Talk:The Miller's Prologue and Tale

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[edit] Spoilers?

A 600+ year old story with spoiler warnings? I'm impressed. mh. 23:00, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

You can't really assume everyone here read it when it was first published. - Bobet 23:21, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Paraphrasing is Plagerism, even on the Internet

Some of the words used to describe the story were lifted from Riverside Chaucer's (& a newer edition, I forget its name) footnotes. Things like "ribald" for instance. Since the author(s) of this article probably didn't read the story and immediately say "Gee this is ribald," it's technically plagerism, and needs to be fixed.

Oh, and the Reeve was concerned about more than having carpenters thought of as cuckholds. It was more the fact that John was portrayed as being oblivious to his...cuckoldry. 66.16.227.99 12:36, 20 September 2006 (UTC) njnj

This is absurd. "Ribald" is a word that is in the vocabulary of almost anyone who talks about bawdy medieval literature. The fact that you say two different editions use the word demonstrates that it is pretty common. Just do a simple google search for fabliaux. The word "ribald" is frequently used to describe them independent of Chaucer. Please don't accuse people of plagiarism just for having a larger vocabulary than you. PeterB —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.174.143.125 (talk) 07:04, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Cato and the Miller

I just wanted to explain my reasoning for removing this sentence: "The Miller's Tale and the Distichs of Cato both use two pentameter couplet verse."

First of all, it simply isn't true. The Distichs of Cato uses dactylic hexameter, not the pentameter that Chaucer uses.

Second, it's absurd to say something like "two pentameter couplet verse." The word couplet means there are two lines. It's just redundant.

Third, even if the two had the same meters (which they don't) Chaucer's couplets rhyme and Cato's do not (unless you think esto can rhyme with officiperdi).

Finally, saying the two things together suggests that there is some stylistic thread which connects the Miller's Tale and the Distichs. However, Chaucer doesn't just use rhyming couplets in the Miller's Tale, he uses them as the default rhyme scheme in most of the Canterbury Tales. 142.151.159.133 02:45, 14 February 2007 (UTC)Peter B