The Canterbury Tales

by

Geoffrey Chaucer

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The Monk Character Analysis

The Monk is another religious character who is corrupt. Instead of reading in his cell, the Monk prefers to go hunting, even though this is against the rules of the order of St. Benedict. The Monk also wears richly decorated clothing rather than the simple robes that one might expect a monk to wear.

The Monk Quotes in The Canterbury Tales

The The Canterbury Tales quotes below are all either spoken by The Monk or refer to The Monk. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Social Satire Theme Icon
).
The General Prologue Quotes

He yaf nat of that text a pulled hen,
That seith that hunters ben nat hooly men,
Ne that a monk, whan he is recchelees,
Is likned to a fissh that is waterlees––
This is to seyn, a monk out of his cloystre.
But thilke text heeld he nat worth an oyster.

Related Characters: Chaucer (speaker), The Monk
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The Monk Quotes in The Canterbury Tales

The The Canterbury Tales quotes below are all either spoken by The Monk or refer to The Monk. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Social Satire Theme Icon
).
The General Prologue Quotes

He yaf nat of that text a pulled hen,
That seith that hunters ben nat hooly men,
Ne that a monk, whan he is recchelees,
Is likned to a fissh that is waterlees––
This is to seyn, a monk out of his cloystre.
But thilke text heeld he nat worth an oyster.

Related Characters: Chaucer (speaker), The Monk