The Cook’s Tale: a Canterbury Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer

This Tale hardly gets started

The Cook’s Tale in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales presents us with a major problem, in that it scarcely exists! All we have is 58 lines, which is hardly enough to set the scene, let alone get into the meat of the story.

On several occasions, Chaucer links two or more tales together, usually by one of the pilgrims reacting to a tale, sometimes violently, by telling a tale that counters the first one. The Miller has told a tale at the expense of a carpenter, and the Reeve, who has been a carpenter, takes offence and tells his tale about a dishonest miller. At this point, Roger the Cook claims the next turn with a story that appears to be going to follow the same scurrilous pattern as the two preceding ones.

In the prologue to his tale, Roger first congratulates the Reeve on his tale, which he has obviously enjoyed. He then offers to continue the theme, by saying that he can tell a story along the same lines.

The Host, Harry Bailey, then invites Roger to do precisely that, but makes a few pointed remarks about the dubious food hygiene practised by the Cook. Harry comments that pilgrims, presumably referring to pilgrims in general and not the current batch, have felt the worse for wear after eating his goose with parsley. Roger’s reputation as a London cook has clearly reached Harry down at the Tabard in Southwark, as he remarks that Roger’s shop is infested with flies and that he serves meat pies…