FABLIAUX, fa-bli-ir (Fr. from the Lat. tabula, a narrative, particularly a fictitious nar rative), in French literature, the short metrical tales of the Trouveres (q.v.), belonging for the most part in the 12th and 13th centuries. These productions were intended merely for recita tion, not for singing, and reflected the life of the period. They originated with the bour geoise, made no pretensions to literary merit, embraced all subjects— tales of devotion, sat ires on clerical wealcnesses and inconsistencies. conjugal mishaps and love episodes —and were generally conceived in a vein of ironical pleas antry, and in which the wit was coarse if pun gent. From the fabliaux the short story form is derived. Fabliaux in fact were "merry re citals" to excite laughter, in contradistinction to the songs of chivalry, war and love of the period. They were usually based on a comic incident, real or probable, occurring in every day human life. They were marked by con siderable originality and diversity, and would appear to have been largely modelled on the iEsopic fable and its Asiatic parallels. Several of Chaucer's (Canterbury Tales) are derived directly from fabliaux; and so are many of the stories of Boccaccio and of other Italian writers. Fabliaux were the forerunners of the (Hep tameron,) the (Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles,) of Rabelais' (Pantagruel,) of Prior and Swift's productions, and of Balzac's (Cent Coates Drolatiques.) Fabliaux seldom ran to more than 400 lines; they related an event, the story being the mainspring of the recital, the dedttc tions, inferences or lesson, to be drawn being subordinate or left to the imagination. The
(Poenitentiale) of Egbert in the 8th century condemned the afabulas inanee of the period showing that they were in vogue at that date, but the earliest known is that of (Richeut) which appeared in 1159, a virile picture of the coarse manners and customs of the time. Among the better known writers of fabliaux were Rutebeuf, author of (Le Sacristan,) (Frere Denyse) and (Dit d'Aristote); also Henri d'Andeli, and Jean de Conde. While the gen eral run of fabliaux are condemned for vulgar ity, coarseness and obscenity, they afford valuable pictures of contemporary life and de velopment, and are rich in philological material. The usual male scorn of female "fourberies" or wiles is marked in (Chicheface et Bigorne,' (Le Valet aux deux femmcs) and