The Miller's Tale: Chaucer's Fabulous Fabliau

So sometimes we think, right, that the people in the Middle Ages, they're kind of all about chivalry, keeping it in their pants. You know, you might, you might still think that, like, after, if you read the Knight's Tale, which is Chaucer's, you know, first tale, it's all about these, you know, these two cousins who fall in love with this woman, like, without, without really touching her or talking to her or anything, it's all from afar. You know, luckily, the Miller's Tale comes right after it. It can basically tell you that you are wrong, if you think that. It's an example of a fablo, which is called, it's a medieval genre. It originates in France. That's why it's got kind of a Frenchy name, fablo. And basically, it's like a short little story characterized by, like, sex and potty jokes. It's kind of like any movie by the Farrelly brothers. Like, they're slinging about Mary, or like that kind of horrific but wonderful scene in Bridesmaids. That's, the legacy is there. You know, fablo is the originating thing. You know, so let's, let's talk about what happens in the Miller's Tale. It's a good one. You know, he deliberately tells it to upset the knight who's gone before him. He's told this very courtly, kind of restrained story. The Miller's, like, a little drunk, and he kind of uses this as an excuse to kind of say whatever he wants to, and, like, doesn't, you know, he doesn't mean to offend whoever he's offend, whoever he offends. I think we all kind of have a friend like that, and so it might be you. And so what happens, basically, in the story is that, here's, you know, the setup is that there's John, who's a carpenter, and he's kind of old. He lives in Oxford with his young wife, Alison. You know, this creates some inevitable problems that she's, like, young and hot, because all the Oxford students, they call them clerks in the tale, but it's the same thing. They all want to get with her, because, you know, because she's young and hot. So, you know, and John, who's this old carpenter, right, he decides that he's going to rent out the rooms in, one of the rooms in his house, to a student to make some extra money, and this is a terrible idea. This guy, you know, a guy, Nicholas, his student, he moves in, and he immediately sets to work trying to convince Alison to sleep with him, and it doesn't take him too long. So, you know, they start, they start hooking up. Meanwhile, another student called Absalon, he kind of works at the church, he falls madly in love with Alison, too. So, you know, between John and Nicholas, she's, like, got way too much she can handle. She's not that into Absalon, too. You know, so some time goes by, and, you know, Nicholas starts deciding he's going to turn his sort of brilliant scholar mind to figuring out how to really spend a night with Alison, rather than just kind of, like, sneaking off to the broom closet whenever John starts, like, sawing really loud. So this, you know, he's a romantic. He's a nice guy, and he comes up with kind of a genius, but also insane plan. He's going to convince John the carpenter that another biblical flood is coming, and, you know, John's going to believe him because he's, like, a fancy scholar and he knows stuff, and the only way to ride it out is to basically suspend all each one of them in their own little bathtub, like, from ropes from the ceiling. I mean, I think there was wooden back then. So they're all going to hang out in a wooden bathtub. They each have their own, and then when the flood comes, they're going to cut the ropes, and they're going to all