The Millers Prologue and Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer

The Millers Prologue and Tale Reviews

• 
  not even here

  cheating trope in the 1300s
• 
  Vaishali

  Wow - not at all what I was expecting. Funny, vulgar, and morally disturbing... all undoubtedly Chaucer's aim. Marvelously framed by the crass words of a drunk, which you then have to step back and reframe thru the reporter's words. This is story-telling at its absolute best, folks.
  
  Full disclosure: I listened to 3 modern poetic translations to bypass Chaucer's Middle English :)
  
  .
• 
  C.B. Cook

  This actually was nearly a two star... but I couldn't handle of the erotic stuff. The ending was kind of funny, though.
  
  
  
  CONTENT WARNING:
  Lots of sexual/erotic content. Not recommended.
• 
  Alexa

  “it would have been hidden in sock drawers if people in the fourteenth century had worn socks.” i only barely understood this but the dirty bits were really funny. and dirty
• 
  Angels

  okay
• 
  elena

  2.5
• 
  kat

  lol
• 
  An upbeat reader

  The Miller's tale deals boldly with a thorny problem which is the motivational human need, Sexual appetite, along with cunning and folly.
  On the one hand, it focuses on the nature of good and evil, how an impoverished student named Nicholas who is depicted as a very good man is in reality a shrewd devious devil. How this man deceives others by pretending to be a man with morals ...etc
  On the other hand the writer wrote this tale in a very humoristic way and the main sources of human consists of tricking the carpenter into believing the flood is coming and the business of the bare bottom too...
  Besides, infidelity and greed seem to be the main problems indicated in this tale, while we find that John has married the young Alison mainly because she is beautiful, young and seductive and (HE)keeps her folded at home like an estimable ornament. We find that she has married him because he is a rich man and when she didn't find him a good companionship she betrays him with Nicholas the meek, chivalrous young man.
• 
  Brenda

  
  
  Where the hell this come from??
  I was like WHAAAT? like 3 times. HAHAHA
  5 surprising stars.
• 
  addie

  literally just a smuttier version of the merchant's tale
• 
  Kitty Red-Eye

  
  https://opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu/
  
  Should one want context.
  
  Now THIS is better. Very funny, very silly, very crude and entertaining. Funny how «Below the belt» jokes are so universal, through all times and places they will be understood. Not appreciated by all, but what is.
  
  I also like the way the pilgrims use their stories to mock each other.
  
  I also liked the reeve’s (stewart’s in my edition) tale. It was even meaner than the miller’s. Actually I think I liked that one even better. It shouldn’t be a surprise that medieval folks could have a dark sense of humour, but... Idk. I am surprised by the «lack of good morale», I guess. Post-1970ies it’s hard to shock with anything, but this was six hundred years earlier and I kind of expect everyone being so afraid of sinning that they’d keep their mouths shut. Not so, least not with Chaucer.
• 
  Christina (TinyTinaTales)

  3/5 Stars
  
  Chaucer is brilliant. His work can be difficult to read, but it is so worth it. I really love how he uses satire and creates his characters. It’s amazing as always. I read a different version of the tale, but I’m counting it for this one.
• 
  analú

  Me encantó. Lo recomiendo en inglés que, pese a ser un poco complicado, sostiene toda la magia de la obra. Me ha gustado mucho la manera que ofrece Chaucer de ilustrar el triángulo amoroso y en su mayoría me ha parecido bastante cómica la trama.
  Lo recomiendo.
• 
  Natalia

  The funniest thing I have ever read 10000/10 stars I’m still giggling GOD BLESS CHAUCER for letting academics “analyse” bum and fart jokes. Thank you Chaucer for taking a french fabliau and turning it from an obscene perverted joke (side eye to the french…) into a hilarious and silly and GENIUS tale. Very few can claim english excellence but Chaucer is one of them 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
• 
  Hafsana

  reading it for a medieval module. much better than I thought it was gonna be.
• 
  Linds

  Fart jokes from the the 1300’s.
• 
  gianna

  2 men try to fuck an 18 year old girl who is married to an old man (ft. farts)
• 
  Heather

  Daniel Cleaver’s biggest red flag was loving Chaucer, Miss Bridget Jones you should’ve dumped him sooner!!
• 
  Paulina

  For something I had to read for English class this was very easy to get through and very funny!!
  
  Haha fart jokes
• 
  Maddy Merritt

  This was a very weird story. When I first started reading it, I didn't want to continue it. This book has a strange plot and some vulgar parts to it. I don’t really like this story because it was hard to understand. I did however, like the moral of the story. It explains how you should always know who you are trusting. I feel bad for the carpenter because he gets the short end of the stick. He seems like a nice guy but, he is tricked by Nicholas, who makes a fool out of him. I would recommend this to adults because I don’t think teenagers and children will like this story.
• 
  Bruno Kulić

  Now, sir, and again, sir, it so happened
  That one day this clever Nicholas
  Happened with this young wife to flirt and play,
  While her husband was at Oseneye,
  For clerks are very subtle and very clever;
  And intimately he caught her by her crotch

  
  DONALD IS THAT YOU?
• 
  Loren Harway

  Bawdy indeed.
• 
  Reham

  i did not enjoy it.
• 
  Miss Jaggers

  I'm not going to read more tales from Chaucer's book.
• 
  readsandteas

  So, this was a reading I had to do for my English Literature class. I pretty much skimmed the uninteresting parts (descriptions of the characters, etc.) & I was thinking - okay, this is another boring thing I have to read for school. Daaamn, I was wrong! After few pages I wanted to know what is Nicholas’ plan. I was kinda hooked. But... the best part was still yet to come. I mean.. who would have thought that someone would write something so funny & absurd in the 14th century? They say that people living in the era who read this were embarrassed, they were shocked. Biiitch, I laughed my ass off. That peripeteia was brilliant. I wasn’t expecting that at all. And the ending? Shocking, funny, sad but it’s kinda what would probably still happen. Sometimes the ones who basically didn’t do anything wrong are the idiots at the very end of the story. (also, don’t forget to give Absolon an applause - the idea with the iron pole? LOL)
  
  I am giving it 4 stars. Why? I laughed & I won’t forget about this - I AM SURE I WON’T.
• 
  Jasmine

  In finally reviewing this outside of the academic lens through which I first encountered it as an undergraduate, I have two things to say:
  
  1. Having seen this staged (during a lecture, but still counts), the script is far more enjoyable (and understandable!) when acted out. And of course, it should be. It'd be an NC-17 comedy or comedy-drama if it were a modern flick. (I mean, it still can be...Perhaps there's a version I am yet to find).
  
  The Middle-English becomes almost modernly sensible when the reading is dynamic and the readers are well-versed. We laughed at many scenes that we merely skimmed over during the reading.
  
  2. The plot itself is...subjectively enjoyable. I would imagine the work's initial readership to have been a great deal more conservative than us. Both these points considered, I am continuingly unsure of Chaucer's primary aim here. I felt the same about a great deal of his poetry too; perhaps it is merely a matter of taste.