Literal translation
to play the clerk and the chaplain
Meaning
to ask the questions and answer them oneself
Explanation
The image comes from traditional Mass, where the clerk answers the questions and formulas that the priest, the capelan, pronounces from the altar: faire lou clerc e lou capelan literally means playing both the one who asks and the one who answers. The expression describes a person who hogs the conversation by asking the questions themselves and answering them too, leaving no room for anyone else to speak, a trait observed both in private talk and, as the traditional example about a well-known Provençal television host shows, on the air. The word capelan means chaplain or more broadly the priest serving a parish, while clerc keeps its churchly sense of the priest's assistant. The register is familiar and mildly mocking, used to comment ironically on someone who leaves no room for real dialogue. The expression shows how traditional religious vocabulary supplied images for describing secular social behavior.