THE CANTEBURY TALES

THE MONK’S TALE

•After the tale of Melibee, the host turns to the merry

monk and demands a story that he confidently expects
to be a jovial and happy tale. Instead the monk relates a
series of tales in which tragedy befalls everyone. The
knight joins in with the host proclaiming that the monk’s
tales are too much to bear and requests a merry tale. But
the monk refuses , and the host turns to the nun’s priest
and calls for a tale.
 THE MONK’S CHARACTER
• When one thinks of a monk, he may imagine someone who
studies, prays and performs manual labor.
• The Monk, one of the thirty pilgrims travelling on a pilgrimage
to Cantebury in THE Cantebury Tales, is nothing like the usual
monk many people imagine.
• He is rebellious in nature, ignores rules and lives and controls
his own life.
• CHAUCER, the narrator, and author of THE CANTEBURY TALES,
shows these characteristics in the way the monk looks, the
things he says and does, and in the things the host , a
character in “THE MONK’S PROLOGUE” and Chaucer say
about him.
•The Monk is nothing like the usual monk many people
imagine. He hunts hares and rides horses instead of studying,
praying and working.
•He dos not follow the rules of the monastery which says that
monks should not hunt be reckless, nor leave the monastery,
instead they should study and perform manual labor.
•The Monk ignores the rules. Chaucer shows that monk does
not care about the rules when he says “he yaf thought of that
text a pulled hen” shows about his self-serving attitudes, that
is, his love for hunting and the church money he spent on his
hobbies.
•“ Of priking and of hunting for the hare was al his lust, for
no cost worlde he spare” . moreover, far from wearing a
monk’s robe and obbey the vow of poverty, the Canteburry
monk wears a very elaborate garb complete with fur, gold, and
even symbols. He does not wear a rosary! What monk would
wear this??
•Additionally it is noted that the monk seems to be a lusty
man, a bit too far for a profession that is meant to fast and
sacrifice, and quite satisfied with life… for a person who vowed
to life in complete submission.
•However, Chaucer does not attack any of the bad qualities of
the monk. We can almost hear him giggling in the background,
using his favorite sins and bestowing them upon the monk for
the sake of entertainment.
•In conclusion the monk is one more pawn in the game of
times. A man who takes a clerical position in the church to take
full advantage of its material benefits.
 THE MONK’S TALE
De casibus virorum illustrium: of the fall of famous
men

I will bewail, in style of tragedy,

The fall of those who stood in high decree,
And fell such that there was no remedy
To raise them out of their adversity.
For when fortune chooses to flee,
There is no man her course can stay, I hold.
Let no man blindly trust prosperity!
Be warned by these examples true and old.
 LUCIFER
When Lucifer, though he an angel were,
And not a man, with him I shall begin;
For though Fortune no angel can impair,
From high degree yet fell he, for his sin,
Down into hell, and he is still therein,
O Lucifer, brightest of angels all,
Now you are Satan, and may never win
out of misery that was your fall!
 ADAM
Lo, Adam in the field of, Damascene,

With God’s own finger wrought was he,

And not begot of man’s sperm unclean,

And ruled all Paradise, save for one tree.

Never had worldly man such high degree

As Adam, till through his bad governance

He was driven from his prosperity

To labor, and to hell, and to mischance.

 SAMSON
Lo, Samson, his birth annunciated

By the angel, long ere his nativity,

Was to almighty god consecratd,

And stood nobly while he could see:

There was never another such as he,

As regards to strength and hardiness.

But to his wives his secret told he,

And so he slew himself from wretchedness.

Samson, this noble all-conquering champion,

Without weapon save his hands, I say,

Slew, and then rent to pieces, a Lion,

While walking to his wedding, by the way.

His wife would please him so and pray

Till she his counsel knew; and she untrue

Unto his foes his counsel did betray,

And forsook him, and took another new.

Three hundred foxes Samson took in ire,

And all their tails he tied up in a band,

And set the foxes tails all on fire,

For he to every tail attached a brand;

And they burned al the corn in land,

And all the olive trees and vines also

A thousand men he slew with his hand,

With nothing but an ass’s jaw-bone

When they were dead, so thirsted him that he

Was near to deat himself, and the did pray

That god would on his pain take pity

And send him drink ,or he must die that day.

And from the ass’s jaw bone, dry, I say,

Out of a back tooth, sprang a well,

Of which he drank enough, and was saved.

Thus God helped him, as judges will tell.

By strength alone, at Gaza, then, one night

The town gates he tore up, in his might,

And carried them on his back, did he,

To a high hill, so anyone might see.

O noble all-conquering Samson, loved and dear,

Had you not told your secret, privately,

In this world you would have had no peer!

Samson, he never cider drank nor wine,

Nor to his hair came shears or razor there,

By percept of the messenger divine,

For all of his great strength lay in his hair

And fully twenty winters, year by year.

He had of Israel the governance.

But son he had to weep many a tear,

For woman would bring him mischance.

To Deliah, his lover, thus he told

How in his hair all his great strength lay.

And falsely to his foes she him sold;

And sleeping in a barn there, on a day,

She clipped and sheared his hair away,

And let his enemies all this trick espy.

And when he was weakened in this way,

They bound him fast and quenched each eye

And ere she did his hair both clip and shave,

There was no bond with which men might him bind.

Yet once he was imprisoned in a cave

They made him labour at quern and grind.

O noble Samson, strongest of mankind,

O sometime judge, in glory and in richness!

The end of this poor wretch was as I say:

His enemies made a feast, one fine day,

And made him as their fool before them play;

And this was in a temple, with great display.

But at last, he made a fierce affray,

For two pillars he shook and made them fall;

And down fell temple and all, and there it lay,

And he slew himself and his enemies all.

That is, the Magistrates everyone,

Three thousand others too, were there slain

Buried beneath the great temple of stone.

Of Samson’s tale no more will I explain.

Be warned by this example old and plain

That none should tell his secrets to his wife,

Such things that he’d in secrecy retain,

Touching the safety of his limbs and life.

 NERO
Although Nero was as vicious

As any fiend that is beneath the ground,

Yet he, as so says Suetonius,

Had in subjection this great world, all found,

From east to west, south to north around.

With rubies , sapphires and with pearls pure white

Were all his clothes embroidered up and down,

For in gemstones he did greatly delight.

More delicate , more pompous in display,

More proud was never Emperor than he.

The same clothes that he had worn a day,

After that time he never more must see.

Nets of gold thread had he in great plenty,

To fish the TIBER when he wished to play

His desires were all made law by decree,

For fortunes as his friend did him obey.

He burnt Rome for his own pleasure, aye.

The senators he slew upon a day,

To hear how those men would weep and cry,

Slew his brother ,and by his sister lay.

Of his mother made piteous display,

For he cut up her womb, to behold

Where he was conceived; oh ,well-away,

In such disdain did he his mother hold.

No tears fell from his eyes at the sight

He only said: ‘A fair woman was she!’

A wonder is it how he could or might

Be the judge concerning her dead beauty.

The wine to be brought commanded he,

And drank anon; no other grief displayed

When great power is joined to cruelty,

Alas, too deep in venom men must wade!

In youth, a teacher had this emperor,

To teach him literature and courtesy,

For morality he was the flower

At that time, unless the book deceive,

And while this teacher had mastery,

He made him so learned and supple

That it was long before tyranny

Or any vice did ind from heart uncouple.

This Seneca, of whom I now advise,

Because Nero held him in such dread,

Since for vice he would have him thus chastise,

Privately, not by word but deed, I’ve read-

‘SIRE’, would he say,’ an Emperor instead

Should love virtue and loath tyranny-

For which in a bath Seneca lay and bled

From both his arms, till his life did flee

This Nero had acquired a habit once;

In youth against his master so to rise,

That afterward with him became a greivance;

Therefore he made him die in this wise.

But nonetheless this Seneca the wise

Chose in a bath to die in this manner

Rather than face death in some other guise.

And thus Nero slay his master dear.

Now it befell, that Fortune wished no longer

To cherish Nero in his soaring pride,

For though he was strong, she was stronger.

She thought thus:’By God, how ill advised

To raise a man so filled with every vice

To high degree and emperor him call!

By god, I’ll pull him down in a trice;

When he least expects it, then he’ll fall’.

The people rose upon him in the night

Against his wickedness , when this he spied,

Out of his doors anon he rushed in flight

Alone, and there he thought he’d find allied

Old friends, knocked hard, but the more he sped

The swifter they shut the doors and all.

Then he knew he had himself misled,

And went his way; no longer dare he call.

The people cried and muttered up and down,

So that it reached his ears how they said :

‘Where’s the tyrant false, Nero the clown?’

For fear indeed he almost lost his head,

And to his gods piteously he prayed

For succour but none was there beside.

In dread of all, he thought he was dead,

And ran into a garden him to hide.

And in the garden two churls on that day

Were sitting by a fire, great and red,

And these two churls he began to pray

To slay him, by striking of his head,

And guard his body, when that he was dead,

From mutilation, and from acts of shame.

Himself he slew, last remedy , instead;

At which fortune laughed, as if in game.

 CROESUS
• Croesus is the king of Lydia.
• Cyrus invaded Lydia captured Croesus.
• Cyrus planned to burn Croesus but to his fortune, it rained and the fire
was doused.
• Croesus was vain and thought that fortune favored him and he marched
off to start a war.
• He had a dream in which he was perched on a tree and Jupiter was
bathing him and phoebus dried him. He asked his daughter what it meant.
• His daughter replied that the tree is a gallows tree, while jupiter meant
tokens of snow and rain, while phoebus meant sunshine. Totally it meant
rain will pour on you and the sun shall dry it off. When it happens he will
be hanged to death. It happened as she said.

• This where the knight interrupts the monk’s tale stating it

• was too much of misery