The Parson's Tale seems, from the evidence of its prologue, to have been intended as the final tale of Geoffrey Chaucer's poetic cycle The Canterbury Tales. The "tale", which is the longest of all the surviving contributions by Chaucer's pilgrims, is in fact neither a story nor a poem, but a long and unrelieved prose treatise on virtuous living. Critics and readers are generally unclear what rhetorical effect Chaucer may have intended by ending his cycle in this unlikely, extra-generic fashion.
Read more about The Parson's Tale: Framing Narrative, The Tale, Character of The Parson
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The poor old chaise in a heap or mound,
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“I tell the tale that I heard told.
Mithridates, he died old.”
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