The Canterbury Tales: The Miller's Tale Love Quotes Page 1
Citations follow this format: (Line). We used the line numbering found on Librarius's online edition.
| Quote #1 This parish clerk, this joly Absolon |
In contrast to Nicholas, who gets an urge to "rage and pleye" with Alisoun (170), the story actually uses "love-longinge" to describe what Absolon feels for Alisoun. This raises the question of how the clerks' feelings for Alisoun differ. (Or do they?)
| Quote #2 For some folk wol ben wonnen for richesse, |
With this, we have a neat summary of the three methods Alisoun's lovers employ. Alisoun has presumably married John because he can offer her security – the "richesse" of which these lines speak. Nicholas wins Alisoun with a physically aggressive approach akin to "strokes," whereas Absolon prefers the "gentillesse," or noble method, of constant romantic overtures.
| Quote #3 Ful sooth is this proverbe, it is no lye, |
This suggestion that the person closest to the object of desire is always the one who obtains it suggests that love is more often a matter of convenience than fate or true affinity. It's yet one more cynical statement about love in a tale that tends to reduce love to sexual desire.
