Summary In Modern Day Terms
The Reeve’s prologue starts off with Oswald the Reeve denouncing the miller and decides to tell his own story of a miller. One that is selfish, greedy, and jealous. The tale starts off with the miller who has many sharp weapons and a very beautiful wife. He threatens to kill any man who talks to her. He is known for stealing grain, but only a little until the college manciple falls ill. Then he steals even more from him. Two bible clerks named Alan and John set out to the miller to get some corn ground on the warden’s palfrey. Alan knows about the miller and keeps a watchful eye on him while he’s grinding the corn into flour. The miller devises a plan to draw their attention elsewhere. He sneaks out the back, and unties the palfrey to set it loose. When John and Alan get word of the horse running off, they chase after and while they are distracted, the miller takes their bag of corn flour, and swaps it for some bran. By the time the two bible clerks were able to capture the horse, night has come and they beg the miller to give them room and dinner. The miller agrees. After they all had dinner and ale, they go to bed. Alan discovers they have been tricked, so he devises a plan of their own. He sneaks into the miller’s daughter’s bed and forces himself upon her. John, not wanting to be left out, moves the cradle to his bed. In the darkness, the miller’s wife gets into what she thought was her bed, and John does the same along with Alan. In all the commotion, the miller wakes up, and Alan,enraged attacks the miller. With John joining in along side. The miller’s wife in all of the panic grabs a weapon of sorts and swings into the crowd… hitting her own husband. John and Alan with the meal made of their corn leaving the miller without any coin or meal, and with two violated women.
Vocab Words:
Vocab Words:
- Trenchant - (of a weapon or tool) having a sharp edge (108)
- Puggish - A characteristic of a monkey (108)
- Dowry - Property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage.(109)
- Pert - (of a girl or young woman) attractively or lively or cheeky (109)
- Blackguard - A person, particularly a man, who behaves in a dishonorable or contemptible way.(117)
- Palfrey - a docile horse used for ordinary riding, especially by women.
- Canny - Pleasant, Nice(111)
- Bible - Clerk - one of certain scholars who read the lessons in chapel or say grace in hall at some colleges of Oxford University(110)
- Blear - Make dim; blur
- Furlong - an eighth of a mile, 220 yards