The medieval fabliau was a short comic or satiric tale in verse dealing realistically with middle-class or lower-class characters.
The favorite theme is the cuckolding of a stupid husband. (Professor Douglas Bush neatly characterized the type as "a short story broader than it
is long.")
The fabliau flourished in France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and became popular in England during the fourteenth century.
Chaucer, who wrote one of the greatest serious short stories in verse, the ac-
count of Death and the rioters in "The Pardoner's Tale," also wrote one of the
best fabliaux, the hilarious "Miller's Tale."
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