Pl. fabliaux. [F. fabliau, assumed sing. to OF. fabliaux, pl. of fablel, dim. of fable: see FABLE.] A metrical tale, belonging to the early period of French poetry.
1804. Scott, Introd. Sir Tristr., 48. The interesting fabliaux of the Anglo-Norman trouveurs.
1823. Roscoe, trans. Sismondi’s Lit. Eur. (1846), I. viii. 221. Some of the fabliaux very nearly approach the romances of chivalry; describing, like them, the heroic manners of the nobles, and not the vices of the common people.
1874. Green, Short Hist., v. (1876), 215. His [Chaucer’s] tales cover the whole field of mediæval poetry; the legend of the priest, the knightly romance, the wonder-tale of the traveller, the broad humour of the fabliau, allegory and apologue, are all there.
