The Nun’s Priest’s Tale

There was an old widow, who lives with her two daughters on a farm along with few animals. A rooster named Chanticleer who was jolly, happy, and loved to sing.

Chanticleer had seven wives who were also his sisters. One of them caught his attention more than anyone else. Her name was Lady Pertelote and he thought she had the loveliest dyes upon her throat. She’s gracious, courteous, and she also loves Chanticleer just as much as he loves her.

Chanticleer was awoken from a terrible night mare he had. In the dream, he was being chased by a hound. When he woke up he told his love about the dream he had and she said she can’t love a coward like him. She tries to tell him that dreams have no effect in your real life and they mean nothing.

Pertelote wants to comfort him so she tells him about these herbal laxatives that can get rid of the vapors within him that are causing the bad dreams. She tells him how the great Roman writer Cato said to not pay attention to dreams and they are just foolishness.

He tells her a story of these two friends who were on a journey and came to a crowded town where they couldn’t find a cottage so they split up and found different ones. One of them stayed in an oxen barn and the other found a better place to stay in.

The friend who stayed in the nicer place had a dream about the other friend, saying that he’s going to be murdered the next day. He woke up from the dream and though it was nonsense so he went back to sleep, and woke up but he still ignored it. The third time he woke up, his friend said that he was murdered and his body was in a dung cart and to find it in the morning.

The next morning he went to the barn and found his friend in the dung cart just how his friend descried it. He told the police about what happened to his friend and how the man own the farm, the two men was hung.

Chanticleer kept telling more stories of how dreams do come true to prove his point to Lady Pertelote. But he was saying that something bad was still going to happen to him but when he looks at her, all his fears go away because she makes him really happy. After all that has passed, he was feeling great for a few months like the “big guy” around the barn singing and being happy because he has seven wives and Lady Pertelote as his love.

The night before a fox was lying around in a cabbage patch waiting to attack him, he’s been waiting for a few days. Chanticleer was singing loud and proudly then the fox came up to him and wanted to listen to his beautiful voice and he doesn’t want to hurt him in any way. The fox kept flattering him by telling him how good his voice was and asked him to sing something for him. When he did he was caught off guard and the fox grabbed him by the neck and carried him into the forest.

When the widow and her two daughters saw what was going on they decided to chase after the fox. When Chanticleer saw them he told the fox to tell them that they will never see him again and just give up. The fox agreed and turned to tell them that but when he spoke Chanticleer escaped from this mouth. When the fox saw that he escaped he apologized to the rooster saying he was kidding around and he wasn’t going to hurt him. But Chanticleer said “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” meaning that he won’t fall for his trick again after the first time.

The moral of this story is to not listen to people and always stay on guard especially if you know something might happen. If something seems like it’s going to turn out bad, stay away from it and don’t get persuaded into it.

The Nun’s Priest’s Tale