“To Ben Holden Digne of Reverence”: The Tale-Telling Tactics of Chaucer’s Prioress

Abstract

The Prioress’s Prologue and Tale demonstrate how a speaker’s authority can be established through internalizing existing texts and their portrayal of exemplary figures. In the tale-telling contest in the Canterbury Tales , the speakers’ social status is not as important as the moral weight and pleasure that the performance of the tale gives to the audience. In this circumstance, the Prioress establishes her stance as a tale-teller that can “ben holden digne of reverence” by performing not only the Tale, but its protagonist, whose youth, innocence, and complete reliance on the Virgin Mary make him a miracle and a wonder. Moving away from the General Prologue’s depiction of a mock courtly lady, the Prioress in her Prologue is presented as a meta-Clergeon, who gets to share the impact and influence that her protagonist has as a spectacle/miracle. By presenting the Prioress in such a way, Chaucer utilizes the medieval notion of self-formation through reading and memory and explores ways in which speakerly authority can be established.