The Monk's Tale

For the 1913 film, seeThe Old Monk's Tale.

"The Monk's Tale"is one of theCanterbury TalesbyGeoffrey Chaucer.

The Monk's tale to the other pilgrims is a collection of 17 short stories,exempla,on the theme oftragedy.The tragic endings of these historical figures are recounted:Lucifer,Adam,Samson,Hercules,Nebuchadnezzar,Belshazzar,Zenobia,Pedro of Castile,Peter I of Cyprus,Bernabò Visconti,Ugolino of Pisa,Nero,Holofernes,Antiochus,Alexander the Great,Julius Caesar,andCroesus.

The Monk's Tale

Some literary critics believe that a large portion of the tale may have been written before the rest of theCanterbury Talesand that the four most contemporary figures were added at a later point. A likely dating for this hypothetical first draft of the text would be the 1370s, shortly after Chaucer returned from a trip toItaly,where he was exposed toGiovanni Boccaccio'sConcerning the Falls of Illustrious Men,as well as other works such as theDecameron.The tragedy of Bernabò Visconti must have been written after 1385, the date of the protagonist's death. The basic structure for the tale is modeled after the Boccaccio'sIllustrious Men,while the tale ofUgolino of Pisais retold fromDante'sInferno.

The Monk, in his prologue, claims to have a hundred of these stories in his cell, but theKnightstops him after only 17, saying that they have had enough sadness. The order of the stories within the tale is different in several early manuscripts, and if the more contemporary stories were at the end of his tale, Chaucer may wish to suggest that the Knight has another motivation for interrupting than sheer boredom. In line 51 of the General Prologue, it is said of the Knight that: "At Alisaundre he was, whan it was wonne". If the Knight were at the capture ofAlexandria,then the implication is that he was probably part of thecrusadeorganised byPeter I of Cyprusand that the reader should presume that hearing of the tragedy of his former military commander is what prompts him to interrupt the monk.

Themes

The form of tragedy depicted in "The Monk's Tale" is not that argued inAristotle'sPoetics,but rather "the medieval idea that the protagonist is victim rather than hero, raised up and then cast down by the workings of Fortune."

The text, despite the Monk's insistence upon a strict, homogeneous definition of tragedy, presents as equally tragic a series of tales that diverges considerably in content, tone, and form. For example, the structure and matter of the tales of Ugolino and Nero are, effectively, mirror images of one another. Chaucer's intention may be to have the Monk present his literary dogma and overly strict generic classifications in such a way that they appear to the reader to be unconvincing.

Style

The metrical form of "The Monk's Tale" is the most complex of all the pilgrims', an eight-line stanza withrhyme schemeABABBCBC. Usually, a strong, syntactical link exists between the fourth and fifth lines, which some literary theorists feel prevents the stanza from breaking in half. This metrical style gives an elevated, spacious tone to "The Monk's Tale" that is not always evidenced in the diction. In fact, the language is often simple and direct except in those instances of moralizing, whether discussing God or Fortune, when the vocabulary becomes weightier.

See also

• God Spede the Plough

References

General

• Goodall, Peter;Greentree, Rosemary; Bright, Christopher, eds. (2009).Chaucer's Monk's Tale and Nun's Priest's Tale: An Annotated Bibliography 1900 to 2000.annotated by Geoffrey Cooper, et al.Toronto:University of Toronto Press.ISBN978-0-80209-320-2.

Specific

External links

• Side by side modern translation of "The Monk's Tale"
• Modern Translation of theMonk's Taleand Other Resources at eChaucerArchived2007-12-04 at theWayback Machine
• "The Monk's Tale" – a plain-English retelling for non-scholars.