"The Monk's Tale" is one of the ''

Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' () is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The book presents the tales, which are mostly written in verse (poetry), verse, as part of a fictional storytellin ...

'' by

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

. The Monk's tale to the other pilgrims is a collection of 17 short stories, exempla, on the theme of

tragedy A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsi ...

. The tragic endings of these historical figures are recounted: Lucifer,

Adam Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam ...

, Samson,

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Zenobia,

Pedro of Castile Peter (; 30 August 133423 March 1369), called Peter the Cruel () or the Just (), was King of Castile and List of Leonese monarchs, León from 1350 to 1369. Peter was the last ruler of the main branch of the House of Ivrea. He was excommunicated ...

Peter I of Cyprus Peter I (9 October 1328 – 17 January 1369) was King of Cyprus and titular King of Jerusalem from his father's abdication on 24 November 1358 until his death in 1369. He was invested as titular Count of Tripoli in 1346. As King of Cyprus, ...

, Bernabò Visconti, Ugolino of Pisa,

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68) was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his ...

, Holofernes, Antiochus,

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

, and Croesus. The Monk - Ellesmere Chaucer

Some literary critics believe that a large portion of the tale may have been written before the rest of the ''Canterbury Tales'' and 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 to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, where he was exposed to

Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so ...

's '' Concerning the Falls of Illustrious Men'', as well as other works such as the '' Decameron''. 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's '' Illustrious Men'', while the tale of Ugolino of Pisa is retold from

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

's '' Inferno''. The Monk, in his prologue, claims to have a hundred of these stories in his cell, but the

Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

stops 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 of

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, then the implication is that he was probably part of the

crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

organised by

and 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 in Aristotle's ''Poetics'', 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 with

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...

ABABBCBC. 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.Cooper, Helen. The Canterbury Tales (Oxford guides to Chaucer). Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996, p.334-5.

References

;General * . ;Specific

External links

Side by side modern translation of "The Monk's Tale"Modern Translation of the ''Monk's Tale'' and Other Resources at eChaucer

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monk's Tale Books about Nero The Canterbury Tales Fictional depictions of Julius Caesar in literature Poetry based on works by Giovanni Boccaccio Works based on Inferno (Dante) Antiochus IV Epiphanes Lucifer Cultural depictions of Adam and Eve Cultural depictions of Samson Hercules Cultural depictions of Belshazzar Cultural depictions of Nero Alexander the Great in legend

Themes

Style

See also

References

External links