The Nun's Priest's Tale

Chaucer's "The Nun's Priest's Tale" is at once a fable, a tale of courtly love, and a satire mocking fables and courtly love traditions. To this end, Chaucer makes use of several stylistic techniques involving both framing and content. The tale begins and ends with "a poor widwe somdeel stape in age" (line 1), but the majority of the content involves not the widow but the animals on her farm, in particular an arrogant rooster name Chauntecleer. The first mention of the main character does not come until the twenty-ninth line, after twenty-eight lines of minute description of the widow and the farm. The donation of large amounts of time to detail slows down the plot of the story; this plot is even further drawn out by the Nun's Priest's constant interjections, which are mostly delivered in very formal language. Chaucer's use of abundant narrative intrusion and profuse attention to detail create a story in which the plot is marginalized and traditional structures broken, the result of which is an ambience where the absurdity of fable and courtly love can easily come to light.

The Nun's Priest's tale begins with the mention of a poor old widow living in a cottage. The majority of the first page of the short story deals with the details of this woman's life. Only after every detail of her person and her farm has been revealed is the main character, Chauntecleer, introduced. The story also returns the focus to the woman at its end. The framing of the story is such that the events of the story all occur within the confines of this woman's life. This clever framing does not allow the reader to adequately realize the characters in the story; they are, at any given point in the story, less than human. The high language and content of the story quickly deflates when one realizes that Chauntecleer is nothing more than a rooster on a farm owned by a humble old widow, and the fox nothing more than a hungry wild animal on the prowl. Chaucer effectively mocks the courtly love tradition by pointing out that the characteristics of courtly love can be injected into even the most commonplace of situations. Chauntecleer, while described in heroic language, is merely a rooster out to survive, and mate. Chauntecleer is no more heroic than any other rooster on any other farm; language merely manipulates this particular rooster to inflate him to heroic heights.

The narrative interjections only further Chaucer's satire. The Nun's Priest interjects, in very lofty and dramatic tones, during central moments in plot advancement. The interruptions come in very traditional and noble language:

O false mordrour, luring in thy den!

O newe Scariot! Newe Geniloun!

False dissimilour! O greek Sinoun,

That broughtest Troye al outrely to sorwe!

O Chauntecleer, accursed be that morwe

That thou into the yeerd flaugh fro the bemes! (Lines 406 - 411)

The high language of the digressions would make certain scenes, such as the one where the fox hides in the cabbages to await Chauntecleer, much more dramatic and suspenseful if not for their length and content. The noble language draws on and on oftentimes for fifty lines before returning to the plot, which only allows the reader time to remember that the drama taking place on the page is merely barnyard drama, and therefore no more dramatic than the ordinary. Combined with comparisons of a wild fox to Judas Iscariot and the person responsible for the sacking of Tory, the interjections only make the stylized action of the plot even more laughable.

The random lengths of inordinate detail serve much this same purpose. At seemingly indiscriminate times, the Nun's Priest begins divulging insignificant physical descriptions which ramble on oftentimes for fifty lines. In fact, the very opening of the play, which does not even deal with plot-related material, includes a rambling disclosure of the small details of the widow and her home. Scenes like the last, where the reaction of every animal to Chauntecleer's capture is disclosed, only trivialize the action:

The dokes criden as men wolde hem quelle;

The gees for fere flowen over the trees;

Out of the hive came the swarm of bees;

So hidous was the noise, a benedicite,

Certes, he Jakke Star and his meinee

Ne made nevere shoutes half so shrille

Whan that they wolden any Fleming kille;

As thilke day was maad upon the fox. (Lines 570 - 577)

The idea that the bees swarmed out of their hives due to the capture of a rooster is absurd, and the assertion that they made more noise than Jakke Star made during his uprising against the Flemings is even more absurd. The detailed lists often occur with overblown claims about commonplace events and the dichotomy created is much the same as the dichotomy between the story's