Questions from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales: The Nun's Priest's Tale

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1.
a. The correct moral of “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” is beware of flattery. Sir Russell is able to catch Chanticleer off guard by flattering him by saying that his voice is beautiful. To crow, Chanticleer closes his eyes, rendering himself blind to a predator and logic. Sir Russell is in turn tricked by Chanticleer by saying that Russell should mock his chasers, allowing for Chanticleer to break free and fly away. Chanticleer has learned his lesson and after his adventure, he vows to never be flattered again.

b. Dreams are unreliable is not the moral of the story. Chanticleer tells Madame Pertelote numer-ous stories of how dreams foreshadowed the future and how not following them led to the pro-tagonist’s death. However, Chanticleer does not believe his own word and appears to have fallen to the fox, Sir Russell, just as his dream had predicted, until he manages to escape.

c. Women are treacherous is not the moral of the story. Even though Madam Pertelote denies Chanticleer’s dream as make-believe, she is not treacherous. Rather, she is naïve and does not care for the coincidences of dreams. Chanticleer does not believe that women are treacherous, even if a woman made Adam out of Paradise, as the negative words said about women are the cock’s words and not his. The widow who owns the chickens and roosters is neither treacherous. She is homely and would never be considered treacherous.

d. Murder will out is not the moral of the story. Throughout history, many terrible things have been reported; however, many have not been. The sly fox has committed numerous deaths of farm animals, though no retribution has been inflicted on him. Rather than seek revenge for his par-ents’ deaths, Chanticleer accepts it and does not try to enact vengeance on Sir Russell.

2.
a. Chanticleer’s remarkable beauty and unsurpassed skill does not hamper his inability to see dan-ger. Rather, he sees it first in his dream, though he does not act on it due to his excess pride.

b. Chanticleer’s beauty and skill affects him negatively by giving him too much pride and vanity. Convinced that his voice is beautiful and his skill is unmatchable, and that the fox would love to hear it, Chanticleer crows for the fox, a task that involves his outstretching his neck and closing his eyes. The fox sees his opportunity and looks to have attained an easy meal before he is tricked out of it.

c. Chanticleer’s love of Pertelote is not affected by his beauty and skill. Chanticleer sides with Pertelote, only after arguing for a while, only because he loves her, not because of his beauty or skill.

d. Chanticleer’s intelligence and nobility is not related to his beauty and skill. Chanticleer is dumbly tricked by the fox and he is not noble.

3.
a. The fox is not crafty, timorous, and derisive. He may be sly but he is not timid and rather good at persuasion. He is not derisive, as he compliments Chanticleer’s voice and does not mock him for his stupidity.

b. The fox is not handsome, brave, and debonair. Nowhere is it listed that the fox is handsome, and anyone who has to trick someone into doing something is not brave. The fox is not elegant either, as he tricks his prey so that they are easier to catch and eat.

c. The fox is not stringent, crafty, and boastful. His life is not strictly controlled by a series of rules; rather, he does whatever he can to survive, including tricking animals.

d. The fox is crafty, insincere, and boastful. He manages to trick Chanticleer into crowing for him so that he is easier to catch. He insincerely tells Chanticleer that he has a beautiful voice, just so he can catch him. He is also boastful, as he was going to taunt his pursuers before Chanticleer flew away.

4.
a. Clamor is shown to mean a loud noise by the words “heard,” “halloo,” and “at all this shrieking.” All of the context clues point to loud noises, so it can be inferred the clamor is a loud and ram-bunctious noise.

b. If blessed, rushing, and saw were context clues for clamor, then it would appear that clamor meant some sort of action, as the other words are actions.

c. If rushing to the door and saw the fox towards the covert streaking were context clues for cla-mor, then it would appear that clamor meant some sort of place inside of the barn, as the other words describe places.

d. If widow, daughters, and hens were context clues for clamor, then clamor would appear to mean a person or an animal.

5.
a. Pride cannot be the sin in that sentence because someone with too much pride would not con-sider anything that they did or have to be the cause of their murder.

b. Avarice is the correct sin because someone with avarice always has a desire for riches and gold, leading the person to their demise.

c. Wrath is not the sin because you cannot enact revenge of an inanimate object such as gold.

d. Envy may the sin because someone else may be rich and you may want that. However, it is not the case here as someone who is rich who not care if someone else was rich or richer because they themselves are already have enough money to last their life.