AL THE REVERS SEYN OF THIS SENTENCE - THE ENIGMA OF DREAM INTERPRETATION IN CHAUCER NUNS PRIESTS TALE

Chaucer's ''The Nun's Priest's Tale'' (NPT) is a cautionary tale about dream interpretation. After a particularly disturbing dream, one that strikes the reader as prophetic, the dreamer, a rooster named Chaunte cleer debates its meaning with his paramour. The debate serves as a ki nd of review of the literature on the subject. Chauntecleer argues, in accordance with the writing of Macrobius, that dreams are prophetic ' 'warnyge[s] of thynges that men after seen '' (3125). He defies the dr eam and yet escapes the harm he was warned of This reversal, combined with the tale's numerous inaccurate homilies, raises serious questions about the validity of dream interpretation, leaving the reader with a sense that dreams mean whatever we want them to.