The Canterbury Tales: Miller's Tale & Wife of Bath's Prologue & Tale (Chaucer Lecture)

'Who peinted the leoun, tell me who? By God, if wommen hadde writen stories, as clerkes han withinne hir oratories, they wolde han write of men more wikkednesse than al the mark of Adam may redresse!'

Today we are enjoying some more vibrant stories as our pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral continues. And we're focusing on the Miller's Prologue and Tale and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale.

We're discussing romance vs fabliau, woe in marriage, medieval morality plays, subverting stereotypes, vitalistic characters, men vs women, gentility, experience vs authority, the spirit of agon, and much more.

Please do feel free to enjoy the discussion even if you haven't read these parts of the Canterbury Tales yet. You can enjoy our talk before, during, or after your reading of these prologues and tales in the way that best suits you.

Timestamps:

0:00 welcome back to the pilgrimage 

2:00 how to read the Miller’s Tale

4:00 the spirit of agon in storytelling

5:00 noble tales vs churl’s tales

7:00 mystery plays/religious drama

10:00 the pilgrims vs the Miller

12:00 the stereotypes of Millers 

15:00 on Chaucerian originality

17:00 amorality in the Miller’s Tale

18:00 why genre is so important

20:00 romance epic vs fabliaux 

22:00 festive function of fabliaux

24:00 appreciating the Miller’s Tale

26:00 rough language in Chaucer

28:00 Nicholas & Alison vs Absalon

30:00 the second Noah’s flood plot

33:00 the funniest part of the story

36:00 the comic climax of the tale

39:00 Reeve & Man of Law’s Tale

41:00 meeting the Wife of Bath

42:00 what makes a character vitalistic?

44:00 the genius of the Wife’s allusions

46:00 a debate across time & space

48:00 misappropriating authority

50:00 the genre of the Wife’s Prologue

51:00 Chaucerian dramatic monologue

53:00 confession literature & sermons

54:00 medieval antifeminist satire

56:00 appreciating the Wife’s Prologue

57:00 ‘experience, though noon auctoritee’

59:00 how the debate still rages today

1:00:00 Wife of Bath vs Christian scripture

1:02:00 ‘Lordinges, that am nat I…’

1:03:00 how Alison thinks in metaphor

1:05:00 reaching the soul through the body

1:06:00 joining the exegetical tradition

1:07:00 the Pardoner interrupts the Wife

1:09:00 the Wife of Bath’s marital history

1:10:00 Alison’s advice to married women

1:13:00 Falstaffian aspect of Chaucer’s Wife

1:15:00 why the Wife of Bath resonates

1:17:00 why we sympathise with the Wife

1:20:00 Venus in feeling, Mars in heart

1:22:00 Alison’s fifth husband Jankyn

1:24:00 ‘Who painted the lion? Tell me who’

1:25:00 burning the Book of Wicked Wives

1:26:00 the climax of the Wife’s Prologue

1:28:00 appreciating the Wife of Bath’s Tale

1:30:00 ‘In th’olde days of the King Arthur’

1:32:00 the shocking opening of the story

1:33:00 what do women most desire?

1:35:00 what do men most desire?

1:37:00 what actually gives one gentilesse?

1:38:00 the climax of the Wife’s Tale

1:39:00 next Chaucer reading assignment

1:40:00 what did you make of these tales?

Resources to Explore:

• Adaptation: There's a rather creepy stop-motion animation adaptation of the Canterbury Tales, which brings the Wife of Bath's Tale to the screen that you might find interesting to check out here. And here is the Miller's Tale and Reeve's Tale. There is also a BBC television series that adapts the Canterbury Tales to the modern day, which you can check out here.

• Music: I'm obsessed with how old stories were originally performed and appreciated. So I love the fact that you can find thoroughly talented musicians bringing old tales to life complete with medieval and ancient instruments. You can enjoy 'The Death of Arthur,' inspired by Tennyson's poetic repackaging of Le Morte D'Arthur here. And you can also get a little window into the medieval past by hearing what Sir Gawain and the Green Knight would have sounded like here. For more fun, check out an excerpt from Beowulf, played on the hurdy-gurdy, here.

• Drama: The pilgrims often refer to the world of mystery and miracle plays, which were a common form of entertainment in the medieval era. Mystery play cycles are also where they get most of their scriptural knowledge. If you're interested in exploring medieval theatre, then this medieval drama anthology is excellent. You might also like to take a peak at Arden's publishing of two popular morality plays, Everyman and Mankind, which are little after Chaucer's time and evolved out of mystery drama, in one volume here.

• Medieval Poetry: The literature of the medieval era can be either an acquired taste or it can be love at first sight, depending on the reader. If you've been enjoying Chaucer and would like to explore more, then you might like to pick one of these up: Piers Plowman, The Romance of the Rose, The Works of the Gawain Poet, The Song of Roland. If you're interested in medieval dream poetry, there is a really wonderful study on the genre by A. C. Spearing here.

• Contemporary: I recently picked up Dan Simmons' phenomenal work of science-fiction, Hyperion. This work has been described as the Canterbury Tales set in space as Simmons has taken overt influence from Chaucer (and also John Keats) and has produced a work that is gripping and deeply rewarding. As you have now made Chaucer's acquaintance and appreciated some of his best tales, you might like to treat yourself to a reading of this work too.

• Fun Videos: As I'm sure you love watching videos of rare books as much as I do, here are some fabulous videos looking at some special editions of the works of Chaucer: first complete collected edition from 1532 here, exploring a first edition here, a fourth edition here, and a folio from the nineteenth century here.

• Audiobooks: If you listened to Dame Peggy Ashcroft's reading of the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, as recommended last time, I would love to know if you enjoyed it. For the Pardoner's Tale, the Nun's Priest's Tale, and the Franklin's tale, this Naxos recording narrated by Richard Bebb is fantastic.

Reading Assignment:

Our next discussion will have a special focus on the prologues and tales of the Franklin, Pardoner, and the Nun's Priest. Our alternating weekend release rhythm continues, so we will be back to Faulkner again this weekend coming, which means that Chaucer will be the weekend after. Keep reading with great joy, gusto, and thoughtfulness, whilst remaining attentive to what makes a story work for you.

Questions for You:

1) What did you personally make of the Miller's Tale?

2) How did you find the characterisation of the Wife of Bath?

3) What elements make a story funny for you?

4) How do characters convince us of their reality? And what makes a protagonist inexhaustible?

5) What's more important for a story: entertainment or deep meaning?

If this is your first experience with The Canterbury Tales, I would love to know how the work is meeting your expectations. If this is a reread for you, what is it like engaging with this story compendium again? And please do share with us your favourite passages, characters, and ideas from the pilgrimage so far.

Happy reading, everybody!