Final Assignment for UMUC ENG309 class.

1. Stephanie Hunter
Carol L. Bellamy
English 309 (6980)
27 October 2013
A Canterbury Tales Pilgrimage Scene
(Canterbury Tales Pilgrimage Image).
Chaucer as a Romance
Writer Through The Nun's
Priest's Tale

2. Chaucer as a Romance Writer Through The
Nun's Priest's Tale
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale is from Geoffrey Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales. This particular tale stands as an example
of Geoffrey Chaucer’s ability as a Romance writer.
He uses various methods throughout the story to
showcase this. Chauntecleer the rooster, morals, and
allegory all play big roles in the workings of his story to
show how Chaucer can be considered a Romantic writer.
Thus, it can be summed up that: Chaucer demonstrates
his ability as a Romance writer in The Nun's Priest's Tale
through the use of his main “hero” Chauntecleer, through
the use of allegory, and morals in his story.
Chaucer Book (Chaucer Book Image)

3. Introduction: The Nun's Priest's Tale
 Geoffrey Chaucer's ta1e is about a rooster and his lovely
harem of hens.
The rooster, Chauntecleer, has a dream one night of his
possible demise at the hands of a red beast.
When hearing his dream, his favored companion,
Pertelote, calls him a coward (Chaucer 88).
Pertelote tells him that she “can nat love a coward […] /
For certes, what so many women saith, / We alle desiren, if
it might be, / To han housbondes hardy, wise, and free”
(Chaucer 91-94).
The Nun’s Priest (Nun’s Priest
Image).
By this she means that women want men who are strong and unafraid.
She goes on to tell Chauntecleer that he should be ashamed his fear (Chaucer 98-99).

4. Introduction: The Nun's Priest's Tale
 Chautecleer only brought up his nightmare because he feared it was foretelling his future.
His lady, Pertelote, tells him that it must just be his delicate stomach and that it will pass; she
also quotes a Roman writer who is noted as saying not to pay attention to your dreams (Chaucer
120-121).
Chauntecleer thanks Pertelote for her input about Cato, the Roman writer, but says that there
are many other writers with better authority than Cato who say that dreams foretell happiness as
well as tragedy (Chaucer 154-161).
Chauntecleer lists examples to counteract Pertelote’s argument about dreams being foolish to
listen to.
For example, he tells a tale about two men traveling together, looking for a place to sleep upon
arrival in a town—one man sleeps in a barn and the other gets lucky by finding a room at an inn.
In a dream, the man in the barn comes to the man at the inn saying that he will be murdered in
the barn that night if the man in the inn does not come to his aid (Chaucer 164-187).

5. Introduction: The Nun's Priest's Tale
 Now, a fox had come into the barnyard and
was hiding amongst the cabbages until
midmorning waiting to strike upon Chauntecleer
(Chaucer 395-405).
While singing, Chanutecleer notices the fox
lying in the cabbages and goes to flee
immediately (Chaucer 459-463).
The fox tells him to stay because he has such a
lovely voice, like that of an angel (Chaucer 471472).
Fox in Cabbages (Fox in Cabbages Image).
Chauntecleer falls for this flattery (and more) from Russel the fox; as Chauntecleer stretched
out his neck, closing his eyes to sing, Russel snatches him by the neck in his teeth and rushes
into the woods (Chaucer 511-515).
All the hens shrieked causing the owners of the barnyard to rush out to see what all the
commotion was; and with the neighbors they all chased after the fox into the woods (Chaucer
555-561).

6. Introduction: The Nun's Priest's Tale
In Russel’s haste to flee with his prize,
Chauntecleer, trapped on Russel’s back as
he moved quickly through the woods, told
him that he should turn around and tell the
people following them to go home; upon
speaking to Chauntecleer, Russel halts
allowing Chauntecleer to escape, flying up
into a nearby tree (Chaucer 587-597).
Russel tries to entice Chauntecleer to the
ground, but Chauntecleer refuses and
remains safely distanced from the fox
(Chaucer 604-610).
This is how the tale ends, with a moral
about being wary of negligence and flattery.
Chicken Escape Artist (Chicken Escape Artist Image)

7. The Romantic Hero: Chauntecleer
Chauntecleer is Chaucer’s demonstration of a Romantic Hero in The Nun’s
Priest’s Tale.
The rooster is portrayed as “learned and courtly and, like any adventuring
hero, is captured by the villainous fox, and then uses his wits to escape
complete destruction” (“Geoffrey Chaucer” 123-124).
Like that of any heroic knight, Chauntecleer is learned. He demonstrates a
knowledge of stories foretelling one’s demise in the tale as well as of Roman
writers (Chaucer 154-161).
Chauntecleer shows courtly behavior through his harem of hens, and
particularly through his love of his favored companion, Pertelote (Chaucer
357-358).
Also, much like that of the hero Sir Gawain in his efforts against the Green
Knight, Chauntecleer overcomes his opposition. Chauntecleer
Chanticleer and the Fox (Chanticleer
manages to escape Russel the fox’s grasp (Chaucer 595-597) just as
and the Fox Image)
Sir Gawain was able to escape the Green Knight through his honesty
(“Sir Gawain” 2352-2353).
Though, in both tales each of these two main characters does suffer a small bit: Chauntecleer through his
capture in the fox’s jaws (Chaucer 515), and Sir Gawain through the small cut by the Green Knight’s axe
(“Sir Gawain” 2354-2357).

8. Allegory in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
One way to look at the Nun’s Priest’s Tale is to see it as
being a mockery of many things. In the tale “The comedy lies
initially in the ludicrousness of a cock seeing himself as a
learned, heroic figure, like a human, but the satiric bite is in
the close identity of man and cock” (Finlayson 497).
Chaucer uses romantic ideas like that of “a male figure
venturing forth into a spring landscape;” when Chauntecleer
wakes and ventures outside on the day Russel the fox snatches
him up (Finlayson 505).
However, “this story is a beast-fable and a mock-romance,
mock-epic, mock philosophic, mock-exemplum, which also
mocks its supposed narrator and the uses to which he puts
stories (Finlayson 509).
Geoffrey Chaucer (Geoffrey Chaucer
Image)

9. Allegory in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
Often, The Nun’s Priest’s Tale is seen as being allegorical
for “the alert Christian against the devil/heretic, or as a
rewriting of the Fall and Resurrection;” Chauntecleer being
the Christian who is tempted by the flatteringly foxy demon
in the cabbages (Oerlemans 319).
However, it’s noted that Chaucer could be poking fun at
those who thought poetry must have some kind of a moral to
justify its existence (Oerlemans 319).
Following this thought that it mocks poetry for this has
some critics saying that The Nun’s Priest’s Tale “reads the
reader” causing one to lose their perspective and sense of
humor only to sound like the learned, but pompous,
Chauntecleer (Oerlemans 319).
Illustration of Chanticleer & The Fox
(“Illustration of Chanticleer & The Fox”)

10. Morals in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
The use of a moral at the end of a tale is like what Arthurian Romances employed. Often the
stories were told and had to do with some kind of moral at the end. Such as that of Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight dealt with honesty saving one’s life The Nun’s Priest’s Tale also deals
with a moral or two at the end.
There are multiple morals found within this story, for example: there is a cock’s moral that
he “learned that one should not shut his eyes when he ought to be alert” (Myers 212) as well as
a fox’s moral about how he “learned that one should not speak ‘whan he sholde holde his
pees!’” (Myers 212).
At the end of the tale the Nun’s Priest says:
Lo, swich it is for to be reccheless
And necligent and trust on flaterye.
But ye that holden this tale a folye
As of a fox, or of a cock and a hen,
Taketh the moralitee, goode men.
For Saint Paul saith that al that is writen is
To oure doctrine it is ywrit, ywis:
Taketh the fruit, and lat the chaf be stille (Chaucer 616-623).
The idea behind this quote is that Saint Paul tells us to take everything and learn from it all
especially this story which acts as a “warning against vainglory and naivety” (Shallers 319).

11. Conclusion
Chaucer’s ability as a Romance writer is demonstrated through Chauntecleer as a “hero,” the
use of allegory, and morals in his story.
Chauntecleer is much like Sir Gawain: being courtly, learned, and in dealing with the
villainous fox, Russel (“Geoffrey Chaucer” 123-124).
Allegory shows possible interpretations behind Chaucer’s tale in being a mockery of many
styles of stories (Finlayson 509) as well as being a mockery of a moral tale which a majority of
poetry employed in his era (Oerlemans 319).
The tale ends with a moral thought has multiple interpretations in terms of morals one can
learn from the tale. The cock learned to be more alert while the fox learned there are times when
he should hold his peace (Myers 212).
The Romantic genre is categorized by being “a medieval narrative, orig. one in verse and in a
Romance language, treating of heroic, fantastic, or supernatural events, often in the form of
allegory” (“romance”).
Chaucer has written The Nun’s Priest’s Tale in verse, discusses a hero, allegory, and employs
the use of morale at the end of the tale. These all tie together to demonstrate Chaucer as a
Romantic writer through this tale.

12. Works Cited
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<http://www.rainbowresource
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<http://ukanimation.blogspot.com/2011/11/canterbury-tales.html>
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