By: Jennifer Throne and Vianca Ortiz

THE PRIORESS’S TALEReligious

“O Lord our Lord, how marvelous thy name.”-The prologue begins by praising God and

proclaiming his glory. “In thee, conceiving, as thy heart grew bright, the

Wisdom of the Father—now this story help me to tell, related for thy glory!”

-The prologue also mentions God choosing Mary to conceive Christ “To be declaring thy great worthiness; I cannot bear

such burden, I would speak as does a child who’s twelve months old or less…”

-The prologue ends with the Prioress declaring that she wouldn’t be able to play Mary’s role if God asked her to.

PROLOGUE

“A great city of Asia once contained, amid the Christians in majority, a Jewry that a local lord maintained…”

-The Prioress’s Tale is set in a city in Asia full of Christians and a Jewry. “Among these children was a widow’s son, a little

scholar seven years of age, whose daily wont was to this school to run...”

-There is a seven year old bow who passes the Jewry to go to school and at the sight of Mary, he kneels and prays. “And so he kept her near him in thought--a guiltless

child learns quickly, seeing clear.”-The boy had Mary in his thoughts which reminds

the Prioress of Saint Nicholas.

LINES 490-515

“…as he sat with his primer in the hall, Alma redemptoris he heard them sing…”

-As the boy studied, he would hear the older children sing Alma redemptoris and became fond of it. “One day he begged a friend there to consent to tell

him this song in his own tongue, or tell him why this song so much was sung…”

-The boys asks his friend to tell him what the Alma redemptoris is in his language and to explain to him why it is sang so much. “’…and get three beatings in one hour, I shall learn it

all, to honor her on high!’ His friend taught him in secret after school…”

-The friend explains that the song was composed in reverence to praise Mary in which the boy was taught in secret.

LINES 520-550

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb1_58hq3L4Alma redemptoris

“This little child.....as through the Jewry he went to and fro, would merrily be singing every day O Alma redemptoris as he’d go...”

- The child admires the song a lot and would be singing it every day on his way and coming home from

school. “That serpent known as Satan.... ‘O Hebrew

people!....a boy should walk at will, and start to sing out as he’s walking such offense.....’

- Satan, the enemy, tells the Jews that the boy is singing the song to offend the Jews. “....This cursed Jew grabbed hold of him and slit his

throat, and cast him down into a pit.”-A Jew who believes Satan’s words, slits the boy’s

throat and was thrown into a pit.

LINES 555-585

“This poor widow awaited all that night…she’d finally learn, when she’d gone far and wide, that in the Jewry he’d last been espied.”

-The mother worries all night for her son only to find after searching that he’d been last seen in the Jewry. “…she prayerfully asked every Jew…But Jesus by his grace

put in her mind, after a little space, to cry out for her son, and where she cried the pit wherein he lay was near beside.”

-The mother asks if anyone has seen her son but Jesus shows her where the pit where her son was thrown into. “The little child with piteous lamentation was taken up

while still he sang. To pain and shameful death …..each of the Jews known to participate in the crime….that they be hanged according to the law.”

-The child still sings when removed from the pit, and according to the law, the Jews that participated in the crime are to be hung.

LINES 590-630

“Yet spoke the child, when sprayed with holy water, and sang O Alma redemtoris mater. ‘ By the power of the holy Trinity, to tell me by what cause you sing, for it would surely seem to me your throat is slit.’”

- A monk blesses him with holy water, and the child begins to sing the song. The monk asks how and why he is singing. “’My throat ‘s cut to my neck bone….I should have died.

But Jesus Christ, as in books you will find wills that his glory last and be in mind….may I sing O Alma loud and clear’”

- The boy explains that even though the he is dead, he resurrects and sings because of Jesus Christ’s glory. “She came to me and bade me give a vow to sing this

anthem when I die…..”My little child, I’ll fetch you, as you’ll see, when that same grain has from your tongue been taken. Be not afraid, you will not be forsaken.’”

-The Virgin Mary promises him that when he dies, he will sing the song until the grain has been taken from his tongue, and he will go to heaven.

LINES 635-665

“This holy monk pulled out the tongue and took away the grain…the child gave up the ghost, soft and serene.

-The monk takes away the grain and the child stops singing and goes to heaven. “…the whole convent lay weeping, and they praised Christ’s

mother dear…inside a tomb of stone, of marble clear; they put away his body small and sweet.”

-The convent mourns for the child and praises Mary, Christ’s mother. The boy’s body lays in a tomb made of stone and marble. “Pray for us too…that gracious God, in mercy from his

throne, increase his grace upon us.”-The monk prays to God hoping that God would increase

his grace towards himself and the boy.

LINES 670-690

Foreshadowing: “…To praise her, and that she be ( as we pray) our help and succor when we pass away.” (535)

-This is an example of foreshadowing because the quote is saying that they would praise Mary to help and save them when they die. This is what the little boy did when died.

Simile: “ With salty tears that trickled down like rain…” (675)

-This is an example of simile because the tears that trickled down are compared to rain.

LITERARY DEVICES

Kenning: “This song was written, so I’ve heard them say, for our dear Lady, blissful, generous…” (530-532)

-This is an example of kenning because Mary’s name is replaced with “our dear Lady.”

Allusion: “O youthful Hugh of Lincoln, slain also by cursed Jews, as is so widely known…”

-This is an example of allusion because it references to a well-known saint. Hugh of Lincoln was an eleven-year old boy thought to be killed by the Jews for sacrificial reasons.

LITERARY DEVICES (CONT.)

The Prioresses tale:

1. Interesting

2. Confusing

3. Creepy

4. Focused on more on Mary than Christ

REFLECTION