womb and on mine head. Help, Simkin, for these falsë clerks do fight” This John start up as fast as e’er he might, And groped by the wallës to and fro To find a staff; and she start up also, And knew the estres better than this John, And by the wall she took a staff anon: And saw a little shimmering of a light, For at an hole in shone the moonë bright, And by that light she saw them both the two, But sickerly she wist not who was who, But as she saw a white thing in her eye. And when she gan this whitë thing espy, She ween’d the clerk had wear’d a volupere; And with the staff she drew aye nere and nere, And ween’d to have hit this Alein at the full, And smote the miller on the pilled skull, That down he went, and cried, “Harow! I die.” These clerkës beat him well, and let him lie, And greithen them, and take their horse anon, And eke their meal, and on their way they gon: And at the mill door eke they took their cake Of half a bushel flour, full well y-bake.
Thus is the proudë miller well y-beat, And hath y-lost the grinding of the wheat, And payed for the supper every deal Of Alein and of John, that beat him well; His wife is swived, and his daughter als; Lo, such it is a miller to be false. And therefore this proverb is said full sooth, “Him thar not winnen well that evil do’th; A guiler shall himself beguiled be:” And God that sitteth high in majesty Save all this company, both great and smale. Thus have I quit the Miller in my tale.