Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest Tale as a mock epic
Nun’s Priest Tale as a mock heroic poem | How is the nun's priest tale a mock epic? | The Nun's Priest's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer a mock epic | Geoffrey Chaucer's The Nun's Priest Tale as Mock-Heroic
The Epic and the Mock-Epic Tradition
An epic is a poem that celebrates in the
form of a continuous narrative the achievements of one or more heroic
personages of history or tradition. Among the great epics of the world may be
mentioned the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid of the classical western literature, and
the Mahabharata and Ramayana of Hindus literature; the Chanson de Roland, the
Poem a del cid, Milton's Paradise Lost and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. A mock
epic, on the other hand, is a poem that, as the name suggests, imitates the
serious epic. In the words of Courthope, "the true genius of mock-heroics
lies in travesting the serious epic in bringing all the leading features of the
epic machinery, lofty incidents, character, and style to the extent of a
trivial subject. The subject matter must no doubt have a moral bearing; but the
satire ought not to be too apparent." A mock epic, thus, may be called an
exercise in which a dignified kind of composition like the epic is turned to
comic use without being cheapened in any way. In a mock epic the poet gets an
opportunity of ridiculing through incongruity, and of affording his readers the
pleassure of recognising comic parallels to familiar epic authors. But what is
more significant is that in great there is no trace of ridicule in such a
literary exercise.
Chaucer’s Contribution to the Mock-Epic Genre
While Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock
is considered the classic mock-epic, Chaucer's The Nun's Priest's Tale, is the
first great comic epic poem in English. Thus we can say that Chaucer is not
only the father of English poetry, he is also father of mock epic in English.
In old literature the stories of beasts and animals were very common. Chaucer
has taken a very famous story as the frame work for his mock epic. Chaucer has
so well intermixed the comic and the serious in this poem that to know where the
comic ends and the serious begins, is a very difficult business. Under the
apparent veil of comedy and fun is concealed a kind of solemn gravity which
lies at the heart of all great literature. If the serious philosophy and epic
style are brought to bear upon a fable of beasts, it is mainly with an idea to
show the incongruous that lies hidden in things called great. In the opinion of
G.K. Chester- ton, "The very case of the Cock in The Nun's Priest's Tale
is concerned with richer and deeper things than a mere fable about animals. The
interpretation is full of that curious rich native humour which is at once
riotous and secretive. It is extraordinarily English, especially in this that
it does not aim at being neat, as wit and logic are neat. It rather delights in
being clumsy; as if clumsiness were part of the fun."
An epic poem is a long tale in verse,
familiar through tradition; its characters are great heroes from history or
legend whose exploits it celebrates; its action is constantly subject to the intervention
of the supernatural-classical gods and goddesses who form a set of their own;
it is written in grand style befitting its grand theme and characters; it has a
number of thrilling episodes such as mastering of troops, battles, duels,
wanderings, ordeals and the like; it opens with a proposition (i.e. the
statement of its theme); it employs the expanded simle such as Homer introduced
in his epic poems Iliad and the Odyssey, which has since come to be called the
Homeric or the epic simile; it is divided into 12 or 24 books. In the Nun's
Priest's Tale Chaucer employs all the leading conventions of the epic-form such
as lofty incident, character and style to the exaltation of the trivial
subject- an insignificant Aesopian fable of beasts with a moral tagged on it.
Chaucer has admirably transformed the fablliau into a veritable comedy by
virtue of his general humour and tolerance.
Chantecleer as a Comic Epic Hero
In The
Nun's Priest's Tale the comic effect is produced by speaking of one thing in
terms of another. It must be noted that the cock and the hen both function in
the tale as fowls as well as humans. The cock is given the appellation of sir
Chantecleer while the hen is called by the name of Madam Pertelote. The cock is
represented as a hero with true epical part; the hen is also made to embody in
her character the ideals of a truly devoted and faithful wife. The fox is also
called Dan Russell and is given all the qualities of a Satan or villain. These
fowls and animals, for the time being, leave their animal attributes and become
vivaciously and captivatingly human. The beauty and charms of Chauntecleer are
described in such a way that it is difficult to ascertain whether it deserved so
much pictorial description or not:
His
coomb was redder than the fyn coral,
And
batailled as it were a castel wal;
A His
byle was blak, and as the jeet it shoon;
Lyk
assure were his legges and his toon;
His
nayles whiter than the lylye flour,
And
like the burned gold was his colour.
Later
Chaucer compares him to an astronomer and his crowing to the sound of the
church bells:
His
voys was murier than the murie orgon
On
messe dayes that in the chirche gon; Wel sikerer was his crownying in his logge
Than is a clocke, or an abbey or logge, By nature he knew eche ascencioun
Of the
equynoxial in thilke town;
For
whan degress fifteen weren ascended,
Thanne
crew he that it myghte not been amended.
This description is given by Chaucer to
show that the cock by the punctuality of his actions displayed the accuracy of
astronomical knowledge which is not found in common mortals. The picture of Sir
Chauntecleer strutting among his seven queens is very skilfully done.
Chantecleer moves among his feathered mistresses in the farmyard "royal,
as a prince in the hall." This cock of Chaucer also possesses poetic
sensibility and sense of appreciation. Like a true lover he exclaims to his
wife:
Madame
Pertelote, so have blis,
Of O
thyng God hath sent me marge grace;
For
whan I see the beautee of youre face,
Ye been
so scarlet reéd aboute youre eyes,
It
maketh al my drede for to dyen.
When
the sun climbs "fourty degrees and one" Sir Chantecleer asks his wife
Madam Pertelote to look at the great joy that prevails in the world of nature:
Madame
Pertelote my, wordles blis,
Herkneth
this blisful briddes how they synge,
And se the fresshe floures how they sprynge;
Ful is
myn herte of revel and solas!
Thus, we can see that from every angle Sir
Chantecleer is a paragon of perfection. He has all the attributes that make a
man truly great culture, bravery, nobility, intelligence and the fear of God.
He is equal to any epic hero. It is true that he commits a mistake but this
mistake is committed in a way that he keeps our sympathy. Chaucer has done
everything to make his folly look less abused. Chantecleer receives no explicit
warnings and we feel that he, and not Pertelote, is in the right in the matter
of the dream, though, as with all dreamers, whose dreams come true, it could
not save him from his fate. There is no denying the fact that his beguilement
is partly due to vanity, but even here the congestion that he is anxious to
prove himself a worthy son of his father, edge off his impeachment. Except for
his one fatal mistake, deserves the admiration of any hen yard. His pluck, while
he lies in jaws of his captor, is great;
greater is the skill he employs to free himself from the clutches of his
captor. And yet the irony is that he is a mere cock, and not a rational human
being.
Madam Pertelote as the Ideal Wife and Sensible Companion
Chaucer describes Pertelote both as a hen
and as an ideal wife. The impatience with which she listens to the account of
his dream from the lips of Chantecleer is just what one may expect from a
sensible but unimaginative middle class woman, whose digestion is in excellent
order. Instead of accepting the theory of her husband she says that dreams are
the natural consequence of over-eating. She has the knowledge when to keep mum
and when to express her opinions. She studies the comforts of her husband and
knows how to make him happy. She is sufficiently beautiful to keep the heart of
her husband in eternal bondage:
Curteys
she was, discreet and debonaire
And
compaignable; and bar hyrself so faire
Syn thilke day hath the herte in hoold
Of
Chauntecleer, loken in every lith.
She is not only a good companion to her
husband, she also possesses all the skills of an efficient wife through which
she could humour her anxiety about her husband's illness.
The
fox, called Daun Russell, is the true villain. This fox, "ful of sly
iniquitee" is compared by Chaucer to Ganelon, and Judas Iscariot and the
Greek Sinon who betrayed Troy :
O false
mordrer, lurking in the den!
O newe
Scariot, newe Genilon!
False dissimilour, O Greek Sinon,
That
broughtest Troye al outrely to sorwe!
By his power of persuation and flattery he is able to beguile the hero Chantecleer. His sharp intelligence and shrewd cunning is evident to everybody. However, his final defeat reminds us of the true epics where evil is finally punished and virtue rewarded.
In this poem Chaucer keeps a nice balance
between the natural characteristics of animals and their human attributes, for
it is their proper blending which arouses humour. Whereas the machinery of the
mock heroic would have been too artificial and the simple story of the farmyard
would have been too plain, Chaucer combines here the attributes of both and
succeeds admirably. If the mock epic element gave him the opportunity to
display the curious learning, it was on the condition that he would display its
vanity too. Chaucer has also escaped the temptation of falling into serious
satire which would have been harmful to the mock-epic treatment of the subject.
Learned Dialogues and Intellectual Pretensions
The learned dialogues of the poem also point
to its mock epic quality. The conversation between Chantecleer and Pertelote
about dreams is truly epical. The pompous speech of the cock on the reliability
of dreams, the problems of free will, fate and fore- knowledge, and his long
quotations from classical authors like Macrobius and Cato produce a mock epic
effect. The grave debate on such serious subjects which prefaces the fate of
the cock has great comic effect. At another place Chaucer launches a
denunciation of women as the destroyer of Paradise, but explains:
These
be the Cock's wordes and not mine
I can
no harm of no women divine.
There is something extremely personal in
this playing in and out of the curtain and putting on and off the feathered
mask. There is a largeness and liberty in the humourist who gets such huge
enjoyment out of metaphysical chicken, and expands so large a world of fancy
out of the little opportunity of the fable.
Mock-Epic Language and High Style for a Low
Subject
Chaucer also uses high style for his fable,
which also adds to the comic effect. As Pope has said, "The use of pompous
expression for low action is the perfection of the mock heroic." Chaucer
uses many exclamations at the ill luck of the cock which are out of the
ordinary. This may be observed from the following lines uttered before the
tragedy which overtakes the cock :
O
destiny, that myst not be eschewed!
Alas,
that Chauntecleer flew from the beams!
Alas,
his wyf thought not of dreams!
And on
a Friday fell al this meschance,
O Venus
that art goddesse of plesuance,
Since
thy servant was his Chauntecleer,
And in thy serivce did all his power,
Moore for delight than world to multiply,
Why
wouldst thou suffer hym on that day to die?
And when the fox carries the cock in his
mouth towards the forest, the farmyard becomes a veritable pandemonium and
reminds us of the disturbance in hell when Satan and his followers find
themselves hurled there. A score of lines are crowded with noise and action and
nothing is allowed to drag afterwards. The scene is described with all the
dignity. of tone which reminds us of true epic poetry:
They
yelled, as fiends do in hell
The
ducks cried, as men would them quell;
The
geese, for fear, flowen over the trees;
Out of
the hive came the swarm of bees;
So
hidous was the noise, a benedicitee!
Chaucer's The Nun's Priest's Tale also meets
another basic requirement of the epic. The aim of the true epic is not only
entertainment but also edification. So is the case with poem. There are many
didactic flashes in the poem. For example, at one place Chaucer says, "The
latter end of joy is woe"; at another place he says, "Murder will
out"; and at yet another place he says, "Beware, ye lords, of
flatterers." The poem also ends with a moral, i.e. one should not speak
when one could remain silent.
Conclusion: The Perfection of the Mock-Heroic in Chaucer’s Tale
Thus we
can end by repeating the words of Hazlitt, which he spoke about Pope's The Rape
of the Lock: "No pains are spared, no profusion or ornament, no splendour
of poetic diction, to set of the meanest things. The balance between the
concealed irony and the assumed gravity is as nicely trimmed as the balance of
power in Europe. The little is made great, and the great little. You hardly
know whether to laugh or weep. It is the triumph of insignificance, the
apotheosis of foppery and folly. It is the perfection of the mock-heroic."
