Fabliau Defined

Blameth nat me if that ye chese amys. The Millere is a cherl; ye knowe wel this. So was the Reve eek and othere mo, nd harlotrie they tolden bothe two. (Millers Prologue, I. 3182-84) Medieval literature includes a !reat variety of comic tales, in both "rose and verse, and in a variety of more or less distinct !enres. For students of #haucer, the most im"ortant comic !enre is the fabliau $%fabliau& is the sin!ular, %fabliau'& the "lural(. #haucer)s Miller)s tale, Reeve)s Tale, Shi"man)s Tale, Summoner)s Tale, and the fra!mentary #ook)s Tale are all fabliau', and other tales ** such as the Merchant+s Tale ** show traces of the !enre, % fabliau is a brief comic tale in verse, usually scurrilous and often scatolo!ical or obscene. The style is sim"le, vi!orous, and strai!htforward; the time is the "resent, and the settin!s real, familiar "laces; the characters are ordinary sorts ** tradesmen, "easants, "riests, students, restless wives; the "lots are realistically motivated tricks and ruses. The fabliau' thus "resent a lively ima!e of everyday life amon! the middle and lower classes. -et that re"resentation only seems real; life did not run that hi!h in actual fourteenth*century towns and villa!es ** it never does ** and the "lots, convincin! thou!h they seem, fre.uently involve incredible de!rees of !ullibility in the victims and of in!enuity and se'ual a""etite in the trickster*heroes and *heroines.& $The Riverside Chaucer, ". /.( The fabliau was, until #haucer+s time, a !enre of French literature, in which it flourished in the thirteenth century. 0ne of the minor "roblems about #haucer)s fabliau' is why he turned to a !enre that had, in effect, been dead for a hundred years. #omic tales were very "o"ular in #haucer)s time, but the more so"histicated were almost always in "rose $as in the case of Boccaccio)s Decameron(. #haucer had no models in 1n!lish, and des"ite the vivid contem"orary tone of #haucer+s fabliau', they are in some ways his most 2allic works. 3erha"s #haucer was attracted to this !enre by its most strikin! characteristic, its irreverence. This is a common feature of all forms of comedy, but it is a ma4or and almost invariable element in the fabliau', %The cuckoldin!s, beatin!s, and elaborate "ractical 4okes that are the main concern of the fabliau' are distributed in accord with a code of 5fabliau 4ustice,) which does not always coincide with conventional morality, !reed, hy"ocrisy, and "ride are invariably "unished, but so too are old a!e, mere slow*wittedness, and, most fre.uently, the "resum"tion of a husband, es"ecially an old one, who attem"ts to !uard his wife)s chastity. The heroes and heroines, invariably witty and usually youn!, are those whom society ordinarily scorns ** dis"ossessed intellectuals $lecherous "riests, wayward monks, "enniless students(, clever "easants, and enthusiastically unchaste wives. Their victims are usually those whom society res"ects **"ros"erous merchants, hard*workin! tradesmen, women foolish enou!h to try to remain chaste. The fabliau, in short, is deli!htfully subversive ** a li!ht*hearted thumbin! of the nose at the dictates of reli!ion, the solid virtues of the citi6enry, and the idealistic "retensions of the aristocracy and its courtly literature, which the fabliau' fre.uently "arody, thou!h 4ust as fre.uently they "arody lower*class attem"ts to ado"t courtly behavior.& $ The Riverside Chaucer, ". 7.( Such "arody shows the essentially aristocratic outlook of the writers of the fabliau'; they are merciless u"on social climbers $see 2u8rin)s Brenger of the Long Arse(. This is not sur"risin!, since the authors of the fabliau' were sometimes courtly writers, such as 9ean Bodel, author of number of romances as well as of the fabliau Gombert and the Two Clerks, and Marie de France, whose fables contain two fabliau' illustratin! the trickery of women. 0ne assumes that the same audience that en4oyed Marie+s ele!ant lays of courtly love also en4oyed her fabliau'. 3erha"s this is because the early literature of courtly love shared much of the irreverence and scorn for conventional morality that characteri6es the fabliau'. For a defense of such morality, one must turn to such late $fifteenth*century( non*courtly, even anti*courtly works such as The right!s Chaste ife, which looks at the world of the fabliau from the stand"oint of the workin! classes.
:ast modified, "ril ;<, ;==> #o"yri!ht ? The 3resident and Fellows of @arvard #olle!e Te'ts on this "a!e "re"ared and maintained by :. D. Benson (ldb@wjh.harvard.edu)

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