Miller’s Tale Love Quotes

This carpenter hadde wedded newe a wyf,
Which that he lovede moore than his lyf;
Of eighteteene yeer she was of age.
Jalous he was, and heeld hire narwe in cage,
For she was wylde and yong, and he was old
And demed hymself been lik a cokewold.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. Carpenter John loves his new wife Alison more than his life. So much so that the jealous and paranoid guy keeps her locked up in the house fearful that she will cheat on him with other men. For she is young and wild and he is old and he believes that he is will be cuckolded.

He ne hadde for his labour but a scorn.
And thus she maketh Absolon hire ape,
And al his ernest turneth til a jape.
Ful sooth is this proverb, it is no lye,
Men seyn right thus, "Alwey the nye slye
Maketh the ferre leeve to be looth."
For though that Absolon be wood or wrooth,
By cause that he fer was from hire sight,
This nye Nicholas stood in his light.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. The Miller speaks about Alison’s two admirers. Absolon is the distant lover who tries to woo her by singing to her outside her window, but she and Nicholas make him into a fool and a joke by laughing at him. Nicholas is the lover closer to Alison, so if Absolon was crazy with love Alison would not notice him, because he was so far from her sight Nicholas "stood in his light" and cast him in the shadow, metaphorically speaking. The proverb suggests the nearby lover has the advantage over the distant one.

This sely carpenter bigynneth quake;
Hym thynketh verraily that he may see
Noees flood come walwynge as the see
To drenchen Alisoun, his hony deere.
He wepeth, weyleth, maketh sory cheere.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. The cruelty of Nicholas’s and Alison’s deception is underlined here. As a result of their lies, the hapless John agonizes over the picture in his head of his wife drowning in the threatened flood that Nicholas has invented. He weeps and he wails at the thought of losing his love.

"Allas," quod he, "allas, I ne hadde ybleynt!"
His hoote love was coold and al yqueynt;
For fro that tyme that he hadde kist hir ers,
Of paramours he sette nat a kers,
For he was heeled of his maladie.
Ful ofte paramours he gan deffie,
And weep as dooth a child that is ybete.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. Absolon is completely cured of his "maladie" (sickness): his desire for love-making. And not just with Alison, but with all woman, as he renounces further adventures in love and sex. Amazing what a little humiliation by the right woman can do.
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