The Reeve´s tale
The Reeve's Tale
Simkin is a miller who lives in Trumpington near Cambridge and who steals wheat and meal brought to him for grinding. Simkin is also a bully and expert with knives. His wife is the portly daughter of the town clergyman (and therefore illegitimate, as Catholic priests do not marry). They have a twenty-year-old daughter Malyne and a six-month-old son.
When Simkin overcharged for his latest work grinding corn for Soler Hall, a Cambridge University college also known as King's Hall, the college steward was too ill to face him. Two students there, John and Aleyn, are very outraged at this latest theft and vow to beat the miller at his own game. John and Aleyn pack an even larger amount of wheat than usual and say they will watch Simkin while he grinds it into flour, pretending that they are interested in the process because they have limited knowledge about milling. Simkin sees through the clerks' story and vows to take even more of their grain than he had planned, to prove that scholars are not always the wisest or cleverest of people. He unties their horse, and the two students are unable to catch it until nightfall. Meanwhile, the miller steals the clerks' flour and gives it to his wife to bake a loaf of bread.
Returning to the Miller's house, John and Aleyn offer to pay him for a night's sleeping there. He challenges them to make his single bedroom into a grand house. After much rearranging, Simkin and his wife sleep in one bed, John and Aleyn in another, and Malyne in the third. The baby boy's cradle sits at the foot of the miller's bed.
After a long night of drinking wine, Simkin and his family fall fast asleep while John and Aleyn lie awake, plotting revenge. First Aleyn creeps over to Malyne in her bed while she remains fast asleep till he is so near before she might see him "that it had been too late for to crye"; and they copulate. When the miller's wife leaves her bed to relieve herself of the wine she's drunk, John moves the baby's
Simkin is a miller who lives in Trumpington near Cambridge and who steals wheat and meal brought to him for grinding. Simkin is also a bully and expert with knives. His wife is the portly daughter of the town clergyman (and therefore illegitimate, as Catholic priests do not marry). They have a twenty-year-old daughter Malyne and a six-month-old son.
When Simkin overcharged for his latest work grinding corn for Soler Hall, a Cambridge University college also known as King's Hall, the college steward was too ill to face him. Two students there, John and Aleyn, are very outraged at this latest theft and vow to beat the miller at his own game. John and Aleyn pack an even larger amount of wheat than usual and say they will watch Simkin while he grinds it into flour, pretending that they are interested in the process because they have limited knowledge about milling. Simkin sees through the clerks' story and vows to take even more of their grain than he had planned, to prove that scholars are not always the wisest or cleverest of people. He unties their horse, and the two students are unable to catch it until nightfall. Meanwhile, the miller steals the clerks' flour and gives it to his wife to bake a loaf of bread.
Returning to the Miller's house, John and Aleyn offer to pay him for a night's sleeping there. He challenges them to make his single bedroom into a grand house. After much rearranging, Simkin and his wife sleep in one bed, John and Aleyn in another, and Malyne in the third. The baby boy's cradle sits at the foot of the miller's bed.
After a long night of drinking wine, Simkin and his family fall fast asleep while John and Aleyn lie awake, plotting revenge. First Aleyn creeps over to Malyne in her bed while she remains fast asleep till he is so near before she might see him "that it had been too late for to crye"; and they copulate. When the miller's wife leaves her bed to relieve herself of the wine she's drunk, John moves the baby's