ABSTRACT
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale of the cock and the fox is the most widely known of Chaucer’s comic tales, and is universally agreed to rank among his best. The story itself is a very simple one, wholly lacking in the complications of the Miller’s and the Reeve’s. Reduced to its essentials, it is an elementary but very satisfying reversal of a situation. Chauntecleer’s dream, and his consequent dialogue with Pertelote, occupies a great part of the tale, and Chaucer makes the most of his opportunity. There is no need to praise yet again the chase after the fox. Like the comic battle which ends The Reeves Tale, it rushes along and carries the reader with it.
