The Miller's Prologue and Tale
The Miller's Prologue and Tale is one of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, told by a drunk miller after The Knight's Tale.
The Miller's Prologue is the first 'quite' that occurs in the tales. To 'quite' someone is to mock them in a satirical way.
The Miller's tale is about a carpenter/landlord and his wife. The Reeve, another of the travellers, is a carpenter, and urges the Miller not to joke about carpenters, but the Miller replies that he does not mean to insult carpenters in general, and tells his tale anyway.
The story is of a student (Nicholas) who persuades his landlord's wife (Alisoun/Alison) to spend the night with him. At the same time he convinces the landlord the second flood is coming, causing the landlord to wait overnight for it in a tub suspened from the barn rafters.
While Nicholas and Alison lie together, another suitor, Absolon, appears and asks Alison for a kiss. She sticks her butt out and he kisses it. Absolon dissappears to get a red hot poker and returns, asking for another kiss. This time Nicholas sticks his butt out and farts, and gets branded by Absolon for his trouble.
