The Canterbury Tales: The Second Nun's Tale Truth Quotes Page 1
Citations follow this format: (Line). We used the line numbering found on Librarius's online edition.
| Quote #1 Valerian, corrected as God wolde, |
Unable to see the angel Cecilia talks about, Valerian doubts the truth of her statement, suspecting she may be engaged in some deception. What's interesting, though, is that the tale is quick to fulfill Valerian's request for visual proof rather than to portray him as a "doubting Thomas."
| Quote #2 'I leeve al this thyng,' quod Valerian, |
Valerian immediately recognizes the truth of the statement he has read from the holy book. In this tale, a character's ability to recognize Christianity's truth is a marker of the state of his soul. An unhealthy soul, the tale implies, will simply miss this truth.
| Quote #3 'I pray yow that my brother may han grace |
In portraying grace as necessary for a soul to know the truth, this tale suggests that a soul may not come to truth without God's willing it. This raises the possibility that salvation may be predestined, or pre-determined by God, and that the individual human soul actually has no power over his own fate.
