The Nun's Priest's Tale

The Nun's Priest's Tale is one of the best-loved stories in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (c.1390). It is a mock-heroic beast fable in which the rooster Chanticleer, living in the yard of a poor widow, has a terrifying dream of a fox-like beast. His favourite hen, Pertelote, dismisses the dream as caused by indigestion and advises laxatives. Chanticleer responds with a learned catalogue of prophetic dreams from classical and biblical sources, proving that dreams are to be heeded. Despite his own argument, Chanticleer is distracted by the beauty of the day and by the flattering fox, Dan Russel, who persuades him to close his eyes and crow. The fox seizes him and runs for the wood, but Chanticleer outwits the fox in turn by suggesting he should boast to the pursuing crowd. When the fox opens his mouth to speak, Chanticleer flies free into a tree and refuses all further blandishments.

The tale operates on multiple levels: it is a barnyard comedy, a parody of epic and romance conventions, a satire on intellectual debate (dreams, free will, women's counsel), and a moral fable about the dangers of flattery and vanity. Its humorous inflation of farmyard events to the level of the Trojan War and classical tragedy makes it one of the supreme examples of mock-heroic literature.