Prioress : Though the Prioress is a religious woman in charge of a nunnery as its Superior, Chaucer depicts her as a secular woman with worldly characteristics. The Prioress is said to have pity and charity not towards suffering humanity, but towards her young dogs. She observed table manners at the meal times very strictly. But she violated the laws of the church herself being more worldly than spiritual. She spoke in French of Statford to keep up aristocratic convention and her greatest oath was ‘St. Loy’ the patron saint of goldsmiths. The name of the Prioress was Madam Eglantine (Sweet Lady). In the coral rosary she carried, there was a gold broach with inscriptions Amor vincit omnis which means ‘Love conquers all’. Chaucer’s ironic way of presentation leads the reader to suspect for a moment whether the ‘Love’ intended by the prioress is worldly or spiritual.

Nun : Not described.

Priests : Not described.

Priests : Not described.

Priests : Not described.

Monk : He was a lover of hunting. He defied the doctrine of St. Augustine that physical labour was necessary for Monks. He indulged in irregular activities.

Frair : Frair was a limiter. According to St. Francis, a Frair has to beg for his food from the area assigned to him. Chaucer ironically tells us that in all the four orders* of the Frairs in England, there was no one so capable of much gossip and flattery. Chaucer further tells us that the Frair has arranged a good number if marriages of young women, at his own cost presumably because they had been his mistresses. The Frair was authorised by Papal license to hear confession and grant ablution. He held that sinners, instead of offering prayers and shedding tears of repentance, should give money to the Frair. The Frair was highly immoral. He used fair language to win women and where it failed, it was his tactics to win them by threat with ornamental knives. He knew taverns and bar-maids better than he knew beggars and lepers.