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fable (fabula [the telling]) The fable in the Middle
Ages and in the classical world was a deliberately alle-
gorical and moralistic genre of literature, so often what
it said of animals or what they said themselves made
sense only when their ideas or remarks were applied to
humans and their social and ethical interactions with
one another. The medieval Latin collections of fables
and their French verse adaptations were often reworked
from collections from late antiquity and those of the
Greek Aesop. Fables were frequently compiled and
included in collections of EXEMPLAfor the use of preach-
ers. Their moral lessons were used to strengthen and
illustrate the authority and moral lessons implied by the
admonitions of sermons. The fable differed from the
ordinary folktale in that it had a moral point that was
the major aspect of the story and often explicitly formu-
lated as the truth of the matter at the end as a proverb.
The medieval fable gave rise to an expanded form
known as the BEAST EPIC.
See alsoMARIE DEFRANCE;RUIZ,JUAN.
Further reading:Marie de France, Fables,ed. and
trans. Harriet Spiegel (Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1987); Fables from Old French: Aesop’s Beasts and
Bumpkins,trans. Norman R. Shapiro with an introduction
by Howard Needler (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan Uni-
versity Press, 1982).

fabliauxor comic tales About 150 French fabliaux
have survived from the Middle Ages. They were scan-
dalous, comic, and disreputable tales written mostly in
the 13th century. Most have fewer than 300 verses. Their
plots were borrowed from narrative traditions, written or
oral and popular or learned. The settings of the fabliaux

were usually those of everyday life. Their objectives were

pleasure derived from the satisfaction of seeing aggres-

sive tendencies fulfilled by violence or cunning or

obscene motivations gratified through defecation or sex.

Some typical and often antifeminist themes were the

lewdness of unfaithful spouses, the false candor of

women, the ingenuity of students, the outrages inflicted

on avaricious and debauched priests, and the malice of

tricky and crafty peasants. Their authors are usually

anonymous.

See alsoBOCCACCIO,GIOVANNI.

Further reading:John Du Val, trans., Fabliaux Fair

and Foul(Binghamton: Medieval and Renaissance Texts

& Studies, 1992); Robert Harrison, trans., Gallic Salt:

Eighteen Fabliaux Translated from the Old French(Berke-

ley: University of California Press, 1974); Charles Musca-

tine, The Old French Fabliaux(New Haven, Conn.: Yale

University Press, 1986); R. Howard Bloch, The Scandal of

the Fabliaux (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1986).

fairs and markets Fairs and markets in the Middle

Ages were meetings of buyers and sellers at more widely

spaced intervals than usual markets. They were originally

linked to important moments in rural life, at winter’s end,

summer’s end, and the feasts of certain saints, linked with

agriculture and food production. With the economic

development of the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, cer-

tain fairs began to play important roles in long-distance

commerce. The right to authorize the creation of fairs

and markets was a royal right, eventually usurped by

local princes. By the later Middle Ages, the possession

of a fair was well recognized as a factor contributing to