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Article: Works of Geoffrey Chaucer: The Miller's Tale
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- Monarch Notes
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Chaucer, Geoffrey
Monarch Notes
01-01-1963
The Miller's Tale
Introduction:
The Miller's tale of Absolon, Nicholas, and Alisoun is Chaucer's version
of a fabliau, or story about common characters involved in gross, frequently
indecent events. There are some subliterary examples of the type which are
coarse in the extreme, but Chaucer's tale, while it is earthy in its humor, is
certainly not obscene, and it makes an entertaining contrast to the very
proper chivalric romance just related by the Knight. For one thing, Chaucer
deals with the so-called "facts of life" in such an unembarrassed and healthy
fashion that only the most puritanical conscience could find fault with his
tale. And in any case ...