Obscenity and Fastidiousness in The Miller's Tale

Abstract

In placing the Miller's fabliau directly after the Knight's philosophical romance (and by design, not by accident) Chaucer issues a challenge to the open-mindedness of his readers, then as now. What is one to make of the juxtaposition of the refinements of love on the one hand and coarseness and squeamishness on the other? One is bound to admire (even if grudgingly) the resourcefulness of Chaucer's use of obscene language in The Miller's Tale. Words such as swyven are used not expletively but with the full force of their obscene meaning, and even a euphemism such as queynte is attracted towards its obscene equivalent. The Knight and the Miller do not inhabit discrete universes, but live side by side, often uncomfortably, in the same world. Courtesy and consideration for others are moral choices that not everyone is willing to make. The Miller's voice ought not to be stifled or censored even at the cost of some embarrassment on the reader's part. Allas, what is this wondre maladie? For hote of cold, for cold of hote, I dye.1 1Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, I.419–20 in Benson, ed., The Riverside Chaucer. References throughout, given parenthetically in the text, are to this edition. Abbreviated titles are as follows: BD = Book of the Duchess; CkT = The Cook's Tale; FranT = The Franklin's Tale; GP = General Prologue; KnT = The Knight's Tale; MancT = The Manciple's Tale; MerT = The Merchant's Tale; MilProl. = The Miller's Prologue; MilT = The Miller's Tale; NPT = The Nun's Priest's Tale; ParsT = The Parson's Tale; RvT = The Reeve's Tale; SumT = The Summoner's Tale; TC = Troilus and Criseyde; WBProl. = The Wife of Bath Prologue. For other works referenced their titles are abbreviated as follows and the references are given in the notes: FQ = The Faerie Queene; PPl = Piers Plowman; SGGK = Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; ST = Summa theologiae.