fabliau - Example tales

A short narrative poem popular in 12th–14th-c France, and also appearing in English (eg Chaucer's Miller's Tale). The subjects were usually bawdy, misogynist, and anti-clerical.

The fabliau (plural fabliaux or "'fablieaux'") is a comic, usually anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast France circa the 13th Century.

Typical fabliaux concern cuckolded husbands, rapacious clergy and foolish peasants. Poems that were presumably written for the nobility portray peasants (vilains in French) as stupid and vile, whereas those written for the lower classes often tell of peasants getting the better of the clergy.

Longer medieval poems such as Le Roman de Renart and those found in The Canterbury Tales have their origin in one or several fabliaux.

The fabliau gradually disappeared at the beginning of the 16th century. Famous French writers such as Molière, Jean de La Fontaine and Voltaire owe much to the tradition of the fabliau, in their prose works as well as in their poetry.

Example tales

"L'enfant de neige" ("The snow baby"), we hear a tale of black comedy.

Others include:

"La vielle gui graissa la patte de chevalier" ("The old woman who put grease on the knights hand") "Estula" ("Estula") "Le Pauvre Clerc" ("The poor clerk") "Le Couverture partagée ("The shared covering") "Le Pretre qui mangea les mûres ("The priest who ate mulberries") "Le Chevalier qui fist les cons parler ("The Knight who made cunts speak")