The Nun’s Priest’s Tale – Complete Analysis
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale is a Medieval poem by Geoffrey Chaucer.
Read the poem here
About the poem
“The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” is one of the poems in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”. Written between 1387 and 1400, this medieval work circulated in numerous manuscripts. After the introduction of the printing press in England, “The Canterbury Tales” was first published by William Caxton in 1476. Caxton produced a second, illustrated edition in 1483.
Structure of the poem
“The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” is a narrative poem presented in a third-person voice – the Nun’s Priest. The story anthropomorphizes animals to create a humorous and memorable beast tale. This tale is satirical as it comments on human nature using humour, irony, and reflection to showcase the life of the rooster, Chanticleer, and how he was tricked and nearly eaten by a cunning fox.
The animal characters in “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” satirize human foibles, such as pride and gullibility. It also shows how easily people are enticed by flattery. The mock-heroic style employed elevates the story to an epic.
“The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” consists of 384 lines written in continuous format as a story but broken into poetic forms using poetic devices to add colour and appeal.
The narrative is introduced with a prologue, “The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue”, a much shorter narrative poem. This seamlessly links the poem to the previous tale in “The Canterbury Tales”. The use of the prologue ensures continuity and builds coherence. It provides a bridge between “The Monk’s Tale” and “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”.
It is important to mention what came before “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” in the original order of “The Canterbury Tales”. “The Monk’s Tale” consists of 17 short, tragic stories that are based on historical events. The Monk states that he has 100 stories to tell, but the Knight stops him after the 17th story because his stories were too sad. The Host’s requests a lighter tale after this, and the Nun’s Priest steps in, creating the shift from tragic somber to humorous satire.
“The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue” consists of 35 lines and “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” of 384 lines.
Title of the poem
The title’s significance derives from the larger context of the collection, “The Canterbury Tales”, in which the poem, “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” is published. It highlights the Nun’s Priest as the narrator of the story.
Secondly, the title indicates the religious undertone and worldly wisdom portrayed in the story. With the mention of the Nun’s Priest, the reader expects a religious instruction, a moral story, or a controversial tale about a Nun’s Priest. To underscore the religious inclination of the tale, the narrator references Saint Paul in lines 379-380.
Content analysis
The poem begins with the Priest telling about the situation of a widow who owns the farm. Then it proceeds to describe the farm and the situation of the main animal characters on the farm. The life of Chanticleer, the rooster, and his seven wives, with his favourite, Pertelote, then unfolds. Below is the highlight of the scenes in “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” the order.
1. The Setting:
The tale is set on a farm that belongs to a poor widow with two daughters. It describes the widow’s age, life from when she was widowed, the location of the cottage, the farm, and the farm animals she kept.
2. Introduction of Chanticleer:
Chanticleer was described as the most beautiful rooster in the barn, who had seven hens. He believes himself to be superior to all. His pride was highlighted with the mention of how regularly he crows in his lodge (line 29). The seven hens under Chanticleer’s governance are noted as being there to give him “pride and all pleasance”. This domestic setting depicts a husband and his wives, and the pride and pleasure the husband takes in his wives.
3. Introduction of Pertelote:
Immediately after Chanticleer was introduced, his favourite hen was described. Pertelote is the “fairest hued upon her throat” (line 40). She was described as courteous, companionable, discreet, and debonnaire (lines 42-43). She was dearly loved by Chanticleer, and they both sang when the sun came up. This mirrors love activities between lovers and quality time spent together.
4. The Dream:
One morning, Chanticleer awakes from a terrible dream, fearing a beast will attack him. As he groans in his waking, Pertelote asks him about what troubles him. Chanticleer tells her of his dream. He said the beast was in the form of a dog and attacked him. He feared that his dream would come true. To buttress his belief in dreams being linked to everyday affairs, he further told a story of two friends on a journey who slept in different lodges, and one was murdered in his sleep. While the event unfolded, the other dreamed a dream where his friend told him of all that happened to him and where to find his body in the morning. And all he saw in his dream was just the same in real life.
The dream pictures intuition, dreams, and premonitions – ways the human mind warns of danger, keeping us alert, ensuring we take precaution.
5. Lady Pertelote’s Advice:
Lady Pertelote dismisses Chanticleer’s fears. She argues that dreams are meaningless and urges Chanticleer not to be spiritless and a coward. She explains that what a woman wants is “a husband hardy, wise, and free”. States that he can only protect his wife if he is strong – presenting a societal opinion on social customs based on the perspective of the gender speaking. This may be an indication of the accepted social role of a husband in the medieval period when the poem was written.
6. The Fox’s Appearance and Deception:
Chanticleer responds to Pertelote’s advice, stating that no man should be reckless with the information they got from a dream and that, from what he saw, he had cause to fear. However, he praises her beauty as something that calms him when he is afraid. Then, discarding his fears, he takes the courage to fly down from the beam, calling his hens as he found grains of corn for them to eat.
Days passed (32 days in total (line 216).
One day, Chanticleer was out under a “great bright sun” with his seven hens and singing with Lady Pertelote as he usually did. A fox named Russel, who has been lying in wait for Chanticleer, appears and flatters Chanticleer, praising his father’s beautiful singing and heralding Chanticleer as being equally talented. The flattery got to Chanticleer.
This scene represents the main conflict and moral lesson – Chanticleer’s pride and vanity led him to fall for the fox’s flattery, exposing him to danger. When Chanticleer could have fled the scene to safety, he was enthralled by the fox’s flattery (lines 279 – 324)
7. The Capture of Chanticleer:
As Chanticleer succumbs to the fox’s flattery, the fox grabs him by the neck and makes for the woods. The widow and her daughters, the farm animals, and other people chased after the fox. The description of the chase is vivid, a parody of epic pursuits. However, the pursuit is also exaggerated to add humour, and none of these characters caught up with the fox.
8. Chanticleer Escapes the Fox:
Chanticleer turns the tables on the fox. He advises the fox to mock his pursuers, triggering the fox’s vanity. The fox, wanting to show off, opens his mouth to shout. Chanticleer, seizing the opportunity, escapes and perches on top of a tree (lines 355-357).
The fox again tries to flatter Chanticleer to come down from the tree, but he refuses (Lines 358-368). He claimed he did not mean Chanticleer any harm, but wants to hear him sing more closely but nothing he says moved Chanticleer to come down.
This scene shows that wit is a great ally when dealing with sly characters like the fox. It also shows the importance of reflection – Chanticleer seeing his error that led to his capture, refuses to repeat the same mistake.
9. The Moral of the Story:
“The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” moral centers around the dangers of pride and flattery. It also shows the need to use wit instead of force in trickery situations.
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Language and Diction
The language of the poem is Middle English, highlighting the times in which Chaucer lived. Geoffrey Chaucer uses elevated language to portray the epic conversations in the poem, and the choice of words that describe the characters and events showcase irony and enhance the satirical effect of the tale.
Chaucer carefully applies the nuances of the language at the time to create layers of stories within the story – Chanticleer tells Pertelote a story within “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, within Chaucer’s story. Yet, the story appears to have been told in totality by the Nun’s Priest.
Mood and tone
“The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” is mainly humorous and satirical. The mood is sometimes tense and sometimes light. The tone and mood are carefully set to enhance the dynamics of the narrative to keep it engaging, and at the same time keep the moral lessons at the fore.
Also, the shift in the mood and tone of the characters in the narrative poem reflects human nature, stirring reflection in the reader.