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“The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” and “The Pardoner’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Build Vocabulary
Spelling Strategy The zh sound is spelled -si- as in derision.
Using the Root -cap- and the Prefix apoA. DIRECTIONS: In each sentence, underline the word that contains the root -cap- or the prefix apo-.
Then, use your knowledge of the root or prefix to define the word you underlined.
1. The captain turned off the “Fasten Your Seatbelts” sign.
2. As the waves grew higher, we all grew concerned that the boat might capsize.
3. The audience had filled the auditorium to capacity.
4. After insulting the group of businessmen, the engineer returned to the conference room
and apologized.
5. The apothegm the gambler used when he lost was: "You win some, you lose some."
Using the Word Bank
capital
maxim
pallor
timorous
stringent
hoary
derision
apothecary
prating
B. Directions: Read each series of words. Write the word from the word bank that best fits
with the other words in the series.
1. cowardly, fearful, shy ___________________________________________________________________
2. strict, severe, unkind ____________________________________________________________________
3. money, property, funds __________________________________________________________________
4. saying, truth, principle __________________________________________________________________
5. pharmacist, medical person ______________________________________________________________
6. ridicule, contempt, mockery ______________________________________________________________
7. chattering, talking foolishly_______________________________________________________________
8. paleness, white skin, deathly hue _________________________________________________________
9. ancient, gray, white ______________________________________________________________________
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The Nun’s Priest’s Tale/The Pardoner’s Tale
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Unit 1: From Legend to
History (449–1485)
Name _____________________________________________________
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Name _____________________________________________________
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“The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” and “The Pardoner’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Grammar and Style: Pronouns
Pronoun Case
Pronoun case refers to the form a pronoun takes to indicate its function in a sentence. Writers
use the subjective case when the pronoun performs the action—acts as the subject of the sentence—or when it renames the subject. Writers use the objective case when the pronoun receives the action of the verb—as a direct or an indirect object—or is the object of a preposition.
Subjective case pronouns: I, we, you, he, she, it, they
Objective case pronouns: me, us, you, him, her, it, them
A. Practice: Underline the pronouns in the following sentences. Then identify the case of each
pronoun by writing an S for subjective or an O for objective above it.
1. “Little she had in capital or rent, . . . .”
2. “. . . And Pertelote who heard him roar and scream / Was quite aghast. . . .”
3. “It was a dream, he thought, a fantasy.”
B. Application: Complete each sentence by inserting the correct pronoun. Then identify its
case by writing an S for subjective or an O for objective on the line beside the sentence.
____
1. If you had to characterize Chanticleer, would you call ___________________________
“vain, proud, and crafty”?
____
2. The storyteller points out that since ___________________________ was seven days old
Pertelote held the heart of Chanticleer controlled.
____
3. Pertelote is distressed not by Chanticleer’s dream but by the fact
___________________________ appears to be so afraid of it.
____
4. ___________________________ recommends that Chanticleer take herbs to purge from
his body the red choler in his blood that caused his disturbing dreams.
Relative Pronouns Who and Whom
Relative pronouns connect one idea in a sentence to another part of the sentence. The relative pronouns who and whom introduce clauses that modify a particular word in the sentence. Who acts as the subject of a clause; whom may act as a direct object, and indirect object, or the object of a preposition within a clause.
S
The apothecary is the one who gave the younger rioter the poison.
OP
The old man was the one to whom the three rioters spoke on the road.
C. Practice: Circle the relative pronoun in each sentence, underline the clause it introduces,
and draw an arrow from the clause to the word it modifies.
1. It’s of three rioters I have to tell / Who long before the morning service bell / Were sitting in
a tavern for a drink.
2. There came a privy thief, they call him Death, / Who kills us all round here . . .
3. A certain traitor who singles out / And kills the fine young fellows hereabout.
4. The one who draws the longest, lucky man, / Shall run to town as quickly as he can . . .
5. . . . away he ran / Into a neighboring street, and found a man / Who lent him three large bottles.
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“The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” and “The Pardoner’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Reading Strategy: Using Context Clues and Rereading
for Clarification
Using Context Clues
You can often determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word from its context—that is, from
the words, phrases, and sentences that surround it. You often have to look for clues to discover
a word’s meaning. For example, look at the word sauntered in the following passage:
“Grim as a lion’s was his manly frown
As on his toes he sauntered up and down;
He scarcely deigned to set his foot to ground
And every time a seed of corn was found
He gave a chuck, and up his wives ran all.”
From the surrounding details about what Chanticleer is doing, you can infer that saunter
means “to stroll”— maybe even “to stroll with an attitude of pride or self-assurance.”
A. DIRECTIONS: Read these sentences from “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.” Use context clues to determine the meaning of the italicized word. Underline the clues you use. Then write your definition
on the line. Finally, check your definition in a dictionary.
1. This Chanticleer began to groan and lurch / Like someone sorely troubled by a dream, / And
Pertelote who heard him roar and scream / Was quite aghast and said, “O dearest heart, / What’s
ailing you? Why do you groan and start?”
2. “For shame,“ she said, “you timorous poltroon! / Alas, what cowardice!”
3. “The first of them found refuge in a stall / Down in a yard with oxen and a plow. / His friend found lodging for himself somehow / Elsewhere, by accident or destiny, / Which governs all of us and equally.”
Rereading for Clarification
You can go back and reread a passage in order to clarify what it means. Sometimes you
might be surprised at how much more you understand the second or third time.
B. DIRECTIONS: Reread the following sentences from “The Pardoner’s Tale.” Write down what becomes clearer to you.
1. Be on your guard to meet such an adversary, / Be primed to meet him everywhere you go.
2. “Away with him as he has made away / With all our friends. God's dignity. To-night!”
3. “. . . if it be your design / To find out Death, turn up this crooked way / Towards that grove. I left
him there [Death] today / Under a tree, and there you'll find him waiting.”
© Prentice-Hall, Inc.
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale/The Pardoner’s Tale
23
Unit 1: From Legend to
History (449–1485)
Name _____________________________________________________
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3:10 PM
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Name _____________________________________________________
Date ___________________
“The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” and “The Pardoner’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Literary Analysis: Parody and Exemplum (Anecdote)
Mock-Heroic Style
By using a parody, writers use inflated language more suitable to describe heroes and their
epic battles to show the ridiculousness of some trivial matter that is taken too seriously.
Chaucer tells about a common barnyard occurrence in the example from “The Nun’s Priest’s
Tale”—the attack of a fox on a chicken coop—as though he were narrating a grand scene within
some epic poem. Chaucer also displays his rooster and hen as if they were courtly lovers, a tradition he uses to enrich his mock-heroic satire.
O woeful hens, louder your shrieks and higher
Than those of Roman matrons when the fire
Consumed their husbands, senators of Rome,
When Nero burnt their city and their home.
A. DIRECTIONS: Write yes on the line next to each passage if it is an example of parody, and no if
it is not.
1. ______ Jerry courageously decided he could postpone the fateful moment no longer. Slowly
and gravely, he donned the proper uniform until he was clad in sneakers, shorts, and a Tshirt. He found his gracious mother on the porch and bade her farwell. “I will return,” he
promised her as he marched fearlessly to do battle with the overgrown lawn, using as his
loyal steed the new power mower his father had entrusted to his care the week before.
2. ______ He walked into the diner and sat down on one of the stools. He had only forty cents
left in his coin purse. That was all the money he had in the world. “Excuse me, miss,” he
asked the waitress. “How much coffee will forty cents get me?”
“Maybe half a cup,” she answered.
“O.K.,” he said.
She brought the pot over and poured coffee into his cup until it was full.
Exemplum (Anecdote)
An exemplum is an anecdote that serves as an example to illustrate a truth or moral. “The
Pardoner's Tale” is an exemplum used to teach that greediness is a disastrous way of life.
B. DIRECTIONS: In the lines that follow, record four lines from “The Pardoner's Tale” that help to
illustrate the moral the Pardoner is trying to teach.
1.
2.
3.
4.
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