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FABLIAU

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 117 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FABLIAU . The entertaining tales in eight-syllable rhymed See also:

verse which See also:form a marked See also:section of See also:French See also:medieval literature are called fabliaux, the word being derived by See also:Littre from fablel, a diminutive of See also:fable. It is a See also:mistake to suppose, as is frequently done, that every See also:legend of the See also:middle ages is a fabliau. In a poem of the 12th See also:century a clear distinction is See also:drawn between songs of See also:chivalry, See also:war or love, and fabliaux, which are recitals of See also:laughter. A fabliau always related an event; it was usually brief, containing not more than 400 lines; it was neither sentimental, religious nor supernatural, but comic and See also:gay. MM. de Montaiglon and Raynaud, who have closely investigated this class of literature, consider that about 150 fabliaux have come down to us more or less intact; a vast number have doubtless disappeared. It appears from a phrase in the writings of the See also:trouvere, See also:Henri d' Andeli, that the fabliau was not thought worthy of being copied out on See also:parchment. The wonder, then, is that so many of these ephemeral compositions have been preserved. Arguments brought forward by M. See also:Joseph Bedier, however, tend to show that we need not regret the disappearance of the See also:majority of the fabliaux, as those which were copied into See also:MSS. were those which were See also:felt to be of the greatest See also:intrinsic value. As See also:early as the 8th century fabliaux must have existed, since the faithful are forbidden to take See also:pleasure in these' fabulas inanes by the Paenitentiale of Egbert. But it appears that all the early examples are lost.

In the See also:

opinion of the best scholars, the earliest surviving fabliau is that of Richeut, which See also:dates from 1159. This is a rough and powerful study of the coarse See also:life of the See also:day, with Iittle See also:plot, but engaged with a realistic picture of See also:manners. Such poems, but of a more strictly narrative nature, continued to be produced, mainly in the See also:north and north-See also:east of See also:France, until the middle of the 14th century. Much See also:speculation has been expended on the probable See also:sources of the tales which the trouveres told. The See also:Aryan theory, which saw in them the See also:direct See also:influence of See also:India upon See also:Europe, has now been generally abandoned. It does not seem probable that any See also:ancient or See also:exotic influences were brought to See also:bear upon the French jongleurs, who simply invented or adapted stories of that universal See also:kind which springs unsown from every untitled See also:field of human society. More remarkable than the narratives themselves is the spirit in which they are told. This is full of the See also:national See also:humour and the national See also:irony, the true esprit gaulois. A very large section of these popular poems deals satirically with the pretensions of the See also:clergy. Such are the famous Prctre aux mares, the Pretre qui dit la See also:Passion and See also:Les Perdrix. Some of these are innocently merry; others are singularly depraved and obscene. Another class of fabliaux is that which comprises jests against the professions; in this, the most prominent example is Le Vilain Mire, a See also:satire on doctors, which curiously predicts the Medecin malgre lui of See also:Moliere.

There are also tales whose purpose is rather voluptuous than witty, and whose aim is to excuse libertinage and render See also:

marriage ridiculous. Among these are prominent See also:Court Mantel and Le Dit de See also:Berenger. Yet another class repeated, with a See also:strain of irony or oddity, such See also:familiar classical stories as those of See also:Narcissus, and Pyramus and Thisbe. It is rarely that any See also:elevation of See also:tone raises these poems above a familiar and even playful level, but there are some that are almost idealistic. Among these the See also:story of a sort of See also:Sisyphus errant, Le See also:Chevalier de Barizel, offers an ethical See also:interest which lifts it in certain respects above all other surviving fabliaux. An instance of the pathetic fabliau is Housse Partie, a kind of See also:primitive version of the story of See also:King See also:Lear. In composing these pieces, of very varied See also:character, the jongleurs have practised an See also:art which was in many respects rudimentary, but sincere and See also:simple. The student of See also:language finds the See also:rich vocabulary of the fabliaux much more attractive to him than the conventionality of the serious religious and amatory poems of the same See also:age. The See also:object of the writers was the immediate amusement of their See also:audience; by reference to familiar things, they hoped to arouse a See also:quick and genuine merriment. Hence their incorrectness and their See also:negligence are balanced by a delightful ease and See also:absence of pedantry, and in the fabliaux we get closer than elsewhere to the living diction of medieval France. It is true that if we extend too severe a See also:judgment to these pieces, we may find ourselves obliged to condemn them altogether. An instructed French critic, vexed with their faults, has gone so far as to say that " the subjects of these tales are degrading, their See also:inspiration nothing better than See also:flat and cruel derision, their distinguishing features rascality, vulgarity and platitude of See also:style." From one point of view, this condemnation of the fabliau is hardly too severe.

But such scholars as Gaston See also:

Paris and See also:Paul See also:Meyer have not failed to emphasize other sides to the question. They have praised, in the See also:general laxity of style and garrulity of the middle ages, the terseness of the jongleurs; in the See also:period of false See also:ornament, their fidelity to nature; in a See also:time of general vagueness, the See also:sharp and picturesque outlines of their art. One feature of the fabliaux, however, cannot be praised and yet must not be over-looked. In no other section of the See also:world's literature is the scorn and hatred of See also:women so prominent. It is difficult to See also:account for the See also:anti-feminine rage which pervades the fabliaux, and takes hideous shapes in such examples as Le See also:Valet aux deux femmes, Le Pecheur de See also:Pont-See also:sue-See also:Seine and Chichef See also:ace et Bigorne. Probably this was a violent reaction against the extravagant cult of woman as expressed in the contemporary lais as well as in the legends of See also:saints. The exaggeration was not greater in the one See also:case than in the other, and it is probable that the exaltation was made endurable to those who listened to the trouveres by the corresponding degradation. We must remember, too, that those who listened were not nobles or clerks, they were the See also:common See also:people. The fabliaux were fabellac ignobilium, little I17 stories told to amuse persons of See also:low degree, who were irritated by the moral pretensions of their superiors. The names of about twenty of the authors of fabliaux have been preserved, although in most cases nothing is known of their See also:personal See also:history. The most famous poet of this class of See also:writing is the See also:man whose name, or more probably See also:pseudonym, was See also:Rutebeuf. He wrote See also:Frere Denyse and Le Sacristain, while to him is attributed the Dit d'Aristote, in the course of which See also:Aristotle gives See also:good See also:advice to See also:Alexander.

Fabliaux, however, form but a small See also:

part of the See also:work of Rutebeuf, who was a satirical poet of wide accomplishment and varied See also:energy. Most of the jongleurs who wrote these merry and indecent tales in octosyllabic verse were persons of less distinction. Henri d'Andeli was an ecclesiastic, attached, it is supposed, to the See also:cathedral of See also:Rouen. See also:Jean de See also:Conde, who flourished in the court of See also:Hainaut from 1310 to 1340, and who is the latest of the genuine writers of fabliaux, lived in comfort and See also:security, but most of the professional jongleurs seem to have spent their years in a Bohemian existence, wandering among the clergy and the See also:merchant class, alternately begging for See also:money and See also:food and reciting their mocking verses. The See also:principal authorities for the fabliaux are MM. Anatole de Montaiglon and Gaston Raynaud, who published the See also:text, in 6 vols., between 1872 and 189o. This edition corrected and supplemented the very valuable labours of Won (1808—1823) and Jubinal (1839—1842). The See also:works of Henri d'Andeli were edited by M. A. See also:Heron in i88o, and those of Rutebeuf were made the subject of an exhaustive monograph by M. See also:Leon Cledat in 1891. See also the See also:editions of See also:separate fabliaux by Gaston Paris, Paul Meyer, Ebeling, See also:August See also:Scheler and other See also:modern scholars.

M. Joseph Bedier's Les Fabliaux (1895) is a useful See also:

summary of See also:critical opinion on the entire subject. (E.

End of Article: FABLIAU

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