Chanticleer sees the truth through this self-awareness, learning from his mistakes. The sins of pride and self-satisfaction are solved by self-knowledge. And, in case we’re tempted just to write off the whole tale as a “folly” (trifle) about a fox, a rooster, and a hen, the Nun’s Priest reminds us we should “Take the moral, good people.” We should accept what applies to us (take the “fruit” and leave the “chaff,” line 623) and become better people for it.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: SETTING
The widow’s little cottage provides us the moral as well as the physical setting for the tale. Her way of life provides a hint of ideal human, Christian behavior that leads to self-restraint and contentment. This is the world to which Chanticleer’s boastful self-importance is connected, and the world to which the barnyard returns after the intrusion of the evil fox.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: STYLE
As in the Miller’s Tale, we get an ironic use of the language of courtly love and description to point up human desires and weaknesses, which the ideal of courtly love embodies. (Weakness because the beloved lady has the power of life or death over the lovesick knight, as in the Knight’s Tale.)
The “noble” style also serves to parody the tragic tone of the Monk’s endless tales of Fortune bringing down all the greats (Hercules, Samson, etc.), and supplies a comic answer to his gloom. (Keep in mind, too, that the Knight requests another tale, so perhaps the Nun’s Priest means to give the Knight something to match his noble taste.) The parody of a classical tragic style also gives us reasons for the occasional outbursts of lament and complaint (such as the wonderful “death” passage that begins, “O woeful hens!” line 549).
Themes of other tales, such as the ones just mentioned, appear through the tone and language of this tale. Some take this to mean that the Nun’s Priest, who is never described, and “Chaucer” the narrator, who also is left blank, are pretty much the same person. This may or may not be true, but we can see a great deal of affection for the attitudes expressed here, especially since Chaucer has a soft spot for Boethius, whose philosophy plays a role in several of these tales.
Another reason for the humorous tone of the story could be that Chaucer accepts his world with an unshakable faith in divine order that underlies the world’s craziness. Humor allows him to be detached from ups and downs of the characters (and making them birds is another way of detaching himself). Because he is so sure of God’s providence, he can calmly watch other people’s shortcomings and even his own.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THEMES
1. DREAMS
The relevance and importance of dreams, like the relevance of astrology and dreams/visions in the Miller’s Tale, still provoke lively debate today. Is Chanticleer’s dream valid in the Freudian sense–dealing with anxiety and wish-fulfillment–or is it, as some would still believe, a psychic way of revealing the future? Chanticleer gives us plenty of ammunition for believing that dreams can tell the future, but do you believe his stories? Does the fact that his dream does come true give more weight to the psychic idea? Or is the dream another way of showing that everything in the world is predetermined and man’s actions are pointless?
2. DESTINY AND FREE WILL
This is a complex issue that is brought up in the tale but not resolved. We are told two contradictory things: that man is free to make his own choices (as Chanticleer is free to accept or reject Pertelote’s advice), and that he is not free because everything is already destined (which means the fox will attack no matter whose advice Chanticleer follows). Both ideas are right, but neither is completely right. That’s the problem of being human.
3. HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY
This ties in with destiny, as all the themes interweave in this tale. Man is responsible to a divine plan and, on a romantic level, responsible to love and honor. Chanticleer feels he must answer to his wives as well as take care of his own business of crowing and sovereignty over the barnyard.
4. LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE
This is what separates humans from animals since, in this sense, Chanticleer and Pertelote and the fox are as human as they come. The wisdom that the rooster and fox learn from experience goes beyond the natural order of things into the higher realm of God’s good, where they, like we, learn a “moral.” As the end of the tale states, all that is written is written for our “doctrine” (learning, and also church doctrine).
5. KINDS OF LOVE
The language of courtly love emphasizes the sensual animal love that Chanticleer has for Pertelote. According to courtly tradition, this is the love through which a knight perfects himself and wins grace from his lady. But at the same time we get scattered references to woman as man’s destruction and responsible for Adam’s fall. Even where the narrator thinks better of his attack on women (after all, he’s speaking in front of his “boss,” the Prioress, the other nuns, and the imposing Wife of Bath), the words are there for us to consider. The kinds of love can’t be resolved, but they’re both there.
6. DECEPTION AND PRIDE
Chanticleer allows himself to be deceived by the fox because he is flattered and proud of his singing ability, which he believes even makes the sun rise (line 38). He also deceives Pertelote, in mistranslating the Latin saying about women, to impress her and boost his estimation in her eyes (at least, this has been argued). Because of pride he falls and learns his lessons the hard way.
7. ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN
Are women the cause of the Fall, as Chanticleer and the narrator hint, however jokingly, or are they indeed “man’s bliss”? We are given indications of both attitudes, since Chanticleer does “fall” by following the urgings of his practical wife, but he also attributes all the joy in his life to her love. He is called a servant of Venus, because he follows love with such devotion, but he also follows God, believing that his dream is sent from heaven. Each belief would indicate a different attitude toward women.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE REEVE’S TALE
Oswald the Reeve, who is a carpenter, takes offense at the Miller’s tale about a cuckolded carpenter, and says he’ll pay him back in “force”–in the same coarse language and even in the same form (the French bawdy fabliau). The Reeve also gripes because the Miller’s carpenter, like the Reeve, is an old man who can only talk about the things he can’t do anymore. (Like his enemy, the Reeve is concerned with sexual matters.)
The rowdy tale concerns a Miller who steals grain, especially from a Cambridge college that takes its corn to him to be ground. Once, when the miller has stolen more than usual because no one’s there to watch him, two students, Alan and John, decide to oversee the grinding. The miller decides he can outwit the students despite their highclass education. He unties their horse, and while Alan and John chase after it, the miller steals half their grain. By the time the horse is caught, it’s dark and the students are forced to ask the miller to put them up. He does, although there’s only one room. The miller and his wife are in one bed, the students are in another, and the miller’s twenty-year-old daughter is in a third. To get even with the miller for playing a trick on them, one of the students sleeps with the daughter, and the other with the wife, who thinks she is sleeping with the miller! When the miller finds out, he starts beating up Alan. The wife, thinking the two students are fighting, slams the miller on the head with a stick. The beating and cuckolding, says the Reeve, is what the miller deserves for being such a liar and cheat.
As in the Miller’s Tale, justice is done to those who deserve it, more or less. While the actions in the Reeve’s Tale are just as farfetched as in the Miller’s Tale, it is not as rollicking and funny, just as the Reeve is not as loud and boisterous as the Miller.
^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THE COOK’S TALE
Roger, the Cook, enjoys the Reeve’s Tale so much he promises to top it with an even dirtier one that he swears is true. The Host warns kiddingly it had better be good to repay the pilgrims for the reheated pies the Cook has sold them. (As you see, payment is an important theme in this opening series of tales, which ends with this one.)
The Cook’s Tale can barely be called one, since it only consists of the opening lines. (Maybe Chaucer decided two dirty stories in a row was enough.) The Cook starts to tell of an apprentice cook, Perkin Reveler (Partyer) who’d rather dance, drink, and fool around than tend shop. His boss, worrying that this rotten apple could spoil the whole barrel (it was an old saying even then!), fires Perkin, who moves in with a friend who has the same wild habits. This friend has a wife who runs a shop as a front for her sexual goings-on. This is where the tales ends. (You might wish for it to continue!)