In a recent study, Robert Pratt traces much of the inspiration for the narrative and moral of Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest’s Tale to three Old French sources, namely, the Roman de Renart, Marie’s “Del cok e del gupil,” and the fourteenth-century Renart le Contrefait by an unknown clerk of Troyes. Pratt not only detects numerous verbal echoes and narrative details shared by these works; he also draws attention to the many themes they have in common—the interlarded learning, the charming domestic details, and the “moralite.” The immediate parentage of Chaucer’s tale is thus well established. My aim here is to go beyond the Old French background and to glance at several of the more remote Latin ancestors of the English Chanticleer. The general relevance of learned Latin tradition to the Nun’s Priest’s Tale can be seen in the fact that it is told by a priest and is largely devoted to the theme of wisdom: medieval Latin literature often equates the priest with the figure of the cock in celebrating the latter for its heavenly intelligence. I hope to show that the influence of the Latin analogues of the Nun’s Priest’s Tale goes beyond mere symbolism or allegory and can be found in specific narrative traits and descriptive details.

Language: English