Poetry and Animals

38THE ANIMAL IN ALLEGORY

dehumanizes) Chauntecleer and his worldview, leaving him strangely
animal. That a rooster might dream of being hunted is not entirely fan-
ciful; it suggests an instinct for self-preservation. However, Pertelote
insists that the power of the body over the mind (in the form of humors)
renders dreams meaningless. But Pertelote mixes things up too, return-
ing Chauntecleer to human status: “Have ye no mannes herte, and han
a berd?” (2920), she asks, trying to goad him out of his fear. Chaunte-
cleer’s long account of the history of meaningful dreams returns him
to the realm of the fully human—to texts, scholarly debate, and human
history— allowing us briefly to forget his roosterness. Indeed, as Wheat-
ley notes, that the tale features a beast telling fables about humans and
interpreting them stands the animal fable on its head.^18 That Chaunte-
cleer is unable to take any lessons from his dream and his own defense
of the meaning of dreams returns him to the realm of the animal,
however, if we understand the animal as a creature who has no free will
and is entirely a victim of circumstance and instinct. This is signaled
in one of the most gleeful moments of confusion in the poem, when
Chauntecleer ends his lecture and makes peace with Pertelote by mak-
ing love to her.

“For whan I se the beautee of youre face,

Ye been so scarlet reed aboute youre eyen,

It maketh al my drede for to dyen.

For, al so siker as In principio

Mulier est hominis confusio,—

Madame, the sentence of this Latyn is,

‘Womman is mannes joye and al his blis.’

For whan I felle a-nyght your softe syde,

Al be it that I may nat on yow ryde,

For that oure perche is maad so narwe, allas!

I am so ful of joye and of solas,

That I diffye bothe swevene and dreem.”

And with that word he fly doun fro the beem,

For it was day, and eke hise hennes alle;

And with a chuk he gan hem for to calle,