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Definition: fable from Philip's Encyclopedia

Literary genre which takes the form of a short allegorical tale, intended to convey a moral. The oldest extant fables are the Greek tales of Aesop and the Indian stories of the Panchatantra. Other notable collections of fables were made by Jean de La Fontaine and John Gay. See also allegory

FABLE

From The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
A brief verse or prose narrative or description, whose characters may be animals ("The Cicada and the Ant") or inanimate objects ("The Iron Pot and the Clay Pot") acting like humans; or, less frequently, personified abstractions ("Love and Madness") or human types, whether literal ("The Old Man and the Three Young Men") or metaphorical ("The Danube Peasant"). The narrative or description may be preceded, followed, or interrupted by a separate, relatively abstract statement of the fable's theme or thesis. I. History Despite suggestions that the Panchatantra (transcribed ca. 3rd c. BCE) is the fountainhead of the Eur. fable, the genre probably arose spontaneously in Greece with Hesiod's poem of the hawk and the nightingale (8th c. BCE), followed by Archilochus's fragments on the fox and the eagle (7th c. BCE). The first collection of Gr. fables is attributed to Aesop (6th c. BCE) and is known to us through Maximus Planudes' l4th-c. ed. of a prose text transcribed by Demetrius of Phalerum…
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Full text Article FABLE

From Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions
A fable is a short story, in verse or prose, usually involving humor or wit, that has two criteria: the use of characters and purpose. The characters of a fable are mostly animals and sometimes plants or inanimate objects, all of which are personified, speaking and acting like human beings while…
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Full text Article fable

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
brief allegorical narrative, in verse or prose, illustrating a moral thesis or satirizing human beings. The characters of a fable are usually animals who talk and act like people while retaining their animal traits. The oldest known fables are those in the Panchatantra , a collection of fables in…
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Full text Article Fables

From Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature
ca. 1160–1215 Work Author: Marie de France Although currently less popular than her Lais , particularly her well-known Lanval , the Fables of Marie de France were her best-known work in the Middle Ages, with some 25 extant manuscripts dating from the 13th through 15th centuries. This collection of…
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Full text Article fable

From The Macquarie Dictionary
a short tale to teach a moral, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters; apologue the fable of the tortoise and the hare., fables a story not founded on fact. Plural: fables a story about supernatural or extraordinary persons or incidents; a legend. Plural: fables legends or myths…
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Full text Article FABLE

From The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
A brief verse or prose narrative or description, whose characters may be animals ("The Cicada and the Ant") or inanimate objects ("The Iron Pot and the Clay Pot") acting like humans; or, less frequently, personified abstractions ("Love and Madness") or human types, whether literal ("The Old Man and…
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Full text Article fable

From The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature
A fictitious narrative; the term is used especially of stories in which animals or inanimate objects are the protagonists. There is a meaning hidden beneath the surface of the tale, and the intention is usually to make some comment, often satirical, on human conduct. The tradition of the fable in…
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Full text Article Phrases from fables

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Aesop A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: The Hawk and the Nightingale After all is said and done, more is said than done: The Tortoise and the Hare A man is known by the company he keeps: The Ass and His Purchaser Birds of a feather flock together: The Farmer and the Stork Don't cry over…
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Full text Article The Fables of La Fontaine

From Encyclopedia of Renaissance Literature
1668–1679 Work Author: Jean de La Fontaine Some think that La Fontaine undertook writing his fables, at least in part, to curry the royal favor of Louis XIV. To achieve this aim the poet's strategy seems to have been to create a children's book for the princes of the royal line. In so doing, La…
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Full text Article fable

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Narration intended to enforce a useful truth, especially one in which animals or inanimate objects speak and act like human beings. Unlike a folktale, it has a moral that is woven into the story and often explicitly formulated at the end. The Western fable tradition began with tales ascribed to…
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Full text Article CHANTE-FABLE

From The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
A med. Fr. dramatic recitation composed, as the name implies, of sections of verse and prose, the former intended to be sung, the latter spoken, perhaps by two jongleurs alternately. The verse form is unusual: a seven-syllable line in assonance , each lyric ending in a four-syllable line without…
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