The Cook's Tale
"The Cook's Tale" is one of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It breaks off after 58 lines and was presumably never finished, although some scholars argue that Chaucer deliberately left the tale unfinished.
Prologue
The Cook starts by commenting on the Reeve's tale and then, after a reference to Solomon, asks for his listeners to attend while he tells of a trick that was played in his city. The host then invites the cook to tell his tale.Plot
The story starts telling of an apprentice named Perkyn who is fond of drinking and dancing. Perkyn is released by his master and moves in with a friend who also loves to drink, and whose wife is a shopkeeper whose real occupation is that of a prostitute.After the tale, The Host later calls upon the Cook for another, but he is too drunk and, after he falls from his horse and is helped back up, the Man of Law tells a tale.
Analysis
The tale continues the general downward trend of the preceding tales—the Knight's, the Miller's and the Reeve's tale—into ever-more-seedy stories. Its length makes finding a source impossible, but it is thought by some scholars to be a retelling of contemporary events, with a Roger Knight de Ware being mentioned in several manuscripts of the time.In 25 of The Canterbury Tales MSS the Cook's unfinished tale is followed by the anonymous Tale of Gamelyn, and it has been suggested that Chaucer intended to rewrite the tale for the Cook. There is, however, no other connection of Gamelyn with Chaucer and the great difference in tone between that tale and the one the Cook starts suggests that it was inserted by the scribes who copied the manuscripts. Skeat argued instead that Chaucer intended the tale for the Yeoman, who would presumably be more interested in a tale of country life.