The Miller’s Tale

The Miller’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

This bawdy story of lust and revenge is told by a drunken, churlish Miller. Alison, the young wife of a carpenter, takes their boarder Nicholas as her lover. When Nicholas convinces the carpenter that Noah’s flood is about to recur, the unwitting husband suspends three tubs from the rafters to serve as lifeboats and uses one for his bed. Alison and Nicholas steal off to her bedroom only to be interrupted the next morning by her admirer Absolon, who stands under the window and begs her for a kiss. Alison offers her backside. Enraged upon discovering the deception, Absolon returns and pleads once more; this time Nicholas assumes the same pose and is rewarded with a scorching branding iron. His cries for water awaken the carpenter, who assumes that the flood is near; he cuts the rope holding his tub and comes crashing through the attic.