The Monk’s Tale

Prologue:

When Chaucer’s tale of Melibee has finished, the Host says that he wishes his wife could hear the tale of Prudence and her patience and wise counsel: his wife, he goes on to extrapolate, is an ill-tempered shrew. Turning to address the Monk, he bids him be ‘myrie of cheere’, and asks whether his name is John, Thomas or Albon, asking which house he is of. Admiring the Monk’s skin and stature, the Host jokes that he could be a good breeding fowl, if only he were allowed to breed.

The Monk takes all this joking well, and promises a tale of the life of Edward the Confessor, but first, announces he will tell some tragedies, of which he has a hundred stored up.

The Monk’s Tale

The Monk’s tale is a collection of tragedies, designed to advise men not to trust in blind prosperity but be aware that Fortune is fickle and ever-changing.

Lucifer is the first tragedy told, who fell from an angelic heaven down to Hell.

Adam is next, the one man not born of original sin, who was driven from Paradise.

Sampson‘s tale is told at greater length, explaining how he fell from grace when he admitted his secret to his wife, who betrayed it to his enemies and then took another lover. The story is that Samson slew one thousand men with an ass’s jawbone, then prayed for God to quench his thirst. From the jawbone’s tooth sprung a well. He would have conquered the world if he had not told Delilah that his strength came from his refusal to cut his hair. Without this strength his enemies cut out Samson’s eyes and imprisoned him. In the temple where Samson was kept he knocked down two of the pillars, killing himself and everyone else in the temple.

Hercules‘ tragedy is next. Hercules’ strength was unparalleled, but he was finally defeated when Deianera sent Hercules a poisoned shirt made by Nessus.

   Nessus

Nebuchadnezzar, was the king of Babylon who had twice defeated Israel. The proud king constructed a large gold statue that he demanded his subjects pray to or else be cast into a pit of flames. Yet when Daniel disobeyed the king, Nebuchadnezzar lost all dignity, acting like a great beast until God relieved him of his insanity.

The next tragedy is about Balthasar, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, who also worshipped false idols. He had a feast for a thousand lords in which they drank wine out of sacred vessels, but during his feast he saw an armless hand writing on a wall. Daniel warned Balthasar of his father’s fate. Daniel warned him that his kingdom would be divided by Medes and the Persians. Balthasar, according to the Monk, exemplifies the way that Fortune makes friends with people before making enemies with them.

Zenobia, who was beautiful and victorious in war, is the next tragic hero of the tale. The queen of Palmyra refused the duties of women and refused to marry, until she was forced to wed Odenathus. She permitted him to have sex with her only so that she could get pregnant, but no more. Yet the proud woman, once Odenathus was dead, was defeated by the Romans and paraded through Rome bound in chains.

King Pedro of Spain

King Pedro of Spain, subject of the next story, was cast from his kingdom by his brother. When attempting to regain his throne, Pedro was murdered by this brother.

Peter King of Cyprus

He is the next subject; he brought ruin on his kingdom and was thus murdered.

Bernabo Visconti

Other tragedies include Bernabo Visconti, who wrongly imprisoned his nephew.

Ugolino of Pisa

He was a count and he was imprisoned in a tower in Pisa with his three young children after Ruggieri, the bishop of Pisa, had led a rebellion against him. His youngest son died of starvation, and out of his misery Ugolini gnawed on his own arms. The two children that remained thought that Ugolini was chewing himself out of hunger, and offered themselves as meals for him. They all eventually starved.

Nero did nothing but satisfy his own lusts and even cut open his own mother to see the womb from which he came. He had Seneca murdered for stating that an emperor should be virtuous. When it appeared that Nero would be assassinated for his cruelty, he killed himself.

The Monk next tells of Antiochus Epiphanes, who was punished by God for attacks on the Jews. God made Antiochus infested with loathsome maggots.

He follows with the tale of Julius Caesar, who had Pompey murdered but was himself assassinated by Brutus.

The final story is of Croesus, King of Lydia, the proud and wealthy king who was hanged.

All of these tales are simply re-tellings of the popularly known stories: all focus on the same theme of people of high degree falling into misery or death. Now, the Monk’s Tale is interrupted.