The Monk

A stageplay based on Chaucer's Monk

(Monk enters room riding on horse)

PEASANT: Hello friend! What a fine palfrey you have there! How are you doing on this fine day?

MONK: I am well, kind sir. I have just begun my hunt for the day. Would you care to accompany me?

PEASANT: It would be an honor, sir.

MONK: Splendid! Please, follow me.

(The two get to the hunting area)

MONK: So, what is your name?

PEASANT: My name is John, and your name is?

MONK: Just refer to me as ‘Monk’, it is what most call me these days.

PEASANT: Wait, you are a Monk? I couldn’t of guessed that, sir. I mean no offense, but you show no paleness, as most monks do.

MONK: Yes, I do frequently wander outside the monastery.

PEASANT: And also, aren’t monks forbidden to hunt?

MONK: I would not say ‘forbidden’. That is too harsh of a word. It is more that we are ‘recommended’ to stay in the abbey.

PEASANT: No, I am familiar with the principles that were taught by St. Benedict. It states that huneter’s are not ‘holy men’, but as a Monk you are required to be holy.

MONK: I am a learned man of God. WHo are you to correct me in my ways?

PEASANT: I’m sorry, I mean no disrespect.

MONK: You are forgiven.

PEASANT: Thank you sir. Could you please spare a coin for my family and I? We are very poor and have hardly a thing to eat.

MONK: I am sorry, but I have none to spare.

PEASANT: Someone as well dressed and fattened as you cannot spare a mere coin? You surely have no deficiency in wealth, sir...dressed in your fancy fur-lined coat, fastened with such a fine pin.

MONK: My coat is wonderful, is it not? I have this nice coat because I didn’t squander my wealth on the poor.

PEASANT: Isn’t it said that monks are supposed to give freely to the poor?

MONK: Those writings are of a time in the past. We are starting a new era of the church, and must advance with it. St. Benedict’s ways are too old and too strict for  the modern man to follow.

PEASANT: Why become a monk, if you refuse to follow the guidelines that were pre-set?

MONK: Because, as I have said before, the old ways are outdated. How is the church going to enter this new era if no one is ever going to advance into it? Now, please, let us stop this conversation. Could you please go and fetch my greyhounds?

PEASANT: Yes sir. I will return momentarily.

(Peasant leaves and returns)

PEASANT: These dog’s have the finest coat I have ever seen! These must have cost you a fortune!

MONK: For my sport, no price can be too much.

PEASANT: Surely not,considering how fine these dogs are!

(The peasant approches the monk and sees his ‘Love Knot’)

PEASANT: Is that...is that a ‘Love Knot’ I see?

MONK: Ah, it is indeed! It is quite beautiful, is it not?

PEASANT: It looks fanciful indeed, but as a monk, aren’t you supposed to abstain from love in search of higher learning of the scriptures?

MONK: I am a man of God, but I am also a man that must bring the church to the world. If I do not embrace both sides, I cannot possibly understand how to reach the lost. It is all part of this new era I wish to bring in, the Age of modern men. The old text is worth not an oyster to me, for it is outdated and no longer applicable.

PEASANT: Sir, I apologize, but you do not follow the teachings of the monasteries, so how can you be considered a monk? By your standards, I am just as much of a monk as you, and am only rewriting the teahcngs into something that suits my life. That philosophy is contradictory to all we have been taught in the church.

MONK: Then the church is wrong. You appear to be an inteligent man, so will let you come dine with me. We are having my favorite roast, swan.

(The two exit).

Author's Note

This more than likely isn't up to par with anything else I've written, simply because it is far outside my usual style and genre. However, since I post everything I write here, I must include this. If I start picking and choosing then I may as well not post at all.

Please tell me what you think! I don't want to have to look like an idiot in front of my entire English class :P