Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to the fifth lesson about The Canterbury Tale: "General Prologue." My name is Ms. King, and today, we'll be learning about the character of the Prioress and how Chaucer uses satire in his presentation of her.

For today's lesson, all you'll need is a pen and paper, or something to write on and with.

Please take a moment now to clear away any distractions, including turning off the notifications on any apps or conversations you have running, if you know how to.

Finally, if you can, try to find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed during the lesson.

Okay, so, when you're ready, let's begin.

First, let's recap what we learnt last lesson.

Pause the video now, and see if you can fill in the gaps.

Resume the video again once you're finished.

Well done.

Let's have a look at some answers.

You might like to correct any mistakes you made, and give yourself a big tick for all the ones you got right.

So, chivalry is the code of behaviour that knights follow.

Knights who follow the chivalric code value religion, glory, and honouring women.

Chaucer presents the knight as distinguished, honourable, courteous, successful in battle, brave, and modest.

And some of the techniques he uses to show us this are simile, listing, and repetition.

Okay, so now, let's move on to today's lesson.

Today we will start by learning how the Prioress is described and what this might suggest about her before moving on to consider what makes this an example of satire.

At the end, you'll have an opportunity to put all your ideas together in an extended writing task before completing the quiz.

Though first, a quick reminder of who this Prioress was.

A prioress is a woman who is head of a house of nuns.

And nuns, just to remind you, are members of a religious community of women.

Now, can you remember which estate does the Prioress belong to? Hmm.

If you said, the First Estate, that's the clergy, well done.

Okay, so now, let's have a look of how the Prioress is described.

One of the ways that Chaucer shows us what the Prioress's character is like is through the way in which she behaves.

So, first up, we learn that the Prioress does not swear.

Chaucer tells us, "Her greatest oath was only 'By St.

Loy!'" Now, you can probably guess what an oath is, if you don't know already.

It means a swear word.

And this St.

Loy, we know that he took a vow never to swear.

So, actually, Chaucer might be suggesting that the Prioress didn't ever swear at all.

We also learn that the Prioress sings through her nose.

Chaucer says, "And well she sang a service, with a fine intoning through her nose, as was most seemly." "Intoning" means making noise without changing pitch, without making your voice higher or lower.

So, perhaps, suggesting that she's a little bit out of tune or that her singing is completely tuneless.

So, although she sings in a seemly way, a way in which she thinks is tasteful, actually this is not really a very flattering description.

Next, we find out that she speaks French.

badly.

Chaucer says, "And she spoke daintily in French, extremely, after the school of Stratford-atte-Bowe; French in the Paris style, she did not know." So, the Prioress tries to impress people by speaking daintily, that's delicately, in French, which you might remember from lesson one was the language of the court in Chaucer's time, a language spoken by important, powerful people.

But she speaks it after the school of Stratford-atte-Bowe, that is, with a heavy East London accent, like people who live in Stratford-atte-Bowe, places in East London might have, rather than in the style of Paris, the capital of France.

So, again, what at first seems like a positive attribute turns out, perhaps, not to be.

Let's see if you're following so far.

Which of these things does the Prioress not do? Right, point to you if you said "swear." Little bit more then.

We also learn that she has very strict table manners.

"For courtliness, she had a special zest, and she would wipe her upper lip so clean that not a trace of grease was to be seen." "Zest" means enthusiasm, and "courtliness" is polite and formal behaviour.

So, Chaucer is telling us that the Prioress is super enthusiastic about making sure there's not even a teeny, tiny trace of food left on her lip after dinner.

And finally, we find out that she loves animals too.

"She used to weep if she but saw a mouse caught in a trap, if it were dead or bleeding.

And she had little dogs she would be feeding with roasted flesh." So, the Prioress is heartbroken.

She weeps, that is, she cries, if she sees even a tiny mouse suffering.

And she has pet dogs too.

Although, she doesn't seem quite so bothered about the animal that must have been killed so that she could feed her dogs this flesh.

Which of these statements best describes the Prioress? Hmm.

The right answer is option four.

She has good table manners and pet dogs.

Now, let's explore what she looks like.

So, Chaucer tells us she is very well-dressed.

"Her cloak, I noticed, had a graceful charm.

She wore a coral trinket on her arm, a set of beads, the gaudies tricked in green, whence hung a golden brooch of brightest sheen." Now, there are a few tricky words here, which we need to know before we can understand what Chaucer's saying.

So, "coral." Coral is a pretty, pink substance.

It's made of.

It's a type of sea creature, which reefs are made of, coral reefs.

"Gaudies" are pretty things.

And a "brooch" is a decorative pin, a bit like a badge.

So, Chaucer is telling us that the Prioress wore coral trinket, set of beads, and a golden brooch of brightest sheen.

Now, what do we think of that? Sounds pretty snazzy to me, like it might cost quite a lot of money.

So, we've learnt quite a lot about the Prioress.

I'd like you to write down a summary of what the Prioress is like.

You can use the sentence-start to help, if you like.

Pause the video now, and resume it once you're finished.

Right, so, here's what you might have said.

Chaucer presents the Prioress through her behaviour.

She never swears and has very strict table manners, suggesting that she is polite.

She also has some talents, including speaking French and singing.

Her horror at seeing animals suffer suggests that she is a caring person.

And, in terms of appearance, she wears a lot of expensive jewellery.

Now, don't worry if your phrasing is slightly different to mine.

What matters is that you've included the bits in pink and purple.

Now, let's have a think about what this description might suggest about her.

So, have a look at the statements below, and ask yourself, "What might they suggest about the Prioress?" So, she does not swear.

She has very strict table manners.

She wears expensive jewellery.

Hmm.

Well, it seems she's very concerned with appearances, both in terms of her physical appearance, as suggested through the expensive jewellery she wears, and what other people might think of her, which is probably why she doesn't swear and is very careful with her table manners.

Now, that might be a bit surprising for a Prioress because she was supposed to focus on God, not on outward appearances.

What else might the fact that the Prioress wears expensive jewellery suggest about her? Well, I would say, clearly, she enjoys treating herself.

She doesn't mind spending quite a lot of money on herself.

And then, finally, what about these statements? What do they suggest about the Prioress? So, she loves animals, but she does feed dogs meat.

She speaks French, but badly.

And she sings, but through her nose.

Now, these statements show that the Prioress is pretentious, false.

She wants to be seen as talented for her singing and her ability to speak French, but she isn't actually very good at either of those things.

And, although she cares for her pet dogs and mice, she's still quite happy to handle meat, which, after all, is a dead animal.

Now, all of these things might lead us to conclude that the Prioress is pretentious.

Being pretentious means trying to impress people by pretending to be better than you really are.

I'd like you to pause the video now and write down the definition of "pretentious," seeing if you can fill in the gaps as you go along.

Resume the video once you're done.

Okay, let's see how you got on.

"Pretentious" means trying to impress people by pretending to be better than you really are.

Now, Chaucer actually gives us a bit more detail about that golden brooch the Prioress has.

It has a Latin inscription carved into it.

"Whence hung a golden brooch of brightest sheen, on which there first was graven a crowned 'A,' and lower.".

Let's unpick what that bit of Latin means.

So, "amor" means love.

means conquers, to win, or to overcome a problem.

And means all, everything.

So, if we put all that together, we find that the brooch reads "amor," "love," , "conquers," , "all." "Love conquers all." Now, the question is, what type of love is the brooch referring to? We'd expect the Prioress, a member of the clergy who has devoted her life to religion to be referring to God's love.

But, it's more likely that this brooch refers to the love between a man and a woman, romantic love, which is quite shocking for a woman who has sworn never to marry.

Chaucer deliberately doesn't tell us which type of love he means and leaves us to our own suspicions.

Okay, so, what two things could mean? The correct answers are romantic love conquers all and God's love conquers all.

Now, for the final piece in our puzzle, why is this an example of satire? Let's remind ourselves what satire is.

"Satire" is making fun of someone's stupidity or bad behaviour to try and make them improve.

Satire often uses humour, irony, exaggeration, and ridicule.

Now, "ridicule," one of the techniques often used in satire, means making someone or something seem ridiculous.

So, here's a question for you.

How does Chaucer make the Prioress seem ridiculous? Well, if you remember, she sings through her nose and she speaks French badly.

Another method used in satire is irony.

"Irony" is when our expectations are reversed.

So, before we can decide if our expectations of the Prioress have been reversed, we need to ask ourselves, what do you think would have been expected of a prioress? A prioress in the middle ages would have been expected to stay true to her vows.

A vow is a promise.

So, on becoming a prioress, she would have had to make some promises about how she was going to live her life, and those promises were to live a life of poverty, to be poor and not to own any property.

To live a life of chastity, that means never to marry or have any relationships with men.

To reject worldly pleasures, to devote her life to God, and to set a good example for the nuns that she was in charge of.

Now, let's think about whether the Prioress in the Canterbury Tales lives up to those expectations.

So, is the Prioress modest, does she live a life of poverty? Well, remember, she has all that expensive, flashy jewellery.

So, I think that's a no.

Is the Prioress chaste, is she not interested in romance or men? Well, Chaucer makes a point of that brooch of hers with its engraving about the importance of love, which heavily implies that she is not chaste.

Does the Prioress reject earthly pleasures? Well, she likes treating herself with worldly things, all that bling, and Chaucer tells us she's quite a large woman, which might suggest that she likes her food too.

So, that's another no.

So, overall, does the Prioress set a good example for the nuns that she is in charge of? Hmm, I think it has to be a pretty loud and clear no.

So, now, can you answer the question? How does Chaucer use irony in his presentation of the Prioress? Chaucer's presentation of the Prioress is ironic because it reverses our expectations.

We expect her to live a life of poverty and chastity, focusing on godly rather than worldly things.

But Chaucer heavily hints, and sometimes outright tells us, that the Prioress fails to live up to those expectations.

Okay, let's put all of that together into a piece of writing.

Now, this is your opportunity to really show off everything you've learned today.

So, I'd like you to answer these two questions.

How does Chaucer present the Prioress, and why is this an example of satire? Try to give quotations from the text to support your ideas and to explain your points fully.

And you can use these sentence-openings, if you like, to help you get started.

Pause the video now to complete your task, and resume it again once you're finished.

Now, let's have a look at some possible answers.

You might have phrased yours a little bit differently to mine.

That's okay.

When comparing your work to these examples, focus on whether you've answered the questions correctly, whether you've given relevant quotations to support your ideas, and whether you've explained your points fully.

So, first, here's an example of an acceptable answer.

Chaucer shows us what the Prioress is like through the way she behaves.

She does not swear, she has good table manners, she sings, and she speaks French.

Chaucer satirises the Prioress by ridiculing her behaviour, such as her singing, which is tuneless and nasal.

Another way that Chaucer creates satire is through the use of irony.

We would expect a Prioress to reject worldly pleasures and to be chaste, but this Prioress clearly enjoys treating herself and has a brooch, which says "love conquers all." This encourages the reader to laugh at the Prioress.

Now, a really good answer.

Chaucer shows us what the Prioress is like through the way she behaves.

She does not swear, she has good table manners, for courtliness, she had a special zest, she sings, well she sang a service, and speaks French, she spoke daintily in French.

Chaucer satirises the Prioress by ridiculing her behaviour, such as her singing, which is tuneless and nasal, intoning through her nose, and her French, which is not very good, the Paris style, she did not know.

Notice how this example gives quotations from the text, which illustrate each point made about the Prioress.

Another way that Chaucer creates satire is through the use of irony.

We would expect a Prioress to reject worldly pleasures, to be chaste, and to set a good example for the nuns.

But this Prioress clearly enjoys treating herself, she wears expensive jewellery, she has a brooch, which says "love conquers all," suggesting she may have broken her promise not to love men, and pretends to be what she is not, therefore failing to set a good example.

Okay, that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

Give yourself a little round of applause for all your incredible work today.

Go on, you deserve it.

Now, before you go, I've got two final things I'd like you to do.

First, don't forget to complete the quiz.

Secondly, if you're able to, please take a picture of your work, and ask your parent or carer to share it with your teacher so they can see all the fantastic things you've learned today.

Well, all that's left for me to say is thank you, take care, and enjoy the rest of your learning for today.