Dec 24, 2009

The Canterbury Tales | The Play of the “Miller's Tale”: A Game within a Game

In the following essay, Beryl B. Rowland explores connections to the Mystery plays in “The Miller’s Tale.”

The last line of the Miller’s “Prologue” has been variously interpreted as indicative of Chaucer’s aesthetic intentions both in the tale itself and in his works as a whole. In it, the narrator, after warning his readers of the kind of tale to follow and disclaiming responsibility should any of them subsequently “chese amys,” adds a final rider: “and eek men shal nat maken ernest of game.” The phrase itself is sufficiently commonplace to be classified as proverbial, and variations of it occur four times elsewhere in the Tales: January finally settles on one...