Chaucer's Canterbury Tales Nun's Priest's Tale excerpt

This is a fox story or a rooster & hen
as Chaucer said. The dogs chase the fox in the end
and bark such a noise so barnyard animals fly.
The bee hive swarms to a tree nearby.
The fox is a kind of dog you see
though the dogs have name like Collie
that is a name of the ancient Scottish breed
Also the name for ‘dog’ in Celtic creed.
Chaucer was the adviser to kings
and he knew the history of how things
came about. This is a mystical cock
who crows at every hour just like a clock
and knows the meanings of dreams
and all beyond what normally is seen.
For the cock is like man who sings and struts,
feathers the misses and takes pride in his work,
till flattery takes hold of his pride and luck
and finds him riding on the back of a fox.
In his fear, like the man in front of the firing squad who spits
the cock has the wherewithal to flatter the fox to speak
and breaks from his jaws and flies to the highest peak
of safety. The fox uses more honeyed speech to entice
the cock down, but the cock says to suffice:
one time shame on thee,
two time shame on me.
Bob Hoyle
August 2015

  Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
The Nun's Priest's Tale excerpt

  A widow who was rather old and poor

In a small cottage dwelt in days of yore,

Beside a grove that stood within a dale.

This widow whom I tell of in my tale

Had from the day that she was last a wife                  2825

In patience led a very simple life,

So little were her gain and property.

With what God gave her, though, she thriftily

Cared for her daughters and herself. Three cows

She had, no more, along with three big sows,               2830

And but one sheep named Molly--that was all.

And sooty were the bedroom and the hall

In which she'd eaten many a scanty meal.

With pungent sauce she never had to deal.                 

No dainty morsel passed her throat, it's not               2835

A fancy diet found in such a cot,

So overeating never caused her qualm.

A temperate diet was her only balm,

With exercise and a contented heart;    

The gout did not stop dancing on her part,                 2840

And apoplexy never hurt her head.

She had no wine to drink, nor white nor red,

Her board was mostly served with white and black

(Milk and brown bread, of which she found no lack),

Broiled bacon, and sometimes an egg or two.                2845

Her work was much like dairywomen do.

  She had a yard that was enclosed about

By paling and a dried up ditch without,

In which she had a cock named Chanticleer,

In all the realm of crowing without peer.                  2850

His voice was merrier than the play

Of the church's organ each holy day.

And surer was his crowing than a clock

(Even that of the abbey), for this cock

By instinct knew each move of the equator                  2855

As it progressed, that none too soon nor later

But on the dot, fifteen degrees ascended,

He crowed the hour no clock so well attended.

His comb was finest coral red and tall,

And battlemented like a castle wall.                       2860

His bill was black and like the jet it glowed,

His legs and toes like azure when he strode.

His nails were whiter than the lilies bloom,

Like burnished gold the color of his plume.

This gentle cock commanded at his leisure                  2865

A flock of seven hens to do his pleasure,

His paramours and sisters, each of whom

Like him had wondrous coloring in her plume.

But she with fairest coloring on her throat

Was that one called fair damsel Pertelote;                 2870

Discreet and gentle, showing courtesy,

She was so gracious, such nice company,

Right from the day she was seven nights old,

That she had Chanticleer's heart in her hold

Completely, as if under lock and key.                      2875

He loved her, that was his felicity.

And such a joy it was to hear them sing,

At morning when the sun would brightly spring,

In sweet accord, "My Love's Gone Far Away."

(For in those days, so I have heard men say,               2880

The beasts and birds alike could speak and sing

…..

It so befell, as day began to spring,

That Chanticleer was on his perch, with all

His seven wives there with him in the hall,

Beside him being fairest Pertelote,                        2885

When he began to groan down in his throat

As men in troubled dreams have done before.

And when fair Pertelote thus heard him roar,

She was aghast and said to him, "Dear heart,

What's ailing you that makes this groaning start?          2890

For shame, so sound a sleeper to complain!"

  "My lady," Chanticleer sought to explain,

"I pray, don't take me wrong in my distress.

By God, I dreamt I was in such a mess

That even now my heart is full of fright.                  2895

May God," he said, "help me divine it right

Lest into foul captivity I go.

I dreamt that I was roaming to and fro

Here in our yard when I espied a beast

Much like a hound, who would have at the least             2900

Laid hold of me and left me cold and dead.

His color was betwixt yellow and red;

His tail as well as both his ears had hair

With tips of black, unlike his coat elsewhere.

His snout was small, a glow was in each eye.               2905

Still of that look I fear that I could die,

And this has caused my groaning, there's no doubt."

  "Oh fie," she said, "faint-hearted you've turned out!

Alas," said she, "for by the Lord above,

Now you have lost my heart and all my love.                2910

I cannot love a coward, there's no way!

For certainly, whatever women say,

We all desire, if heaven let it be,

Wise, hardy men of generosity,

Husbands discreet--not niggards, fools aghast,             2915

Afraid of every weapon that comes past,

Nor haughty boasters. By that God above,

How dare you say, for shame, to your true love

That anything can make you so afeard!

Have you no manly heart to match your beard?               2920

Alas! can you be so afraid of dreams?

Illusion's all it is, not what it seems.

Such dreams from overeating come to pass,

Or else from humors (if not simply gas)

When they get too abundant as they might.                  2925

For sure this dream that you have had tonight

Resulted from there being great excess

In your red bile--the very thing, God bless,

That makes folks when they're dreaming have such dread

Of arrows or of fire that's flaming red,                   2930

Of red beasts that pursue to bite and maul,

Of strife and of fierce dogs both great and small;

Like melancholy's humor comes about

To make so many sleeping men cry out

For fear of big black bears, and bulls to boot,            2935

Or else black devils that are in pursuit.

Of other humors I could tell also

That torture many a sleeping man with woe,

But I will pass as lightly as I can.

…

  "Now let us speak of mirth, no more of this.

Dame Pertelote, if ever I have bliss,

One thing God's given me with special grace;

For when I see the beauty of your face,                    3160

The scarlet red you have about your eyes,

It makes my dread all wither and it dies,

As certainly as In principio,

Mulier est hominis confusio--

Madam, the meaning of this Latin is                        3165

'A woman is man's joy and all his bliss.'

For when I feel at nighttime your soft side

(Although, alas, upon you I can't ride,

Because our perch is built so narrowly),

Such joy and comfort swell inside of me                    3170

That I defy nightmare as well as dream."

And with that word he flew down from the beam,

For it was day. His hens flew to the ground,

And with a "chuck" he called them, for he found

That in the yard a bit of kernel lay.                      3175

Royal he was, his fear had gone away.

Dame Pertelote was feathered by this cock

And trodden twenty times ere nine o'clock.

Then, with a grim look like a lion's frown,

Upon his toes he wandered up and down,                     3180

Not deigning to set foot upon the ground.

He chucked each time another corn he found,

And all his wives came running to his call.

Thus royal as a prince within his hall

I leave this Chanticleer there in his yard.                3185

To his adventure next I'll give regard.

….

  A black-marked fox, iniquitous and sly,                  3215

Who'd lived for three years in the grove nearby

(By heaven's high design right from the first),

That very night had through the hedges burst

Into the yard where Chanticleer the Fair

And all his wives were accustomed to repair.               3220

There in a bed of cabbages he lay

Completely still till well into the day,

Waiting his time on Chanticleer to fall,

As gladly do homicides one and all

Who wait to ambush and to murder men.                      3225

O false murderer, lurking in your den!

….

A curse upon that day, O Chanticleer,                      3230

When to that yard you flew down from the beams!

Full warning you were given by your dreams,

That very day would bring adversity.

But that which God foreknows is what must be,

Or so, at least, some learned men contest.                 3235

As any worthy scholar will attest,

In schools there is a lot of altercation

About the matter, mighty disputation

(A hundred thousand men are in the rift).

In this the grain from chaff I cannot sift                 3240

As can the holy doctor Augustine,

Boethius, or Bishop Bradwardine,

Whether God's knowing what our futures bring

Constrains me so that I must do a thing

(By which I mean simple necessity),                        3245

Or whether there's free choice granted me

To do the thing or not (though there is naught

That God does not foreknow before it's wrought),

Or if his knowing constrains not one degree

Beyond conditional necessity.                              3250

But I will have no part of such debate;

My tale is of a cock, as I'll relate,

Who took his wife's advice, to his dismay,

And walked within the yard that very day   

Despite what he had dreamt, as I have told.                3255

How often women's counsels prove so cold;

A woman's counsel brought us first to woe,

From Paradise poor Adam had to go,

From where he'd been so merry and at ease.

But as I don't know whom it might displease                3260

If I should give to women's counsel blame,

Please let it pass, I'm only making game.

Read authors where such stuff is their concern,

And what they say of women you may learn.

These words have been a cock's, they are not mine;         3265

No harm in any woman I divine.

 Sunbathing in the sand, fair Pertelote

Lay blithely by her sisters, while the throat

Of Chanticleer made song as merrily

As that of any mermaid in the sea.                         3270

(The Physiologus, with truth to tell,

Says mermaids sing both merrily and well.)

It so befell that as he cast his eye

On the cabbage bed, to catch a butterfly,

He caught sight of the fox there lying low.                3275

He didn't have the least desire to crow--

He cried at once "Cock, cock!" with quite a start,

As any man fear-stricken in his heart.

By instinct every beast desires to flee

When he has seen his natural enemy,                        3280

Though never laying eyes on him before.

  This Chanticleer would not have tarried more

Once he espied the fox, had not the latter

Said, "Gentle sir, alas! what is the matter?

I am your friend--are you afraid of me?                    3285

I'd be worse than a fiend, most certainly,

To do you harm. And please don't think that I

Come here upon your privacy to spy;

The reason that I've come is not a thing

Except that I might listen to you sing.                    3290

For truly you've a voice as merry, sire,

As any angel's up in heaven's choir.

Because of this, in music you've more feeling

Than had Boethius, or all who sing.

My lord, your father (his soul blessed be)                 3295

And mother (she of such gentility)

Have both been in my house, to my great pleasure.

To have you, sir, I'd love in equal measure.

For when men speak of singing, I must say--

As may my eyes see well the light of day--                 3300

Till you, I never heard a mortal sing

As did your father when the day would spring.

And all he sang was surely from the heart;

That more strength to his voice he might impart,

He used to strain himself until his eyes                   3305

He'd have to blink, so loud were all his cries;

And he would have to stand up straight on tiptoe

And stretch his neck as far as it would go.

And he was one of such discretion, sire,

No man was to be found in any shire                        3310

Who could in song and wisdom him surpass.

I've read the story Sir Burnel the Ass,

Wherein it's said that there was once a cock

Who from a priest's son suffered quite a knock

Upon his leg (a foolish lad's caprice),                    3315

For which he made him lose his benefice.

But there is no comparing to be based

Upon your father's wisdom, his good taste,

And a wounded cock's avenging subtlety.

Now, sir, please sing, for holy charity;                   3320

Let's see how well your father you repeat."

Then Chanticleer his wings began to beat,

As one who'd been betrayed but couldn't see,

So ravished was he by such flattery.

  Alas! my lords, there are within your courts             3325

False flatterers and other lying sorts

Who please you, by my faith, more than the man

Who speaks to you the truth as best he can.

In Ecclesiastes read of flattery;

Beware, my lords, of all their treachery.                  3330

  This Chanticleer stood high upon his toes;

Stretching his neck, he let his two eyes close

And loudly he began to crow. Apace

The fox Sir Russell sprang out from his place

And by the throat grabbed Chanticleer. He bore             3335

Him on his back toward the woodland, for

The fox as yet by no one was pursued.

…..

  This simple widow and her daughters heard                3375

The woeful crying of the hens. They stirred

Themselves at once, leapt up and ran outside;

The fox toward the grove they then espied,

Bearing away the cock upon his back.

They cried out "Help!" and "Mercy!" and "Alack!            3380

Hey, hey, the fox!" And after him they ran,

And joining in with staves came many a man,

And our dog Collie, Talbot too, and Garland,

And Malkin with a distaff in her hand.

Ran cow and calf and even all the hogs,                    3385

So frightened by the barking of the dogs

And shouting of each woman, every man.

They thought their hearts would burst, so hard they ran.

They yelled like fiends in hell, such was the cry;

The ducks all quacked as if about to die;                  3390

The geese in fear flew up above the trees;

Out of the hive there came a swarm of bees.

God knows, the noise was hideous and loud!

…

They brought out trumpets made of brass and box,

Of horns and bone, on which they blew and tooted;

They also shrieked, they whooped as well as hooted,        3400

Until it seemed that heaven itself would fall.

  Good men, I pray, please listen one and all,

For see how Fortune upsets suddenly

The hope and pride now of her enemy!

This cock, who on the fox's back still lay,                3405

Despite his fear said to the fox, "I say,

What I would do, my lord, if I were you,

So help me God, is tell those who pursue,

'Turn back, you fools, you haughty churls all,

And may a pestilence upon you fall!                        3410

For now that I have reached the woodland's side,

In spite of you this cock shall here abide--

I'll eat him up right now in front of you!'"

   The fox replied, "In faith, that's what I'll do."

But as he spoke those words, without a pause               3415

The cock broke nimbly from the fox's jaws

And immediately flew high up in a tree.

And when the fox had seen his captive flee,

"Alas," he said, "O Chanticleer, alas!

Against you I am guilty of trespass.                       3420

I made you fear what it was all about,

To grab you in the yard and bring you out.

But, sir, I did it with no ill intent.

Come down, and I will tell you what I meant--

The truth, so help me God! You have my oath."              3425

 

 "Nay," said the cock, "a curse upon us both.

And first I curse myself, by blood and bone,

If more than once I let you lead me on.

You shall no more, with words so flattering,

Inveigle me to close my eyes and sing.                     3430

For him who wills to blink when he should see,

God never let there be prosperity!"

  "No," said the fox, "but God bring to defeat

One whose demeanor is so indiscreet

That when he ought to hold his peace he chatters."         3435

  Lo, such it is to trust in one who flatters,

Be negligent, and act so carelessly.

  But you who judge this tale frivolity

(As it's about a fox, or cock and hen),

Take seriously the moral, gentlemen.                       3440

For all that has been written, says Saint Paul,

Is written so that we might learn it all.

So take the fruit and let the chaff be still.

  Now, gracious God, if it should be thy will,

As says my lord, make all of us good men                   3445

And bring us to high heaven's bliss! Amen.