Page 151 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes The Host is greatly relieved when the Monk is prevented by the Knight from recounting any more of
his ponderous recital. When the Priest agrees to tell a merry tale, the entire company is delighted. The
Nun’s Priest’s Tale of Chanticleer is one of the finest beast fables in the English language. In this
format, beasts personify humans and exaggerate Man’s characteristics, usually for the purpose of
teaching a lesson. The characters, as in this case with Chanticleer, often make use of classical learning
to solidify their moral instruction. The tale is suitable to the teller when one considers the position of
the Nun’s Priest. He is the servant of the Prioress who appears to be silly and sentimental. His work
forces him to live in a community of women drawn by her to the convent; it is likely that they are as
silly as their mistress, in which case, the Priest would naturally have a somewhat low opinion of
women. In the Epilogue to the tale, the Host is once again in high good humor and full of bawdy
teasing for the Priest. He next invites the Wife of Bath to tell her story.
There are no conversational links either before or after The Second Nun’s Tale, a possible indication
that this narrative is intended to be taken with complete seriousness. The tale itself is exactly what it
appears to be, the life of a saint. It is taken directly from a former work by Chaucer, The Legend of
Good Women. The listeners are getting the straight "facts" as they are related by an anonymous sister
whose reverence for St. Cecilia is completely appropriate to one of her station.

17.1 The Monk’s Tale

17.1.1 Prologue to the Monk’s Tale

When Chaucer’s tale of Melibee has finished, the Host says (for the second time) that he wishes his
wife could hear the tale of Prudence and her patience and wise counsel: his wife, he goes on to
extrapolate, is an ill-tempered shrew. Turning to address the Monk, he bids him be ‘myrie of cheere’,
and asks whether his name is John, Thomas or Albon, asking which house he is of. Admiring the
Monk’s skin and stature, the Host jokes that he could be a good breeding fowl, if only he were allowed
to breed! Religion, the Host goes on, has taken up all the best breeding people, and left just the puny
creatures to populate the world.
The Monk takes all this joking well, and promises a tale (or two, or three) of the life of Edward the
Confessor, but first, announces he will tell some tragedies, of which he has a hundred stored up.
Tragedy, as the Monk defines it, is a story from an old book of someone who fell from high degree
and great prosperity into misery, and ended wretchedly; tragedies are also usually presented in
hexameters, he thinks.

17.1.2 The Monk’s Tale Text
The Monk’s tale is a collection of tragedies, designed to advise men not to trust in blind prosperity
but be aware that Fortune is fickle and ever-changing.
Lucifer is the first tragedy told, who fell from an angelic heaven down to Hell. Adam is next, the
one man not born of original sin, who was driven from Paradise.
Sampson’s tale is told at greater length, explaining how he fell from grace when he admitted his
secret to his wife, who betrayed it to his enemies and then took another lover. The story is that
Samson slew one thousand men with an ass’s jawbone, then prayed for God to quench his thirst.
From the jawbone’s tooth sprung a well. He would have conquered the world if he had not told
Delilah that his strength came from his refusal to cut his hair. Without this strength his enemies cut
out Samson’s eyes and imprisoned him. In the temple where Samson was kept he knocked down
two of the pillars, killing himself and everyone else in the temple.

Hercules’ tragedy is next. Hercules’ strength was unparalleled, but he was finally
defeated when Deianera sent Hercules a poisoned shirt made by Nessus.

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