My dear husband read the fabliau draft and commented unfavorably on the at-times irregular meter, and on some of the slang.
Meter: Well, my Internet efforts had yielded only that fabliaux, and most French poetry at the time, were in octosyllabic couplets. No information on meter. So meter must be free, right?
Or French doesn't really have linguistic stresses, so 'meter' doesn't apply.
English does have stresses. Meter does apply. I should probably go with either iambic or trochaic, and at least be consistent in the same couplet. We'll see - I think I'll go for a full draft and sharpen it up as time allows.
Slang: This, I'm divided on. It's a translator's dilemma - the modern slang provides the correct emotional effect at the possible expense of ruining the illusion of a medieval work. I don't go in for purposeful archaic expressions, but that's a slightly different beast than purposefully modern-sounding ones.
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