2016-8-29 英美文学 The Middle Ages.ppt

With every bite she did her skillful best To see that no drop fell upon her breast. She always wiped her upper lip so clean That in her cup was never to be seen A hint of grease when she had drunk her share, She reached out for her meat with comely air. She was a great delight, and always tried To imitate court ways, and had her pride, Both amiable and gracious in her dealings. As for her charity and tender feelings, She melted at whatever was piteous. She would weep if she but came upon a mouse Caught in a trap, if it were dead of bleeding. Some little dogs that she took pleasure feeding On roasted meat or milk or good wheat bread She had, but how she wept to find one dead Or yelping from a blow that made it smart, And all was sympathy and loving heart. Neat was her wimple in its every plait, Her nose well formed, her eyes as gray as slate. Her mouth was very small and soft and red. She had so wide a brow I think her head Was nearly a span broad, for certainly She was not undergrown, as all could see She wore her cloak with dignity and charm, And had her rosary about her arm, The small beads coral and the larger green, And from them hung a brooch of golden sheen, On it a large A and a crown above; Beneath, “All things are subject unto love.” Her Character She is shallow, unworldly, un-Christian, and childish of character. French Her French is from schoolbooks, not from any experience in Paris. The Prioress is putting on airs by flaunting her French, an indication of her shallowness and preoccupation with aristocratic ways. Table manners Table manners were thus depicted in order to show the reader that the Prioress is concerned more with being ladylike and gentle, two affectations of the aristocratic class, than with being pious and a religious figure. Dress She wears a wimple that shows her forehead, which, according to an expert, her “veil is supposed to be pinned so tightly against her own eyebrows that none of her forehead shows,” yet clearly hers is visib