"outrider, that loved venery," and whom his tastes and capabilities would
have well qualified for the dignified post of abbot. He had "full many a
dainty horse" in his stable, and the swiftest of greyhounds to boot; and
rode forth gaily, clad in superfine furs and a hood elegantly fastened
with a gold pin, and tied into a love-knot at the "greater end," while the
bridle of his steed jingled as if its rider had been as good a knight as
any of them--this last, by the way, a mark of ostentation against which
Wyclif takes occasion specially to inveigh. This Monk (and Chaucer must
say that he was wise in his generation) could not understand why he should
study books and unhinge his mind by the effort; life was not worth having
at the price; and no one knew better to what use to put the pleasing gift
of existence. Hence mine host of the Tabard, a very competent critic, had
reason for the opinion which he communicated to the Monk:--

It is a noble pasture where thou go'st;
Thou art not like a penitent or ghost.

In the Orders of nuns, certain corresponding features were becoming usual.
But little in the way of religious guidance could fall to the lot of a
sisterhood presided over by such a "Prioress" as Chaucer's Madame
Eglantine, whose mind--possibly because her nunnery fulfilled the
functions of a finishing school for young ladies--was mainly devoted to
French and deportment, or by such a one as the historical Lady Juliana
Berners, of a rather later date, whose leisure hours produced treatises on
hunting and hawking, and who would probably have on behalf of her own sex
echoed the "Monk's" contempt for the prejudice against the participation
of the Religious in field-sports:--

He gave not for that text a pulled hen
That saith, that hunters be no holy men.