"The Prioress' Tale" is a miracle tale in which she discusses the beauty of God.

Essay by resillimjHigh School, 12th gradeA+, November 2003

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Jamie Milliser

English 1-4

Oct. 8, 2002

"The Prioress' Tale" is a miracle tale in which she discusses the beauty of God.

"The Prioress' Tale" is a miracle tale in which she discusses the beauty of God through the eyes of a seven-year old boy who is martyred for singing a prayer to the Virgin Mary. In the Prioress' prologue, she talks about the power of God and calls on the Virgin Mary to help her tell the story. She begins the tale by describing the setting of a widow who is raising her seven-year old boy in a large city in Asia. The boy attends a Christian school and is martyred by Jews. On the way to school, they chase him down, cut his throat, and then throw him in to a pit, leaving him for dead. The boy's mother finds him, and he is carried away to the abbot who pours holy water over him and brings him back to life.

The boy tells of the Virgin Mother speaking to him and placing a kernel in his mouth so he can sing to her. The Abbot removes the kernel, the boy dies, and he is placed in a clear marble tomb.

The character of the Prioress is portrayed in the General Prologue as an emotional and ignorant woman, "And she had little dogs she would be feeding, with roasted flesh, or milk, or fine white bread." Who shows a lack of self control, "As for her sympathies and tender feeling, She was so charitably solicitous." Chaucer tells us that the character name of the Prioress is Madam Eglantine. Chaucer describes her physical description to be that of an elegant well mannered woman, "No morsel from her lip did she let fall, Nor dipped her finger in...