The ending of the "Clerk's Tale" is totally strange and unexpected. After telling a tale dedicated to exploring and rewarding the complete passivity and obedience of its heroine to her husband, the Clerk warns women not to follow her example, for "it were inportable [unbearable], though they wolde" (1144).
The Clerk claims that Petrarch meant his story as a sort of allegory about the relationship between mankind and God: just as Grisilde patiently received whatever Walter sent her way, so humankind ought to receive gratefully whatever the Lord ordains for them.
The Clerk's interpretation of his story is somewhat undermined, though, by his condemnations of Walter throughout. If Walter really represents God to the Clerk, would the Clerk "blame him thus" (79), as he does numerous times throughout the tale? Furthermore, why does the Clerk end with a consideration of how it's difficult nowadays to find women of Grisilde's quality? And finally, in anticipation of the Wife of Bath's likely reaction to his tale, the Clerk invites his audience to listen to a song in which he counsels wives to behave in just the opposite manner as Grisilde did.
What's up with this dude?
All of this evidence leads us to believe that, despite the Clerk's claim to have just told us an allegory, he is more convinced of its power as an example, something meant to be imitated in real life. His denial that he really intends Grisilde as an example to women may reflect some ambivalence about the story's message. Seriously, would you give your sister that kind of advice? Your daughter? When it comes to erasing the weight of his story's 1141 lines rewarding women's passive obedience, the Clerk's cry of "allegory" may be too little, too late.