Nun’s priest tale
- genre = beast fable
- plot = fox tricks cock, cock tricks fox
- moral = trusting flattery is reckless
- host’s reaction = enthousiastic
Seven liberal arts in NPT:
LOGIC/DIALECTIC
‘disputatio’ between Chauntecleer and Pertelote (are dreams pathetic)
C wins debate, but follows P’s advice
Seven liberal arts in NPT:
GRAMMAR
C translates Latin through liberal arts
= joke because he mistranslates (should be: a woman is the confusion/ruin of a man)
Seven liberal arts in NPT:
RHETORIC
Reference to Nova Poetria, tells you how to describe a woman, that technique is used to describe C
Seven liberal arts in NPT:
MUSIC
Boethuis: ‘music should be approached as a mathematical entity not with feeling/instinct’
Funny because the fox says C has more feeling that Boethius
Seven liberal arts in NPT:
ARITHMETIC + GEOMETRY + ASTRONOMY
C calculates the time using the angle of the sun etc.
Zodiac man
connection between medicine and astronomy
NPT takes place during taurus = neck
Chaucer’s stance on auctoritas
authority can be found in books and should be believed
Sources of authority
- Bible
- Nature (bestiaries)
- Classical authors (plato/aristotle/cato)
- scholars (boethius, augustine)
- Tradition (proverbs)
Auctoritas in NPT
- P references Cato during debate with C
- C references Cicero, Macrobeus and the bible during debate
- [Narrator] Bible
- [Narrator] Nature (mermaids, abuse of authority, singing is pretty but causes death)
- [Narrator] Scholars
- [Narrator] Tradition
- [Narrator] comparison to Lancelot (known book of fake stories)
Mock epic
= long heroicomical poem that merely imitates classic epic
- illustrated by: chase scene, references peasant revolt and demons in Hell (b/c of noise) –> blown out of proportion –> mock epic
References NPT
- 2 chickens want to leave the garden and get caught by a fox –> Adam and Eve
- Description of fox –> compared to Judas’ chariot and the man who convinced trojans to bring horse into Troy
