The Miller’s Prologue & Tale

The Prologue

The Prologue to The Miller’s Tale is the first prologue between tales.

It shows that many ‘prologues’ also function as epilogues. They are in fact linking devices - both signing off the preceding tale and introducing the next, and in the process they often serve to indicate the relationship between the two.

The Miller forces his tale on the pilgrims to answer the Knight’s. When the Reeve replies to the Miller’s gibe against carpenters with the third tale, a random1 order of story-telling has been established.

The Miller promises to quyte (= answer) the Knight’s Tale and Absolon promises to quyte (= revenge) the fart.

The Miller introduces the question of whether2 it is possible to find a good woman and the role of the wife in a marriage. The theme will be taken up later by: The Wife of Bath’s Tale The Clerk’s Tale The Merchant’s Tale The Tale of Melibee (the Narrator’s second attempt)

The Miller argues that for every bad woman there are 1000 good ones - provided3 you don’t pry4 too deeply into their private lives!

1 random – (in this case) non-hierarchical 2 whether – (in this case) if 3 provided – providing, as long as, if (and only if) 4 to pry – investigate , enquire The Tale

The story starts in a very realistic Oxford that the Miller could indeed5 know. Yet it clearly contains elements of fabliau - realism and fantasy are disconcertingly juxtaposed.

It is the first of 5 fabliaux in The Canterbury Tales. The other 4 are: the Reeve’s the Cook’s the Summoner’s and the Shipman’s

John the Carpenter is mentioned as regularly leaving the house - why don’t Nicholas and Alison just6 sleep together when he was out? The answer can only be because of the sheer7 pleasure in executing such a complex plot8.

The Tale jumps disconcertingly between comedy and pathos. - it becomes very difficult to decide what is lighthearted fun and what is meaningful and moral.

The Tale can be seen as the deliberate confusion of eschatology9 with scatology10.

5 indeed – (emphatic) in fact 6 just – (in this case) simply 7 sheer – (emphatic) pure 8 plot – conspiracy 9 eschatology /,eskə’tolədʒi/ – theological enquiry into death and judgement 10 scatology – an interest in excrement Contrasts between the Miller’s and the Knight’s Tales

this is the contemporary, everyday world (not far away and/or long ago) the characters are bourgeois, peasants and clerks (not aristocrats) it is concerned with11 basic human functions – sex, excretion (not ideals and idealized love) it starts with marriage and focuses on physical love/sex (the KT sublimates love) it is concerned with cunning12 and folly13 (not virtue and evil) it is not interested in the meaning of life (whereas14 the KT is constantly seeking15 the providential ordering of the universe) it focuses on the folly of the age (whereas the KT celebrates the wisdom of the age) it opposed all pretensions to authority it contains an element of burlesque or parody of courtly values or language it is funny and expresses carnal irreverence (not courtly politeness) it is non-sententious (not highly moral) the language is largely16 Germanic with a much higher incidence short and/or monosyllabic words and of alliterating pairs (morne milk, stille as stoon, wilde and wood, clepe ne crye. Lines are short and syntactically simple, so the narrative pace is fast. There are remarkably17 few abstract nouns. Whereas in the Knight’s Tale the two protagonists are imprisoned both literally and by love, in the Miller’s Tale Alison is ‘caged’, married to a much older husband.

The Miller

The miller plays the bagpipes – this instrument was associated with drunken village revelries - the Devil was also sometimes illustrated playing the bagpipes.

His wide mouth and nostrils suggest lechery and gluttony. The comparison of his mouth to a furnace suggests a hellmouth in a Morality Play.

His red hair indicates a choleric temper (governed by the planet Mars).

11 to be concerned with – be focused on 12 cunning – astuteness 13 folly – foolishness, stupidity 14 whereas – by contrast 15 to seek (seek-sought-sought) – try to find 16 largely – mostly, primarily 17 remarkably – surprisingly Nicholas

In miracle plays, St. Nicholas was the mysterious guest who thwarted the evil intentions of the host and returned good for evil. - the Miller’s Nicholas inverts these values.

Nicholas is described as hende (= clever) He is also feminized by the text (he is as “meek as a maid” and as “sweet as liquorice” - he is like a mayden meke for to see (94) and - as sweete as is the roote / Of lycorys (98-99).

Nicholas presents himself as a weather forecaster - it is therefore amusingly appropriate that his farts sound like thunder.

Nicholas is able to hoodwink his host because he can supposedly predict the weather

This reflects contemporary interests. - Across Europe university scholars tried to predict the weather using astrology during the Middle Ages. - From 1347-55 William Merle, a clergyman, kept the world’s first weather diary. He proved that “farmers’ rules” (i.e. weather folklore) was more accurate than the universities’ forecasts. - Even so, the idea that the weather could be predicted was still being ridiculed by many until the 1850s.

In the end he is attacked with a poker in the arse - this is a violent image of being sodomized. Earlier in the same century King Edward II was murdered using a red-hot poker inserted anally.

Predicting the Future The Tale contains a thematic discussion of the relative merits of accepting one’s God- given lot in life as against succumbing to the temptation of trying to predict the future. - remember that almost all the Pilgrims resist the conformity expected by mediaeval society. Nicholas not only tries to predict the future but he also uses his reputation as an astrologer to manufacture this own future. - in the end, of course, this brings about his own downfall. John initially embraces his own ignorance of God’s schemes18 - He tells a tale of the man who by looking too much at the stars falls into a pit (ll. 351- 52). - however, he converts to the advantages of prediction when Nicholas promises to save his life. So, coupled with the Miller’s argument that husbands are happy if they don’t pry into their wives’ ‘private’ lives, the Miller’s Prologue and Tale seem to be arguing that ignorance is bliss.

18 scheme – plan Absolon, Absolon!

The rich but silly Absolon also serves as a foil19 to the crafty20 but poor Nicholas. - he is better at appearing refined – and he tries harder – than John, but it is a provincial refinement.

Absolon acts like a courtly lover towards a common woman who is characterized by animal instincts. - he is effeminate in a robustly plebeian story.

His squeamishness about farting is more appropriate to a prioress. - as an incense swinger he is used to sweet smells.

He carries out most of his wooing through intermediaries. - This is in keeping with the tradition of fine amour but it is also a convenient cover for his disinclination to get physically involved with Alison. - Alison prefers the physical advances of Nicholas.

Chaucer changes the story so that it is Alison – not one of her lovers – who receives the misdirected kiss. Notice that in courtly love the kiss was the moment of spiritual exaltation. Absolon abhors physical contact with her.

If there is any moral argument to the tale, one centres on shocking Absolon back to his senses.

Notice Absolon’s devilish transformation at the end of the tale - into a blackened devil carrying a flaming iron. - his actions provoke the fall

Something interesting happens at the end of The Miller’s Tale: Absolon, upset over Alison’s crude prank and determined to ‘quyte’ it, begins to view himself in competition with her, rather than with Nicholas.

This argument is strengthened is we see Absolon’s poker attach as symbolic buggery21 towards (‘feminized’) Nicholas.

This shifting focus of rivalry also leads to a lost object of affection: - when Alison is a rival, she can no longer be a ‘prize’.

19 foil – contrast 20 crafty – astute 21 buggery – (an act of) sodomy John

John is nouveau riche and ignorant.

The fact that John is arguably the most severely punished in the story suggests Chaucer’s censorship of the senex amans (= old man who marries a ‘trophy wife’). - Chaucer argues (l. 120) that a man should wedde his similitude (i.e. marry a woman of similar age and class).

Nicholas’s two tricks converge: his rear end is on fire, so he wants water, but he has told the carpenter that there is going to be a massive flood, so the carpenter takes the cry for water as a warning. - Notice that Nicholas planned to cuckold John, not to hurt him. It is John’s extreme gullibility22 that leads to23 his broken arm, the destruction of his home and his public humiliation.

Alisons

Alison is constantly compared to animals - this suggests that she is incapable of controlling her lust24 and so is less to blame for her actions than the male25 characters. - moreover, she tends to be compared to prey animals – she is the quarry26 rather than27 the perpetrator.

Notice how the mechanics of the Tale itself twist on - a series of non-verbal sounds (Absolon’s twice knocking at the window) - bodily noises (e.g. farts) and - one-word exclamations (Alison’s cry of “Tehee!”, Nicholas’ cry of “Water!”).

Notice that the wife – who goes unpunished (and is the only protagonist not to suffer a wound of some sort) – is called Alison. Alison – the Wife of Bath – also finds her most congenial partner in the form of an Oxford student. Moreover, in the W of B’s Prologue Jankin has lodgings with yet another Alison, an intimate friend of the W of B.

So, Alison can be viewed as ‘everywoman’. However, Chaucer also suggests that women are the great equalizers - both the learned clerks and the stupid carpenter make fools of themselves over the same woman.

22 gullibility – credulity 23 to lead to (lead-led-led) – result in 24 lust – sexual desire 25 male – ♂ 26 quarry – victim, prey 27 rather than – as opposed to, instead of Sources28

Based on a basic fabliau model about a love triangle.

10 analogous tales have survived in German, Italian, Flemish and English.

Probably the primary source was the Flemish fabliau Dits van Heilen van Beersele. In this tale a prostitute is visited by three lovers: a miller, a priest and a smith.

Chaucer reduces the number of lovers to two, turning29 the third into the husband; The miller becomes the narrator and the smith becomes a minor character.

Fabliaux were told by aristocrats to ridicule their social inferiors. The miller is not one of these noblemen, indeed he has stepped straight out of30 a fabliau himself. - in fact, in that the Tale ridicules courtly values, Chaucer has inverted the genre.

This makes contrasting parallels with The Knight’s Tale more obvious. The two rival lovers are now two sorts of clerk - educated commoners were a threat31 to aristocratic control and so were to be despised and ridiculed. Unattainable virgin Emily becomes an attainable wife.

There are also elements of meta-literature here.

28 source – origin 29 to turn – (in this case) convert 30 to step straight out of – come directly from 31 threat – danger Blasphemy

Religion in The Miller’s Tale is something characters use and abuse in order to get what they want. - for instance32, attempting to33 see the future was a type of hubris, a sin34 against God. Pretending to see God’s plan for sexual gain was probably even worse.

Absolon forgoes piety for attention when he takes a role in the local miracle play in hopes of attracting Alison.

Nicholas uses the Biblical story of Noah and the flood (echoing the Noah’s flood scene of Mystery Plays), and a false piety, to set John up so that he can have sex with Alison undisturbed. - In the medieval view, God caused Noah’s flood because men had become carnal. Therefore, to use the flood to commit adultery is ironic. - The carpenter’s guild was responsible for the Noah scenes.

There’s the whole obscene religious allegory and symbolism in the story: the huge Goddes pryvetee, or genitals, John hangs35 from his roof. (a kneading trough is an elongated oval ended thing, a tub and a kymelyn (= brewer’s tub) are two round things – together hanging from the roof they would clearly suggest giant male genitalia.)

Notice the blasphemous references to the cuckolded carpenter (St. Joseph). The Miller says he will tell ...“a legende and a lyf Bothe of a carpenter and of his wyf” - This is a reference to the story of Joseph and Mary. ‘Legends and lives’ were the stuff of Miracle Plays about the saints.

John’s name links him to St. John the Divine, who described the Apocalypse. John’s physical fall could be taken to echo the Fall of Man.

Madness

Nicholas pretends to be mad to fool John. John is taken to be mad at the end of the story, which impedes him explaining how he has been tricked36.

Madness is not a reality but a weapon used by the clever and the powerful against the stupid and the vulnerable.

Notice how Chaucer emphasizes the problematic of truth in literature: - a fictional Narrator report on (but disowns) the words of a drunken Miller, who is reporting the words of his characters.

32 for instance – for example 33 to attempt to – try to 34 sin – immoral act 35 to hang sth. – suspend sth. 36 to trick – fool, deceive