The Nun’s Priest Tale

This tale functions on many levels:

beast fable (bestiary), a short didactic narrative where animals behave like humans. It is used to teach a moral or lesson. It is a commentary on man’s foibles. If animals behave like humans, do humans behave like animals? Mankind loses much of its dignity and is reduced to animal behavior. Both the rooster and the man have the same quality—vanity. Yet, Chaucer never lets us forget the characters are a fox and a rooster.

mock epic, “a long, heroicomical poem that merely imitates features of the classical epic. The poet often takes an elevated style of language, but incongruously applies that language to mundane or ridiculous objects and situations. The mock epic focuses frequently on the exploits of an antihero whose activities illustrate the stupidity of the class or group he represents. Various other attributes common to the classical epic, such as the invocation of the muse or the intervention of the gods, or the long catalogs of characters, appear in the mock epic as well, only to be spoofed” (Wheeler).

When the fox has Chaunticleer in his jaws, the ensuing chase reminds one of Achilles chasing Hector (Nicoll).

Narrated in elevated language used in great epics

Pertelote is described in term of romance literature (like Prioress)

The capture of Don Russel (the fox) is described in terms of other prominent traitors (Iscariet, second Ganelon, and false hypocrite Greek Sinon (Nicoll).

Barnyard animals discuss philosophy, divine foreknowledge shown in dreams, and theological issues

Uses classical sources to comment on dreams (Cato,

High intellect and moral tone.

Description of Chaunticleer uses adjectives that would be used to describe warrior.

Some also consider it an allegory.

Chaunticleer’s situation resembles Adam’s

Medieval art represented Eden as enclosed garden

Chaunticleer and Pertelote live in bliss with enemy lurking around trying to entrap them.

Chaunticleer lets his infatuation with Pertelote cloud his brain (disregards his own deductions about the dream)

Follows Eve’s advice (to eat the apple)

From the moment Chaunticleer decides to enjoy himself to the point the fox catches him alludes to the Fall of Man

Adam fell because of gluttony, lust, and pride

Chaunticleer is absorbed in all three distractions which blind him from being vigilant about danger (Phillips 189).

Warning against carelessness, negligence, and flattery (the type of simple moral given in Aesopian fables)

“Chaucer makes Chaunticleer, for all his foolish arrogance, the character with whom we sympathize, and in the religious symbolism he represents ourselves and all human kind as an Adam-figure, the archetypal human who falls victim to the Devil’s snares through his own folly, conceit, and pursuit of worldly pleasures” (Philips 188).

Ironic

toward both the simple life of widow and the life of the rich—implication “living the humble Christian life is easier for the poor who have few obligations.

Chaunticleer’s obligation is to crow (symbol of boasting in those times). Light hearted analysis of human pride.

Contrasts the two worlds in intro (widow versus Chaunticleer). Use castle terms for poor widow’s home.

Chaunticleer also quotes Latin incorrectly.

Ironic contrasts between two worlds: the barnyard and the real world (Nicoll). Humanity and nobility of animals is juxtaposed against barnyard life. Comment on human pretensions and aspirations

Ironic: the cock and the hen have a stable, robust marriage, unlike others in the pilgrimage.

This story parodies

Epic poetry

Medieval scholarship

Courtly romance

Style:

Overblown descriptions

Apostrophes

.Rhyming couplets

Tale within a tale

Based on a tale “Del cok e del gupil” (“The Cock and the Fox”) by Marie de France (Harvard)

Nun’s Priest is telling tale of cock with seven wives (priest is in similar situation himself since he is confessor to a group of nuns).

Prologue

The Knight interrupts the Monk’s tale of men who fall from their heights. He still praises the Monk but asks him not to tell any more depressing tales. He wants to hear of a man who rises from poverty to prosperity. Host asks him to tell another merry tale (not sacred) because tragedy ought not to be told as part of a game; it annoys the audience, but Monk refuses. Host calls on Nun’s priest to do the same.The Host, Harry Bailey insists it be a tale for amusement with no solemn message, but the Priest counters it by saying the readers can interpret it however they want (ties back to intro with sacred and secular reasons for going on the pilgrimage).

Although the tale is not a personal attack on the Monk, “he gets his licks in at the Monk just at the turning point of his story with sly reference to Fortune” ( Richman). “Priest’s subtle wit contrasts vividly with Monk’s pomposity, his ironic view of the world with the Monk’s grimness, his commonsense moral with the Monk’s dispirited amorality, and his economy and dramatic verve point up the Monk’s failure as a storyteller’ (Howard 274).

  • Medieval “fruit” was symbolic meaning common in Medieval allegories (Harvard)
  • “Chaff” was literal meaning (Harvard)
  • Moral: folly of talking too much. Know when to speak and when not to speak. It points a finger at the whole idea of beast fable or oral tradition.
  • Need to keep your eyes open against the tricks of the devil.
  • On a deeper level it acts as a challenge.
  • Interpreting dreams is a favorite theme in Medieval literature
  • Tale is a return to the basics. Started with poor widow and dusty yard, a setting far removed from the tragedies of the Monk. Tale keeps emphasizing “bottoms” with laxatives and dung carts (“Summary”). Good natured sense of groundedness.

Boundary between animal and human is blurred from the very beginning when the Host mocks the Nun’s Priest, who being a religious man would have been celibate, by suggesting that he would have made excellent breeding stock.

Themes:

  • Issue of a woman’s counsel: Should Chaunticleer take Pertelote’s advice about dreams. Tale suggests that he should have never listened to his wife, but then you must remember it is animal instinct for a fox to eat a chicken. It has nothing to do with foreknowledge (“Summary” ). Also highlighted immediately after this when rooster calls hens together because he saw a grain and then spends time with hen (sexually). He is both human and chicken.

Works Cited

Howard, Donald R. The Idea of the Canterbury Tales. Los Angeles :U of California P,

1976. Print.

Phillips, Helen. An Introduction to the Canterbury Tales.New York: St. Martin’s, 2000. Print.