Home > The Canterbury Tales Summary & Study Guide > Essential Passages > Essential Passages by Theme: Corruption of the Church

The Canterbury Tales | Essential Passages by Theme: Corruption of the Church

Essential Passage 1: General Prologue ("The Prioress")

There was also a nun, a prioress,
Who, in her smiling, modest was and coy;
Her greatest oath was but “By Saint Eloy!”
And she was known as Madam Eglantine.
Full well she sang the services divine
Intoning through her nose, becomingly;
And fair she spoke her French, and fluently.
At table she had been well taught withal,
And never from her lips let morsels fall,
Nor dipped her...








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