Canterbury Tales Symkyn Quotes

As any pecok he was proud and gay.
Pipen he koude and fisshe, and nettes beete,
And turne coppes, and wel wrastle and sheete;
Ay by his belt he baar a long panade,
And of a swerd ful trenchant was the blade.
A joly poppere baar he in his pouche;
Ther was no man, for peril, dorste hym touche.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. The miller Symkyn is a fighting man not to be tangled with, judging from this description of him. He always carries a very sharp sword and dagger on his person and is also skilled in wrestling and shooting. There is a good use of simile when he is said to be proud and gay as a peacock.

A Sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose.
Round was his face, and camus was his nose;
As piled as an ape was his skulle.
He was a market-betere atte fulle.
Ther dorste no wight hand upon hym legge,
That he ne swoor he sholde anon abegge.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Symkyn is described as someone who loiters around markets ready for a fight. He is armed to the teeth and carries a Sheffield knife in his hose, along with the cutlass and dagger already mentioned. It is no wonder that people are in fear of him.

A theef he was for sothe of corn and mele,
And that a sly, and usaunt for to stele.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. The Reeve doesn’t waste time telling us the kind of sneaky character Symkyn the miller in his story is. Sly, dishonest and a thief, he steals corn and meal from his customers at the community mill, where he works grinding the grain into flour. For example, he increases his profits by padding the customers’ sacks of wheat flour with the cheaper bran flour.

A wyf he hadde, ycomen of noble kyn;
The person of the toun hir fader was.
With hire he yaf ful many a panne of bras,
For that Symkyn sholde in his blood allye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Symkyn’s wife came from "noble" kin, we are told, in that her father is the town parson. Not quite the nobility, but probably a social step up from the working class Symkyn. In describing a parson who fathers an illegitimate daughter as noble the author is really mocking him and being ironic. The parson also provided his daughter with a substantial dowry of many brass pans, a considerable financial incentive for Symkyn to marry her and move up in the world at the same time. Symkyn’s wife, whose name we are never told, is seen as a property to be owned.

She was yfostred in a nonnerye;
For Symkyn wolde no wyf, as he sayde,
But she were wel ynorissed and a mayde,
To saven his estaat of yomanrye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Being raised and educated in a nunnery, Symkyn’s wife had a privileged education that would be beyond the reach of many lower class girls. So she appears to meet Symkyn’s requirement that his spouse have a high rank. Ironically the only reason she was raised in a nunnery is that she is the illegitimate child of a priest, who at that time was forbidden to marry, have sex and have children.

A ful fair sighte was it upon hem two;
On halydayes biforn hire wolde he go
With his typet wounde aboute his heed,
And she cam after in a gyte of reed;
And Symkyn hadde hosen of the same.
Ther dorste no wight clepen hire but "dame."

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Together the preening Symkyn and his wife make for quite a sight when they parade themselves around town in their flashy clothes. She in her red gown and he fully color-coordinated with her in his red hose and hood. Oh, and she insists on being called "dame" – meaning lady. Well, if you can inflate your profits in business by cheating your customers, you might as well look successful to the neighbors too.

For hooly chirches good moot been despended
On hooly chirches blood, that is descended.
Therfore he wolde his hooly blood honoure,
Though that he hooly chirche sholde devoure.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. If Symkyn is increasing his wealth by cheating customers at the mill, his wife is an even greater source of wealth through her blood line to the church. She is the daughter of a parson, who had a substantial dowry when she married, and the parson intends to pass on the church’s property to his blood heirs. The parson and his heirs are thus dishonestly feeding off the church, with property that should be held in common by the church.

Sik lay the maunciple of a maladye;
Men wenden wisly that he shoulde dye.
For which this millere stal bothe mele and corn
An hundred tyme moore than biforn;
For therbiforn he stal but curteisly,
But now he was a theef outrageously.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Oswold the Reeve gives an insight into really unscrupulous Symkyn the miller is when he reveals how he steals from the dying. A manciple lies ill in bed and is expected to die and Symkyn steals large amounts of meal and grain from him – a hundred times more than he stole from anyone before. From this point on the miller, who previously was cautious in his thieving, steals outrageously.

And hardily they dorste leye hir nekke
The millere sholde not stele hem half a pekke
Of corn by sleighte, ne by force hem reve.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Alan and John believe that the miller won’t succeed in stealing half a peck of grain from them by trickery or by force. So confident are the young university students in their superior intelligence that they pledge their necks on it! This is desite the fact that Symkyn has already stolen from many older and and possibly wiser people than them.

This millere smyled of hir nycetee,
And thoghte, "Al this nys doon but for a wyle.
They wene that no man may hem bigyle,
But by my thrift, yet shal I blere hir ye,
For al the sleighte in hir philosophye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. John and Alan’s plan to stop the miller from stealing their flour doesn’t go unnoticed to the crafty Symkyn, who smiles at their foolishness. In spite of their scholarly learning, he fully believes that he will be able to fool them.

The wyf cam lepynge inward with a ren.
She seyde, "Allas! youre hors goth to the fen
With wilde mares, as faste as he may go.
Unthank come on his hand that boond hym so,
And he that bettre sholde han knyt the reyne!"

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. The miller’s wife shouts out to John and Alan that their horse has run off to the fen with some wild mares. She curses the hand of the person who tied the horse so carelessly – it was her husband who let the horse loose. The two gullible clerks take off towards the fen, allowing Symkyn to get on with the business of stealing their corn.

"Allas," quod John, "the day that I was born!
Now are we dryve til hethyng and til scorn.
Oure corn is stoln; men wil us fooles calle,
Bathe the wardeyn and oure felawes alle,
And namely the millere, weylaway!"

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. John wails to Alan that they are going to be branded fools and viewed with contempt and scorn because the miller has succeeded in stealing their corn. He seems to be more concerned with the humiliation of being outsmarted by a miller than with the theft of the corn.

The millere seyde agayn, "If ther be eny,
Swich as it is, yet shal ye have youre part.
Myn hous is streit, but ye han lerned art;
Ye konne by argumentes make a place
A myle brood of twenty foot of space.
Lat se now if this place may suffise,
Or make it rowm with speche, as is youre gise."

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. When John and Alan have to ask Symkyn to give them lodgings for the night, the students’ smug adversary can’t resist the opportunity to rub more salt in their wounds. He teases them by saying his house is small but they can use their logical arguments to increase twenty feet of space into an area a mile broad. He is mocking them for the sophistry of their scholarly training.

Aleyn the clerk, that herde this melodye,
He poked John, and seyde, "Slepestow?
Herdestow evere slyk a sang er now?
Lo, swilk a complyn is ymel hem alle;
A wilde fyr upon thair bodyes falle!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. With everyone bedded down in the same room, Alan is unable to sleep because of the loud snoring of Symkyn and his wife and daughter. He hopes a wild fire will descend on the bodies of the three. This foreshadows John and Alan’s revenge when have sex with the miller’s wife and daughter and beat him up.

For, John," seyde he, "als evere moot I thryve,
If that I may, yon wenche wil I swyve.
Som esement has lawe yshapen us,
For, John, ther is a lawe that says thus,
That gif a man in a point be agreved,
That inanother he sal be releved.
Oure corn is stoln, sothly, it is na nay,
And we han had an il fit al this day;
And syn I sal have neen amendement
Agayn my los, I will have esement."

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Alan tells John of his plan to have redress for the miller’s theft of their grain. He will set the scale of justice right again by having sex with the miller’s daughter. There is a law he says, that if a man in one point is injured, then in another he shall be relieved.

And up he rist, and by the wenche he crepte.
This wenche lay uprighte and faste slepte,
Til he so ny was, er she myghte espie,
That it had been to late for to crie,
And shortly for to seyn, they were aton.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Alan creeps into bed with the miller’s daughter Molly and has revenge sex with her to hit back at the miller. There is a debate on whether or not this was consentual or coerced. Molly was asleep when Alan got in beside her and it was too late for her to cry out, the story says.

"Allas!" quod he, "this is a wikked jape;
Now may I seyn that I is but an ape.
Yet has my felawe somwhat for his harm;
He has the milleris doghter in his arm.
He auntred hym, and has his nedes sped,
And I lye as a draf-sak in my bed;
And when this jape is tald another day,
I sal been halde a daf, a cokenay!
I wil arise and auntre it, by my fayth!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. John calls himself a fool and a weakling after seeing Alan pay back the miller for his thievery by having sex with his daughter. His friend took a risk and accomplished his purpose. Encouraged by this John says he will now arise and chance it too, as he hatches a plan to sleep with the miller’s wife.

Withinne a while this John the clerk up leep,
And on this goode wyf he leith on soore.
So myrie a fit ne hadde she nat ful yoore;
He priketh harde and depe as he were mad.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. John has vigorous revenge sex with the miller’s wife to dish out his form of justice for the miller’s theft of the corn. While it says she has a merry experience, she is tricked into another man’s bed thinking she was laying down beside her husband. The image of John stabbing her hard and deep as if he was mad adds to the repulsive nature of the act, which is without doubt rape.
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