Lecture 2. Miller and Pardoner

The Miller

• Dishonest, drunk

• Tells obscene tales

• Sanguine

Quotes about the Miller

• “Stout carl” - churl

• “Thumb of gold” - lies

• “jangler” - obscene

• “goliardis” - illmannered

Four Theories of Humor

• Sanguine → Blood → Lively

• Choleric → Yellow bile → Angry

• Melancholic → Black bile → Introspective

• Phlegmatic → Phlegm → Easygoing

MT: Contrast

Contrasts the Knight’s prior tale

• Bathos: High → low material

• Class: High → low estate

• Satire: Romantic → pragmatic love

MT: Fabliau

• Short comic stories in verse

• French genre

• Stock situations

• Low-brow material

MT: Conflicts

• Old vs young

• Men vs women

• Rich vs poor

• Educated vs uneducated

MT: Stock Characters

Typical characters, yet fully developed

• John: Jealous old husband (Choleric)

• Nicholas: Clever young man (Sanguine)

• Alison: Young beautiful wife

• Absolom: Melancholy lover

MT: Epilogue

• Leads the Reeve to tell a fabliau about a Miller

• Dramatic interplay

MT: Themes

• Mocks romantic love

  • Similitude

• Proximity:

• Retribution

The Pardoner

• Corrupt layman

  • Indulgences

• Appearance suggests immorality

  • dirty, waxy, stringy hair

  • goat-like voice

  • bulging eyeballs

  • no beard

PT: “Prologue”

• Exemplum, anecdote

• Follows the Doctor’s Tale, a tragedy

  • Host asked for a comic story

  • Others asked for a moral tale

PT: Avarice

• Radix malorum est cupiditas

  • “Greed is the root of all evil”

• Motivation: personal gain, setting scores

• Targets: Gullible yokels

• Unrepentant

PT: Powerful Narrative P1

• Generic

  • 3 interchangeable rioters

  • Stock characters

  • “Death” is the only proper noun

• Description

  • Mainly dialogue

  • Minimal setting

  • Implied events

PT: Powerful Narrative P2

• Archetypical Elements

  • Groups of three

  • Mysterious guide

  • Moral test leads to destiny

  • “Just deserts”

PT: Characters P1

• Rioters: Sins

  • Gambling → greed

  • Pride → kill Death

  • Wrath → Murderous

• Young boy: Irony

  • Respects Death

PT: Characters P2

• Old Man: Ironic guidance

• Death.

  • Unpredictable

  • Elusive

  • Ironic

  • Black Plague → Death

PT: Epilogue

• Irony: pardoner tries to “work the crowd”

• Critique of the Pardoner

PT: Themes

• “Greed is the root of all evil”

• Irony: moral tale from an immoral character