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The Canterbury Tales 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...
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This section contains 1,564 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
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