Anything

The Reeve’s Prologue and Tale

A dishonest miller, who lives close to a college, steals corn and meal brought to his mill for grinding. One day, the manciple (or steward) of the college is too ill to go to the mill to watch the miller grind his corn, and, in his absence, the miller robs him outrageously.

Two students at the college, John and Alan, are enraged at the news of the theft and volunteer to take a sack of corn to the mill. When they arrive, they announce that they will watch the milling. The miller, sensing that the students want to prevent him from stealing, untethers the students' horse. When John and Alan find the horse missing, they chase it until dark before catching it. Meanwhile, the miller empties half the flour from the sack and refills it with bran.

Because it is now dark, the boys ask the miller to put them up for the night. The miller, who has a wife, a twenty-year old daughter, and an infant son, agrees. Because the house is small, they all sleep in the same room but in separate beds: John and Alan in one bed, the Miller and his wife in another with the cradle beside, and the daughter in the third.

While the miller and his family sleep, John and Alan think of ways to get revenge. Suddenly, Alan announces that he is going to have that "wench there," referring to the daughter. His logic is "If at one point a person be aggrieved / Then in another he shall be relieved" ("That gif a man in a point be agreved, / That in another he sal be releved"). John, however, stays in bed lamenting his condition; resolved finally to not spend the night alone, he gets up and quietly moves the baby and cradle next to his bed. About this time, the miller's wife gets up to relieve herself; returning to her bed, she feels for the baby's cradle, which is now beside John's bed. Thinking this her bed, she climbs in beside John, who immediately "tumbled on her, and on this goode wyf, he layed it on well."

At dawn, Alan says goodbye to the daughter, who tells him...