the miller

The Host was telling the Monk to continue the next tale, that’s when the drunken Miller said that his tale should be the next tale to be told. He told the story of an impoverished student who's name was Nicholas, who persuaded his landlord's young wife, Alisoun, to spend the night with him. He convinces his landlord, a carpenter named John, that the 2nd flood is coming, and tricks him into spending the night in a tub hanging loose from the ceiling of his barn. Absolon, a young parish clerk who is also in love with Alisoun, appears outside the window of the room where Nicholas and Alisoun lie together. When Absolon begs Alisoun for a kiss, she sticks her rear end out the window in the dark and lets him kiss it. Absolon runs and gets a red-hot poker, returns to the window, and asks for another kiss; when Nicholas puts his bottom out the window and farts, Absolon brands him on the buttocks. Nicholas's cries for water make the carpenter think that the flood has come, so the carpenter cuts the rope connecting his tub to the ceiling, falls down, and dislocates his arm.