The Reeve's Tale
The reeve, named Oswald in the text, is the manager of a large estate who reaped incredible profits for his master and himself.
He is described in the Tales as skinny, bad-tempered, and old; his hair is closely cropped reflecting his social status as a serf.
The tale is based on a popular fabliau (also the source of the Sixth Story of the Ninth Day of The Decameron) of the period with many different versions, the "cradle-trick".
Chaucer improves on his sources with his detailed characterisation and sly humour linking the act of grinding corn with sex.
The northeastern accent of the two clerks is also the earliest surviving attempt in English to record a dialect from an area other than that of the main writer.
Symkyn and his arrogant and snobbish wife are extremely proud that she is the daughter of the town clergyman (which is peculiar because her parentage means she is illegitimate, as priests in later medieval England could not marry).
Two clerical students there, John and Aleyn, originally from Strother in North East England, are outraged at this latest theft and vow to beat the miller at his own game.
John and Aleyn hold an even larger amount of wheat than usual and say they will watch Symkyn while he grinds it into flour, pretending that they are interested in the process because they have limited knowledge about milling.
Symkyn sees through the clerks' story and vows to take even more of their grain than he had planned, to prove that scholars are not always the wisest or cleverest of people.
She tells him to look behind the main door to find the bread she had helped make with the flour her father had stolen.
John and Aleyn beat up the miller and flee, taking with them their horse and the bread made from their stolen grain.
One of the clerks, who has long been an admirer of the innkeeper's daughter, slips into her bed while she is asleep and, after her fears are overcome, they both enjoy sex together.
[2] More broadly, "The Reeve's Tale" is known as a "cradle-trick" story, where a wife gets into the wrong bed because the cradle has been moved.
Nicole Nolan Sidhu takes a different angle and argues that this scene stages tensions between Christian doctrine and social practices over women's free will in marriage.
[4] Malyne's parallel in The Decameron also finds the night enjoyable after some initial fear and is eager for future meetings with the clerk.
However, Aleyn has a university course to complete so will be remaining in Cambridge for some time, leaving the possibility of a lasting relationship open.
added), and Malyne, between emotional words of parting, tells Aleyn about a bread in the mill—an odd fixture in any love poem.
