A fabliau (pronounced "fah-blee-oh") is a humorous story written in France between about 1150 and 1400. These tales were often created by storytellers and religious figures. They usually include jokes about sex and bodily functions, and they often criticize or mock the church and nobility. Most fabliaux were written by unknown authors, but some famous writers, such as Jean Bodel and Guèrin, are known to have created stories during the most popular time for this type of tale. Some of these stories were later used by Giovanni Boccaccio in The Decameron and by Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales. Around 150 French fabliaux still exist today, though the exact number depends on how strictly the term "fabliau" is defined. According to scholar R. Howard Bloch, fabliaux were the first examples of realistic storytelling in Europe. Some 19th-century scholars, including Gaston Paris, believed that fabliaux originally came from the East and were brought to Europe by soldiers returning from the Crusades.
Context
Fabliaux were a popular type of story in France during the 13th and 14th centuries. During this time, France experienced many changes and difficult periods. In the 1200s, King John was the most well-known ruler. Poor weather caused widespread food shortages at the end of the 13th century and into the 14th century. At the same time, diseases, including the Black Death, spread across France.
Fabliaux are believed to have developed from a storytelling tradition called Courtly Love, which was common during this era. French storytellers known as jongleurs and troubadours are thought to have created many of these stories. They shared them with kings, nobles, and other people at court as entertainment. Some stories may have been written by peasants for other peasants. Today, it is widely accepted that these tales were meant for all people. Many people at the time could not read, so stories were shared by those who could read or by people who remembered them.
The earliest tales often included humorous or shocking stories that might seem surprising to modern readers, especially because they were created in a society that was mostly Christian. When these stories were discovered again in the 1800s, many people were shocked and wanted to forget them. Some people wrongly claimed the stories were connected to Jewish communities, even though similar stories existed in Latin and Arabic before they appeared in Old French. This false belief was used to spread harmful ideas about Jewish people.
History and definition of the genre
The fabliau is a short story written in verse, usually with eight-syllable lines, and is about 300 to 400 lines long. These stories are often funny or criticize society. In France, they were popular during the 12th and 13th centuries, and in England, they were common in the 14th century. Fabliaux are sometimes compared to short stories. Douglas Bush, a professor at Harvard University, said they are "short stories broader than they are long." Even though they were bawdy (humorous and sometimes explicit), they showed the problems in society during their time. This period had political conflicts, religious disagreements, wars, and the end of the feudal system. Fabliaux used humor and explicit language to entertain people while pointing out society’s flaws.
Fabliaux are unique because they don’t seem to have a direct literary ancestor in Western culture. They were brought to Europe by crusaders returning from the East in the 12th century. These stories were popular in royal courts and enjoyed by knights, nobles, and aristocrats. Entertainers called troubadours, who were poets and musicians, performed them. Troubadours sang love songs in Occitan, a language influenced by Arabic and Hebrew poetry. Fabliaux began as stories about courtly love, where poets expressed love for married noblewomen they could never have. As knights and nobles became more alike, they started to think about the moral responsibilities of their roles. They valued chivalry, which included bravery in battle and respect for women. Over time, chivalry tales and epic poems evolved into romance literature. These stories were first told orally but later written down. Courtly love spread from southern France to Italy, northern France, England, and Germany. In Germany, it became known as minnesinger (love singers), and in France, it was called trouvere. Fabliaux themselves came from northern French poetry and showed more realistic aspects of human life.
Fabliaux are similar to fables, like those by Aesop, but they are less moral and less instructive. The word "fabliau" comes from a French word meaning "little fable." In terms of morality, they are closer to novels than to parables, where the story comes first, and the moral is secondary. Robert Lewis noted that about two-thirds of French fabliaux include an explicit moral.
The earliest known fabliau is called Richeut (about 1159–1175). One of the earliest writers of fabliaux was Rutebeuf, who is considered a model for medieval storytellers.
Fabliaux had a big influence on later works. Stories in longer poems like Le Roman de Renart and collections like The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio and The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer were inspired by fabliaux. The medieval church also used a version of the fabliau to spread "worthy thoughts" instead of the usual humor and risqué content.
By the early 16th century, fabliaux were no longer popular. They were replaced by short stories written in prose, which were influenced by fabliaux. Famous French writers like Molière, Jean de La Fontaine, and Voltaire were inspired by the traditions of the fabliau.
Fabliaux often include characters like unfaithful husbands, greedy clergy, foolish peasants, beggars, tricksters, and thieves. Clergy members were frequently criticized, especially after the Second Lateran Council of 1139, which required priests to remain celibate. This led to jokes about priests having secret marriages or affairs, such as in stories where a priest is caught with a knight’s wife or hides in a river to escape punishment. The portrayal of peasants changed depending on the audience. Nobles might see peasants as silly or mean, while lower-class audiences might enjoy stories where peasants outsmart clergy.
Fabliaux also challenged traditional gender roles. For example, in the story Berangier of the Long Ass, a woman dresses as a knight to trick her cowardly husband. She forces him to apologize by making him kiss her bottom, which is both humorous and ironic.
Scholars disagree about who the audience for fabliaux was. Some believe it was the middle class, while others think it was the nobility. This is shown in how peasants are described: nobles might see them as foolish, while lower-class audiences might see them as clever. For example, in The Butcher of Abbeville, a butcher tricks a priest by stealing his animals and sleeping with his maid.
Fabliaux often include sexual themes, which were not discussed in more serious works by writers like Ovid or Chrétien de Troyes. They share similarities with lais, a type of poem. An example of a story that mixes both styles is Lecheor.
Fabliaux use wordplay, such as puns, to create humor. Words that sound similar are used to make jokes, like mixing "con" (a short form of "connaissance," meaning "knowledge") with "conte" (a "story"). This kind of language was common in fabliaux.
The main purpose of fabliaux was to entertain. Joseph Bédier, a scholar, called them "stories meant for laughter in verse." While many scholars agree that they were meant to amuse, some debate whether they also aimed to teach lessons.
The standard form of a fabliau is the octosyllabic rhymed couplet, a common verse style in medieval French literature. These stories are usually short, but some, like Trubert by Douin de L'Avesne, are much longer (2,984 lines).
Authors and tales
Famous writers of fabliaux include Jean Bodel, Guèrin, Gautier le Leu, Rutebeuf, Enguerrant le Clerc d'Oisi, and Douin de L'Avesne.
The story Browny, the Priest's Cow was written by Jean Bodel in the early 1200s. In the story, a farmer and his wife take the pastor's sermon very seriously and give their only cow to the church because they believe God will return twice what they give. The pastor takes the cow and puts it in the pasture with his own cow, named Browny. The two cows are tied together until the farmer's cow learns the field's boundaries. When the cow becomes restless and tries to return home, it leads Browny with it. The farmer and his wife are rewarded with their cow and a second, fatter cow, while the priest loses his prized cow. This story strongly criticizes the church and its practice of collecting tithes, a common theme in fabliaux.
A well-known story is Gombert et les deus clers ("Gombert and the Two Clerks"), also written by Jean Bodel in the 1200s. It is likely based on earlier folklore. Two traveling clerks (students) stay with a man named Gombert and his family. One clerk sleeps with Gombert's teenage daughter, promising her a ring. While Gombert is away, the other clerk moves a baby's crib so that Gombert returns to the bed occupied by the clerks. One clerk is with Gombert's daughter, and the other is with Gombert's wife, who believes it is her husband. When the first clerk returns, he tells Gombert about his actions, and Gombert attacks him but is beaten by both clerks.
This story appears almost unchanged in The Decameron by Boccaccio and in The Reeve's Tale by Chaucer.
In L'enfant de neige ("The Snow Baby"), a black comedy, a merchant returns home after two years to find his wife with a newborn son. She explains that she swallowed a snowflake while thinking of her husband, which caused her to become pregnant. Pretending to believe the "miracle," the couple raises the boy until he is 15. The merchant then takes him on a business trip to Genoa, where he sells the boy into slavery. On his return, the merchant tells his wife that the boy melted in the heat of Italy because he was born from a snowflake.
De Bérangier au lonc cul is a medieval French fabliau. There are two versions: one by Guèrin and one with no known author. The story begins when a rich earl marries his daughter to a young peasant and names him a knight. The knight stops following the rules of chivalry and spends the first ten years of marriage being lazy. When his wife grows tired of his behavior, she speaks of the great knights in her family. The knight decides to prove himself by dressing in armor and going into the forest. He beats a shield on a tree until it looks like it endured a battle. He returns home, showing his wife his bruised armor and claiming victory. After several trips, the wife notices the knight is unharmed while his armor is damaged. She suggests he take servants with him, but he refuses. The wife then dresses in armor and follows him. When she sees him beating the shield, she threatens to kill him for his dishonor. The knight does not recognize her and begs for mercy. His wife gives him a choice: joust with her (and likely die) or kiss her "arse." He chooses to kiss her, and she reveals herself as his wife. She tells him, "I am Bérangier of the Long Ass, who puts shame on the cowardly." The wife later sleeps with a valiant knight, and her husband is forced to accept her actions. Her cleverness allows her to live freely, while her husband lives in shame.
Other popular fabliaux include: