ROMANCE or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles

of High Medieval and Early Modern Europ e. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as having heroic qualities, who goes on a quest. Popular liter ature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric or burlesque inte nt. Romances reworked legends, fairy tales, and history to suit the readers' and hearers' tastes. FABLIAU is a comic, often anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast Franc e between ca. 1150 and 1400. They are generally characterized by an excessivenes s of sexual and scatological obscenity. HOMILY-a commentary that follows a reading of scripture. Homily is usually given during Massat the end of the Liturgy of the Word. Many people consider it synon ymous with a sermon. SAINT s LIVES- a major resource for anyone concerned with the history of the late ancient world, Byzantium, or the Latin Middle ages. Just as whole genres of anci ent literature vanished or diminished, the genre of hagiography became a major f orm of literary production. Such saint's Lives - or vitae - survive in astonishi ng numbers. Careful reading of them reveals, as one might expect, a great deal a bout the religious life of the periods that produced them. RHYME ROYALis a rhyming stanza form that was introduced into English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer.The rhyme royal stanza consists of seven lines, usually in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b-b-c-c. In practice, the stanza ca n be constructed either as a terza rima and two couplets (a-b-a, b-b, c-c) or a quatrain and a tercet (a-b-a-b, b-c-c). This allows for a good deal of variety, especially when the form is used for longer narrative poems; and along with the couplet, it was the standard narrative metre in the late Middle Ages. IAMBIC PENTAMETER-is a commonly used metrical line in traditional verse and vers e drama. The term describes the particular rhythm that the words establish in th at line. That rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables; these small group s of syllables are called "feet". The word "iambic" describes the type of foot t hat is used . The word "pentameter" indicates that a line has five of these "fee t." RHYMED COUPLETS-A couplet is a pair of lines of verse and a rhyming couplet is w hen the last word of each of these lines rhymes (perfectly, not half rhyme). Yes terday, I was a CAT ,But I ate some cake and I got FAT. ELEGY-The Greek term elegeiaoriginally referred to any verse written in elegiac couplets and covering a wide range of subject matter, including epitaphs for tom bs. The Latin elegy of ancient Roman literature was most often erotic or mytholo gical in nature. Because of its structural potential for rhetorical effects, the elegiac couplet was also used by both Greek and Roman poets for witty, humorous , and satiric subject matter.