Setting at The Time of King Arthur Written End of The 14th Century
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elisabeth maria ChristensenSetting at The Time of King Arthur Written End of The 14th Century
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elisabeth maria ChristensenThe Miller’s Prologue and Tale pp.
282-298
What and where and how are the texts about what they are about?
Literary Period: Medieval
When Written: End of the 14th century (1387-1400),
3. Middle English literature (14th – 15th century)
setting at the time of king Arthur
written; End of the 14th century
The drunken Miller interrupts the Host’s order so that he can “quite” the Knight’s Tale, that
is, respond to it directly.
The Miller tells a fabliau, which is a bawdy fable that involves a lot of complicated tricks
and dirty jokes.
Chaucer interrupts briefly to tell the reader that if he doesn’t want to read a risqué tale, he
should turn over the page.
What genres do the texts belong to?
fabliau: a comical fable told in verse = content often comic or satiric
fabliau: is about sex and money and some who is cheated, it is a counterpart to higher
class
= Related to the knight’s speech and Miler interrupting the monk; he messes up the
hierarchy in the community
= represents changing In the society that is happening: with new middle class coming up
(miller is part of it and so is Chaucer)
Anything especially noticeable about their figurative language, style, composition,
intertextuality etc.?
A trick in any realism writer: claiming not to make things up (like Chaucer)
At the time it was heresy to make things up= could then claim to say it happened in a dream
and them write it down, as you cannot lie at the time.
Miller’s tale – notes on structure (from slide)
1-112: Nicholas introduced, scholar (only BA), astronomy is passion, knows secrets of
‘solas’, handsome
113-162: Alison ‘newe wif’, young, fair, sexualized creature/animalitic, sex object
163-199: ‘flirtation’, from rape approach through sweet talk to ‘love and ‘maketh
melodye’
199-290: Absalon introduced, vain, squesmish, can’t take farting and bad language
291-492: setting up John for the joke: astronomy both mad and truth, knowledge
dangerous!
493-534: John prepares for Flood, sighful (should be happt they’ll be lords!)
535-549: ‘swived was the carpenters wif’ framed by details about John’s snoring
550-635: Absalon’s first kiss, beard and punning bad language and loss of libido
636-707: Absalon’s second kiss, thunder-fart and stigmatization of Nicholas in ass
708-fin: Carpenter now stigmatized by village as ‘wood’, Nicholas couldn’t control his
own story – only one to emerge‘pure’ is Alison
Key words
‘melodye’: birds in opening, Nicholas and Alison’s flirtation and copulation
‘solas’: pleasure from tale telling (p. 280), Nicholas’ secret knowledge of love and
sexuality (284), Absalon on visiting and singing at taverns (p. 287), consummation of
sex between Nicholas and Alison (p. 294)
‘quite’: dialectics of tale telling (intended honorably, reinterpreted by Miller as
aggressive, usurped by Absalon to name his revenge p. 296) – echoes with ‘queinte’ (p.
286) and ‘yquient’ (p. 296)?
More things to think about Alison – how is she described? What’s in focus to begin
with? (ll. 125-162)
Conventions from courtly love tradition subverted
Animalistic – objectified: sex object or someone to marry
Is the maybe also a figure for the virgin Mary – how?
What’s the function of the Biblical story of Noah and the Flood?
Old John should know God promised never to repeat the Flood?
In Bible the consequence of lustful, carnal living afterAdam’s original sin, here it
enables what it was meant to quell – exquisite irony and irreverence
Why the several references to Mystery Plays?
Canterbury Tales a narrated form of mystery play, spectacle?
They were the medium through which many saw the world – does Chaucer critique this
form of show?
How do you feel about John, the carpenter?
He is a good person, maybe too good and naive (superstitious and gullible)?
Can we learn from him?
How do they configure or imagine time and space?
Setting: The road to Canterbury, England
and the Inn
Time and places: a cathedral and the inn (in London where the pilgrims met up, the
narrator is resting before moving on)
The space that links them; the road
In terms; the time of telling and the events (1380's around London)
In terms of temporality of telling: what makes his almost postmodern:
o the telling of the tales (it becomes as much about listening and commenting on
literature/stories as someone telling tell a story)
o FOCUS ON THE NOW (THE NOW)
Have they themselves traveled across time and space in significant ways?
The space that links them; the road
the time of telling and the events (1380's around London)
In terms of temporality of telling: what makes his almost postmodern: the telling of the tales
(it becomes as much about listening and commenting on literature/stories as someone who
tells a story)
What kinds of authorship and readership seem involved in their production and
dissemination?
What is an author? One of the most interesting questions in studies of the medieval and
early modern periods since the 1970s
In the 14C during the age of Chaucer, the word ‘author’ begins to take on its modern
sense:
From Latin augere ‘to make, to grow, originate, promote, increase’ which developed into
the words auctor and auctorial in the medieval period
The sense active of auctor as one who can be called upon to guarantee an argument’s
validity, authority
OED defines ‘author’ as ‘One who sets forth written statements; the composer or writer
of a treatise or book’
At the end of the fourteenth century, an ‘author’ is an ‘authority’
The author, we tend to believe, is in control of the work, knows what it means, is
guarantor of meaning, and in later ages we think of the author as an ‘original genius’
creating meaning
This was not Chaucer’s notion of himself as ‘auctor’
Notes
A trick in any realism writer: claiming not to make things up (like Chaucer)
At the time it was heresy to make things up= could then claim to say it happened in a dream
and them write it down, as you cannot lie at the time.What do we need to know (linguistic,
historical and other contextual knowledge) to begin to understand these texts? What is
included in the Norton edition’s headnote and footnotes?
religion is important and feudal society
Have they been seen, or do you think future readers will see them as relevant, why?
In the Miller’s Prologue, we see tension between social classes
The Host clearly wants the Monk to tell the second tale, so that the storytelling proceeds
according to social rank.
o By butting in, the Miller upsets the Host’s plan. Like the Knight’s Tale, which fits his
honorable and virtuous personality, the Miller’s Tale is stereotypical of the Miller’s
bawdy character and low station.
A picture of society at that time.
o Indirect critical approach to something, uses humor to disguise criticism.
o Now it is relevant in the sense of tracing back to the history of that period of time.
What’s unique about this text and/or is not addressed by these questions?
Lecture points/study questions:
A central space of Middle English Literature: the cathedral. Why is it significant?
Versus the Inn.
Time and places:
a cathedral = the pilgrims met up to go the cathedral, they would otherwise not have
meet or traveled together
the inn = it sets up the story, the beginning of the beginning of the beginning
in London where the pilgrims met up, the narrator is resting before moving on)
The space that links them; the road
A central journey of Middle English Literature: the pilgrimage. What do they travel for?
According to the text / other suggestions?
a cathedral = cultivate their religion, seek guidance (15-20)
What is an author? Was Chaucer an author in our modern sense? Or do we need another
understanding of what is an author to read his work and other early modern literature?
What does The Millar’s Tale tell us about relations between genders, generations,
social groups in the medieval period? The role of Christian faith?
he show of people in the story and THE MILLER skips the line, John in the story has
married a younger woman and he is made to laugh at the end of the story