The ReevePhysical Characteristics, Clothing, and Accessories:

Slender, choleric manShaven beard

A grey horse named ScotWore an overcoat of blue and at his side, a rusty blade

Possessed the Lord’s sheep, oxen, swine, horses and looked after his things

Words, Experiences, Personality Traits:

Carpentry had been the fellow’s craftCunning, Deceitful, Revenge seeking

“Well could he manage granary and bin; No auditor could ever find anything.”

“As a man I’d pay you back for it”

The Reeve (cont.)Middle Class:

- The Reeve is also called a steward because other people entrust them with their property. But, the Reeve abuses that trust for his own personal gain.

- He is keeper of an estate owned by a higher man.

Inferences:- “he could judge by watching drought and rain, the yield he might

expect from seed and grain”- “his master’s sheep , his animals, and hens, pigs, horses, dairies,

stores, and cattle pens were wholly trusted to the government”- but, he has been embezzling money from his Lord the entire time

he’s been in charge or the estate- Chaucer shows the different sides of the Reeve. One as a good

superintendent of his Lord’s estate, but then the other side of a deceitful thief who tricks his Lord into lending him what were once his own possessions.

The Reeve’s Tale Characters:• The ridiculously proud miller, known as "deynous Sympkyn," • His unnamed wife• Their 2 children: 20 yr old daughter Maleyne and an unnamed and ungendered "child" in the cradle. • Aleyn and John, two Cambridge students

-their manciple with the toothache, and his lecherous horse.

Setting: Cambridge, a city in England that houses a University as well

Plot Synopsis: The Miller has been stealing cornmeal and other goods from the college. Aleyn and John are students sent to watch the Miller. The Miller sets their horse free and steals more than half of their food. He offers to let them stay the night for a price. The students decided to get back at the Miller by sleeping with his daughter and wife using trickery. However, they get caught and chaos begins. Eventually, the students break free with the food, horse, and cake the Miller’s daughter had baked. The Reeve believes he has achieved his revenge at the end of his tale.

Theme: The biggest theme is revenge. The Reeve took offense to the Miller’s tale and this was his only way to get back at him.

Genre: Fabliau-a fabliau involves deception to acquire:

• money or goods• sexual gratification

• revenge

The Reeve’s Tale includes all of these involving the Miller’s family and 2 Students from Cambridge University. Food is stolen, revenge is sought by having sexual

relations, etc.

Source of the Tale:

The source is what is called a "cradle-trick" tale, where the wife gets into the wrong bed because the cradle has been moved. The book Decameron seems to be the

inspiration for this tale.

Contemporary Counterparts:

The Sot Weed Tale by John Barth

The Reeve’s Tale (cont.)