fabliau

Home > ... > Literature and the Arts > Language, Linguistics, and Literary Terms > Literature: General > ...

Essential reading Compare
side-by-side The Concise Oxford Companion ... The Oxford Dictionary of ... The Columbia Encyclopedia, ...

fabliau

fabliau plural fabliaux , short comic, often bawdy tale in verse that deals realistically and satirically with middle-class or lower-class characters. Fabliaux were often directed against marriage and against members of the clergy. The form was extremely popular in France during the Middle Ages. Excellent examples of fabliaux can be found in pre-Christian Oriental literature, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and in Boccaccio's Decameron.

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1E1-fabliau" title="Facts and information about fabliau">fabliau</a>

Give this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

"fabliau." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 22 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"fabliau." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (November 22, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-fabliau.html

"fabliau." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Retrieved November 22, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-fabliau.html

Learn more about citation styles

fabliau

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | 2006 | | Â© The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable 2006, originally published by Oxford University Press 2006. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

fabliau a metrical tale, typically a bawdily humorous one, of a type found chiefly in early French poetry.

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O214-fabliau" title="Facts and information about fabliau">fabliau</a>

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "fabliau." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Oxford University Press. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 22 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "fabliau." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Oxford University Press. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (November 22, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-fabliau.html

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "fabliau." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Oxford University Press. 2006. Retrieved November 22, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-fabliau.html

Learn more about citation styles

fabliau

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | Â© The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

fabliau, a short tale in verse, almost invariably in octosyllabic couplets, dealing for the most part from a comic point of view with incidents of ordinary life. The fabliau was an important element in French poetry in the 12th–13th cents, and was imitated by Chaucer.

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O54-fabliau" title="Facts and information about fabliau">fabliau</a>

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "fabliau." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 22 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "fabliau." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (November 22, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-fabliau.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "fabliau." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved November 22, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-fabliau.html

Learn more about citation styles

Related entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries and thesauruses

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology entry for fabliau

Rate these entries|See all related entries

Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Logic and Humour in the Fabliaux: An Essay in Applied Narratology.(Book review) Magazine article from: The Modern Language Review; 10/1/2008
	Philosophical sleaze? The 'strok of thought' in the Miller's Tale and Chaucerian fabliau.(Critical essay) Magazine article from: The Modern Language Review; 7/1/2007
	Kings and kingship in British Library MS Harley 2253. Magazine article from: Yearbook of English Studies; 1/1/2003

Facts and information from other sites

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

	Fabliau plotting against romance in Chaucer's 'The Knight's Tale.' (Geoffrey Chaucer) Magazine article from: Style; 9/22/1997; ; 700+ words ; ...from just two fabliaux" (Chaucer 140...r]omance and fabliau must . . . have...generic signals of fabliau. Joseph Bedier defined fabliaux as "des contes...feature of the fabliau - then shows that a number of fabliaux handle plot clumsily...
	Chaucerian Fabliaux, Cinematic Fabliau: Pier Paolo Pasolini's I racconti di Canterbury Magazine article from: Literature/Film Quarterly; 1/1/2004; ; 700+ words ; ...focus. Chaucerian Fabliaux Since my argument...s debt to the fabliau, a brief review...description of the fabliau, one can see that...T]he . . . fabliaux seem relatively...s Tale"-are fabliaux.2 "The Wife of...Prologue" may not be a fabliau per se, but Alison...
	ANGLO-NORMAN FABLIAUX AND CHAUCER'S MERCHANT'S TALE. Magazine article from: Medium Aevum; 9/22/2000; ; 700+ words ; ...version of a continental fabliau in this context attests...which exists between the fabliaux and a select number...tales which exhibit fabliau features and conform...played by AN texts in fabliau development, and warrant...compiled his inventory of fabliaux from the monumental...
	Eighteen Anglo-Norman Fabliaux. Magazine article from: The Modern Language Review; 4/1/2002; ; 700+ words ; ...general et complet des fabliaux des XIIIe et XIVe siecles...subsequently expunged from the fabliau canon, despite its...The Scandal of the Fabliaux (Chicago and London...fundamental revision of the [fabliaux] inventory', and...itself a trufle and not a fabliau, now may be as good...
	Logic and Humour in the Fabliaux: An Essay in Applied Narratology.(Book review) Magazine article from: The Modern Language Review; 10/1/2008; ; 700+ words ; ...relationship between fables and fabliaux considers how marital...development from fable to fabliau is traced partly through...by fin' amosin later fabliaux and a change in the...to the study of the fabliaux and that much of the...the long tradition of fabliau criticism may be ripe...
	Chaucer's Miller's Tale and Reeve's Tale, Boccaccio's Decameron, and the French fabliaux.(Critical Essay) Magazine article from: Italica; 9/22/2004; ; 700+ words ; ...courtly romance followed by two fabliaux (three if the Cook's fragment...romance followed by two more fabliaux (in fragment III). Hall...half of the collection are fabliaux. (12) Barbara Nolan has...medieval genres (romance, fabliau, saint's life, parody...
	The Wife of Bath's Shipman's tale and the invention of Chaucerian fabliaux. Magazine article from: The Modern Language Review; 4/1/2004; ; 700+ words ; ...genre of Chaucerian 'fabliaux' and the persistent...the Wife of Bath. The fabliau, the subject of the...Tales. Chaucer wrote fabliaux; no one disagrees...discussions of Chaucerian fabliaux; less frequently included...Modern definitions of the fabliau range from the deceptively...
	FROM FRENCH `FABLIAU MANUSCRIPTS' AND MS HARLEY 2253 TO THE DECAMERON AND THE CANTERBURY TALES. Magazine article from: Medium Aevum; 9/22/2000; ; 700+ words ; ...between them: several fabliaux in MS Harley 2253...grafted onto a scabrous fabliau (Les Quatre Sohais...in sequence (a) the fabliau Les Trois Dames...scribes intertextualize fabliau and antifeminist materials is that several fabliaux copied into MS Harley...
	The Fabliau in English. Magazine article from: Medium Aevum; 9/22/1994; ; 700+ words ; ...production and reception of the fabliaux in the Middle Ages' (p...derived from reading English fabliaux which distinguishes the superior...The readings of Chaucer's fabliaux, however, are generally convincing...of transforming the lust of fabliau into the lore of exemplum...
	Eighteen Anglo-Norman Fabliaux.(Book Review) Magazine article from: Medium Aevum; 9/22/2002; ; 687 words ; ...insular versions of continental fabliaux have traditionally been denigrated...and convincingly defined as fabliaux have been marginalized in editions...collocating all the Anglo-Norman fabliaux, the editors aim to refine...approach which finds the basis of fabliau humour in logic, false ...