Some things are just too easy.

Of all the Canterbury Tales, the Nun's Priest's Tale is probably the easiest to treat separately. There is no need to describe the teller, because the Nun's Priest is never described in the General Prologue. There isn't much need to talk about deeper meanings, because the characters are chickens; they aren't subtle. So the tale can be handled easily as an individual item.

And, of course, it is brilliant; Chauntecleer ranks with Arveragus and Dorigen and the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner as one of Chaucer's most brilliant creations. Chaucer took the form of the Beast Fable and made it into something far greater.

So this should have been a brilliant piece of work. Unfortunately, it suffered badly due to its format. This series presents Chaucer's tales without much introduction, and no glossing, then presents notes which break them up into tiny little pieces and explains those. For some tales -- the Monk's Tale, for instance -- that works well. For the Nun's Priest's tale, where the plot and the characters fit so well together, it's a failure. Better to give a general introduction talking about beast fables, and the story of Reynard the Fox and the other sources, and then let Chaucer speak for himself, with glosses.

That's not to say that this is an entirely useless book. If you're doing detailed study of the Tale, it can be of help. But if you're doing a detailed study of Chauntecleer and Pertelote, you're missing a lot of fun. ( )