Canterbury Tales Nicholas Quotes

"Myn housbonde is so ful of jalousie
That but ye wayte wel and been privee,
I woot right wel I nam but deed," quod she.
"Ye moste been ful deerne, as in this cas."
"Nay, therof care thee nought," quod Nicholas.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. Alison warns her soon-to-be new lover Nicholas that her husband John is a very jealous man and unless Nicholas is very discreet and careful she is as good as dead. But the ever so confident Nicholas tells her not to worry about that, he will take care of it.

Whan Nicholas had doon thus everideel
And thakked hire aboute the lendes weel,
He kiste hire sweete and taketh his sawtrie,
And pleyeth faste, and maketh melodie.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. After Alison signals her agreement to have an illicit affair with him, Nicholas pats her on the bottom and kisses her tenderly. Then he retrests to his quarters, grabs his psaltery (medieval stringed instrument), plays fast and makes melody – not hard to escape the masturbatory clues here!

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.

And hende Nicholas and Alisoun
Acorded been to this conclusioun,
That Nicholas shal shapen hym a wyle
This sely jalous housbonde to bigyle;
And if so be the game wente aright,
She sholde slepen in his arm al nyght.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. The competition for Alison between clever Nicholas and not-so-clever John heats up. Nicholas cooks up a devious plan to trick Alison’s unsuspecting husband John, and if the "game" goes right she will sleep in Nicholas’s arms all night.

"What! Nicholay! What, how! What, looke adoun!
Awak, and thenk on Cristes passioun!
I crouche thee from elves and fro wightes."
Therwith the nyght-spel seyde he anon-rightes
On foure halves of the hous aboute,
And on the thresshfold of the dore withoute:
"Jhesu Crist and Seinte Benedight,
Blesse this hous from every wikked wight,
For nyghtes verye, the white pater-noster!
Where wentestow, Seinte Petres soster?"

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. John acts to sort out what he believes is Nicholas’s madness by performing a blessing and saying an incantation to drive out any elves and evil spirits that may have possessed him. He says the night charm at the four corners of the house and threshold, invoking the power of Jesus and the saints.

Now a Monday next, at quarter nyght,
Shal falle a reyn, and that so wilde and wood
That half so greet was nevere Noes flood.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. Nicholas tells John that God has revealed to him in a vision that the town is to be hit by a flood even larger than Noah’s flood in the Bible. He instructs John to fasten three boat-like tubs to the rafters and fill them with provisions. The evening before the flood they and Alison are to sleep in the tubs, so when the flood comes they can lower the tubs into the water and float until the waters subside. It is all a big lie by Nicholas to get to spend the night with Alison.

Thy wyf shal I wel saven, out of doute.
Go now thy wey, and speed thee heer-aboute.
But whan thou hast, for hire and thee and me,
Ygeten us thise knedyng tubbes thre,
Thanne shaltow hange hem in the roof ful hye,
That no man of oure purveiaunce espye.
And whan thou thus hast doon as I have seyd,
And hast oure vitaille faire in hem yleyd,
And eek an ax to smyte the corde atwo,
Whan that the water comth, that we may go.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. The scheming lovers Nicholas and Alison have an elaborate plan to trick gullible John. It involves hanging three tubs to be used as boats from the roof. When the great flood (a fiction concocted by Nicholas) is about to happen they are to go into the boat-tubs so they will survive the flood waters. What Nicholas won’t do to have a night of sex with Alison!

Aboute corfew-tyme, or litel moore;
For travaille of his goost he groneth soore,
And eft he routeth, for his heed myslay.
Doun of the laddre stalketh Nicholay,
And Alisoun ful softe adoun she spedde;
Withouten wordes mo they goon to bedde.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. With John safely asleep and snoring in a tub in the rafters, Nicholas sneaks down the ladder closely followed by Alison and they head off to bed together without a word. Nicholas’s elaborate ruse involving an invented flood and tubs in the rafters has achieved its goal: a night of hot sex with Alison!

Withouten wordes mo they goon to bedde,
Ther as the carpenter is wont to lye.
Ther was the revel and the melodye;
And thus lith Alison and Nicholas,
In bisynesse of myrthe and of solas,
Til that the belle of laudes gan to rynge,
And freres in the chauncel gonne synge.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. The amorous clerk Nicholas and adulterous Alison are not just content to have sex under her husband John’s nose. But they do it in his bed! And they carry on their pleasure-making until the morning service chapel bells ring and the friars start to sing.

Of gooth the skyn an hande-brede aboute,
The hoote kultour brende so his toute,
And for the smert he wende for to dye.
As he were wood, for wo he gan to crye,
"Help! Water! Water! Help, for Goddes herte!"

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. It’s payback time for Absolon. When Nicholas sticks his rear end out the window and farts at him, Absolon brands Nicholas’s buttocks with a red-hot iron poker that he has brought with him. Nicholas leaps up and cries out for water like he was crazy.

For whan he spak, he was anon bore doun
With hende Nicholas and Alisoun.
They tolden every man that he was wood;
He was agast so of Nowelis flood
Thurgh fantasie that of his vanytee
He hadde yboght hym knedyng tubbes thre,
And hadde hem hanged in the roof above;
And that he preyed hem, for Goddes love,
To sitten in the roof, par compaignye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. There is much deceit in the tale, but the declaration by Nicholas and Alison that John is crazy when he tells everyone about the predicted flood and the tubs has to be one of the most cruel. Thinking the flood was coming, John had cut the rope that held his boat-tub to the ceiling and it crashed to the floor startling the neighbors. They all laugh at his lunacy when they hear of his elaborate preparations for the second deluge!

Thus swyved was this carpenteris wyf,
For al his kepyng and his jalousye,
And Absolon hath kist hir nether ye,
And Nicholas is scalded in the towte.
This tale is doon, and God save al the rowte!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. The concluding lines of the tale nicely resolve the story with a reckoning and a kind of justice for the flawed characters involved. The jealous carpenter John has been cheated on by his wife. His wife Alison has been bedded by another man. The foolish parish clerk Absolon has kissed Alison’s backside. And the cheating student Nicholas has had his behind burned by a red-hot poker in revenge by Absolon.
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