Explain "The Nun's Priest Tale" as a mock heroic.

Isaac Atayero

Sir John Campion

Advanced Placement English Language

12/5/11

  The Nun’s Priest’s Tale is arguably the most brilliant of all of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The tale is told by the Nun’s confessor when the Host picks the him to tell a tale. The priest tells a simple bestiary that serves as a satirical imitation of classical stereotypical heroes. The simple tale is a parody of medieval academics and romance, a true mock heroic. A mock heroic parodies a heroic subject while making use of a trivial matter and exaggerates it. The tale is a mock heroic because it also treats commonplace matters in the style of an epic. The tale also parodies burlesques heroic characters and mannerisms. The presence of these elements certifies the tale as a mock heroic.

     The Nun’s Priest Tale is a mock heroic because the tale treats a conventional topics in the style of an epic. An example of this occurs at the very beginning of the tale when the reader is first introduced to the scenery of the tale. The tale takes place in “a small cottage”(214) where a “widow-woman”(214) lives with her daughters and a few possessions. The grandiloquent style of writing used by the priest in this tale contradicts the simple setting where the tale occurs. The tale takes place in a “yard”(215), instead of a fancier location where an epic would usually be set in. The priest uses a trivial animal such as a “cock”(215) instead of an expected character such a s courageous knight. Chanticleer , the cock, possesses characteristics that a hero of an epic would have.Chanticleer was handsome with a

     comb was redder than fine coral, tall

    and battlemented like a castle wall,

   His bill was black and shone as bright as jet,

Like azure were his legs and they were set

On azure toes with nails of lily white

like burnished gold were his feathers (215).

Chanticleer was a “tall...master...of seven hens...to do his pleasure”(215) .The cock could also sing “jollier than the organ blowing”(215). The reader can also infer  from Chanticleer’s speech that he is very intelligent. One can also tell Chanticleer is book savvy when he speaks “with regard to Cato”(218). The priest uses these traits to mock the traditional hero.

     The priest uses Lady Pertelote to satire the traditional medieval maiden. Lady Pertelote, one of Chanticleer’s hens, is endowed with attributes of a maiden from an epic. The “gracious Lady Pertelote”(215) had  “the loveliest dyes upon her throat”(215). She is “courteous...discreet..debonair, companionable”(216). And like other maidens in epics, she “held the heart of Chanticleer controlled”(216). The priest’s comparisons of such commonplace items allow the reader to come to the conclusion that the tale is a mock heroic.

    The priest’s parodies of heroic characters and mannerisms in the tale also serve as testimonies to the truth that the tale is a mock heroic. A model of this takes place when Chanticleer has a dream “so terrible ...i had to scream”(216). Chanticleer has a dream and it scares him so much that when he wakes up he still “feel my heart racing from fear”(216). This mocks an heroic because the hero is scared. Fear is not a heroic virtue and since Chanticleer is the hero it is ironic that he is scared by his own dream. The priest uses Lady Pertelote to ridicule Chanticleer’s cowardice. Angry at Chanticleer’s fear, Lady Pertelote exclaims “ for shame...you timorous poltroon”(216). She even goes a step further and says “I cannot love a coward”(217). The priest uses Chaucer’s lack of courage to poke fun at the cliche' courageous hero.

   The priest also ridicules romance in epic poetry when he introduces the reader to chanticleer’s many lovers. He mocks the ideal concept of romance between a man and a woman with Chanticleer and his seven lovers. Chanticleer is introduced as a “master...of seven hens, all there to do his pleasure”(215). The priest even goes further to let the listener know that the seven hens “were his sisters”(215). This depiction of love is a clear mockery of the classical concept of love. The priest banters medieval romance when he talks about Chanticleer’s copulation with Pertelote. In a traditional epic, the writer is usually not as descriptive when it comes to racy details. however, the priest, in his mock heroic is very descriptive of the love scene. The priest tells of how Chanticleer “trod her [Pertelote] twenty times ere prime of day”(224) .The priest’s graphic description of the love scene also serves as a mockery of epic poetry.  This is another instance when the priest mocks the mannerisms of characters from epics.

     Another mannerism that the priest mocks is the pride of heroes. The hungry Fox, in an attempt to get Chanticleer, praises him and pretends to have false admiration for Chanticleer’s voice.The pretentious Fox praises Chanticleer saying :

   You have a merry a voice as God has given

    To any angel in the courts of Heaven

    To that you add a musical sense (227).

Chanticleer,incredibly flattered, “began to beat a wing...incapable of smelling treason”(227). Chanticleer, full with pride, closes his eyes and begins to sing. The Fox uses this opportunity to grab Chanticleer by the throat, “flung him o’er his back and...bore him to the woods”(228). The priest uses this situation to mock the hubris of heroes in epics. The priest uses pride to portray the downfall of the hero. The priest satire of characters from epic poetry and their mannerisms proves that his tale is a mock heroic.

  The genius in the Nun’s Priest Tale lies in its simplicity. But the tale is actually not as simple as one would imagine. The tale is actually a brilliant exemplary of a mock heroic in its truest form. The tale exaggerates the elements of epic poetry and the elements of its characters by using simple trivial subjects. The priest uses mundane characters and spoofs the attributes of characters from medieval tales. By doing this the priest not only tells a great but simple tale that ridicules noble but quixotic tales.