The Prioress's Tale
E285060
"The Prioress's Tale" is a deeply anti-Semitic miracle story within Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, recounting the murder of a devout Christian child and his posthumous, Marian-inspired miracle.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Prioress's Tale canonical | 1 |
| The Prioress’s Tale | 1 |
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Canterbury Tale
ⓘ
Marian miracle ⓘ Middle English narrative poem ⓘ anti-Jewish narrative ⓘ miracle story ⓘ |
| audienceContext | medieval Christian English audience ⓘ |
| author | Geoffrey Chaucer ⓘ |
| centralCharacter | a devout Christian schoolboy ⓘ |
| containsMotif |
Alma Redemptoris Mater
ⓘ
surface form:
Marian hymn Alma Redemptoris Mater
hostile Jewish community ⓘ posthumous miracle ⓘ singing child martyr ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | England ⓘ |
| criticalReception | widely condemned in modern scholarship for its anti-Semitism ⓘ |
| dateWritten | late 14th century ⓘ |
| featuresCharacter |
Virgin Mary
ⓘ
surface form:
the Virgin Mary
|
| featuresGroup | Jews ⓘ |
| featuresViolenceAgainst | Jews against a Christian child ⓘ |
| frameSpeakerTrait |
Prioress
ⓘ
surface form:
the Prioress is portrayed as sentimentally pious
the Prioress shows strong Marian devotion ⓘ |
| genre |
hagiographic narrative
ⓘ
religious tale ⓘ |
| includedIn | the Canterbury pilgrimage narrative framework ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
blood libel legends
ⓘ
medieval Marian miracle collections ⓘ |
| language | Middle English ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | Middle Ages ⓘ |
| meter | rhyme royal ⓘ |
| moralPerspective |
depicts Jews as agents of evil
ⓘ
presents the Christian child as a saintly martyr ⓘ |
| narratedBy |
Prioress
ⓘ
surface form:
the Prioress
|
| narrativeForm | first-person framed tale ⓘ |
| partOf | The Canterbury Tales ⓘ |
| plotSummary | A young Christian boy devoted to the Virgin Mary is murdered by Jews for singing a Marian hymn, but miraculously continues to sing after death until the crime is revealed. ⓘ |
| primaryConflict | religious hostility between Christians and Jews ⓘ |
| relatedThemeInWork | contrasts with more comic or secular Canterbury Tales ⓘ |
| relatedWork | other medieval child-martyr legends ⓘ |
| religiousOrientation | Catholic ⓘ |
| rhymeScheme | ababbcc stanzas ⓘ |
| scholarlyDebate | discussed regarding Chaucer's attitude toward Jews and anti-Semitism ⓘ |
| setting | a Christian town with a Jewish quarter ⓘ |
| textualTradition | preserved in multiple Canterbury Tales manuscripts ⓘ |
| theme |
Marian devotion
ⓘ
anti-Judaism ⓘ innocent martyrdom ⓘ miracle and divine intervention ⓘ religious violence ⓘ |
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.