UNIT 6 'A STUDY OF THE NONNE PREESTES

TALE'. I

Structure
Objectives
Introduction to the Unit
Introduction to the Nonne Preestes Tale (NPT)
Note on the Narrative Art
Stories and Story-Tellers in the Tale
The Priest, the Poet, and other Characters in the Tale
The ironic Structure-Sympathy and Detachment
The Complex Formal Design: Sermon, Fable, Mock-heroic, Comic, Ironic
Summing Up

6.0 OBJECTIVES

The objective of this unit is to help you study the text in a critical manner. After
reading this unit you will be able to

(a) Comprehend and translate the language of the text,

(b) Appreciate its poetic qualities,
(c) Evaluate the Nonne Preestes Tale,
(d) Know Chaucer as a great narrative poet.

6.1 INTRODUCTION 1
In this unit we have discussed various aspects of NPT. It is a tale among the tales of
the Canterbury Tale. We have shown how it is related to the context. The other
Tales in CT form that context. We have briefly mentioned the framework of the
whole poem. It consists of (a) The General Prologue (b) The talk on the Road and (c)
the tales.

Two Italian parallels, possible sources, have been mentioned. -

The distinctive quality of the narrative act of Chaucer has been brought out. It has
been shown the story is characteristic of the story teller. The irony and drama of the
story have been brought out. +!

The complex formal design of the tale, we suggest, should be analysed into the
following main elements:

'(a) Sermon
(b) Reflection
(c) mock-heroic
(d) comedy
(e) the dream, the dream stories and the debate on dreams
(f) the themes
(g) the tale '

Each one of these elements has been briefly discussed.

 6.2 INTRODUCTION TO THE NONNE PREESTES TALE NPT-I

In other units on Chaucer you have learnt about his age, his poetic o~itput.The
Canterbury Tales and the General Prologue. You know that Chaucer is regarded as a
great story-teller in English verse. You are now going to study one of the Canterbury
Tales which is one of the best short stories in English verse.

In the general Prologue (lines 785-800), the Poet makes the Host devise the narrative
plan. This is a dramatic manner of stating the plan,.and the fact that the plan turns
out to be too ambitious sheds ironic light on it. The Host's plan is not the poet's.
According to the plan, The Canterbury Tales should have had one hundred and
twenty four stories, but it has only twenty complete and four i~lcompleteones.
Chaucer has, thus, left the poem incomplete. Moreover, the sequence and grouping
of the tales is determined variously in the Ellesmere and other manuscripts. The poet
had left that undecided. But the poem is an aesthetic whole.

.-
The three main structural units of The Canterbury Tales (CT) are : 1 The general
Prologue, 2. The Tales, and 3. The Talk on the Road, linking them and providing a
lively transition fiom one tale to another.

You studied the general Prologue in detail. It is important to appreciate the value of
the other two structural units-the tales and the Talk on the Road.

NPT is not an isolated tale. It belongs to a series of tales. It is, therefore, useful to
have an idea of the general perspective of the Canterbury Tales. An idea of the other
tales in outline will make you see the place of NPT in the whole scheme better.

The knight, appropriately granted the privilege of telling the first tale, tells a romantic
story in the, heroic manner. His tale of the contest of Palamon and Arcite for the love
of Emily is full of philosophical reflections. An example is the following lines from
a speech of Theseus.

The Firste Mover of the cause above

- Whan he first made the faire chain of love,
Greet was theffect; and high was his entente,
Well wist he why and what thereof he mente
For with that faire chain of love he bond
- The fire, the air, the water, and the land
In certain boundes that they may not flee.,

After the knight's Tale, we have the Miller's tale of an Oxford carpenter persuaded by
his wife and a clerk to sit all night in a tub, to be ready to row away when Noah's
- Flood came again. , ,

The contrast between the romantic and the realistic, the serious and the comic, is
.
illustrated in the different styles of these first two tales.

The thirdtale, The Reeve's, answers the miller's ridicule of the old carpenter by a
story ridiculing a miller. Then follows the Cook's unfinished tale. Next we have the
prose tale of Melibee told by the poet himself. This is followed by the man of Law's
Tale. Then we have the shipman!s Tale in whicha merchant is deceived by his wife
and a monk. The next tale, the prioress's, is of the little chorister murdered by Jews
for his devotion to the Blessed virgin and of the miracle the virgin wrought for him.
This is followed by Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas, written as a parody of the old
romances of chivalry. Then we have the Monk's Tale of the Fall of Princes:
Tlse medieval Poet Our text, NPT, comes, after this tale. The Doctor of Physic's Tale of Appinius and
Chnucer Virginia follows it. The next tale, the Pardoner's is of the three rioters who went in
quest of Death, and found him in their greed for gold. Next, the wife of Bath's tale of
the condemned knight saved by an old woman who taught him the answer to a riddle.
She had made him promise beforehand to marry her, and, on his marrying her,
became a beautiful girl. Then we have the Friar's tale of a summoner who was seized
by the Devil. The summener retaliates in his tale which follows. Then the clerk's
Tale, which is an old rendering by the poet of Petrarch's Latin story of the Patience or
grisilde. The Merchant's Tale, which follows, answers the clerk with a story of how a
young wife deceived her old husband. .
The squire's Tale of Cambuscan and his fair daughter Canacee, and the rnagic sword,
minor and ring is followed by the Franklin's Tale of the '3~1thof Dorigen and the
generosity of a squire and astrologer. Then comes the Second Nun's Tale of St.
Cecilia Next, we have the canon's Yeomans's Tale of how another canon cheated a
priest by pretending to transmute silver into gold. This is followed by the Manciple's
Tale of how Apollo punished a crow for revealing a woman's untruth. The last tale
by the Parson is a prose sermon on the Seven Deadly sins and true Penitence.

Neither an epic nor a single narrative, CT is a unique medley. The tales exemplie
two central themes-the familiar human instincts of sex and acquisitiveness, two of
the seven deadly sins- i.e. lechery and avarice. G.L. Kittredge (1 91 1-12) regarded
CT as a kind of human comedy in which the Pilgrims are the dramatic personae, "and
their stories are only speeches that are somewhat longer than common entertaining in
and for themselves (to be sure), but primarily significant, in each case because they
illustrate the speaker's character and opinions, or show the relations of the travelers to
one another in the progressive action of the Pilgrimage". He spoke of "the marriage
Act of the Human comedy" in which the wife of Bath is "at or near the centre of the
stage". The famous line spoken by the wife is not unrelated to the cock's infatuation
with the hen in NPT. She exclaimed in the Prologue to her Tale:

Allas! Allas! That ever love was sinne

And the cock adapted a line from the Latin Bible
Woman is mannes joy and all his bliss.

The Talk on the Road-the third structural component - links the tales together,
The Host, who is personally conducting the tour, dominates the talk. He is tactful,
alert and humorous. When he has an exchange of angry abuse with the Pardoner, the
knight intervenes as a peacemaker. Quarrelssand disputes in the Talk on the Road,
however, centre round "the age old war of the sexes". Strikingly, there are many
confessions in the Talk - the wife of Bath's, the Pardoner's, the Canon's Yeoman's and
the Merchant's. These confessions give the Talks an air of honesty and sincerity, a
sure sign of spiritual progress. The Poet's Relraction concludes the poem, revealing
the spiritual and symbolic aspects of the realistic pilgrimage:

Of thilke parfit glorious pilgrymage. .

That highte Jerusalem celestial !

It may be suggested that the pilgrimage is a masquerade unmasking the real self of
the pilgrims including the poet.

The Decameron by Boccacio in the Italian language has been held by Chaucer
scholars to be a close parallel to the Canterbury Tales in many respects. "The general
topics of its tales are very similar to those of Chaucer: four of Boccaccio's tales are
analogues to four of Chaucer's; and in Boccaccio's apology for the impropriety of
some of his stories he makes the same defence as that offered by Chaucer for the
same fault (see GP lines 725-46). But the unity, balance, nzatness and symmetry of
Boccaccio's plan conlrasts with the diversity and lack of plan in CT. In the
Decameron, on hundred stories are told in ten day, ten on each day, one by each
member of a group of ten". Another Italian collection of stories, the Novelle by NPT-I
Giovanni Serccambi of Lucca, an imitation of the Decameron, contains 155 stories.
All the tales in this are told by the author himself. The framing story in the Novelle is
a detailed nanative of routine events in contrast with the Human comedy of Chaucer's
CT. Both Boccaccio and Sercambi were contemporaries of Chaucer, but there is no
evidence of Chaucer having met them in course of his visits to Italy.

Check Your Progress I

1. Describe the narrative plan of CT. W11o devised it? Refer to the lines in the
GP. Critically examine the author's management of the plan.
..........................................................................................
..........................................................................................
..........................................................................................
..........................................................................................
2. Is CT an unfinished poem? Mention two other famous unfinished poems in
English.

What are the three structural units of CT? How are they related?
..........................................................................................

Do the tales have any unifying theme or themes?

..........................................................................................

Mention two striking features of the Talk on the Road.

Attempt a comparison of the following lines:

(a) Allas! Allas! that ever love was sinne.

(b) Woman is mannes joy and all his bliss.

Also refer them to their contexts.

.......................................................................................................

6.3 A NOTE ON THE NARRATIVE ART

Recent theories of narrative include both history and fiction in narrative as closely
related forms of "order-giving" and "order-finding", Man has been described as a
The Medieval poet fiction-making and symbol-using animal. Language is one of the most useful symbol
Cl~aucer systems used by man. Fiction is both fabricated and feigned. This make-believe is a
fundamental human activity. Role-playing, game-playing, day-dreaming and
literature are all included within it. With fiction we investigate, pel-haps invent, the
meaning of human life. A story is a way of doing things with words. Words -
language - are more than its medium. Reordering experience or existence by
narrative affirms and reinforces, or creates, the most basic assumptions of a culture
about human existence, about time, destiny, selfhood, heaven, hell etc. The ideology
of a culture is asserted through a story. The stoly of Raina in Indian culture, for
example. Such stories are endlessly repeated.

Fictional details have been made to reveal such matters as the difficulty of acquiring
self-knowledge, or the near-pervasiveness of self-deception, or the nature of the
.
struggle against egotistic degradation of love. And in proportion as language is, or is
not, ~e to experience, it is factual or fictional Narration description, dialogue,
exposition are the major forms or functions of language. Verse narratives appeared
before prose fiction in most literatures.

The narrative art of the tale may be analysed in terms of the Labovian diamond. The
first hundred and twenty lines give the orientation, the next three hundred lines
present the dream and its interpretations by the cock and the hen. The dream of the
event and the event are related like idea and reality. The crisis is resolved through a
play of int. And the morals drawn are what is termed the jaunty coda. .

Narratives, like languages, have their grammars. A story has a setting and an episode
system or plot. The events are linked syntagmatically in a plot. Settings and
episodes have paradigms. A setting may be state(s) or action(s). An event may be a
natural occurrence,'&naction, or an internal event. Stories are of various types - e:g.
(a) danger of death stories. NPT belongs to this Type (b) detective stories, (c) crime
stories (d) ghost stories (e) science fiction etc, These types are paradigms of
narrative.

6.4 STORIES AND STORY TELLERS

NPT collocates a number of stories. Some of them are dream stories - or stories
about dreams - told by the cock and the priest. The widow, the protagonist of the
other story (Which is the setting for the comic fable of the cock, the hen and the fox),
is contrasted at once with the cock and the nun by implication. The dream stories are
embedded in the fable, the fable in the widow's story, the widow's story in the
Priest's, the Priest's in CT, and CT is Chaucer's story to the primary reader(s). Both
oral and written forms of communication are relevant. You and I are readers reading
the tell anew, and I shall help you interpret it critically. It has become a text which
forms part of the Canon of British poehy, and its readers form an elite community
which consists of many groups. Ours is the group of the Indian scholars of English
literature.

The cock, the priest and the poet are the three story-tellers of this tale. The first two
are created by the third. Every reader re-creates them all in his mind. Fiction and
history are mixed up in the process. The literary genre of narrative poetry in
medieval Europe and Chaucer's England should be appreciated in the light of an
observation of Northrop Frye : "People don't think up a set of assumptions or beliefs;
they think up a set of stories, and derive the assumptions or beliefs from the stories"

Check Your Progress 2

1. Amplify "order-giving" and "order-finding".

2. How are fiction and symbol related?
 Is the linguistic symbol "fabricated and feigned"? NPT-I
What is "convention" in language and l terature?
Describe the functions of fiction.
How do stories reorder experience or existence? Give examples.
How are ideology and mythology related?
Does fiction help us know ourselves and others better ?
i
Are stories like dreams? Discuss (ten sentences)
What is a fable?
Analyse the tale in terms of the Labovian diamond.

6.5 THE PRIEST, THE POET AND OTHER

CHARACTERS IN THE TALE

Like Shakespeare, Chaucer did not invent his stories. The closest possible paralled,
or source, of the story of NPT is found in. The Roman de Renart, a 13"' century
French collection of satirical fables. The digression on dreams and the reflective
passages are Chaucer's original contribution. The comic, mock-heroic and historical
aspects of the form of the tale are the gifts of Chaucer's genius.

What makes the tale dramatic is that the author does not say a single word directly.
In the Prologue to the Tale, the bight, the Host and the priest talk, and in the main
body the priest, the story-teller, and the characters of the tale talk. The poet is almost
'
unheard except in phrases like 'quod the knight' and "quod oure Hooste" in the
Prologue to the Tale, and in the last couplet of the Epilogue.

The narrator-author identification is, however, apparent in the reflective passages,

particularly, (a) the passage on "necessitee condicioneel" (lines 471-84) and (b) the
' passage on Geoffrey de Vinsauf, author of Poetria Nora, a 12"' century treatise of
rhetoric (lines 581-88). The former is serious, while the latter is ironic and serio-
comic. The passage on man-woman-relationship (lines 491-500), it has been
suggested, has the tacit support of the author.

The three human characters, the Prioress, the Priest and the widow of the tale - are all
creatures of imagination, and belong to the background of the tale on which the
foreground is occupied by the animal characters. The priest is the narrator detached
from the author. Unlike the wife of bath or the Pardoner, he is not portrayed in the
General Prologue. There, after the portrait of the nun, we have the following couplet:

Another Nonne with here hadde she,

That was her chapeleyne, and prestes thre

Skeat commented: "Chaucer wrote this couplet in forgetfulness of his general

scheme and omitted to reconcile them". It is in this couplet that we have the first
mention of the priest as one of three. He is later identified as Sir John by the Host in
t - the Prologue to NPT. The Host requests him to tell a merry tale, and he complies
(line 42-54).

His physical features are described by the Host in the Epilogue (lines 689-93). The
Host Jocularly says that if the priest were secular, he would be a cock used for
purposes of breeding. His strong muscles, thick neck and large chest are described.

The poet provides some glimpse into his character. His jade is "foul and lene" (line
467). This suggests his attitude to riches or the rich life of ostentation. He is ironic
enough to hint a subtle similarity between his mistress and the cock on the one hand
and an implicit contrast of the prioress with the widow on the other. Critics have .
suggested that the poet presents him as a sly misogynist,
The MedievalPoef But, above all, he is an excellent story teller. Appropriately a sermon, the story is
Chaircer mock-heroic and reflects the character of the story-teller who faintly reflects the
author.

a The priest is ;ronically the confessor and spiritual adviser to the Prioress, and at the
same time dependent on her for livelihood. His cautious protest in "I kan noon harm
of no womm divyne (line 500) and his ironic insistence (in lines 441-48) on the truth
of his story (lines 445-46) and compariilg it with the women's favourite book of
Launcelot de Lake do all hint a critical attitude to chivalry and romance.

The widow is the onIy human character in the story who is described at any length,
(see lines 55-80). Her simple life is illustrated in her slender meals (lines 67-80).
The implicit contrast with the Prioress is seen better if affectation and courtly
manners of the Prioress described in the general Prologue are compared with the
simple life of the widow. She is idealised and allegorical, but realistically
particularised. Consider lines 63-66. The number of the daughters, the sows, the
kine and the sheep "that highte Mallet' is sufficient concereteness of detail.

Check Your Progress 3

1. Chaucer is at once a pilgrim, an "innocent" reporter and narrator, and the

author of CT. How do you relate these aspects of his art?
2. In what sense the human characters of the tile are in the background?
3. Attempt a character - sketch of the priest.

6.6 THE IRONIC STRUCTURE-SYMPATHY AND

DETACHMENT ,

The English word "irony" is derived from the Greek word "eironeia" which means
"simulated ignorance". Simulation is acting, pretending or feigning. Irony is thus
dramatic. Secondly, the ironic use of language has an inner meaning for the
privileged and an outer for the rest. Dramatic irony is more then merely verbal. It
has to do with situation or event. The classical greek myth of Oedipus is an example
of tragic irony. Moreover, according to classi~alIndian poetics, the best kind of
poetry does not state but suggests meaning.

The ironic structure of NPT is prominent in the play of wit at the core of the story.
The fox and the cock outwit each other by turns. Consider lines 639-48 which show
how the cock saves himself fkom a tragic end by befooling the fox. The fox had
flattered, hoodwinked and trapped him. His cjever trick would not have worked if
the fox had seen his hidden meaning.

Discretion and politeness, characteristic of the priest, require that his criticism of the
prioress, his immediate target, and of women in general, should be indirect or
ironical. He could not afford to offend his employer. Hence the boldness of the
ironist is the most remarkable aspect of his character as a person and an artist. The
subtle self-expression of the narrator at once identifies him with and detaches him
from his creator, the author. In this context, the priest's ironical reflection (lines 491-
500) is more revelatory than Chauntecleer's ironical mistranslation of a Latin teit
(lines 391-400).

When we consider the narrative structure of the tale, we notice that digressious are.
more interesting than the central story. The dream, the discussion about it, and the J

character of Pertelote, are all introduced for the purpose, among other thhgs, df
dramatising and reflecting on "the age-old war of the sexes". There is no doubt that
 without this digression the story would have lacked its life and colour, but the
superimposition is undeniable. And that impregnates the form of the story with the
spirit of the poet.

Pertelote hates chauntecleer for losing heart in fear (see lines 142-46). She asserts on
behalf of all women the medieval ideal of chivalry and romance (lines 147-5 1). The
brave knight and the sweet courtier is the hero. But the cock is only sweet and witty,
not brave.

In the debate on dreams, however, she stands for reason and he for vision. Do they
allegories the opposition of cold calculation and rash impulse?

The widow-not the wife's the anti-feminist norm. The Christian moral outlook is
pitted against the romantic. The tension of the two reflects the force of social change
breaking through the poet's consevative temper.

The priest confabulates in the following:

My tale is of a cock, as ye may heere,

That took his connseil of his wyf with sorwe,
To walken in the yerd upon that morewe
That he hadde met that dreem that I you tolde.

i You will notice that the reflective passage on fteewill and predetermination is felt by
the self-conscious priest to be incongruous. Secondly, the cock followed his own free
will, not the advice of his wife. The priest is confused or at least confusing the
audience. A close consideration of the text, particularly lines 486-89, and the
reflective passages preceding and following these lines, inakes it clear. Tile author's
comic irony does not spare the narrator.
i

Check Your Progress 4

1. What is irony? How is it different from antithesis and ambiguity?

2. How are irony and wit related? Is irony necessarily devoid of sympathy?
Discuss, with examples.
3. Find two examples of verbal irony in the text.
4. Discuss the ironic structure of NPT.
5. Show that the priest's irony is directed against women.
6. How does Chaucer present the priest ironically?

L
6.7 THE COMPLEX FORMAL DESIGN: SERMON,
FABLE, MOCK-HEROIC, COMIC, IRONIC

The aspects of the complex form, as given above, are:

(a) Sermon
(b) reflection
(c) mock-heroic
(d) comedy
(e) the dream, the dream - stories and the debate on dreams
(0 The Themes
(g) The Tale

Sermon - As the story-taller is a priest, the story is aptly a sermon. The moral of the
'

sermon is given at the end of the story. It is dramatic rather than didactic or
 ~h~ ~ ~hel d hortatory.
i There
~ are ~three morals
~ drawn
~ respectively by the cock, the fox and the
Cltaiicer priest. The cock's experience, which had verged on the tragic, had, by a lucky flash
of intelligence, turned comic. And his moral is : One should keep one's eye open.
The fox loses the game, and is served right. He sounds a wiseacre in his moral. The
priest's moral is given in three and a half couplets. The first cpuplet points to the
story. Notice "such". The priest gives his evaluation of the cock's character in three
epithets. In the second couplet, he turns to his audience. If they hold the tale a folly,
they are requested to take the moral gist and ignore the narrative,
b

In the next three lines, he appeals to the authority of St. Paul. His view of text is till
valid. A text is a code to he decoded by the reader-audience. The priest ends his Tale
with a prayer.

The Tale is an exemplum or example illustrating the moral. The "defense" of poetry
has traditionally been that it is both entertainment and edification. The funny tale has
a moral or many moral lessons as a sort of tailpiece. Compare the relation between
the tale and the moral of NPT with that of Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Reflection - The description of the human setting of the fable is reflective or

normative. The widow and her way of life is approved. The cock's reflection on
murder and god's justice (lines 284-91) is conventional, but his reflection on
"woman" (lines 397-400) is much more characteristic and highly ironical.

The priest's reflections on (a) "Truth" in a story (See lines 439-448), (b) free will
and predetermination (468-84),(C) woman's counsel (491-500),.(d) flattery (559-64),
(e) destiny (line 572) and (f) rhetoric and Geoffrey Vinsauf (581-88) are all
functional. They are meant to help the audience interpret and evaluate the action.

Mock Heroic - NPT is primarily a fable, and a fable is intrinsically mock-heroic, for
it assumes an identity or parallelism between animals and humans. Moreover, the
tale reflects the poet's serio-comic outlook in the use of hyerbole and disproportion.

Chauntecleer, the mockery'of a hero, is presented in lines 84-98 which describe his
voice and appearance. The comic exaggeration and the conventional humanisation
are remarkale.

The priest explains, tongue-in-cheek:

For thilke tyme, as I have understonde

Beestes and briddes koude speke and synge.

Pertelote's ideal cock is woman's ideal Man. The cock's dream stories have not only
human characters but learned sources in Cicero and Macrobius. His learning and
learned allusious to Christian and classical lore are of course mock-heroic.

The royal cock "looketh as it were a grym leoun" (line 413). The fall of this prince of
a cock is averted by a happy stroke of luck. The cry that the "woful hennes" made is
mock-heroically described as greater than the cries described in heroic epics like
Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aencied. Pertelote shrieked louder than "dide
HasdrubaIes wyf '. The hens cried like the senators' wives when Nero burnt Rome.
The epic analogies are unmistakably mock-heroic. The priest's reflections on Adam
and Eve, on fiee will and predetermination, are all mock-heroic, for the occasion is
slight or comic. The Tale is unique in the tradition of mock-heroic poetry in English,
Dryden and Pope wrote, respectively, Mac flacknoe and the Rape of the Lock. But
unlike these poems, NPT deals with low animals. Nor is it allegorical satire like
Animal Farm. It mocks heroism, as Don Quixote mocks heroism, romance and
chivalry. Chaucer's realism is a forerunner of Cervantes's and Shakespeare's
100 comedy.
cbrnedy : Comedy is the essential aspect of the form of the Tale. It is not mere
subarcoating for the sermon. The pure fun and humour of the fable is the superficial
comic element, Secondly, the union of the elite appeal of the rhetorical and
philosophical amplifications with the folk tale brings out the comic ineongruity
between high and low poetic styles. Chaucer manipulates the styles to create serio-
comic effects. Moreover, parody, burlesque and farce are used. A comparison of the
first ten coupletes of the tale (lines 61-80) with the following sixteen and a half (lines
81-113) shows how realism and the plain style are mixed with the romantic and the
rhetorical. The ironical angle of the artist transforms the priest's homily into poetry.
The moral stance becomes inseparable from the aesthetic. The cock's story (in which
character is more important than incidents) is interpreted by the priest, and the poet
judges or interprets this interpretation in the wider context of the whole poem.
Poetry, we know, is the criticism of life. A close consideration of the comedy of the
cock's life - his pride, his pedantry, and hir two temptations - (a) woman and (b)
yielding to flattery - shows that the main plot requires only the last trait, i.e. yielding
to flattery, and the other traits bp' ?, to the subplot in which the dream and the hen
figure.prominently. The two ;lots (1) the cock - and the fox plot and (2) the cock,
the dream and the hen plot ,lee of course linked but the link is not causal or rational.

The comedy of the plots lies (a) in the mingling of satire with sympathy and (b) in the
play of wit. The primary plot is realistic and ironical, and the secondary plot
romantic and symbolical. The character of r;>ecoclc determines the incidents, but the
character of the priest is no less remarkable, Notice how the poet transmutes his
reflection and makes it reflection his self rather than pure reason, what the priest
asserts in the lines 486-500 in general and in particular is confused and confusing. In
the last couplet, he imputes his words and views to the LOCI<. The c'ock had refuted
his wife's argument about dreams, but forgot to heed the warning of his dream, The
other unexpected turn of events turns the tale into a hapi-comedy corresponding to
the serio-comic art and vision of the poet.

The Dream, the Dream Stories, and the Debate orb nreams

The Dream : Fiction is like dream or daydream. The use of dream in fiction is,
therefore, doubly insubstantial. In middle English poetry, the dream is used as a
poetic technique, and suggests vision or imagination, Langland's Piers Plowman and
Chaucer's own.. The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls and Troilus and
Cressida use the device of dreams.

Dreams have always exercised the human mind. The medieval interpretations were
allegorical or analogical. The psychoanalytic interpretation of Freud and Jung have
revolutionized modem thought. The view of the human mind is now radically
different because of the recognition of the role and importance of the unconscious in
human life and activity. Think of the waking dream, ambition or fantasy of people.

Chaucer added the dream of Chaunteleer to the traditional story. The conflicting
interpretations by the hen and the cock are highly dramatic. More than one third of
the tale is occupied by this digression or secondary plot.

The dream is presented in lines 116-140. The cock had dreamt of a frightening beast.
It was "lyk an hound, and wolde han maad arrest upon illy body, and han had me
deed." In other words the hound-like beast would have seized and killed him. And
so, even after waking.

"yet of his look for fere almost I deye." This fear had made hiin groan, and
frightened Pertelote.

Chauntecleer interprets his nightmare as warning against a possible danger of death.

The warning prepares him, only partially, for the event, and he is able to save hiillself
in crisis, for he keeps his wit about him. If he had not dreamt of the event, he could
 1 Tho MedievnI Poet
Chazrcer
not have managed the crisis so well as he does. The dream is, thus, an integral part of'
the plot, and not a mere digression.
I
Dream Stories: Pertelote dismisses dreams as meaningless. She takes the scientific
but unimaginative stand that they are caused by physical disorder. She prescribes
laxatives and herbs as a remedy for bad dreams. She does not tell any stories. But
Chauntecleer tells many stories to prove the truth of his view that dreams are
significant. They provide a vision of the future. Prophecy, vision, imagination are
human faculties which may be dcscribed as waking dreams. Arts including the art of
poetry and the narrative art are the collective dream of mankind. They attempt to
conllect the ideal and the sensory aspects of experience.

Stories are like dreams. Both reflect experience. Chauntecleer is a dreamer and story
teller. Pertelote's pragrhatism yield n o room to such functions or behavior.

Chauntecleer's first story is fi-om "oon of the gretteste auctour that men rede." This
unnamed author is Cicero Chaucer's use of learning is remarkably more dramatic
than any other English poet's except SEakespeare's.

The story is of two pilgrims who had to part company and put up for the night in
separate lodgings. One of thein dreamt about the other that he was in danger of
death. The dream was repeated. But he did not take it seriously, but he could not
ignore the third dream. In the first two dreams, the fellow pilgrim seemed to be
making an appeal for help.

"Now help me, deere brother, or I dye!"

In the third dream, the spirit of the fellow-pilgrim reports that he is slain. "My gold
caused m y mordre."

The second theme of the story is : "mordre wol out". a sort of moral drawn. But the
relevant moral is that dreams should not be dismissed as empty and irrelevant.

The second story is about two persons who were to sail to some destination. One of
them dreamt that the voyage should be postponed, and he advised the other fellow to
do so. But the other said: I sette nut a straw by thy dremynges,

For swevenes bean but vanytees and japes;

As expected, the one who sailed was drowned.

The moral is: "no man should been too reccheless of dremes" and some dreams are
to be dreaded. This second story, also from Cicero, ("in the same book I rede Right
in the nexte chapitre after this") is shorter. The old Testament, Homer's liad and
Macrobius, a medieval writer who interpreted and classified dreams, are the other
sources for the reference to some dreams famous in literature. Chaucer rummaged
through Christian and classical literature to find a definite interpretation of dreams
which interested him. Langland was more visionary and his Piers Plowman is in the
form of a dream. Realism was Chaucer's forte, which makes him the father of
modern poetry.

The debate on Dreams: This debate serves two artistic purposes. It presents (a) the
contemporary theories on the subject and (b) the characters of the cock and the hen,
man and wife. The scientific point of view is contrasted with the superstitious or
popular pint of view. Both seem to b e half true, and Chaucer perhaps never made up
his mind on the topic. However, the debate gives the presentation of the theories a
human and dramatic context. This is distinctively poetic, and contrasts with the
abstract manner of philosophy.
Let us briefly notice the tonal effect. The hen states her attitude to the cock who has NPT-I
been frightened by his dream (141 - 156). Then she presents her view of the origin
and cause of dreams. And finally she prescribes the remedy. But the cock is much
more elaborate and pedantic in his presentation. He uses stories, anecdotes and
learned references in support of his point of view. He appears to be a self-centred
pedant. But he is also the sufferer. She seems to have little sympathy for him, but
she is practical and tales what she regards the necessary steps to help him. Chaucer
manipulated the characters in his ser:lo-comicview. The self pity of the cock is
matched by what ironically looks like the "heartless" attitude of the hen. And the
cock too is made to transcend self-pity by the end. He woos and flatters the hen, acts
the loving husband, and seems to forget his fear of the impending danger of which
the dream was a premonition. After all, destiny works through character, necessity
being conditional, not absolute, in such cases.

Themes: Some major themes of the Tale are the following

1. The sirnple life and the plain dlet. The Christian or religious attitude to
povel-ty and wealth or oc'-ti:,tion. Poverty has moral approval. Wealth is
regarded as sinful.
2. The medico-scien+i;ic view of dreams contrasted wit11 the popular
superstitious view.
3. Reflection on murder or homicide.
4. Man-woman relationship.
a. Womman is lnannes joye a d a1 his blis
b. Wommannes conseil broghte us first to wo,

And made Adam fro Paradys to go

5. Freewill and predetermination

"symple necessitee" and "necessitte condicioneel"

6. Reflection on flattery and the role of courtier.

7. Rhetoric-Geoffrey de Vinsauf s theory
8. Destiny- illescapable
Fortune- Sudden turns
9. (a) Morals drawn
Keep your eyes open and mouth shut

(b) "Taketh the fruyt, and lat the chaf be stille"

The tale: The first two thirds of the tale present an idyllic and romantic atmosphere.
It is like paradise before it was lost. The pace of the story is leisurely. The characters
are introduced - First the widow who led a simple life, then the cock, chauntecleer,
the protagonist, and his hens.

Of which the faireste hewed on her throte

Was cleped faire damoyscle Pertelote

They are man k d wife. The cock loved her very much. 14% voice is "murier than the
music orgon" of the church.

Then the dream is presented, and the debate on dreams follows. Chaucer shifted the
focus of interest fkom Chauntecleer's fate to Chauntecher's dream.

Incident and Character are integrated.

~h~ ~ ~ dpoeti ~ "What
~ is~ character
l but the determination of incident? What is incident but the
Clt aucer illustration of character?" Said Henry James. The debate on dreams illustrates the
characters of the cock and the hen.

The villain, the colfox, enters the scene in the last third of the story. Then the
movement becomes rapid. There is more of action in this part-non-verbal action.
Speeches or dialogues are brief.

The narrator exclaims and reflects after introducing the villain. He manipulates the
pace. Consider lines 460-80, and beyond. He reflects on "wommennes conscil"

Wommanenes conseil brought us first to wo, And made Adam fro Paradys to go:

But he shifts the ground:

. ..for I noot to whom it might displese If I couseil of wommen wolde blame, Pass
over, for I seyde it in my game. The priest is agitated and confused. He reveals his
feeling against women through "the cokkes wordes" and disclaims them. 'I kan noon
harme of no womman divyne".

This sudden turn given to the story is highly interesting.

Chauntecleer has deliberately mistranslated the Latin sentence earlier. He is

presented as the courtly and chivalrous flatterer of women. The priest is satirically
7
outspoken. The two male Views of women-chivalrous and satirical or cynical -are
presented. This theme - i.e. the male view of women-is superimposed upon the
plot.

Bpth the debate on dreams and the expression of misogyuist feeling are digressious
skillfully woven into the story. The latter digression is the intrusion of the subjective
feeling of the narrator into the story. Here, the narrator is not differentiated from the
author. One critic pointed to the "deeper simplicity" of Chaucer which reflects
faithfully the paradoxes of personality, the contradictions of experience.

The action is both mental and material and social. Chauntecleer became "was oithis
fox that lay ful lowe" as he cast his eye on a butterfly. The fox flatters and cheats the
frightened cock into singing with his eyes shut, and seizes him by the throat. The
lamentation of the hens is followed by the chase of the fox. The chase is lively.

The transitions from the human to the animal, from the serious to the ligh$, from the
high style to the low are remarkably artistic in the Tale. The narrator reminds the
audience at various points (lines 115,419 486 and 673) that the tale is of a cock etc;
he describes the animal behavior at many points (refer to lines 195-201,411-418; and
he rno$es from the low or realistic style to the romantic or rhetorical at many points.
The low style of lines 55-80 is followed by the high style of lines 81-1 15, the serio~is
theme of lines 471-484 is interrupted by the reminder (line 486) that the tale is merely
of a cock, and again the serious reflection on woman's counsel and the loss of
paradise is taken up.

The play of wit averts the crisis and turns the plot from a tragic into a comic one.

Morals are drawn by both-the cock and the fox. The priest too draws his moral and
turns to his audience.

The author addressed readers-contemporary and future readers. NPT is an artifact-

an important item in the English literary tradition. It has survived all the social and
cultural changes since Chaucer. It has something of a universal appeal. Its poetry '
has an eternal freshness.
Check Your Progress 5
, . NPT-I
1. Describe the complexity of the form of NPT. (use twenty sentences)
2. Write a note on the mock-heroic aspect of the tale (10 sentences)
3. Do you think the theme of man-woman relationship is irrelevant to the tale?
4. Briefly discuss the function of dreams in life, referring to the interpretations
of dreams by Freud and Jung.
5. Write a note on Chaucer's interpretation of dreams. Do you think
Chauntecleer expresses the poet's point of view?
6. Do you think the use of the dream in the tale in a digression?
7. Write a note on the use of learning and narrative in the debate on dreams.
8. Bring out the dramatic aspect of the debate on dreams.
9. Attempt a critical appreciation of the narrtive art of Chaucer with reference to
NPT.
10. How is the theme of "necessity conditional" illustrated in the tale?
11. How are plot and character related in the tale?
12. What, if anything, is shared by the three story-tellers in the tale -i.e. the cock,
the priest and the poet?
13. Write a note on the comedy of the tale, Is it a merry tale? The Host Wanted a
story "as may oure hertes glade "As a reader of the tale, do you find your
heart gladdened? How?

--

6.8 SUMMING UP

This Unit prepares us for a critical study of the text of NPT given as Appendix I in
Unit-2. There we shall also have the translation of the text, notes and glossary. Both
the Units are intended to be studied together. You will notice that your first reading
of the text has to be supported with the critical guidance provided in these units.

An introduction to Chaucer and his age together with a detailed study of the General
Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is provided in other Units. You are expected to be
familiar with them as well for a better appreciation of Chaucer's poetry.