When you hear the word “ prick ” the first thing that comes to mind is n’t normally a narrative about the dangers of flattery ; nevertheless if you lived in Geoffrey Chaucer ‘s times you would acknowledge this to be a tale heterosexual out of his book, The Canterbury Tales. This peculiar narrative in his book was “ The Nun ‘s Priest ‘s Tale ” , appropriately told by a priest, a reverend. He gives us a beast narrative in which we learn of Chanticleer the prick ‘s bad lucks due to a blazing neglect of his dreams and a compromising state of affairs he gets himself into due to falling victim to flattery. Through Chanticleer ‘s errors Chaucer gives us overtones of a subject of human agony.
To exemplify an image of human agony, Chaucer foremost introduces us to our chief characters, the prick Chanticleer and the biddy Pertelote. The narrative begins on a rancid note, as we start off hearing the horrifying shriek and calls of Chanticleer, the most prized cock in the pace and the chief beginning of oculus confect to the biddies at that place. Trying to happen out what ailed him, Pertelote, Chanticleers most darling biddy in the pace, hastes to his side to happen out that he had suffered from a incubus. In his ain words, “ I dreamt that rolling up and down a piece / Within our pace I saw a sort of animal, / A kind of hound that tried or seemed at least / To seek and prehend me aˆ¦ would hold killed me dead! / His coloring material was a blend of yellow and ruddy, / His ears and tail were tipped
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with sable pelt / Unlike the remainder ; he was a russet mongrel. ” ( Chaucer, 216 ) . Clearly such a dream is an omen to Chanticleer and foreshadows coming events for us, nevertheless Pertelote was outraged that Chanticleer, the prototype of all a prick should be, would fall victim to such a fiddling affair. She berates our narrative ‘s hapless roll for such a show of cowardliness and looking so lame in forepart of her ; she remarks stating that dreams are nil but a consequence of physical unwellness. Chanticleer nevertheless tries to convert Pertelote otherwise giving her narratives of work forces who had taken attentiveness of the message their dreams conveyed and in some instances such observation saved their lives. However, unable to hold on who is right, they both decide to literally “ hit the hay ” that dark. Later in the month of May Chanticleer ‘s dream eventually becomes world when all of a sudden “ A coal-tipped fox of sly iniquity / That had been skulking round the channel for three / Long old ages, that really dark explosion through and passed / Stockade and hedge, as Providence prognosis, / Into the pace where Chanticleer the Fair / Was habit, with all his ladies, to mend. ” ( Chaucer, 225 ) . Chanticleers dream had eventually had eventually caught up to him as the fox he envisioned early was now right in forepart of him! Had Chanticleer remembered and took note of his dream he would hold been saved the effects of run intoing the fox. Had that been the instance though this peculiar narrative would non hold a subject of human enduring for Chanticleer did non give idea to his dream and alternatively laid in the oral cavity of the fox proceedingss subsequently believing that he was safe in his presence.
To further add abuse to the hurt of human agony, Chaucer even threw in another component into his narrative. This component was the moral which was “ aˆ¦be on your guard / Against the adulators of the universe, or yardaˆ¦ ” ( Chaucer, 231 ) . This lesson was made evident the twenty-four hours the fox showed up in the pace. Again as we ‘ve heard before, Chanticleer allowed the fox to acquire near as
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he chose non to take the warning of his dream to bosom. That much closer to his repast the fox so began to spurt the one thing that would spell Chanticleers death: flattery. Chanticleer being the most fine-looking and musical cock on the land fell victim to the fox ‘s word as he said therefore, “ Dear sir, I was non even descrying on you! Truly I came to make no other thing / Than merely to lie and listen to you sing. You have as merry a voice as God has goven / To any angel in the tribunals of Heaven ; / To that you add a musical sense as strong / As had Boethius who was skilled in songaˆ¦ Oh, for charity of bosom, / Can you non emulate your sire and sing? ” ( Chaucer, 227 ) . And merely every bit do many work forces in our twenty-four hours and age autumn victim to such sweet words, so did Chanticleer who was taken by at the cervix by the fox the 2nd he tried to affect him with a fantastic coo. Truly the subject of agony was present as it seemed that the prick ‘s twenty-four hours of singing were over, nevertheless true sarcasm was subsequently seen at the terminal of the narrative ; as fortune would hold it Chanticleer was still alive in the fox ‘s oral cavity and was able to merely liberate himself with similar flattery.
Through Chanticleers bad lucks and close brush with decease we can see an illustration of the subject of human enduring painted by the events that took topographic point. However, like all things read from a book of narratives, the narrative was merely that, a narrative. One meant to warn us of the grounds for our enduring clearly as we saw nil but wretchedness and enduring about take Chanticleers life. It is the subject of human agony and the moral of this narrative that we should take to bosom, and that would be “ aˆ¦be on your guard / Against the adulators of the universe, or yardaˆ¦ ” ( Chaucer, 231 ) .
Work Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “ The Nun ‘s Priest ‘s Tale. ” The Canterbury Tales. Penguin Classics erectile dysfunction.
Trans. Nevil, Coghill. 1951. New York: Penguin Group, 2003, pages 216-231. Print.
