Is the cock in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale
Shonticle-air or Shonty-clair,
or, as Nevill Coghill*
made the nun’s priest make him do,
does he rhyme with ‘fear’ and ‘peer’ –
is he Shonticle-ear or Shonty-clear;
or did the host mock the priest for his tale:
in the line after ‘secular’,
did the host say, ‘Shontecular’?
Mocked, most likely,
for in the line before those ones
he as good as said,
“Blest be your arse and your precious stones.’*
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