|
|
451 Study Questions for Chaucer's
"Miller's Tale"
Vocabulary:
fabliau, low comedy, fourfold interpretation, double entendre,
bed-trick, folkloric motifs, senex amans
Useful Middle English terms:
quit(e) (pay back, take vengeance), hende
(handy, courteous, skillful), privee (secret),
prively (secretly), privitee (secrecy),
nolde (would not), leman (lover)
Introduction: What does quit
mean? How does this Miller's tale "quit"
or repay the Knight's tale?
Lecture or Handouts: What
are some traits of a fabliau? How does this story
mirror the structure of the Knight's tale?
Identify
the following characters:
Prologue:the Host Harry Bailey, Robin
the Miller, The Knight, Oswald the Reeve
Tale: John the Carpenter, Nicholas the
Clerk, Alison, Absolon the Parish Clerk, the servant Robin
and the servant Jill (Gille), Gervais the Smith
Review the Miller's Portrait in
the General Prologue:
- THE MILLER (ROBIN)
- What is the physical build of the Miller
like?
- What physical activity is the Miller
particularly good at? What prize does he always win in
this athletic events?
- The Miller has an unusual party-trick
when he gets drunk. What technique does he use to remove
a door from its hinges?
- What color is his beard?
- What does he have on the end of his
nose?
- What does it mean to say he was "a
janglere and a goliardyes"?
- What illegal thievery does the Miller
engage in?
- What does Chaucer mean by saying, "yegt
he hadde a thombe of gold, pardee"?
- What musical instrument does he play?
- Where does he travel in the procession
of pilgrims? (Hint: This is
revealed in the bit about "And therwithal
he broghte us out of towne.")
Reading Questions:
(From the Miller's Prologue):
- How do all the pilgrims react to "The Knight's
Tale"? Which group especially thinks it is worth
remembering?
- Who does the Host ask to tell the next tale? (Hint:
It's not the Miller)
- Who interrupts the Host's request?
- Why is the Miller all pale and why is he having trouble
keeping in the saddle as the pilgrims ride?
- What does the Miller say his tale will do the Knight's
tale? What does this Middle English word mean?
- How does the Miller respond when the Host tries to talk
him out of interrupting?
- What "protestacioun" does
the Miller make about his storytelling and his own
condition?
- If the Miller misspeaks or says anything wrongly, what
does he ask the audience to blame?
- What does the Reeve mean when he tells
the Miller "Stint
thy clappe!"
- Why does the Reeve interrupt the Miller? (i.e., how
is the Miller's topic likely to hit a bit too close to
home?) Hint: Review lines 615-616
of the General Prologue to remind yourself of the Reeve's
background.
- When the Miller goes on at length
about God's "privetee"
(and a wife's "privetee"), what is the double
entendre?
- Why does the narrator say he "must" recount
what the Miller said, even though his story is a "harlotrye"?
- If anybody doesn't want to hear a dirty
story, according to the narrator, what does he advise
that reader to do?
How is this advice a bit strange--given that we are supposedly
sitting and listening to a storyteller? (How does this
break the conventions of verisimilitude, or break the
boundary between the "real world" of readers
and the "fictional world of Canterbury pilgrims?
- What should men not do when they hear
something that is a "game" according to the
narrator?
(From "The Miller's Tale" itself):
- Who lives as a renter with John the
Carpenter
and his wife?
- What knowledges or skills does this
person have?
- What does the nickname "hende" mean,
according to your footnotes? For what modern word today
is hende a cognate? [Try saying the word
aloud to see what it sounds like, if you are stumped.]
- Describe Nicholas's bed-chamber and
his lodgings. What stuff does he keep there? How does
this suggest two aspects of his identity? (I.e., which
items are associated with Nicholas as a student or scholar,
and which items are associated with his extracurricular
activities?)
- Who has the Carpenter (John) recently
married?
- How is old is she?
- What does Chaucer mean when he states, "Jalous he was, and heeld hire narwe in a cage"?
(i.e, how does John treat his young wife?)
- Describe Alisoun's apparel.
- Describe Alisoun's physical features.
- When the narrator describes Alisoun,
within forty lines he compares her to ten different animals
and plants in nature. List three of these animals or plants
in total.
- What does Chaucer mean when he says
Alisoun was "a piggesnye, / For any lord to leggen
in his bedde, / or yit for any god yeman to wedde"?
- What does Nicholas do while John is
gone to Osenye?
- When Nicholas finds Alisoun alone,
he "prively . . . caughte hire by the queinte." What
does that mean, without going into too much anatomical
detail?
- Nicholas tells Alisoun, "but if
ich have my wille, / For derne love of thee, lemman, I
spille," what is the double-entendre?
- How does Alisoun initially respond
to Nicholas's advances? How does she respond after
he tries
some "smooth-talking" when he "spak so
faire"?
- What job or occupation does Absalon
have?
- Look up the story of David's son Absalon
and Absalon's death in the Old Testament. Why did
Chaucer
probably choose this name for the character? How is Absalon
like this character?
- What is Absalon's hair like? Describe
it.
- What does Absalon know how to do "in
twenty manere"?
- What does Absalon's voice sound like?
- At the end of Absalon's description,
we find out there are two things he cannot stand.
What
are these two things of which he "was somdeel squaimous," as
Chaucer puts it?
- After Absalon falls in lust with Alisoun,
where does he go with his guitar? What does he do with
that guitar? (Be more specific than "play music".)
- Who (besides Alisoun) reacts when Absalon
plays this music?
- What are some of the things Absalon
does or sends to Alisoun to woo her after his serenading
fails?
- How does your textbook interpret the
line about about Absalon "playing Herod" on
the stage? [Lecture: what's another way
of interpreting the comment about Herod according to Brett
Mitze?]
- Nicholas's plan to have his way with
Alisoun involves three stages. During the first stage,
between Saturday and Sunday, what does Nicholas pretend
to be?
- When John finds Nicholas staring catatonically,
what does he assume has happened to Nicholas?
- John recounts to himself the story of
a clerk (student) who gazed too much at the stars doing
his astronomy lessons. What happened to that clerk in
John's aside? What does John's choice of stories reveal
about his own attitude toward learning?
- What must John and his servant do to
get inside Nicholas's bedroom, since Nicholas is still
pretending to be "catatonic"?
- When John commands Nicholas, "thenk
on Cristes passioun," as a cure for Nicholas's catatonia,
what does this reveal about John's attitude toward medicine
and religion?
- What is John doing when he says he "crouche[s]
thee from elves and fro wightes"? What does John's
concerns reveal about him as a character?
- Nicholas, after a drink, says he will
reveal to John special information. But if John tells
anyone else,what does Nicholas say will happen to John?
- What does Nicholas say will happen next
Monday, according to his astrological predictions?
- Whom does John express concern about
when he learns the world is going to end?
- According to Nicholas, how long will
the flood on Monday last?
- What three objects does Nicholas order
John to hang from the ceiling as emergency escape craft
before the flood hits? What three people are supposed
to sit in the three tubs?
- According to Nicholas, what will the
only three survivors of this disaster be? What will they
be lords of when the floodwaters recede?
- Who personally hand-builds three ladders
to place beneath the three tubs?
- What emergency food rations does John
place in each tub/boat?
- What happens to John about 8:00 PM as
he lies in the swaying boat waiting for the flood-waters?
- Where does Nicholas sneak ("stalketh")
John takes his nap?
- Who notices that John hadn't been out
working all day? What does this person mistakenly assume
about John's whereabouts?
- In lines 580 and following, what are
some of the preparations Absolon makes that correspond
to modern mouth spray?
- Who or what interrupts Nicholas and
Alisoun as they try to have sex?
- What does Absolon demand before he will
go away?
- What trick or prank does Alisoun play
on Absolon?
- What unusual anatomical feature puzzles
Absolon when he closes his eyes to kiss the girl, "ful
savourly"?
- What does Alisoun say before she slams
the window shutters closed? (Famous quotation, here).
- What does Absolon do to his lips once
he realizes he has kissed Alisoun's "naughty
bits"?
- Who does Absolon seek out in the middle
of the night to help him in his revenge?
- What does Absolon take out from Gervais's
smithy?
- When Absolon tries to lure out Alisoun
with a cold ring, who overhears his enticement? Why was
this person up and about rather than asleep?
- What cunning plan backfires for Nicholas?
- As Nicholas lets his buttocks hang outside
the window, he lets fly . . . . what? How does this connect
earlier with Absolon's squeamishness?
- Nicholas's flatulence is described
as a "thonder-dent" it is so powerful. In
fact, it nearly does what to Absolon when it hits him?
- What does Absolon do to Nicholas's butt
in retaliation?
- What does Nicholas cry out for when
the hot poker/cultour burns him? Why is this funny,
given
John's reaction?
- When John cuts the ropes and his tub
falls, what happens to John (i.e., what injury does he
suffer?)
- When the neighbours come to find out
what all the screaming and yelling is about, what do Nicholas
and Alisoun tell them about John?
- How do all the neighbors react to John's "fantasye"?
- What prayer does the Miller make at
the end of his tale? (i.e., whom does ask for God to save)?
Identifications:
A."But first, I make
a protestacioun
That I am dronke: I knowe it by my soun.
And therfore if that I misspeke or saye,
Wit it the ale of Southwerk, I you praye."
B. I moot reherse
Hir tales alle, be they bet or werse,
Or elles falsen som of my matere.
And therfore, whoso list it nought yeheere
Turne over the leef,a nd chese another tale,
For he shal finde ynowe, grete and smale,
Of storial thing that toucheth gentilesse
And eek moralitee and holinesse:
Blameth nought me if that ye chese amis.
C. But with his mouthhe
kiste hir naked ers,
Ful savourly, er he were war of this.
Abak he sterte, and thoughte it was amis,
For wel he wise a womman hath no beerd.
D. And on his lippe, he
gan for anger bite,
And to himself he saide, "I shal thee quite,"
Who rubbeth now,who froteth now his lippes
With dust, with sond, with straw, with cloth, with chippes?
E. "Teehee," quod
she, and clapt the windowe to.
|
|