133. DSC 101- The Nun's Priest's Tale (18)
Q1:- Who tells the Nun’n Priest’s tale?
A:- The priest traveling with the prioress
Q2:- How many priests were there originally?
A:- Three
Q3: Why did Chaucer abandon the other two priests and not the third?
A:- He needed to tell the Nun’s Priest’s tale
Q4:- Who is the main character?
A:- Chaunticleer
Q5:- Who is Chaunticleer?
A:- A rooster
Q6:- Who is Chanticleer’s prettiest wife?
A:- Pertelote
Q7:- Where does this take place?
A:- At the cottage of an old widow
Q8:-How many hens were there?
A:- Seven
Q9:- What is Chaunticleer’s dream of?
Ans:- That something tried to eat him
Q10:- Who dismisses his dreams?
Ans:- Pertelote
11. Briefly discuss pride as one of the main themes of "The Nun's Priest's Tale" in The Canterbury Tales?
Ans:- One of the main themes in Chaucer's "The Nun's Priest's Tale" is pride. Chaunticleer is a proud rooster whose pride almost costs him his life. Pertelote is a proud hen whose pride keeps her from recognizing the warning in a dream. The fox, too, is proud, and while he catches Chaunticleer by playing on the rooster's pride, he loses the bird through his own desire to boast.
Chaucer's "Nun's Priest's Tale" relates the adventures (and misadventures) of the proud rooster Chanticleer. The key word here is “proud,” for the main theme of the tale is pride. Chaunticleer is a fine rooster, and he knows it well. His crowing is inferior to none, and he is always right.
12. What is "The Nun's Priest's Tale" about?
A:- "The Nun's Priest's Tale'' is one of the many stories told on the pilgrimage to Canterbury in ''The Canterbury Tales'' by Geoffrey Chaucer. This tale is told by the nun's priest in response to a request for a light-hearted story, and it is indeed one of the merrier tales in the book. The nun's priest's tale is a beast fable about a rooster and his encounter with a fox.
13. Comment on the characters Chaunticleer and Lady Pertelote.
A:- Chaunticleer and Lady Pertelote
'The Nun's Priest's Tale' follows 'The Monk's Tale' in "The Canterbury Tales", when the host and knight ask for a more entertaining story. The nun's priest obliges, and tells the tale of a rooster's misadventures with a fox. The story takes place at a farm, owned and managed by a poor widow who lives quite modestly. The central figure in the fable is a rooster called Chaunticleer, who is described as being the most beautiful rooster in the land, and having the loveliest crow. He has seven wives (the seven hens who live on the farm with him), the favorite of whom is Lady Pertelote.
14. Comment on Chaunticleer's dream.
A:- One morning, Chaunticleer wakes from a nightmare in which a creature who resembles a fox is trying to attack him. Lady Pertelote ridicules Chaunticleer as a coward for being scared of a dream, and insists that dreams have no meaning. Chaunticleer argues that dreams do have meaning, and cites various examples from history and literature to prove his case.
Nevertheless, Chanticleer heeds his wife's advice to ignore his dream, and returns to the yard.
15. Briefly comment on various themes.
A:- After ignoring the dream, Chaunticleer the next day suddenly notices a fox watching him, and before he can run, the fox reassures him that he does not wish to attack, but only wants to hear his beautiful song. When Chaunticleer begins to sing, however, the fox seizes him by the neck and runs away with him. All the animals on the farm pursue the fox, attempting to rescue Chaunticleer. Chaunticleer ultimately escapes by encouraging the fox to taunt his pursuers; to do this, the fox must open his mouth, at which point Chaunticleer manages to escape the fox's jaws and run away. The narrator ends the tale here, explaining that the moral is to not fall prey to flattery. Flattery is a major theme.
Vanity Versus Modesty is another underlying theme.
The tale opens with a description of the widow and her farm. The widow is described as living modestly and abstaining from many of life's pleasures (such as wine), but never lacking in anything she needs, and generally being quite content with her life. This is contrasted with the description of Chaunticleer, who is depicted as vain and self-absorbed; an important figure on the farm, who revels in his own beauty and significance. However, his vanity leads to him falling for the fox's flattery, and thus being abducted. Chaucer juxtaposes the widow and the rooster to highlight the virtues of the modest life; the widow is happy, comfortable, and avoids the troubles that come with vanity and self-importance.
16. Is 'The Nun's Priest's Take' an animal allegory too? How? Explain.
A:- 'The Nun's Priest's Tale' is an example of a beast fable, a story in which animals are the main characters and are used to provide commentary on human behavior. Beast fables are a form of allegorical writing which is usually intended to point out the silliness of certain behaviors, and is the case here. Chaunticleer's self-importance regarding his beauty and singing appears particularly absurd because he is merely a rooster; seeing these attributes in an animal underscores how silly they are in humans as well.
17. Comment on 'The Nun's Priest's Tale' as mock heroic.
A:- Throughout 'The Nun's Priest's Tale', Chaucer uses dramatic language and literary allusion in a mock heroic style. Describing relatively insignificant events in the lives of farm animals using elevated language, and with several allusions to Homeric epics, serves to highlight the exaggerated importance that people tend to assign to their own lives and experiences.
Throughout 'The Canterbury Tales', Chaucer uses various literary devices and genres to tell the different tales. 'The Nun's Priest's Tale' is one of the light-hearted tales of the book, combining the beast fable (a story in which animals are the main characters and used to provide commentary on human behaviour) and the mock heroic style (a technique where dramatic language is used to describe a mundane event or scene) to point out the silliness of self-importance and vanity. In this tale, Chaunticleer, a very vain rooster, is central to the story. On the other hand, the widow is pretty modest in how she lives and conducts herself. However, even though Chaunticleer gets into a bit of trouble with the fox, he talks his way out of harm's way in the end by convincing the fox to taunt his pursuers so Chaunticleer is able to get away.
18. Write a critical summary of 'The Nun's Priest's Tale'.
A:- A poor widow lives a simple life in a little cottage with her two daughters. Her greatest possession is her noble rooster, Chaunticleer, who is the best singer in the land. Chaunticleer crows the time more accurately than the church clocks. His coxcomb is red as coral, his beak black as jet, and his feathers shine like burnished gold. Chaunticleer has seven hens, and his favorite is the lovely Pertelote.
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale is a beast fable. The most direct source text of the Tale is a fable by Marie de France. Although it appears to be a simple animal fable with a moral, the Tale ends up being much more complicated, with lots of allusions and plot twists.
One morning, Chaunticleer awakens from a terrible nightmare. He tells Pertelote that a savage, reddish, beast was about to swallow him. Pertelote chides him, saying that she cannot love such a coward. The Roman philosopher Cato, she says, tells men not to be scared of dreams. She says that the dream comes from some physical melancholy and urges him to take a laxative to get rid of this black bile. Chaunticleer and Pertelote argue over the correct interpretation of dreams, each citing literary authorities to back up their claims. Pertelote says that bad dreams are simply a physical reaction and that Chaunticleer should just take some medicine to set his humors in order.
Chaunticleer argues that men of even greater authority than Cato argue that dreams are extremely important. He sites authors who describe premonitions of murders in dreams in order to prove to Pertelote that “Mordre wol out” through dreams that show the truth. Chaunticleer continues to cite many books and legends that tell about men who have portentous dreams, referring to Macrobius, Scipio, Joseph, and Croesus, among others.
Chaunticleer cites many different textual sources to prove to Pertelote that dreams are matters that should be taken seriously. He uses complex literary allusions to make his point. However, in the end, Chaunticleer doesn’t follow his own advice, foolishly abandoning his own wisdom for the sake of his wife.
Chaunticleer praises Pertelote’s beauty, saying that “In principio, mulier est hominis confusion,” which he translates as “Womman is mannes joye and al his blis.” Therefore, in spite of all his evidence that dreams are important, Chaunticleer decides to abide by his wife’s advice and ignore his dreams. He then makes love to Pertelote. Chaunticleer completely mis-translates the Latin that he quotes, which really means “In the beginning, woman is man’s ruin.” His misinterpretation of the Latin foreshadows his misinterpretation of his dream and the negative ramifications of listening to his wife. (The Wife of Bath, probably, isn't a fan of this tale.)
One day in May, just as Chaunticleer has declared his perfect happiness, an inexplicable wave of sorrow comes over him. That very night, Russell the fox comes into the yard and lies in wait till morning. The Nun’s Priest laments the inevitable fate of the rooster to the murderous fox, but says it is his duty to tell the tale. Just like Adam, the cock has obeyed his wife’s counsel at his own peril.
The Nun’s Priest uses many of the conventions of both courtly romance and Homeric epic to describe his barnyard scene, lifting his story from a simple fable to the genre of mock epic and social satire. By taking noble concepts and ideas and putting them in mouths of chickens and foxes, the tale suggests that perhaps these high ideas, or those who talk about them, are not as noble or serious as they seem.
The next morning, Chaunticleer is watching a butterfly when he sees the fox watching him. Terrified, the cock is about to run away, but the sweet-talking fox flatters him. The fox says that Chaunticleer’s father was the best singer he ever heard, and he coaxes Chaunticleer to sing for him. Chaunticleer puffs out his chest, beats his wings, closes his eyes, and stretches out his throat, and just as he begins to sing, Russell darts out and grabs him by the throat.
The fox uses Chaunticleer’s own powers against him: Chaunticleer is the best singer in the barnyard, and the fox crafts his own sort of song to coax the rooster to lose his focus. The reference to Chaunticleer’s father also places this story in the tradition of many cock-and-fox beast fables.
The hens in the barnyard wail louder than the woman of Troy did when their city was captured. When the widow and her daughters hear the crying, they rush in to the barnyard. Together with all the farm animals, they all run after the fox, just like Jack Straw leading the peasants in rebellion.
The Nun’s Priest uses mock-Homeric similes in his comparison of the hens to the Trojans’ wives. In one of the only direct allusions to current events, Chaucer compares the barnyard to the 1381 peasant’s revolt in England, lead by Jack Straw.
Chaunticleer suggests to the fox that he stop and taunt his pursuers. The fox likes this idea. But as soon as the fox opens his mouth to do so, Chaunticleer flies away and perches in a high tree. The fox tries to flatter the rooster again, but Chaunticleer has learned his lesson. The moral of the story, says the Nun’s Priest, is never to trust flatterers.
Usually, the clever fox defeats the rooster in this type of beast fable, but here, Chaunticleer tricks the fox at his own game and foils Russell. The moral of the story, says the Nun’s Priest, is to never trust flatterers––perhaps a subtle jab at some of his fellow pilgrims. Though it is also worth noting that there is a moral of not trusting women or wives, either, that the Nun's Priest does not explicitly mention here.