1

The Portrait, Prologue and Tale of the Reeve

2

THE REEVE'S TALE

Introduction

The Reeve's story is, as he himself says, a retaliatory response to the tale of the Miller.
Suspicious mind that he is, he always brings up the rear of the procession of pilgrims so that
he can see all the others. Not surprisingly, he suspects that the Miller's tale, in which an old
carpenter has been made to look foolish, is directed against himself. He is probably right; for
although he is not an old carpenter, he is old and has been a carpenter in his earlier years.

The Reeve's bawdy tale follows his sermonizing response to The Miller's Tale. The substance
of that sermon is in part that old men who are past doing naughty deeds have an ineradicable
urge to tell naughty tales. And they have other vices: boastfulness, lying, anger, greed. These
are also the vices of the miller and his wife in the tale he is about to tell, a naughty fabliau like
the pilgrim Miller's, and told with some of the same "churl's terms," that is, coarse words.
The Reeve's tale tells of two young Cambridge students with marked provincial accents who
set out to see that the arrogant and dishonest miller who grinds the college wheat does not
cheat them. They plan to watch everything he does, but he quietly lets their horse loose, and
while they chase it, he and his wife steal part of their flour. Because the students do not catch
the horse until near dark, they have to ask the miller for lodging for the night. He agrees (for
a fee), and celebrates his victory by getting tipsy. In the course of the night the sleepless
students get their revenge on the miller by entertaining his wife and daughter in bed.

Critics have busied themselves in finding differences between these first two tales, mostly to
the greater or lesser derogation of the Reeve's. Some even profess to find the Reeve's yarn
"darker," "more corrosive," "destructive," making too much earnest of game again, as is the
wont of scholars who fail to notice that in the sexual couplings or "swivings" of the tale a
good time seems to be had by all. Charges of rape move the story out of the region of
bedroom farce where it belongs and into that of realistic crime where it does not. The main
victim is the burly miller, whose only physical "punishment" is to miss the fun, and get a
bloody nose and a lump on his thick head. The carpenter in The Miller's Tale falls two floors
and breaks his arm. If one wants to be "realistic" about which tale is "darker" or "more
destructive," one might ask a carpenter how he would ply his trade with a broken arm.

But one should not get too realistic. "How many children had Malin McMiller?" is not an
appropriate question to ask of a fabliau. All the pilgrims, Chaucer tells us, laughed at the
pilgrim Miller's yarn. At the end of the Reeve's tale, we are told, the Cook cannot contain his
 THE REEVE'S TALE 3

glee, and we assume that the Cook's hearer-response represents that of most of the pilgrims
as it does ours, except the most delicately sensitive.

I have said that the Miller's story seems to be a parody of the tale of the Knight which
precedes it. There is no question that in its turn, it provokes the response of the Reeve, which
in turn induces the unfinished tale of the Cook. In this, the first four-tale Fragment of the
Canterbury Tales, Chaucer makes a very successful effort to relate each tale after the first to
what has gone before it, something he does again more than once in the later tales. And very
satisfying this narrative architecture can be.

The tales of the Miller and the Reeve illustrate what wonderful variations can be wrought on
essentially the same material by a crafty artist. In each case a jealous husband is cuckolded
by students ("clerks") whom he has let into his house, and he gets physically hurt as well.
Both husbands are jealous, but John the carpenter's jealousy is simply stated as the inevitable
feeling of a "senex amans," a silly old man who has married a much younger woman. By
contrast, the possessiveness of Simon the Miller, which is dwelt on at humorous length,
threatens not the happiness of his wife, but the life and limb of would-be flirters, as he struts
before his "lady" on Sundays with an armory of swords and knives to protect her "honor" and
his. She is proudly the possession of the proud miller, unlike Alison, the unwilling captive of
an old carpenter.

The miller's pride is comic, of course, especially for what it consists in the wife's "noble"
lineage: she is the bastard daughter of the local priest! And parents and grandparent have no
end of ambition for their (grand)daughter whose agricultural charms are painted in a few swift
strokes; she is "beef to the heels," as James Joyce would put it, but she has nice hair! There
is small-time, small-town snobbery in 14th-century Trumpington as later in
turn-of-the-century Dublin: always tuppence-halfpenny looking down on tuppence. But
Chaucer makes it a source of outright humor rather than pity, pathos or scalding satire. The
miller and his clerk-begotten wife think themselves and their child so much superior to their
neighbors that they have plans to marry the girl into the aristocracy, as is appropriate for a
daughter of Holy Church and the exalted House of Simkin!

In some ways the student-clerks would be considered their social superiors (the priest who
fathered the miller's wife is superior because he is a clerk), but the miller and his wife think
themselves superior in some ways to these clerks who are from an obscure town in the north
of England and who betray their origins in a provincial rustic accent and usagefeatures of
speech which Chaucer takes pains to depict as he does nowhere else in the Tales. (The details
of the students' dialect speech will be pointed out in the glosses to the text).
4 CANTERBURY TALES

These unsophisticated clerks may have heard lectures on philosophy or law, but Simon and
his wife have studied Applied Economics: How to Take Friends and Fleece the People; How
to Divert the Attention of the Client; How to Conceal the Skim off the Top; How to make
the Client pay for his Fleecing, etc. But they were absent for the lecture on Keeping Sober
until the Deal is Complete. Hence the failure to realize that if you get drunk on a combination
of ale and victory over the book-learned, you will have no control of the two-legged stallions
who will behave like the four-legged stallion which you released earlier to run after the mares
in the fen. (It is not accidental that the stallion is an old symbol of unbridled lust). How
ironically true the wife's words to the students at that point will prove to be later:

She said "Alas! Your horse goes to the fen

With wild mares as fast as he may go.
Unthank [bad luck] come on his hand that bound
him so
And he that better should have knit the rein.

Indeed.

And if either of these lusty young males knows how to compose a rustic aubade (a poem of
farewell after a night of love) it will not matter that it is spoken in the accents of Northumbria
not of Provence. The grateful female will respond by helping to recoup material losses. One
of the clerks does know how, and so they both return to Cambridge qualified to give lectures
on "Using your knowledge of literary conventions to best the rustic aristocracy for fun and
profit."

Their knowledge of natural philosophy does not allow them to take up the Miller's taunting
challenge to expand the size of the bedroom in order to avoid proximity with the Miller's
more private and prized possessions, his wife and daughter; but when that very proximity
expands their erotic imaginings, the knowledge of the philosophy of law comes in useful; it
provides for Alan a legal theory to justify his urge for sexual relief. No matter if it is a real
legal maxim or just a maxim for the moment; it is convincing, if you want to be convinced:

For, John, there is a law that says thus:

That if a man in one point be aggrieved,
That in another he shall be relieve
..........................
And since I shall have no amendment
Against my loss, I will have easment.
 THE REEVE'S TALE 5

The delicious melding of the legal and sexual meanings of "relieved" and "easement" is like
the coupling of Alan and Malin, and shows the value of a university education when one
needs a law to justify one's lust. A nice goliardic joke.

The Miller's humiliation at the end is directly related to his absurd pride set out at such length
at the beginning, and his reaction is correspondingly grotesque when he finds out what Alan
and his daughter have been doing all night: he lets out a howl of rage that his daughter, this
highly-descended girl, has been swived by an uplandish clerk with an uncouth accent and no
brains; now she is spoiled goods. His delusion of marrying her into "blood of ancestry" is
shattered. Her ancestral blood is that of her grandmother who has bequeathed to her only a
weakness for sweet-talking clerks with a lot of brass.

Here is the portrait of the Reeve from the General Prologue

The REEV was a slender, choleric man.1 irritable

His beard was shaved as nigh as ever he can. as close
His hair was by his ears full round y-shorn, shorn, cut
590 His top was dockd like a priest beforn. shaved ... in front
Full long were his leggs and full lean
Y-like a staff; there was no calf y-seen.
Well could he keep a garner and a bin; granary
There was no auditor could on him win. fault him
595 Well wist he by the drought and by the rain knew
The yielding of his seed and of his grain.
His lord's sheep, his neat, his dairy, cattle
His swine, his horse, his store and his poultry "horse" is plur
Was wholly in this Reev's governing,
600 And by his covenant gave the reckoning contract / account
Since that his lord was twenty years of age.
There could no man bring him in rrearge. find him in arrears
There was no bailiff, herd nor other hine herdsman / worker
That he ne knew his sleight and his covine. tricks & deceit
605 They were adread of him as of the death. the plague

1
A reeve was a manager of a country estate.
6 CANTERBURY TALES

His woning was full fair upon a heath: His dwelling

With green trees y-shadowed was his place.
He could better than his lord purchase.
Full rich he was astord privily. 1 secretly
610 His lord well could he pleasn subtly
To give and lend him of his own good,2
And have a thank and yet a coat and hood. get thanks
In youth he learnd had a good mystr: trade
He was a well good wright, a carpentr. very good craftsman
615 This Reev sat upon a well good stot very good horse
That was a pomely grey, and hight Scot. dappled / & called
A long surcoat of perse upon he had overcoat of blue
And by his side he bore a rusty blade.
Of Norfolk was this Reeve of which I tell
620 Beside a town men clepn Baldswell. call
Tuckd he was, as is a friar, about, Rope-belted
And ever he rode the hindrest of our rout. hindmost / group

The Reeve is the only one with a grumpy response to the Miller's Tale

3855 When folk had laughd at this nic case

Of Absalom and handy Nicholas,
Divers folk diversly they said, Different
But for the most part they laughed and played, joked
Nor at this tale I saw no man him grieve
3860 But it were only Oswald the Reeve; Except for
Because he was of carpenter's craft, trade
A little ire is in his heart y-left. anger
He gan to grouch, and blamd it a lite. a little
"So theek," quod he, "full well could I thee quite3

1
"He had hoarded a lot secretly."
2
It is not clear whether the Reeve sometimes lends money to his master from his (i.e. the Reeve's)
resources or from his lord's own resources but giving the impression that the Reeve is the lender.
3
 REEVE'S PROLOGUE 7

3865 With blearing of a proud miller's eye blinding

If that me list to speak of ribaldry; If I chose / vulgarity
But I am old. Me list not play for age. I don't wish

He bemoans the physical and moral frailties of old age

Grass time is done; my fodder is now forge.

This whit top writeth my old years.
3870 My heart is also mowld as my hairs is as withered
But if I fare as doth an open erse, Unless / medlar
That ilk fruit is ever the longer the worse
Till it be rotten in mullock or in stree. in compost or straw
We old men, I dread, so far we
3875 Till we be rotten can we not be ripe.
We hop always while that the world will pipe, play a tune
For in our will there sticketh ever a nail
To have a hoar head and a green tail whit hair
As hath a leek. For though our might be gone our virility
3880 Our will desireth folly ever in one; always
For when we may not do, then will we speak.
Yet in our ashes old is fire y-reak. raked
Four gleeds have we that I shall devise: hot coals
Avaunting, anger, lying, covetise; Boasting / greed
3885 These four sparkles 'longen unto Eld. sparks / old age
Our old limbs may well be unwield, unwieldy
But Will ne shall not failthat is sooth. Desire / truth
And yet I have always a colt's tooth youthful taste
As many a year as it is passd hence
3890 Since that my tap of life began to run;
For sikerly when I was born, anon For, certainly
Death drew the tap of Life and let it go
And ever since has so the tap y-run
Till that almost all empty is the tun. barrel
3895 The stream of life now droppeth on the chimb, rim
The silly tongu may well ring and chime
Of wretchedness that passd is full yore. long ago
With old folk, save dotage is no more." senility

So theek ... forage: "I declare that I could easily get even with you, and wipe a miller's eye if I chose to
tell a coarse tale (ribaldry), but I am old, and because of my age I don't care to (me list not) jest; green-
grass time is over, and all that is left is dying hay (forage)."
8 CANTERBURY TALES

The Host's annoyed response to the Reeve's moralizing

When that our Host had heard this sermoning,

3900 He gan to speak as lordly as a king.
He said: "What amounteth all this wit?
What! Shall we speak all day of Holy Writ! Scripture
The devil made a Reev for to preach,
Or of a souter, a shipman or a leech! shoemaker / doctor
3905 Say forth thy tale, and tarry not the time.
Lo Deptford, and it is halfway prime. nearly 9 a.m.
Lo Greenwich, where many a shrew is in. rogue
It were all time thy tal to begin."

In response to the Miller's tale the Reeve will tell a tale about a miller

"Now sirs," quod this Oswald the Reeve,

3910 "I pray you all that you not you grieve
Though I answr and somedeal set his hove, repay him
For lawful is with forc force off-shove.
This drunken Miller hath y-told us here
How that beguild was a carpenter,
3915 Perventure in scorn for I am one. Perhaps
But by your leave, I shall him quit anon. repay
Right in his churl's terms will I speak. coarse language
I pray to God his neck may to-break.
He can well in my ey see a stalk,
3920 But in his own he cannot see a balk. beam

THE REEVE'S TALE

Portrait of a miller: a proud, well-armed thief

At Trumpington, not far from Cantbridge, Cambridge

There goes a brook, and over that a bridge,
Upon the which brook there stands a mill
And this is very sooth that I you tell. truth
3925 A miller was there dwelling many a day.
As any peacock he was proud and gay; gaudy
Pipen he could, and fish, and netts beat, Play bagpipes
And turn cups and well wrestle and shoot. And drink (?)
 REEVE'S TALE 9

And by his belt he bore a long panade, dagger

3930 And of a sword full trenchant was the blade; v. sharp
A jolly popper bore he in his pouch; short dagger
There was no man for peril durst him touch. dared
A Sheffield thwitel bore he in his hose. knife
Round was his face, and camus was his nose; snub
3935 As piled as an ap was his skull. As hairless
He was a market-beater at the full. a bully indeed
There durst no wight hand upon him lay nobody dared
That he ne swore he should anon abey.1
A thief he was forsooth of corn and meal, indeed
3940 And that a sly, and usant for to steal. and accustomed
His name was hoten Deinous Simkin.2 was called

His wife, equally proud

A wife he had, y-comen of noble kin:

The parson of the town her father was! parish priest
With her he gave full many a pan of brass,3
3945 For that Simkin should in his blood ally;
She was y-fostered in a nunnery, reared / convent
For Simkin would no wife, as he said, wanted
But she were well y-nourished and a maid, Unless / well-bred
To saven his estate of yeomanry.4
3950 And she was proud and pert as is a pie. magpie
A full fair sight was it upon them two: (to look) upon
On holy days before her would he go
With his tippet wound about his head, hood tip
And she came after in a gite of red, a gown
3955 And Simkin hadd hosen of the same. stockings

"He swore that nobody would lay a hand on him without paying for it promptly."
2
His name ...: "He was called Proud Simkin" (a form of Simon). Both forms of the name are used
the tale.
3
With her ...: He gave as her dowry a lot of money so that Simkin would marry her (an illegitimate).
4
For Simkin ...: "He wanted no woman as a wife who was not well brought up (y-nourished) and virgin (a
maid)--to accord with his social standing as a freeman."
10 CANTERBURY TALES

There durst no wight clepen her but "dame." 1

Was none so hardy that went by the way so bold
That with her durst rage or onc play dared flirt / joke
But if he would be slain of Simkin, Unless he wanted
3960 With panade, or with knife, or bodkin; dagger / blade
For jealous folk been perilous evermo' dangerous
(Algate they would their wivs wenden so).2 At least / think
And eke, for she was somedeal smoterlich, also / soiled
She was as digne as water in a ditch, as proud
3965 And full of hoker and of bismare.3
Her thought that "a lady" should her spare, be exclusive(?)
What for her kindred, and her nortelry manners
That she had learnd in the nunnery.

Their daughter

A daughter hadd they bitwixt them two

3970 Of twenty years, withouten any more,
Saving a child that was of half year age:
In cradle it lay and was a proper page. fine boy
This wench thick and well y-growen was, well developed
With camus nose, and eyen grey as glass, snub nose
3975 With buttocks broad, and breasts round and high,
But right fair was her hair, I will not lie.
The parson of the town, for she was fair, because / pretty
In purpose was to maken her his heir Intended
Both of his chattel and his messuage, goods / property
3980 And strange he made it of her marrage.4
His purpose was for to bestow her high

1
There durst ...: "Nobody dared call her anything but `My lady,'" a designation generally reserved for women
well above her social rank.
2
Algate: "At least they would like their wives to think so."
3
for she was ... bisemare: These lines seem to mean: "For one who was somewhat soiled (she was a bastard)
she was inordinately proud and full of scorn and haughtiness. She thought that a lady should hold herself
exclusive."
4
And strange...: "He made the conditions for marrying her very demanding." In the following lines the
sarcasm of the author is evident at the absurd ambitions of the priest for the granddaughter that he should not have
had, and his willingness to misappropriate church funds for her.
 REEVE'S TALE 11

Into some worthy blood of ancestry,

For Holy Church's goods must be despended spent
On Holy Church's blood that is descended;
3985 Therefore he would his holy blood honor,
Though that he Holy Church should devour.

The miller grinds corn for a Cambridge college

Great soken has this miller out of doubt Total monopoly

With wheat and malt of all the land about;
And namly there was a great college,
3990 Men clepe the Soler Hall of Cantebridge.
There was their wheat and eke their malt y-ground.
And on a day it happened in a stound, suddenly
Sick lay the manciple in a malady; steward
Men wenden wisly that he should die, thought for sure
3995 For which this miller stole both meal and corn
A hundred tims more than beforn,
For therebefore he stole but courteously,
But now he was a thief outrageously.
For which the warden chid and mad fare, 1
4000 But thereof set the miller not a tare; not a straw
He crackd boast, and swore it was not so. made boasts

Two students think they are a match for the cheating miller

Then were there young poor scholars two

That dwelten in the hall of which I say.
Testive they were and lusty for to play, Headstrong / eager
4005 And only for their mirth and revelry to amuse themselves
Upon the warden busily they cry college head
To give them leav but a little stound little time
To go to mill and see their corn y-ground,
And hardily they durst lay their neck surely / dared bet
4010 The miller should not steal them half a peck a measure
Of corn by sleight, nor by force them rieve; trickery / rob
And at the last the warden gave them leave.
John hight that one, and Alan hight that other; one was called J.

1
"For which reason the head of the college complained and made a fuss."
12 CANTERBURY TALES

Of one town were they born that hight Strother, same town / called
4015 Far in the north I can not tell where.
This Alan maketh ready all his gear,
And on a horse the sack he casts anon;
Forth goes Alan the clerk and also John,
With good sword and with buckler by his side. shield
4020 John knew the way; he needed no guide;
And at the mill the sack adown he layeth.

Their Northern accents and their naive plan

Alan spoke first: "All hail, Simon, in faith.

How fares thy fair daughter and thy wife?"1 fares = fareth
"Alan, welcome!" quod Simkin, "by my life!
4025 And John also! How now, what do you here?"
"By God," quod John, "Simon, need has na peer: no equal
Him boes serve himself that has na swain, boes = behoves / servant
Or else he is a fool, as clerks sayn.
Our manciple, I hope he will be dead, steward
4030 Swa works aye the wanges in his head.2
And therefore is I come, and eke Alain, = am I / & also
To grind our corn and carry it hame again. = home
I pray you, speed us hethen that you may." = hence
"It shall be done," quod Simkin, "by my fay. faith
4035 What will you do while that it is in hand?"
"By God, right by the hopper will I stand,"
Quod John, "and see how the corn gaas in. = goth (goes)
Yet saw I never, by my father kin,
How that the hopper waggs til and fra." = waggeth to & fro
4040 Alan answered, "John, and wilt thou swa? = so
Then will I be beneath, by my crown, my head
And see how that the meal falls down = falleth
Into the trough; that sall be my desport. = shall
For John, in faith, I may be of your sort:
4045 I is as ill a miller as are ye." = I am as bad

1
4023 ff: The speech of the North-of-England students is the first attempt in English to represent dialect. In
the marginal glosses that follow, the words that come after the equals sign are southern English equivalents of the
dialect forms in the text. Curiously, some of the dialect forms have become the standard: "has, fares, falls," etc.
2
: "The teeth (wanges) in his head ache so constantly."
 REEVE'S TALE 13

The miller outwits the students with a trick

This miller smild of their nicety, simplicity

And thought, "All this is done but for a wile. ruse
They ween that no man may them beguile they think / fool
But by my thrift, yet shall I blear their eye, skill / blind
4050 For all the sleight in their philosophy. cleverness
The mor quaint creks that they make, clever ruses
The mor will I steal when I take.
Instead of flour yet will I give them bran.
The greatest clerks been not the wisest men,
4055 As whilom to the wolf thus spoke the mare.1 As once
Of all their art count I not a tare." their cleverness
Out at the door he goes full privily, secretly
When that he saw his tim softly. quietly
He looketh up and down till he hath found
4060 The clerks' horse there as it stood y-bound tied
Behind the mill, under a leafsel, leafy shade
And to the horse he goes him fair and well.
He strippeth off the bridle right anon,
And when the horse was loose, he 'ginneth gone started to go
4065 Toward the fen where wild mars run, marsh
And forth with "Weehee," through thick and thin.
The miller goes again; no word he said, goes (back)
But does his note and with the clerks he played, job / joked
Till that their corn was fair and well y-ground. well & truly

The students spend hours trying to catch their horse

4070 And when the meal is sackd and y-bound,

This John goes out and finds his horse away,
And gan to cry "Harrow!" and "Welaway! (cries of dismay)
Our horse is lost! Alan, for God's banes, = bones
Step on thy feet! Come off, man, all atanes! = at once
4075 Alas, our warden has his palfrey lorn!" has lost h. horse
This Alan all forgot both meal and corn;

1
As whilom ...: "As the mare said to the wolf once (whilom)." The hungry wolf, saying he wanted to buy the
mare's foal, was told that the price was written on its back leg. Trying to read it he was kicked hard, and the mare
made the remark cited.
14 CANTERBURY TALES

All was out of his mind his husbandry. vigilance

"What, whilk way is he gaan?" he gan to cry. = which way / gone
The wife came leaping inward with a run;
4080 She said, "Alas, your horse goes to the fen
With wild mares, as fast as he may go.
Unthank come on his hand that bound him so, Bad luck
And he that better should have knit the rein!"
"Alas," quod John, "Alan, for Christ's pain,
4085 Lay down thy sword, and I will mine alswa. = also
I is full wight, God wat, as is a raa.1 = fast as a deer
By God's heart, he sal not scape us bathe. = shall / both
Why n'ad thou put the capil in the lathe? = horse in barn
Ill hail, by God, Alan, thou is a fonn." = Bad luck / fool
4090 These silly clerks have full fast y-run
Toward the fen, both Alan and eke John;

The miller uses their absence fruitfully

also
And when the miller saw that they were gone,
He half a bushel of their flour hath take
And bade his wife go knead it in a cake.
4095 He said: "I trow the clerks were afeard. I guess / suspicious
Yet can a miller make a clerk's beard outwit a clerk
For all his art. Yea, let them go their way. his learning
Lo, where he goes! Yea, let the children play.
They get him not so lightly, by my crown." head
4100 These silly clerks runnen up and down
With "Keep! Keep! Stand! Stand! Jossa! Warderer! Here! Behind!
Ga whistle thou, and I sall keep him here." = Go / shall
But shortly, till that it was very night,
They could not, though they did all their might,
4105 Their capil catch, he ran always so fast, = horse
Till in a ditch they caught him at the last.

The outwitted students have to stay the night

Weary and wet as beast is in the rain,

1
"I am as fast, God knows (wat) as a roe [deer]."
 REEVE'S TALE 15

Comes silly John, and with him comes Alain.

"Alas," quod John, "the day that I was born!
4110 Now are we driven til hething and til scorn = to contempt
Our corn is stolen; men will us fools call,
Both the warden and our fellows all,
And namly the miller. Welaway!" especially / Alas
Thus 'plaineth John as he goes by the way complains
4115 Toward the mill, and Bayard in his hand. B: horse's name
The miller sitting by the fire he found,
For it was night, and further might they not; not (go)
But for the love of God they him besought
Of harbour and of ease, as for their penny. lodging / payment
4120 The miller said again: "If there be any,
Such as it is, yet shall you have your part.
My house is strait, but you have learnd art, small / liberal arts
You can by arguments make a place
A mil broad of twenty feet of space! out of
4125 Let's see now if this plac may suffice,
Or make it room with speech, as is your guise." roomy / custom
"Now Simon," said this John, "by Saint Cuthbert,
Ay is thou merry, and that is fair answred. You're always joking
I have heard say men sal taa of twa things, = take 1 of 2
4130 Swilk as he finds, or taa swilk as he brings; = Such as / take such
But specially I pray thee, host dear,
Get us some meat and drink and make us cheer, welcome
And we will payen truly at the full.
With empty hand men may na hawks tulle. = lure no hawks
4135 Lo, here our silver, ready for to spend."

Supper and bed

This miller into town his daughter sends to village

For ale and bread, and roasted them a goose,
And bound their horse; it should no more go loose.
And in his own chamber them made a bed
4140 With sheets and with chalons fair y-spread blankets
Not from his own bed ten foot or twelve.
His daughter had a bed all by herself
Right in the sam chamber by and by. side by side
It might be no bet, and cause why? better
4145 There was no roomier harbour in the place. lodging
16 CANTERBURY TALES

They suppen and they speak them to solace, & t. chat pleasantly
And drinken ever strong ale at the best.
About midnight wenten they to rest.
Well has this miller varnishd his head; slang:drunk deep
4150 Full pale he was fordrunken, and not red. quite drunk
He yexeth and he speaketh through the nose belches
As he were on the quakk or on the pose. hoarse or had a cold
To bed he goes, and with him goes his wife.
As any jay she light was and jolife, bird / jolly
4155 So was her jolly whistle well y-wet.
The cradle at her bedd's feet is set
To rocken, and to give the child to suck.
And when that drunken all was in the crock, all that was
To bedd went the daughter right anon.
4160 To bedd goes Alain and also John.
There was no more; them needed no dwale. sleeping draught
This miller hath so wisly bibbd ale drunk so much
That as a horse he snorteth in his sleep;
Nor of his tail behind he took no keep. no heed
4165 His wife him bore a burden, a full strong. kept harmony
Men might her routing hearen a furlong. snoring / 1/8 mile
The wench routeth eke, par company. in counterpoint

Alan plans to get some satisfaction

Alan the clerk, that heard this melody,

He pokd John and said: "Sleepest thou?
4170 Heardest thou ever slik a sang ere now? = such a song
Lo, swilk a compline is ymel them all. 1 such a
A wild fire upon their bodies fall!
Wha hearkened ever swilk a ferly thing? 2 = Who / amazing
Yea, they sal have the flower of ill ending! come to bad end
4175 This lang night there tids me na rest. = no rest for me
But yet, na force, all sal be for the best; = no matter / shall

1
Heardest ....: "Did you ever before hear such a song? Listen, what a compline (they are singing) among
them all." Compline is the last part of the Divine Office for the day, sung in monastic houses just before retiring to
bed. The general tenor of the readings is to urge Christians to be sober and vigilant, "to have compunction in your
beds" (Ps. 4); and the prayers are for chaste thoughts!
2
Wha hearkened ...: "Who ever heard such an amazing thing"?
 REEVE'S TALE 17

For John," said he, "as ever mote I thrive, so help me!
If that I may, yon wench will I swive. that girl / tumble
Some easement has law y-shapen us; provided for us
4180 For John, there is a law that says thus:
That if a man in one point be aggrieved,
That in another he sal be relieved. = shall
Our corn is stolen soothly, 'tis na nay, truly / no denying
And we have had an ill fitt today, bad time
4185 And since I sal have naan amendment = shall have no
Against my loss, I will have easment. relief
By God's soul, it sal naan other be." = shall no
This John answred, "Alan, avis thee! be careful
The miller is a perilous man," he said,
4190 "And if that he out of his sleep abraid, wakes
He might do us both a villainy." injury
Alan answred, "I count him not a fly,"
And up he rist, and by the wench he crept. rose
This wench lay upright and fast slept, on her back
4195 Till he so nigh was ere she might espy so near
That it had been too lat for to cry;
And shortly for to say, they were at one.
Now play, Alain, for I will speak of John.

John decides to follow Alan's example.

This John lies still a furlong way or two, a few minutes

4200 And to himself he maketh ruth and woe. complaint & lament
"Alas," quod he, "this is a wicked jape. joke
Now may I say that I is but an ape. I am
Yet has my fellow somewhat for his harm:
He has the miller's daughter in his arm.
4205 He auntered him, and has his needs sped, ventured / satisfied
And I lie as a draf-sack in my bed. bran sack
And when this jape is told another day,
I sal be held a daff, a cokenay. nitwit, a coward
I will arise and aunter it, by my faith! risk it
4210 Unhardy is unsely, thus men saith." 1 unlucky
And up he rose, and softly he went

1
Unhardy ...: "Gutless is luckless ..." i.e. fortune favors the brave.
18 CANTERBURY TALES

Unto the cradle, and in his hand it hent, took

And bore it soft unto his bedd's feet.
Soon after this the wife her routing leet, stopped snoring
4215 And gan awake, and went her out to piss, woke up
And came again, and gan her cradle miss,1 missed h. cradle
And gropd here and there, but she found none.
"Alas," quod she, "I had almost misgone; gone astray
I had almost gone to the clerk's bed.
4220 Eh! bencitee, then had I foul y-sped!" 2
And forth she goes till she the cradle found.
She gropeth always further with her hand,
And found the bed, and thought nought but good,
Becaus that the cradle by it stood;
4225 And n'ist where she was, for it was dark, didn't know
But fair and well she crept into the clerk,
And lies full still, and would have caught asleep.
Within a while this John the clerk up leaps After a while
And on this good wife he lays on sore. vigorously
4230 So merry a fitt ne had she not full yore: time / in a long while
He pricketh hard and deep as he were mad.
This jolly life have these two clerks led
Till that the third cock began to sing. 3

A dawn parting duet by Alan and Malyn

Alan waxed weary in the dawning, grew weary

4235 For he had swonken all the long night, labored
And said: "Farewell, Malin, sweet wight. creature
The day is come, I may no longer bide.
But evermore, whereso I go or ride, walk or ride
I is thyn own clerk, swa have I seel." 4

1
and gan: gan here is probably just a past tense marker like "did", rather than a short form of "began."
2
Eh, ...: "Bless me! Then I would have made a mistake!"
3
The "third cock" probably refers to the third crowing of the rooster around daybreak.
4
whereso ...: "Wherever I walk or ride (i.e. wherever I go) I am forever your devoted clerk, as sure as I hope
for heaven." Alan's farewell (in dialect) and Malin's response are parodies of the aube, aubade, or tagelied, the
genre poem of the dawn parting of aristocratic lovers. But the aristocrat would not refer to his lady as wight, and
neither one would ever use lemman, a very plebeian word for "lover." Also the aube rarely dealt with the details of
 REEVE'S TALE 19

4240 "Now, dear lemman," quod she, "go, farewell. dear lover
But ere thou go, one thing I will thee tell:
When that thou wendest homeward by the mill, as you go home
Right at the entry of the door behind
Thou shalt a cake of half a bushel find,
4245 That was y-makd of thine own meal,
Which that I helped my sir for to steal. my father
And, good lemman, God thee save and keep."
And with that word almost she 'gan to weep.

Alan returns to his own bed -- he thinks

Alan up rist and thought, "Ere that it daw[n], rose up

4250 I will go creep in by my fellow."
And found the cradle with his hand anon.
"By God," thought he, "all wrong I have misgone.
Mine head is toty of my swink tonight, dizzy from my work
That maketh me that I go not aright.
4255 I wot well by the cradle I have misgo; know / lost my way
Here lies the miller and his wife also."
And forth he goes (a twenty devil way!) damn it!
Unto the bed there as the miller lay.
He weened have creepen by his fellow John, He thought
4260 And by the miller in he crept anon,
And caught him by the neck and soft he spake.
He said: "Thou John, thou swin's-head, awake,
For Christ's soul, and hear a noble game:
For by that lord that calld is Saint Jame,
4265 As I have thric in this short night three times
Swivd the miller's daughter bolt upright, laid / on her back
While thou hast as a coward been aghast." scared
"Yea, fals harlot," quod the miller, "hast? wretch / have you?
Ah, fals traitor, fals clerk," quod he,
4270 "Thou shalt be dead, by God's dignity.
Who durst be so bold to disparge dares / dishonor
My daughter, that is come of such linege?" noble line

A melee follows his mistake

recovering stolen property.

20 CANTERBURY TALES

And by the throat-bowl [?] he caught Alain,

And he hent him despitously again,1 he = Alan
4275 And on the nose he smote him with his fist.
Down ran the bloody stream upon his breast.
And on the floor, with nose and mouth to-broke,
They wallow as do two piggs in a poke,
And up they go and down again anon,
4280 Till that the miller spurnd at a stone, tripped on
And down he fell backward upon his wife
That wist nothing of this nic strife, knew / violent
For she was fall asleep a little wight shortly before
With John the clerk that wakd had all night.
4285 And with the fall out of her sleep she braid. woke
"Help, holy cross of Bromholm!" she said.
"In manus tuas, Lord, to thee I call! Into thy hands
Awake, Simon, the fiend is on me fall! the devil
My heart is broken. Help! I n'am but dead! as good as dead
4290 There lies one on my womb and on my head! 2
Help, Simkin, for the fals clerks fight!"
This John starts up as fast as ever he might,
And graspeth by the walls to and fro
To find a staff; and she starts up also,
4295 And knew the estres bet than did this John, corners better

The wife joins the fight with unfortunate results

And by the wall a staff she found anon,

And saw a little shimmering of a light,
For at a hole in shone the moon bright
And by that light she saw them both two,
4300 But sikerly she n'ist who was who, didn't know
But as she saw a white thing in her eye,
And when she gan this whit thing espy,
She weened the clerk had weared a voluper, thought / nightcap
And with the staff she drew ay near and near, nearer & nearer

1
"And he (Alan) in turn seized (hent) Simkin fiercely."
2
The wife thinks she is being assailed by at least one incubus, a wicked spirit (fiend) that supposedly came
upon women at night and impregnated them. Hence her prayer to the cross to repel this devil. Her use of the
compline prayer: In manus tuas: Into thy hands, O Lord ..., is definitely too late.
 REEVE'S TALE 21

4305 And weened have hit this Alan at the full intended to hit
But smote the miller on the pild skull bare skull
That down he goes and cried: "Harrow! I die!" Help!
These clerks beat him well and let him lie,
And greythen them, and took their horse anon, got ready
4310 And eke their meal, and on their way they go[n], And also
And at the mill yet they took their cake,
Of half a bushel flour full well y-bake.

Summary and "moral"

Thus is this proud miller well y-beat,

And has y-lost the grinding of the wheat,
4315 And paid for the supper everydeal every bit
Of Alan and of John that beat him well;
His wife is swivd and his daughter als. laid / also
Lo, such it is a miller to be false! So much for
And therefore this provrb is said full sooth: truly
4320 Him thar not ween well that evil doth;1
A guiler shall himself beguild be.
And God, that sitteth high in majesty,
Save all this compani, great and small.
Thus have I quit the Miller in my tale. repaid

The Cook's Response

4325 The Cook of London, while the Reev spake

For joy he thought he clawed him on the back.
"Ha! Ha!" quod he, "for Christ's passon,
This miller had a sharp concluson
Upon his argument of herbergage.2 lodging
4330 Well said Solomon in his language:
Ne bring not every man into thy house,
For harbouring by night is perilous.

1
Him that ...: "He who does evil should not expect good; a deceiver shall be deceived himself."
2
This miller ...: This miller got the worst of his own "argument" about lodging. This is probably a reference
back to the miller's would-be clever response to the clerks' request for lodging: My house is small, but you are
book-learned, and so you can turn a small space into a large one by philosophical reasoning.
22 CANTERBURY TALES

Well ought a man avisd for to be careful

Whom that he brought into his privity. privacy
4335 I pray to God, so give me sorrow and care,
If ever since I hight Hodge of Ware,1 was named
Heard I a miller better set a-work.
He had a jape of malice in the dark. jest
But God forbidd that we stint here stop
4340 And therefore if you vouchsafe to hear if you care to
A tale of me that am a poor man,
I will you tell, as well as ever I can
A little jape that 'fell in our city." joke / befell

The Host cheerfully insults the Cook

Our Host answered and said "I grant it thee.

4345 Now tell on, Roger. Look that it be good,
For many a pasty hast thou letten blood drained?
And many a Jack of Dover hast thou sold pie (Dover = do over)
That has been twic hot and twic cold. reheated
Of many a pilgrim hast thou Christ's curse,
4350 For of thy parsley fare they yet the worse
That they have eaten with thy stubble goose,
For in thy shop is many a fly loose.
Now tell on gentle Roger, by thy name,
But yet I pray thee be not wrath for game. angry at a joke
4355 A man may say full sooth in game and play." truth

The Cook responds with the promise of a tale about an innkeeper

"Thou sayst full sooth," quod Roger, "by my fay, faith

But `Sooth play, quad play,' as the Fleming sayth. 2
And therefore, Harry Bailly, by thy faith,
Be thou not wroth ere we departen here Don't be angry
4360 Though that my tale be of a hosteler. innkeeper
But natheless I will not tell it yet,

1
If ever ...: "Ever since I was christened Hodge of Ware." Hodge or Hogg seems to be a diminutive of Roger.
2
Sooth play, quad play ...: "A true jest is no jest" meaning "A joke that is really a home truth is not very
funny" or "If you can tell a joke with an edge to it, so can I." Why the proverb is attributed to a Fleming is not
clear.
 COOK'S PROLOGUE 23

But ere we part, y-wis, thou shalt be quit." indeed

And therewithal he laughed and mad cheer
And said his tale as you shall after hear.

The Cook starts his tale of Perkin Reveller, an apprentice more fond of dancing, dicing and
general revelry than of trade. The tale has all the appearance of yet another fabliau, but
it stops after about sixty lines and Chaucer apparently never finished it. As the marginal
note in the Hengwrt MS put it: "Of this Cook's tale maked Chaucer no more."