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Not What You Meant?  There are 28 definitions for Tale.

The Canterbury Tales Study Guide

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by Geoffrey Chaucer
About 266 pages (79,794 words)
The Canterbury Tales Summary

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Critical Essay #18

In the following essay excerpt, Donaldson examines the role of rhetoric in "The Nun's Priest's Tale."

It is the nature of the beast fable, of which the "Nun's Priest's Tale" is an example, to make fun of human attitudes by assigning them to the lower animals. Perhaps no other form of satire has proved so charming throughout literary history. From Aesop's fables through the medieval French mock-epic Reynard the Fox (upon a version of which the "Nun's Priest's Tale" relies for its slight plot), down to La Fontaine and Br'er Rabbit, the beast who acts like a man has enjoyed general popularity. In the "Nun's Priest's Tale" one of the most charming of poets has given the genre a superbly comic expression. Yet much.....

This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 1,564 words. This study guide contains 79,794 words (approx. 266 pages at 300 words per page).

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The Canterbury Tales from BookRags and Gale's For Students Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.

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