Following our discussion today of "The Miller's Tale" as an example of the fabliau genre, I decided to give the class a brief history of this type of writing. Interestingly,
The Canterbury Tales is the most oft-cited source of the fabliau (plural: fabliaux). "The Miller's Tale", "The Reeve's Tale" "The Shipman's Tale", "The Summoner's Tale", and the unfinished "Cook's Tale" are all fabliaux, and "The Merchant's Tale"(and possibly others) have aspects of the genre.
These tales were written by
jongleurs (professional storytellers) in northeast
France around the 13th century. Chaucer reworked this genre for several of the
Canterbury tales. The fabliaux are bawdy, crude, and obscene.
They are written (orated) in a simple and straightforward manner, but are usually jocular and boisterous as well. The tales take place in the present, with real, imaginable settings and ordinary men and women as characters. The French (and later British) storytellers populated their tales with peasants, clerks, priests, stereotypical women, drunkards, etc. The plots of the fabliaux involve tricks and games, most often with the least clever character ending up much worse off than when he or she started. As we saw with the Miller today and will see with the Reeve on Thursday, the main character often comes off looking like a buffoon who got completely outsmarted.
These stories, though used by Chaucer to characterize the third estate, are not actually very realistic. Unless, of course, men and women of the lower classes in 14-century Europe really were wily, sex-crazed tricksters.
I think that Chaucer's decision to use this type of writing in his tales, especially in such stark contrast with the other genres he incorporates, connects to my first post on Jill Mann's book. His usage of the fabliau style for the tale's of members of the third estate highlights his satire of the three estates. Chaucer uses the fabliau to further stress (along with the commentary and opinions of Chaucer the pilgrim and of the Host) the common though largely innacurate view of the members of the peasantry.
*Here is an interesting link to a comparison of "The Reeve's Tale" and it's French analogue: http://www.bu.edu/english/levine/fabliaux.htm.
Posts
While there must have been at least a few "wily, sex-crazed tricksters" in the Middle Ages, I think you're right that they are over-represented among the characters of fabliaux! Still, I take your excellent point that the choice of genre is carefully tied to the choice of pilgrim storyteller, even if it is unlikely that lowly members of the Third Estate would themselves have been the primary audience (or composers) of fabliaux. (Opinions differ as to whether the form was primarily enjoyed by the bourgeoisie or by the upper classes.) As ever with the Tales, the social origins of a particular story are only part of the story: the way the teller deploys that story as part of a contest with other pilgrims matters just as much or more.
ReplyDeleteFinally, thanks for the link! (Note to others who follow the link: while the page linked to is itself rather lengthy, the portion devoted to the Reeve's Tale itself is comparatively brief and conveniently found at the beginning, so don't be put off by the lengthy scrollbar!)