Chaucer's Chauntecleer and Animal Morality

Author / Editor
Browne, Megan Palmer.

Title
Chaucer's Chauntecleer and Animal Morality

Published
Carolynn Van Dyke, ed. Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 203-15.

Description
NPT demonstrates the danger of reading "for a single abstract moral" by means of its emphasis on Chauntecleer's humanlike qualities. Among his most human attributes are experiencing and expounding a dream. If "men" refers to both humans and chickens, the tale treats both Chauntecleer and the widow as leading good, virtuous lives; the poem's "moralite" calls readers to live an engaged but reflective life.

Alternative Title
Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts.

Chaucer Subjects
Nun's Priest and His Tale