The Undramatic Character of Chaucer's Nun's Priest.

Author / Editor
Harrington, David V.

Title
The Undramatic Character of Chaucer's Nun's Priest.

Published
Discourse: A Review of the Liberal Arts 8 (1965): 80-89.

Description
Argues that the satire in NPT is "better interpreted as general satire of Chaucer's age" than attributed to the character of the Nun's Priest. So-called "dramatic" readings of the tale falter because, for example, its "gentle satire of courtliness is not generally appropriate for a cleric," and "ridicule of pedantry . . . has little dramatic bearing on other actors" in CT. Because the Nun's Priest is something of a "nonentity," the art of NPT is better attributed to Chaucer than to its teller.

Chaucer Subjects
Nun's Priest and His Tale