Page 87 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes Nicholas (all going exactly to his plan) swore John to secrecy, and promised to tell him of Christ’s
counsel. John was aghast as Nicholas told him that, according to his reading of the moon, next
Monday, a flood akin to Noah’s flood would drown the world in less than an hour. With the carpenter
terrified, Nicholas proceeded to the next stage of his plan: that, in the manner of Noah, John was to
take large wooden troughs, one for each for Nicholas, Alison and John, and hang them up in the
roof (full of supplies) so that no-one can see them, sit in them, and wait. Then, when the water
arrives, all John would have to do is take an axe, cut the cord, break a hole in the gable, and float
away with his wife and his clerk intact.
Moreover, Nicholas continued, God had requested that, lying in their troughs on the Monday in
question, nobody spoke a word-and the carpenter’s and his wife’s troughs should be hung far apart.
The credulous carpenter instantly assented, and went off to make preparations, finding troughs
and stocking up food.
Monday arrived, and, as night drew in, the three climbed up to the roof. In their troughs, the three
of them prayed, and then the carpenter (probably worn out from all his business setting up the
troughs) fell fast asleep, snoring. Nicholas and Alison sped down the ladder, and “withouten words
mo they goon to bedde”, where they remain until the “laudes” bell (a bell for a church service
before daybreak) rang.
Absolon, meanwhile had got some information about John the carpenter, and, thinking that John
was away from his house, went to sing to Alison and woo her at a low, hinged window which only
came up to his breast height. After a first, gentle song, Alison appeared at the window and gave
him short shrift-telling him that she loved somebody else, and warning him that she would “caste a
ston” unless he went away. Absolon promised to go away if she would kiss him, once.
Alison tells Nicholas to be quiet and watch her: she then unlocks the window, and, as Absolon leans
in to give her a kiss, she puts her naked ass out of the window, which Absolon kisses “ful savourly”,
feeling, as he does it, something rough and long-haired. “Tehee!” says Alison, and slams the window,
and Nicholas and her openly mock Absolon from behind the window. Absolon hears it, and resolves
to “quyte” the lovers.
Absolon, moving away from the window, continually says “allas!”, sometimes weeping like a beaten
child. By the time he arrived at a blacksmith called don Gerveys, Absolon didn’t care a bean for
Alison, and persuaded his friend to lend him the hot poker in the chimney. Holding it by the cold
steel, Absolon returns to the carpenter’s window, and knocks again, promising Alison that he has
brought her a ring which his mother gave him.

Nicholas had got up “to pisse”, and thought he would make the joke even funnier–pulling up the
window, he put his ass out of the window for Absolon to kiss. Absolon then asked Alison to speak,
so he can see where she is, and Nicholas, at this moment, lets fly a fart “as greet as it had been a
thunder-dent”, so loud that it almost blinds Absolon. But Absolon was ready with his hot iron, and
seized his chance, branding Nicholas’ arse.
Nicholas, almost dying of his burning pain, cried out for “Water!”, and that cry, awoke John the
carpenter from his slumber; thinking Nicholas referred to the flood “Water!”, John, sitting up
“withouten wordes mo”, cut the cord with the axe, bringing everything crashing down from the
roof, through the floors, until finally landed on the cellar floor, knocked out.
Nicholas and Alison ran out into the street, crying for attention, and the neighbors ran into look at
John, who still lay swooning on the floor, pale and white, his arm broken by the huge fall. And,
when he opened his mouth to explain himself, he was shouted down by Nicholas and Alison, who
claimed he was mad, being frightened of something as ridiculous as Noah’s flood. People laughed
at his fantasy, staring into the roof of his smashed house, and turning all of his hurt into a joke–and
everything that John argued to preserve his dignity was ignored. Thus ends the Miller’s Tale.

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