fabliau

fabliau
/fab"lee oh'/; Fr. /fann blee oh"/, n., pl. fabliaux /fab"lee ohz'/; Fr. /fann blee oh"/.
a short metrical tale, usually ribald and humorous, popular in medieval France.
[1795-1805; < F; ONF form of OF fablel, fableau, equiv. to fable FABLE + -el dim. suffix; see -ELLE]

* * *

or fableau

Short metrical tale made popular in medieval France by jongleurs.

Fabliaux were characterized by vivid detail and realistic observation and were usually comic, coarse, and cynical, especially in their treatment of women. Though understandable to the bourgeois and common people, they frequently contain an element of burlesque that depends for its appreciation on considerable knowledge of courtly society, love, and manners. About 150 fabliaux survive, by both amateur and professional writers.

* * *

▪ medieval French poem
plural  fabliaux  

      a short metrical tale made popular in medieval France by the jongleurs (jongleur), or professional storytellers. Fabliaux were characterized by vivid detail and realistic observation and were usually comic, coarse, and often cynical, especially in their treatment of women.

      About 150 fabliaux are extant. Many of them are based on elementary jokes or puns—such as one called Estula, which can either be a person's name or mean “Are you there?”—or on wry situations, such as one tale in which a man is rescued from drowning but has his eye put out by the boat hook that saves him. The majority of fabliaux are erotic, and the merriment provoked often depends on situations and adventures that are sometimes obscene. Recurring characters include the cuckold and his wife, the lover, and the naughty priest. The theme of guile is often treated, frequently to show the deceiver deceived.

      It was once widely held that fabliaux represented the literature of the bourgeois and common people. This, however, is unlikely, since they contain a substantial element of burlesque (or mockery and parody) that depends, for its appreciation, on considerable knowledge of courtly society, love, and manners. They also presuppose something like scorn for those of humble rank who ape their betters.

      Some of the subject matter in the fabliaux can be paralleled in other times and other countries: many of the plots stem from folklore (folk literature), some have classical affinities, and a few can be traced to Asian sources. But many of the tales are so simple that they could have arisen spontaneously. The earliest fabliau, Richeut, dates from approximately 1175, but the main period of fabliau composition was the 13th century, with an extension into the first half of the 14th. Most fabliaux are 200 to 400 lines in length, though there are extremes of fewer than 20 lines and of more than 1,300. Their authors included amateur writers (notably Philippe de Beaumanoir) and professionals (e.g., Jehan Bodel (Bodel, Jehan) and Rutebeuf). Verse tales analogous to the fabliaux exist in other languages. Geoffrey Chaucer's “Reeve's Tale,” for example, is based on a known fabliau, and several of the other comic tales in The Canterbury Tales may trace their origins to fabliaux.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • FABLIAU — Les fabliaux, «contes à rire en vers» selon la définition de J. Bédier, apparaissent vers la fin du XIIe siècle et disparaissent au début du XIVe siècle. Ils constituent un genre aux contours parfois imprécis, dont les quelque cent cinquante… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Fabliau — (du picard fabliau, lui même issu du latin fabula[réf. souhaitée]) signifie littéralement « petit récit » ; c est le nom qu on donne dans la littérature française du Moyen Âge à de petites histoires en vers simples et amusants …   Wikipédia en Français

  • fabliau — BLI Ó/ s. f. povestire populară din evul mediu, graţioasă, fantastică, de groază sau sentimentală; istorioară cu haz, în versuri, recitată de jongleri. (< fr. fabliau) Trimis de raduborza, 15.09.2007. Sursa: MDN …   Dicționar Român

  • Fabliau — Fa bli au , n.; pl. {Fabliaux} ( [ o] ). [F., fr. OF.fablel, dim. of fable a fable.] (Fr. Lit.) One of the metrical tales of the Trouv[ e]res, or early poets of the north of France. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Fabliau — (spr. Fablioh), eine Art erzählender Gedichte od. Erzählungen in Prosa, wie sie in der älteren Französischen Literatur vorkommen, so zum Unterschied von den eigentlich lyrischen, d.h. zum Gesange geeigneten Gedichten genannt. Der ursprüngliche… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Fabliau — (franz., spr. lió, oder Fableau, spr. ló, eigentlich Fablel), schwankhafte Erzählung in Versen. Die älteste ist von 1159 und hat eine Pariser Kurtisane, Richeut, zur Heldin; die meisten sind im 13. und im Anfang des 14. Jahrh. verfaßt. Sie sind… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • fabliau — [fa′blē ō΄; ] Fr [ fȧ blē ō′] n. pl. fabliaux [fa′blēōz΄; ] Fr [, fa′blēō′] [Fr < OFr, dial. form of fablel, dim. of fable, FABLE] in medieval literature, esp. French and English literature, a short story in verse telling comic incidents of… …   English World dictionary

  • Fabliau — The fabliau (plural fabliaux or fablieaux ) is a comic, usually anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast France circa the 13th Century. They are generally bawdy in nature, and several of them were reworked by Geoffrey Chaucer for his… …   Wikipedia

  • Fabliau — Fabliaux et contes, 1756 Ein Fabliau (auch Fablel) ist eine mittelalterliche französische Schwankerzählung in Versen, von Spielleuten (jongleurs) in satirischer Absicht vorgetragen. Die meist anonymen Stücke kamen im nordöstlichen Frankreich des… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Fabliau — Fa|bli|au [fabli o:], das; , x [fabli o:; (a)frz. fabliau, pik. Form von: fableau, zu: fable < lat. fabula, ↑Fabel] (Literaturw.): altfranzösische Verserzählung mit komischem, vorwiegend erotischem Inhalt …   Universal-Lexikon

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”