One daughter haddë they betwixt them two Of twenty year, withouten any mo, Saving a child that was of half year age, In cradle it lay, and was a proper page. This wenchë thick and well y-growen was, With camuse nose, and eyen gray as glass; With buttocks broad, and breastës round and high; But right fair was her hair, I will not lie. The parson of the town, for she was fair, In purpose was to make of her his heir Both of his chattels and his messuage, And strange he made it of her marriáge. His purpose was for to bestow her high Into some worthy blood of ancestry. For holy Church’s good may be dispended On holy Church’s blood that is descended. Therefore he would his holy blood honoúr, Though that he holy Churchë should devour.
Great soken hath this miller, out of doubt, With wheat and malt, of all the land about; And namëly there was a great collége Men call the Soler Hall at Cantebrege, There was their wheat and eke their malt y-ground. And on a day it happed in a stound, Sick lay the manciple of a malady, Men weened wisly that he shouldë die. For which this miller stole both meal and corn An hundred timës morë than beforn. For theretofore he stole but courteously, But now he was a thief outrageously. For which the warden chid and madë fare, But thereof set the miller not a tare; He crack’d his boast, and swore it was not so.
Then were there youngë poorë scholars two, That dwelled in the hall of which I say; Testif they were, and lusty for to play; And only for their mirth and revelry Upon the warden busily they cry, To give them leave for but a little stound, To go to mill, and see their corn y-ground: And hardily they durstë lay their neck, The miller should not steal them half a peck Of corn by sleight, nor them by force bereave. And at the last the warden give them leave: John hight the one, and Alein hight the other, Of one town were they born, that hightë Strother, Far in the North, I cannot tell you where. This Alein he made ready all his gear, And on a horse the sack he cast anon: Forth went Alein the clerk, and also John, With good sword and with buckler by their side. John knew the way, him needed not no guide, And at the mill the sack adown he lay’th.