NAME-SARBOJEET PODDAR

CLASS ROLL NUMBER-043

ASSIGNMENT-CORE PAPER 01
M.A ENGLISH-SEMESTER 01
 USE OF FREE WILL, DESTINY, DREAM ALLEGORY AND SATIRE
IN
“THE NUN’S PRIEST’S TALE”

The Nun’s Priest’s Tale is a 626 line narrative poem, written in the tradition of mock-heroic, and
was composed in the 1390s. It is a part of -‘The Canterbury Tales’- the famous work from the pen
of the distinguished 14th century writer, Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400). The complete work itself
runs over 17000 lines of Middle English and falls under the English group of Chaucerian works. It
is his greatest individual accomplishment. For the general idea of the tale Chaucer may be
indebted to Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), but in nearly every important feature the work is
essentially English. For the purpose of the poem, Chaucer draws together twenty-nine pilgrims,
including himself. They meet at the Tabard Inn, in Southwark, in order to go on a pilgrimage to
the tomb of Thomas Becket at Canterbury. The twenty-nine are carefully chosen types, of both
sexes, and of all ranks, from a knight to humble ploughman; their occupation and personal
peculiarities are many and diverse; and, as they are depicted in the masterly Prologue to the main
work, they are interesting, alive, and thoroughly human. At the suggestion of the host of the
Tabard, and to relieve the tedium of the journey, each of the pilgrim is to tell two tales on the
outward journey, and two on the return. In its entirety the scheme would have resulted in an
immense collection of over a hundred tales. Chaucer’s death in 1400 CE leaves the work
incomplete, with twenty finished and four party complete tales. Even in its incomplete state the
work is a small literature in itself, an almost unmeasured abundance of variety of humour and
pathos, of narrative and description, and dialogue and digression. There are two prose tales,
Chaucer’s own Tale of Melibeus and the Parson’s Tale; and all the others are composed in a
powerfully and versatile species of the decasyllabic or heroic couplet.
Critics have judged The Nun’s Priest’s Tale to be a “virtuoso performance,” “the most consciously
aesthetic of Chaucer’s productions,” “a summa of Chaucerian artistry,” illustrating “in parvo the
achievement of The Canterbury Tales as a whole.” Morton Bloomfield appears to speak for two
generations of readers when he agrees with his own undergraduate professor who once
imperiously asserted that “an inability to enjoy [The Nun’s Priest’s Tale] should disqualify anyone
from the study of literature.” The mock-heroic opens with a prologue, whereby the Knight pleads
to the Monk, that no more tragedies be told: “… ‘good sire, namoore of this!” (Line 1). Thus, the
Host picks Nun’s Priest addressing him as “Sir John” (conventional nickname for a priest in those
days), and demands that he should tell a tale, which would gladden the hearts of the listener.
Thus, the tale begins, whereby a cock (Chanticleer), falls into the clutches of a fox, on account of
the fox’s flattery, and Chanticleer’s pride, but is saved at the end, due to his own cunningness,
and loss of common sense on the fox’s part. The tale comprises of important ideas, such as free
will, destiny, dream allegory, and satire, which stimulate the story of the vain cock and the fox,
(which was an ancient folk-tale, even in Chaucer’s time), and was related to the tales, gathered
by Aesop in 6th Century B.C.
Chaucer has dealt with the theme of free-will at a great length in this part of the frame narrative.
Free will is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free
will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, guilt, sin, and other
judgements which apply only to actions that are freely chosen. It is also connected with the
concepts of advice, persuasion, deliberation, and prohibition. Traditionally, only actions that are
freely willed are seen as deserving credit or blame. There are numerous different concerns about
threats to the possibility of free will, varying by how exactly it is conceived, which is a matter of
some debate. Here, Chanticleer tells his wife, Pertelote, about a nightmare he had encountered,
in which he saw himself being seized by a beast “…lyk a hound…/…[whose] colour was bitwixe
yellow and reed” (lines 134-36), which even tried to kill him. He impresses upon the fact that his
dream was a kind of foreknowledge, which was meant to caution him against the arrival of a
beast in reality. However, his wife dismisses his claims and rebukes him for his cowardice: “
Avoy…fy on yow,hertelees!/…Now han ye lost myn herte and al my love!/ I kan nat love a
coward…!”(lines 142-45). She comes to the conclusion that his nightmare has been caused by
repletion which has resulted in Chanticleer’s great superfluity of red choler, giving way to
cowardice on his part. She advises him, in order to “taak som laxatyf” (line 177) to cure himself.
Here, Chanticleer has a chance to exercise his ‘free will’ -to abide by his dream, or to go as per
the advice of his wife- which would ultimately lead to his destiny. But, here, we encounter a
contradiction- destiny or fate is a predetermined course of events and may be conceived as a
predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. It is a concept based on the belief
that there is a fixed natural order to the cosmos. This implies that a person’s destiny is already
fixed and it makes no sense to exercise free-will .But, on the other hand, human beings are always
bestowed with a sense of free-will, which might point to the fact that, one’s free will helps one
to choose the right pathway, which would eventually lead to his destiny (which is fixed).However,
the conflict between destiny and free will remains unresolved, thus forming an great scope of
interpretation, on the part of the readers.
Next we come across the theme of ‘destiny’ which contradicts the idea of free will in the mock-
heroic at hand. According to ancient Greek mythology, one can’t run away from his destiny. No
amount of foreknowledge can change a person’s destiny. What is meant to happen, will surely
happen, in accordance with the will of the Almighty. Destiny implies that there is a set course
that cannot be deviated from, but does not of itself make any claim with respect to the setting
of that course, that is, it does not necessarily conflict with free will. Free will, if existent, could be
the mechanism by which that destined outcome is chosen and hence, one’s free will may enables
one to choose the path which will lead to his destiny. Chaucer has tried to address the very same
philosophy in this tale by making Chanticleer narrate a story about two friends (lines 218-296),
from the writings of Cicero. The friends went on a pilgrimage and on their way the stopped at a
town to spend the night. There being a scarcity of accommodation in the town, the two friends
had to stay at different places. . One of the friends dreamt that his companion was calling him
out aloud, in order to save him from being murdered, and the incident was to occur that very
night, in the oxen’s shelter. Not paying heed to the dream, he slept, only to find his friend
murdered and his corpse been hidden in a cart full of dung, which was left in front of the west
gate of the town. Thus, this story represents how a person’s destiny is already fixed, and cannot
be altered inspite of all premonitions. We also have a reference to the legend of St Kenelm in
lines 290-301. Kenelm was the son of Coenwulf of Mercia, who inherited his father’s (Coenwulf’s)
kingdom after his death in AD 819. Kenelm was just seven when he ascended the throne and was
murdered shortly after by his ambitious sister, Quendryda and her lover. Before the day of his
murder he saw a dream about it. However, he took no precautions to prevent it for his will was
one with that of God. A similar kind of philosophy is found in the drama-‘A Murder in the
Cathedral’ (1935), by T.S. Eliot.
Also, the above discussion brings forth yet another theme of The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, that is, the
theme of dream allegory. In Dream allegory, or Dream Vision, an allegorical tale is presented in
the narrative framework of a dream. It was especially popular in the Middle Ages. This device
makes the fantastic and sometimes bizarre world of personifications and symbolic objects
characteristic of medieval allegory more acceptable. It also serves the purpose of revealing
knowledge or a truth of an higher order, unavailable to the dreamer in a normal wakening state
as here, Chanticleer’s dream gives him a foreknowledge about the evil which is to befall him. The
dream either leads the protagonist to virtue or tricks him into vice. Here, Chanticleer speaks
about Cato, who said that “dreams are signs of trouble as well as joy, which people endure in this
present life.” Chanticleers dream not only serves a major dramatic purpose but, also brings forth
the conflict between idea of destiny and that of free will through foreknowledge. It also proves
to be of great significance, with respect to the understanding of the lives and experiences of a
human being (in comparison to the life of Chanticleer, here).The dream also functions as a
method to bring into light, some of the historical allusions, for instance, Chanticleer refers to the
story of Hector, whereby his wife, Andromache, dreamt about Hector’s death, if he went to the
battlefield the next day. She warned him about the dream, but Hector, nevertheless, went for
the battle, and was slain by Achilles. Hence, the narrative, through its dream allegory, brings
about the morals of the mock heroic, and also gives a description of some higher historical
happenings. Hence, the embedded narrative of this mock heroic has a dream allegory as its main
body.
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale also has satirical elements of high order which unfolds itself through the
mock-heroic style and perhaps the finest example of Chaucer’s humour at work. Humour lies in
the incongruity of style and place: a farmyard is no place for high style; such activities as go on
there are beneath the notice of well-bred people and should be told in low style. The epic
treatment given to the well-known tale of how a cock was beguiled by a fox’s flattery and escaped
by playing on his captor’s pride is the essence of the mock-heroic. According to critics, “Chaucer’s
technique is that of a banana skin: we start upon some flight of rhetoric only to be brought down
to earth with a bump when we realize that the scene is a farmyard and the actors are only hen”.
This beast fable, through portraying animals behaving like humans hint at the larger idea that
how, sometimes, humans can act like animals. Describing Chanticleer, a magnificent cock, the
narrator comments:
His comb was redder than the fyn coral,
 And batailled as it were a castel wal;
His byle was blak,and as jeet it shoon,
- The Nun’s Priest’s Tale (Lines 93-95)
Thus, giving him a knight-like description, Chaucer sets the tone for the mock-heroic. Through
the character of Chanticleer, Chaucer also aims to satirize the vain glory in humans in general,
and that of the medieval aristocracy in particular. This work is also a satire upon the flatterers of
the Court during the medieval times (and humans in general),who used flattery, in order to win
the favour of the monarch, as here, the fox flatters the cock, taking advantage of his vanity, and
thus seizing him. Chaucer, in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, also satirizes the follies and vices , existing
among the clergy of the times, and also mocks the attitude, which the people had against women,
whereby ,they did not consider women as being of much importance, and often ignored their
advices. At one point, Chanticleer comments: “In principio,/ Mulier est hominis confusio” (line 97-
98), the Latin for: ‘Woman is man’s ruin’. However, Chanticleer in line 400 wrongly translates it
as “Woman is mannes joye and al his bliss”, and perhaps he does it deliberately on account of a
feeling of irritation caused by Pertelote’s show of learning. It also shows his haughtiness. The
mock-heroic, through its use of dream allegory, tries to impart some really important insights
into human lives, and ultimately comes out with some really essential morals like –one should
not succumb to flattery; and that one should not speak when one ought to keep quiet. The use
of the themes of free-will and destiny, awards the tale, a divine perspective, and connects the
readers to the higher powers.
Thus, Chaucer in his The Nun’s Priest’s Tale ingeniously depicts the age old philosophical conflict
between free-will and destiny and embeds his dream allegory so well into the mock-heroic style
that it functions to carry on his satire in a well-balanced manner. It was no wrong on the part of
Dryden to have said about Chaucer that:“In the first place, as he is the Father of English Poetry,
so I hold him in the same Degree of Veneration as the Grecians held Homer, or the Romans Virgil:
He is a perpetual Fountain of good Sense; learn'd in all Sciences; and, therefore speaks properly
on all Subjects: As he knew what to say, so he knows also when to leave off; a Continence which
is practis'd by few Writers, and scarcely by any of the Ancients, excepting Virgil and Horace”