can extricate some rhetorical structures ( constitutiones ) from the judicial oratory. This is the first point of a speech that also uses prolixity as an “art of being right.”