This tale is the funniest Chaucer ever wrote and has been popular with readers of humorous literature throughout the ages. Chaucer used no known source for The Miller’s Tale, but in general outline, it is one of the most common earthy folk tales, or fabliaux. The story of the rich old man married to a voluptuous young girl has been and still is the source of much of the bawdy humor throughout Western literature. In Chaucer’s treatment, the story is elevated to great literary heights through Chaucer’s masterful use of comic incongruity and characterization, and by the incredible neatness of the tale’s construction.
The tale abounds in incongruity. Some passages require a full knowledge of the medieval ages along with the traditions of that age: for example, consider the following:
Original
And prively he caught hire by the quiente / And sayde “Ywis, but if ich have my wille, / For deerne love of thee, Lemman, I spille.” / And heeld hire harde by the haunche-bone.
Translation
And crudely, he caught her by her vagina / And said “Surely, unless I have my way, / For secret love of thee, sweetheart, I perish,” / And held her sensuously by the groins.
The incongruity lies in the contrast between Nicholas’ actions, which are direct, bold, and vulgar, and the words he speaks, which are those of a refined courtly lover who is nobly pining away for a lady far beyond his station (an incongruity that does not come through in a modern English transliteration).
