The Respectable fabliau

Abstract This article suggests that the fabliau is less scandalous and more respectable than might at first sight seem to be the case. Three major poets, Jean Bodel, Rutebeuf, and Jean de Conde are accomplished and practitioners of the genre. By demonstrating that their fabliaux share stylistic, rhetorical, and structural features with their other works and with other genres of Old French literature in general, I argue in favour of the view that the "conte a rire en vers" lies at the centre and not on the periphery of the Old French literary corpus.