Suddenly, Alan announces that he is going to have that "wench there," referring to the daughter. While the miller and his family sleep, John and Alan think of ways to get revenge. Because the house is small, they all sleep in the same room but in separate beds: John and Alan in one bed, the Miller and his wife in another with the cradle beside, and the daughter in the third. The miller, who has a wife, a twenty-year old daughter, and an infant son, agrees. Meanwhile, the miller empties half the flour from the sack and refills it with bran.īecause it is now dark, the boys ask the miller to put them up for the night. When John and Alan find the horse missing, they chase it until dark before catching it. The miller, sensing that the students want to prevent him from stealing, untethers the students' horse. When they arrive, they announce that they will watch the milling. Two students at the college, John and Alan, are enraged at the news of the theft and volunteer to take a sack of corn to the mill. One day, the manciple (or steward) of the college is too ill to go to the mill to watch the miller grind his corn, and, in his absence, the miller robs him outrageously. He tells the Miller that he will pay him back for such a story, and so he does.Ī dishonest miller, who lives close to a college, steals corn and meal brought to his mill for grinding.
The only pilgrim who dislikes The Miller's Tale is Oswald, the Reeve, who takes the story as a personal affront because he was once a carpenter. The Sovereignty of Marriage versus the Wife's Obedience.In the upper margin, another rubric identifies it: "The Miller". The miller then opens his tale upon the wealthy, elderly carpenter who let a room to a serious young student, Nicholas-perhaps unwisely in view of the carpenter's recent marriage to an eighteen-year old girl who loved to party. Made within a few decades of Chaucer's death, this manuscript is the earliest known copy of the 'Canterbury Tales'.Įach tale has a prologue, one of which ends on this page, as indicated by the red writing (a rubric). Chaucer began writing the tales late in his career (1387), but died in 1400, leaving them unfinished. Ranging in tone from vulgar humour to serious moralising, the stories are unified by common themes, notably a contrast of the 'loose woman' and the virtuously long-suffering one. The first to exploit fully the literary form of the tale, it is a series of verse stories told in turn by each of a motley group of pilgrims en route from Southwark in London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Thomas a Beckett ('the martyr'). It sounds ponderous to say that Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400) wrote one of the most important works of English literature, but it is true even though the 'Canterbury Tales' is so much fun to read.
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