Canturberry Tales - The Nun's Priest's Tale This is a charming little fable cleverly disguised as a barnyard
story. In the first twenty-six lines, the setting of the story is described
as a small farm, belonging to a very plain widow and her two daughters. The
widow is a simple woman of good heath, who has managed to make it despite her
unfortunate circumstance of being slightly impoverished. In lines
twenty-seven through forty-four we are introduced to the story's main
character, Chanticleer. He was in fact an exceptional rooster who was
blessed with an equally exceptional crow. In lines forty-five through
fifty-nine we learn that Chanticleer is the master of his domain. However,
as we read on it is found that the key to his heart belongs to the Lady
Pertelote, indirectly characterized as the perfect woman. The next two lines
are a dead give away that the story is in fact, a fable, lending
onomatopoetic devises to the barnyard members. Line sixty-two finally brings
us to the actual story. One morning right before dawn, Chanticleer awoke in
sheer terror. Of course Lady Pertelote was considerably concerned, and
questioned her true love as to what the problem was. Chanticleer goes on to
describe a very vivid, very disturbing dream. In fact it was a premonition
of his own untimely death. Upon hearing the cause of Chanticleer's fright,
Lady Pertelote becomes slightly upset. Actually she downright enraged. How,
she wondered, could such an amazing animal be scarred of one little dream,
especially since it was most likely caused by something he ate. Basically,
she told him he was a big coward. Then she goes on to prescribe a cure for
his dream, a steady diet of laxatives. Finally she assures him not to be
afraid of the dream. Like a typical male, Chanticleer has to be difficult
and stars ranting about how educated men believe dreams to be something
meaningful. He then goes on, rolling off numerous examples of dreams that
have come true. Each example centralizing around premonitions of death. In
more simple terms, Chanticleer is stating that he is right and Lady Pertelote
is wrong. However, he does drop the subject and playfully suggests an
"extracurricular activity". Life goes on its merry way. Then one day in
early May, fate began to run its course. For in the shadows of the cabbage
patch a sly fox by the name of Sir Russel Fox, was patiently stalking our
little rooster friend. Lines four hundred nine and ten foreshadow a great
betrayal, by naming some of histories most famous traitors. The narrator
then chooses to pause in the tale and present the argument of whether or not
fate in a factor of predestination or of pure chance. If, life is in fact
predestined, Chanticleer's dream was simply the heavens way of letting him
know his time was upon him. Before returning to the story the age-old
argument of " a woman is man's doom", is also presented. Is a man's untimely
end always at the hands of a woman, whether intentional or by pure
coincidence? Many stories would have us to believe this dogma to be true.
Returning to the story, we find Chanticleer and his hens enjoying the
morning, unaware of the danger spying on them from afar. By chance, a
butterfly that caught the attention of Chanticleer landed on the fox.
Needless to say Chanticleer was definitely scarred, to say the least. A
natural reaction would have been to flee, but the fear in Chanticleer's heart
froze him to where he was standing. The fox, who was indeed a sly creature,
effectively spun a tale of how his only reason there was to hear
Chanticleer's glorious voice, for chanter in French does indeed mean to sing.
The fox plays off Chanticleer's ego and an obvious human folly, conceit.
This does do the trick and the cock gets cocky. While Chanticleer is so
wrapped up in the performance he is about to give, the fox gives in to his
animal instinct and grabs Chanticleer by his throat. All the hens were sure
their prince was dead, and let out cries so mournful they had surely never
been heard before. The guilt that lay on Lady Pertelote's heart consumed
her, and in our opinion caused her to fall upon an early grave. Upon hearing
all the noise from farm, the widow rushes to see what is wrong. After seeing
the fox with Chanticleer in his mouth, the widow, her daughters, their dogs,
and a lot of others give the fox chase, making a hell of a noise as they
followed the fox. At this point fate changes course. Incredibly,
Chanticleer is living, and in a desperate attempt to escape with his life,
tries to trick the fox. Chanticleer suggests to the fox that if he was
indeed going to eat him, he'd better do it before the lynch mob caught him.
The fox readily agrees and as he is about to swallow Chanticleer, the clever
little bird flies to the sanctuary of a nearby tree. At the thought of
loosing his meal, the fox tries in vain to trick Chanticleer again by
suggesting he was merely excited at the prospect of hearing his wonderful
voice, and accidentally grabbed him too hard. Fortunately, our hero has
learned his lesson, and is not to be deceived so easily ever again. There is
more than one lesson to be learned from Chanticleer's story. One theory
being that one should trust one's own intuition and let it be their guide.
Another lesson learned is that you should never let your pride interfere with
your judgement. So ends the first story of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Partner sites: French Bulldog, Spanish school in Quito, and Wedding Speeches