The Cook’s Tale
Nancy Umana and Amanda Fiorellino
A Moral Tale
Prologue
O The Cook praises both the Reeve and
the Miller for their own tales
O He promises that his own tale will be
just as great
O But it won’t be up to their standards,
because he is dishonest in his work.
Tale Summary
O New apprentice starts living in the
cooks town, who is known as Perkin
Reveler
O He loves to sing and dance
O But he also loves to gamble and drink
Summary continued
O He would gamble everyday
He was the best apprentice in town who,
“rattled dice and threw them down”
O His master saw how easily he spent his
money and became aware of his problems
O “He often found his box bare”
a.
Summary Continued
O “When a prentice takes to vice… his master
in the shop shall be the one who pays
though having no part in the fun”
O The apprentice’s master was sick of his
terrible behavior
O He thought about an old proverb, “ A rotten
apples better thrown away before it spoils
the barrel.”
Summary Continued
O The master let the apprentice go
O The apprentice then left and found
refuge with his friend, “a chap of his
own sort”
O His friend’s wife owned a store, but it
was only for public appearances to
mask her prostitution.
Literary Devices
O Irony: At first the Cook comes across as a
nice, cheery man. In the prologue, we find
out he serves old food to people and gets
pilgrims poisoned by his rotten food. For
example, “There’s many a pilgrim wishes you
Christ’s curse; Your parsley has them feeling
all the worse (They ate it with your stubblenourished goose), For in your shop so many
flies are loose”.
Literary Devices Continued
O Figurative language:
a.
b.
Simile: “ The Reeve’s Tale pleased the
London cook as much as a backscratching” and “He was as full of love, as
is the beehive full of honey sweet.”
Alliteration: “And play at dice at such-andsuch a street”
Our Reflection
O We didn’t like the plot of the tale because it
doesn’t advance and the characters don’t
develop
O The tale is left unfinished by Chaucer, we don’t
know if it was purposely left unfinished or if the
pages were possibly lost
O Both the Cook and the apprentice have similar
characteristics and it is possible that the tale
might actually be an autobiography
O The cook came across like a honest man, but
was very hypocritical.