Performance in the Hub -Hanna A.

            The tale—from The Canterbury Tales—chosen to be performed by the Chaucer class was a brief but accurate portrayal of the basic story. The gist of the story is that a rooster and his many hen wives are happily living out their lives. The rooster then has a dream about his own death because of a vicious fox, and then he tells his favorite and most beautiful wife about it. He predicts his own demise and then is reassured by his wife that it was only a dream. She tells him not to worry because it is not real. The rooster tells her that often wise men see the future in dreams and that she has no place to tell him what to do—especially because women’s advice has often proved to be murderous or fatal. The hen is quite offended but lets it slide.

            Later the rooster is stalked by the fox, but the fox as a clever beast, simply flatters the rooster about his beautiful voice and the rooster, showing off, stretches up his neck and closes his eyes to sing, just as the fox snaps his jaw around the rooster’s neck. In this theatrical version, the actors also made a funny reference to the popular song “What Does the Fox Say” by asking what the fox would say in the play.

            Then the fox took off with the rooster in tow, and all the hens and animals followed, hoping that the fox would let him go. The little story ends when the rooster distracts the fox with flattery and the fox curses him for listening to him. The moral of the story seems to be that people ought to be careful of what they say and when they speak.

            However good this moral may be, the story itself is a confusing illustration of such a moral because the rooster—the one who wins in the end by telling the fox that he should be more careful when he chooses to open his mouth versus when he should stay silent—is the one with the beautiful voice who is constantly making unnecessary noise. The moral then seems rather confusing because neither of them need to open their mouths as much as they do, particularly the rooster, who is the one to give the advice. However, perhaps since the rooster was almost killed for opening his mouth, he already learned the lesson and is simply sharing his knowledge with the fox now that he has won.