The Prioress' Prologue and Tale
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The Prioress' Tale follows The Shipman's Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Because of fragmentation of the manuscripts, it is impossible to tell where it comes in ordinal sequence, but it is second in group B2, followed by Chaucer's Tale of Sir Topas. The General Prologue names the prioress as Madam Eglentyne, and describes her impeccable table manners and soft-hearted ways. Her story is of a child martyr killed by Jews, a common theme in Medieval Christianity, and much later criticism focuses on the tale's anti-Semitism.
[edit] Plot
The story begins with an invocation to the Virgin Mary, then sets the scene in Asia, where a community of Jews live in a Christian city. A seven-year-old school-boy, son of a widow, is brought up to revere Mary. He teaches himself the first verse of the popular Medieval hymn 'Alma Redemptoris Mater' (nurturing mother of the redeemer); though he does not understand the words, an older classmate tells him it is about Mary. He begins to sing it every day as he walks to school through the Jews' street.
Satan, 'That hath in Jewes' heart his waspe's nest', incites the Jews to murder the child and throw his body on a dungheap. His mother searches for him and eventually finds his body, which begins miraculously to sing the 'Alma Redemptoris'. The Christians call in the provost of the city, who has the Jews drawn by wild horses and then hanged. The boy continues to sing throughout his burial service until the holy abbot of the community asks him why he is able to sing. He replies that although his throat is cut, he has had a vision in which Mary laid a grain on his tongue and he will keep singing until it is removed. The abbot removes the grain and he dies.
The story ends with a mention of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, another child martyr supposedly slain by Jews.
The story is an example of a class of stories, popular at the time, known as the miracles of the Virgin such as those by Gautier de Coincy. It also blends elements of common story of a pious child killed by the enemies of the faith; the first example of which in English was written about William of Norwich. Matthew Arnold cited a stanza from the tale as the best of Chaucer's poetry.
- "My throte is kut unto my nekke boon,"
- Seyde this child, "and as by wey of kynde
- I sholde have dyed, ye, longe tyme agon.
- But Jesu Crist, as ye in bookes fynde,
- Wil that his glorie laste and be in mynde,
- And for the worship of his Mooder deere
- Yet may I synge O Alma loude and cleere.
[edit] Anti-Semitism
The tale is related to various blood libel stories common at the time, distributed by the Church. Chaucer's attitude toward the tale is less clear.
The Prioress' French accent is a sign of social climbing, yet her speech is modeled after the Stratford-at-Bow school, not the more desirable Parisian French. She makes her oaths by "Seint Loy" (St. Eligius), the patron of, among others, goldsmiths. Her overzealousness to her pet dogs and to mice killed in traps is perhaps misdirected in a nun, who might otherwise be serving the poor. The bangle she wears on her wrist bears the Virgilian motto 'Amor vincit omnia' (love conquers all) is also a rather dubious maxim for a nun which perhaps takes the place of a rosary and further illustrates her fascination with courtly love. In addition, the fact that Chaucer chose to set her tale in elaborate rhyme royal, a rhyme scheme generally used in tales of courtly love, seems at odds with her tale's apparent emphasis on simple piety. Thus her portrayal as a character is not wholly positive. In fact, the language and structure of her prologue and tale have led many literary critics to argue that Chaucer is mocking the Prioress.
The Jews were banished from England in 1290, one hundred years before the tale was written and so it had to be set in some un-named Asian city. This means that the Jews are an even more distant and unfocused evil quality than is usual in such stories. The Physician's Tale is a similar story about an innocent child persecuted by an implacable enemy but without the anti-Semitic tone.
Her tale, with its emphasis on infantile faith, balances the Shipman's story of a too-sophisticated monk who sleeps with the wife of a friend. Both tales seem to describe extremes, faith without knowledge versus knowledge without faith.
While this says nothing about Chaucer's actual attitude toward Jews (and antipathy would have been entirely typical of the period), the Prioress's opinions should not be read as his own.
