copyright®PRINCIPATO 2013
The Canterbury Tales
TEXT
The Prioress
3
coy: timido
oath: imprecazione
3 by St. Loy: per
Sant’Eligio
4 Intoning... nose:
intonazione nasale
5 seemly: elegante,
dignitoso
6 daintily...
extremely:
frequentemente e
con proprietà
7 Stratford-atteBowe: monastero
vicino a Londra
(cioè parlava un
dialetto anglonormanno, ormai
distinto dal francese)
8 At meat: A tavola,
durante i pasti
9 withal: inoltre
10 zest: gusto
11 sedately:
compostamente
12 bearing:
comportamento
13 made it smart: lo
faceva soffrire
14 fair of spread:
spaziosa, alta
15 own: dico, direi
16 trinket:
ornamento
17 A set... green:
Un rosario con i
grani più grossi
(quelli ogni dieci)
dipinti di verde
18 Whence: from
which
19 sheen: splendore
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There also was a Nun, a Prioress,
Her way of smiling very simple and coy.1
Her greatest oath2 was only ‘By St. Loy!’3
And she was known as Madam Eglantyne.
And well she sang a service, with a fine
Intoning through her nose,4 as was most seemly,5
And she spoke daintily in French, extremely,6
After the school of Stratford-atte-Bowe;7
French in the Paris style she did not know.
At meat8 her manners were well taught withal;9
No morsel from her lips did she let fall,
Nor dipped her fingers in the sauce too deep;
But she could carry a morsel up and keep
The smallest drop from falling on her breast.
For courtliness she had a special zest,10
And she would wipe her upper lip so clean
That not a trace of grease was to be seen
Upon her cup when she had drunk; to eat
She reached a hand sedately11 for the meat.
She certainly was very entertaining,
Pleasant and friendly in her ways, and straining
To counterfeit a courtly kind of grace,
A stately bearing12 fitting to her place,
And to seem dignified in all her dealings.
As for her sympathies and tender feelings
She was so charitably solicitous
She used to weep if she but saw a mouse
Caught in a trap if it were dead or bleeding.
And she had little dogs she would be feeding
With roasted flesh, or milk, or fine white bread
And bitterly she wept if one were dead
Or someone took a stick and made it smart;13
She was all sentiment and tender heart.
Her veil was gathered in a seemly way,
Her nose was elegant, her eyes glass-grey;
Her mouth was very small, but soft and red,
Her forehead certainly was fair of spread,14
Almost a span across the brows, I own;15
She was indeed by no means undergrown.
Her cloak, I noticed, had a graceful charm.
She wore a coral trinket16 on her arm,
A set of beads, the gaudies tricked in green,17
Whence18 hung a golden brooch of brightest sheen19
On which there first was graven a crowned A,
And lower, Amor vincit omnia.
Another Nun, the chaplain at her cell,
Was riding with her, and three Priests as well.
(from: The Canterbury Tales, ll. 118-62, cit.)
The Canterbury Tales - The Prioress
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copyright®PRINCIPATO 2013
Comprehension
This portrait is certainly one of the best accounts of one aspect
4 Finally, he completes the portrait by describing her
of medieval life. Like the other female character in the Tales,
physical features and clothing:
the Wife of Bath, the Prioress plays an important role in the
A her nose was poem and, like her too, she is described in very precise, almost
B her eyes were photographic detail.
C her mouth was 1 Chaucer in fact starts by stating:
D her forehead was A her name: E her size was B her social position: F she was wearing a and a C her cultural background: G around her arm she had a Madam Eglantyne’s way of dressing, however, reveals
that she was not indifferent to the fashion
of her time. She actually breaks monastic rules, which
required nuns to cover their foreheads and the sides
of their faces with a wimple or veil.
The rest of her attire also seems to be more suited
3 In lines 11-19 he adds some more information about
to a worldly lady than to a nun. In fact,
her behaviour at table, underlining how she never let any
A her veil was fall from her and never
B her cloak had her too C from her trinket-like rosary hung in the sauce, how she could keep the smallest
from on her breast, how 6 A final ambivalent touch is added by the Latin words
engraved on her brooch. What do they mean? What sort
she would her of love do you think they may refer to?
very clean and how she
reached a for the meat.
5
Then he describes the first impression she makes:
A her way of smiling was B her singing voice was C her table manners were 2
Perspectives
The final effect of Chaucer’s description of the
Prioress is not only a physical portrait but a psychological
one, based not so much on direct comment as on the
simple use of certain words and expressions. The result,
however, is strikingly ambivalent, since the woman can
be “interpreted” in various ways according to the stress
placed on some sentences rather than on others.
The character that emerges from the mixture of
religious and worldly elements is, in fact, slightly
disconcerting, due, above all, to Chaucer’s use of the
technique of contrasts, exemplified, among others, by
such examples as:
z she was a nun but she was known as Madam
Eglantyne, the name of a flower;
she was all sentiment and tender heart, but more than
people she seemed to love animals;
z she carried a rosary, but this one was actually a coral
trinket;
z as a rule nuns were forbidden any kind of ornaments,
but she wore a golden brooch;
z the words on the brooch apparently refer to divine
love, but may also refer to secular love.
Although preserving her own individuality, the
Prioress thus becomes the symbol of a certain way of
living in the nunneries and convents of the time, which,
however, Chaucer hints at indirectly with a gently ironic
and almost indulgent attitude.
z
Personal response
After reading the passage, do you agree that the
Prioress is ambivalent?
2 Do you think that, in the final estimate, her
behaviour was in keeping with the high position she
held in the Church? Give reasons.
1
What do you most like or dislike about her
behaviour?
4 Which of the details describing her make her a
particular woman of the Middle Ages?
3
The Canterbury Tales - The Prioress
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