Beast fable |
Moralizing tale illustrating human behaviour through animal characters |
Breton lai |
Short verse tale dealing with love and/or the supernatural |
Estates satire |
Satirical caricature of the traditional classes of society, highlighting their dysfunction |
Exemplum |
A moralizing tale, illustrating how (not) to live one’s life |
Fabliau |
Verse tale, often obscene, ridiculing members of some social class or profession and celebrating trickery |
Fragment |
In Chaucer studies, a group of Canterbury Tales connected by links (prologues and epilogues) as well as internal cross-referencing |
Holograph |
A manuscript in the author’s own hand |
Minstrel romance |
Short, formulaic verse form for oral delivery |
Physiognomy |
Character analysis on the basis of outward features |
Romance |
Verse tale of adventure and/or courtly love |
The Three Estates |
Society’s main classes: clergy, nobility, and peasantry |