The Canterbury Tales: The Reeve's Tale Sex Quotes Page 1

The description of Symkyn's daughter, Malyne, would have suggested to a medieval reader that she was lusty, ready for sex. A "kamus nose," broad hips, and round, high, breasts all signal in medieval physiognomy – the 'science' of knowing things about someone's character by their physical characteristics – that she is ripe for plucking. Note the similarity of her physical appearance to the Wife of Bath's.

This is the first of many double entendres – or sexual puns – that occur in "The Reeve's Tale." The punning has to do both with the motion of grinding corn, which mimics the motion of sex, and the puns on the word flour that occur later in the tale. Aleyn declares his intention to give Symkyn "the flour of il endyng," then has sex with his daughter, de-flour/flowering her as recompense for his stolen corn, in this way equating sex with flour. For these reasons it's not a big stretch to read the grinding of the corn as a sexual double entendre.

Horses were a symbol of sexuality in the medieval period. This horse, who bounds off to have his way with the nearby mares with a cry of joy when he is released, could be a foreshadowing of the sexual antics to come later that night.