Namangan davlat universiteti ingliz filologiyasi fakulteti amaliy ingliz tili kafedrasi

 
Fable and Fabliau 
In urban literature fables and fabliaux were also popular. Fable is a short tale or prolonged 
personification with animal characters intended to convey a moral truth; it’s a myth, a fiction, a 
falsehood. It’s a short story about supernatural or extraordinary persons or incidents. Fabliaux are 
funny metrical short stories about cunning humbugs and the unfaithful wives of rich merchants. 
These tales were popular in medieval France. These stories were told in the dialects of Middle 
English. They were usually comic, frankly coarse and often cynical. The urban literature did not 
idealize characters as the romances did. The fabliaux show a practical attitude to life. 
Pre-Renaissance Period in English Literature 
In the 14th century the Norman kings made London their residence. It became the most 
inhabited and busy town in England. (The London dialect was the central dialect, and could be 
understood throughout the country). Even peasants who wished to get free of their masters went to 
London. But the life in the country was miserable especially with the so-called Hundred Years’ 
War flamed by king Edward against France. There was another burden on people’s shoulders – rich 
foreign bishops of the Catholic Church, who did not care of people’s sufferings. The protest against 
the Catholic Shurch and the growth of national feeling during the first years of the War found the 
reflection in literature. There appeared poor priests who wandered from one village to another and 
talked to the people. They protested not only against rich bishops but also against churchmen who 
were ignorant and could not teach people anything. Among poor priests were then acknowledged 
poets William Langland and John Wyclif. 
William Langland (1332-1400)
was a poor priest. His parents were poor but free peasants. 
He denounced the rich churchmen and said that everybody was obliged to work. His name is 
remembered for a poem he wrote, “The Visions of William Concerning Piers the Ploughman” 
(Piers -Peter). Nowadays the poem is called “Piers Plowman”.
“Piers Plowman” is an allegorical poem. In it Vice and Virtue are spoken of as if they were 
human beings. Truth is a young maiden, Greed is an old witch. The poem was very popular in the 

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Middle Ages. It begins with a vision which the poet William had on the Malvern Hills. In a long 
and complicated succession of scenes Langland portrays almost every side of fourteenth-century 
life. In his dream the poet sees Piers the Ploughman, a peasant. Piers tells him about the hard life of 
the people. He sees the corruption of wealth, and the inadequacies of government. To him, the only 
salvation lies in honest labour and in the service of Christ. If Langland were not a mystic, he would 
have been a revolutionary. He is the nearest approach to Dante in English poetry, for despite his 
roughness, and the bleak atmosphere of much of his work, he has written the greatest poem in 
English devoted to the Christian way of life.
But modern poetry begins with one of the most prominent people of the Middle English period 
– Geoffrey Chaucer, diplomat, soldier and scholar.