There also was a Nun, a Prioress,

Her way of smiling very simple and coy.

Her greatest oath was only “By St Loy!”

And she was known as Madam Eglantyne.

And well she sang a service, with a fine

Intoning through her nose, as was most seemly, 

And she spoke daintily in French, extremely, 

After the school of Stratford-atte-Bowe;

French in the Paris style she did not know.

At meat her manners were well taught withal; 

No morsel from her lips did she let fall,

Nor dipped her fingers in the sauce too deep; 

But she could carry a morsel up and keep

The smallest drop from falling on her breast.

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

Upon the cup when she had drunk; to eat,

She reached a band sedately for the meat.

She certainly was very entertaining,

Pleasant and friendly in her ways, and straining 

To counterfeit a courtly kind of grace,

A stately bearing fitting to her place,

And to seem dignified in all her dealings.

As for her sympathies and tender feelings,

She was so charitably solicitous

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, or milk, or fine white bread. 

And bitterly she wept if one were dead

Or someone took a stick and made it smart,

She -was all sentiment and tender heart.

Her veil was gathered in a seemly way,

Her nose was elegant, her eyes glass-grey;

Her mouth was very small, but soft and red,

Her forehead, certainly, was fair of spread, 

Almost a span across the brows, I own;

She was indeed by no means undergrown.

Her dock, 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 

On which there first was graven a crowned 

A, And lower, Amor vincit omnia

 

 

 

 

The object of the present work is to analyse the characterisation of the "Prioress".

 

The poet presents her first of all like a Nun and sequently like a Prioress. 

He uses the technique of telling, he writes in e first person and he describes her by different point of view. Reading the first line the reader aspects the poem to be about a description of some Nun's habits, in the contrary he touches un that argument only two or three times in the whole text.

He focuses his attention on four points: her comportment during the meat, her physical characterisation, her education and learnings and in the end her rapport with animals. 

This description should result really original on the reader's eyes because the poet describes her as if he was a normal person not a Prioress.

Now you pot the attention on every single aspect of characterisation.

The first one is her physical characterisation and the poet's point of view. He focuses the attention on her face and he analyses every single element giving its a specific connotation. For example when he describes her trinkets he puts the reader's attention first on the ordinary bracelets and later on "a set of beads".

When he narrates about her religious aspects he only mentions her role, the typic way of dress "veil and dock" and as I told before "a set of beads".

Another point on which he focuses a lot his attention is her comportment during the meat. To describe it he uses 10 lines. He connotes her comportment using only adjective with positive connotation and superlatives. 

In the end he introduces another Prioress' aspect that is her rapport with animals in particular with dogs and mouse. She hates mouse and she loves dogs.