Canterbury Tales Reeve Quotes

His lord wel koude he plesen subtilly,
To yeve and lene hym of his owene good,
And have a thank, and yet a cote and hood.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. The Reeve is the manager of an estate and is stealing in a particularly sly and underhand way. He gives and lends his landowner some of the Lord’s own possessions. As a result he is rewarded by his employer. A case of the Lord’s serf outsmarting his upper class boss. The Reeve’s stealing has made him a very rich man.

Ther koude no man brynge hym in arrerage.
Ther nas baillif, ne hierde, nor oother hyne,
That he ne knew his sleighte and his covyne;
They were adrad of hym as of the deeth.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. There’s no farm manager, herdsman, or other worker whose tricks and deceptions that the Reeve does not know and he inspires terror in them. Since the Reeve is stealing from his own lord’s estate, it takes a cheater to spot a cheater. It is also said that no one has ever found him in arrears. This could be a case of good estate management, or maybe being extra good at hiding his own thieving with creative accounting.

The Reve was a sclendre colerik man.
His berd was shave as ny as ever he kan;
His heer was by his erys ful round yshorn;
His top was dokked lyk a preest biforn.
ful longe were his legges and ful lene,
Ylyk a staf; ther was no calf ysene.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. This passage describes the Reeve as being slender with long stick-like legs. His beard is shaved close and he has haircut like a priest, the top of his head being cut short in front. He was also “choleric” or bad tempered and irritable. His physical appearance is meant to make him look harmless, which he definitely is not.

Wel wiste he by the droghte and by the reyn
The yeldynge of his seed and of his greyn.
His lordes sheep, his neet, his dayerye,
His swyn, his hors, his stoor, and his pultrye
Was hoolly in this Reves governynge.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue. The Reeve is presented as an estate manager who is in complete control and reports directly to his lord. Among the matters the lord leaves in his exclusive “governynge” are the estate sheep, cattle, dairy here of dairy cows, swine, horses, livestock and poultry. In fact just about everything.

The Millere is a cherl, ye knowe wel this;
So was the Reve eek and othere mo,
And harlotrie they tolden bothe two.
Avyseth yow, and put me out of blame;
And eek men shal nat maken ernest of game.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Prologue. The Narrator Chaucer provides a health warning about the Miller’s and the Reeve’s tales for people who might be offended by their bawdy stories. They are both churls, he says, meaning medieval peasants of low social status. So don’t blame me and don’t take a joke too seriously, the Narrator adds.

This dronke Millere hath ytoold us heer
How that bigyled was a carpenter,
Peraventure in scorn, for I am oon.
And, by youre leve, I shal hym quite anoon;
Right in his cherles termes wol I speke.
I pray to God his nekke mote to-breke;
He kan wel in myn eye seen a stalke,
But inhis owene he kan nat seen a balke.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Prologue. At the end of his prologue, the Reeve wishes death on the Miller for his disparaging story about a cuckolded carpenter, which he feels insulted people of the trade. So he decides to repay him by telling a tale about a thieving, dishonest miller.

As any pecok he was proud and gay.
Pipen he koude and fisshe, and nettes beete,
And turne coppes, and wel wrastle and sheete;
Ay by his belt he baar a long panade,
And of a swerd ful trenchant was the blade.
A joly poppere baar he in his pouche;
Ther was no man, for peril, dorste hym touche.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. The miller Symkyn is a fighting man not to be tangled with, judging from this description of him. He always carries a very sharp sword and dagger on his person and is also skilled in wrestling and shooting. There is a good use of simile when he is said to be proud and gay as a peacock.

A Sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose.
Round was his face, and camus was his nose;
As piled as an ape was his skulle.
He was a market-betere atte fulle.
Ther dorste no wight hand upon hym legge,
That he ne swoor he sholde anon abegge.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Symkyn is described as someone who loiters around markets ready for a fight. He is armed to the teeth and carries a Sheffield knife in his hose, along with the cutlass and dagger already mentioned. It is no wonder that people are in fear of him.

A theef he was for sothe of corn and mele,
And that a sly, and usaunt for to stele.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. The Reeve doesn’t waste time telling us the kind of sneaky character Symkyn the miller in his story is. Sly, dishonest and a thief, he steals corn and meal from his customers at the community mill, where he works grinding the grain into flour. For example, he increases his profits by padding the customers’ sacks of wheat flour with the cheaper bran flour.

A wyf he hadde, ycomen of noble kyn;
The person of the toun hir fader was.
With hire he yaf ful many a panne of bras,
For that Symkyn sholde in his blood allye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Symkyn’s wife came from "noble" kin, we are told, in that her father is the town parson. Not quite the nobility, but probably a social step up from the working class Symkyn. In describing a parson who fathers an illegitimate daughter as noble the author is really mocking him and being ironic. The parson also provided his daughter with a substantial dowry of many brass pans, a considerable financial incentive for Symkyn to marry her and move up in the world at the same time. Symkyn’s wife, whose name we are never told, is seen as a property to be owned.

She was yfostred in a nonnerye;
For Symkyn wolde no wyf, as he sayde,
But she were wel ynorissed and a mayde,
To saven his estaat of yomanrye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Being raised and educated in a nunnery, Symkyn’s wife had a privileged education that would be beyond the reach of many lower class girls. So she appears to meet Symkyn’s requirement that his spouse have a high rank. Ironically the only reason she was raised in a nunnery is that she is the illegitimate child of a priest, who at that time was forbidden to marry, have sex and have children.

A ful fair sighte was it upon hem two;
On halydayes biforn hire wolde he go
With his typet wounde aboute his heed,
And she cam after in a gyte of reed;
And Symkyn hadde hosen of the same.
Ther dorste no wight clepen hire but "dame."

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Together the preening Symkyn and his wife make for quite a sight when they parade themselves around town in their flashy clothes. She in her red gown and he fully color-coordinated with her in his red hose and hood. Oh, and she insists on being called "dame" – meaning lady. Well, if you can inflate your profits in business by cheating your customers, you might as well look successful to the neighbors too.

And eek, for she was somdel smoterlich,
She was as digne as water in a dich,
And ful of hoker and of bisemare.
Hir thoughte that a lady sholde hire spare,
What for hire kynrede and hir nortelrie
That she hadde lerned in the nonnerie.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. How Symkyn’s wife sees herself and how others might see her are a little different. With pretensions to be a "lady" and respected so by others, and considering her good convent education and family, she holds herself aloof. But seeing that she her reputation is damaged by being the illegitimate child of a priest, she is as dignified as water in a ditch, says the storyteller.

This person of the toun, for she was feir,
In purpos was to maken hire his heir,
Bothe of his catel and his mesuage,
And straunge he made it of hir mariage.
His purpos was for to bistowe hire hye
Into som worthy blood of auncetrye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. The parson plans to marry his granddaughter to a higher class of family of noble ancestry. So he intends to make her his heir, to make her financially attractive. Those with money could finance a marriage with cash-poor members of the nobility, and this is what the parsont wants for granddaughter Molly.

For hooly chirches good moot been despended
On hooly chirches blood, that is descended.
Therfore he wolde his hooly blood honoure,
Though that he hooly chirche sholde devoure.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. If Symkyn is increasing his wealth by cheating customers at the mill, his wife is an even greater source of wealth through her blood line to the church. She is the daughter of a parson, who had a substantial dowry when she married, and the parson intends to pass on the church’s property to his blood heirs. The parson and his heirs are thus dishonestly feeding off the church, with property that should be held in common by the church.

Sik lay the maunciple of a maladye;
Men wenden wisly that he shoulde dye.
For which this millere stal bothe mele and corn
An hundred tyme moore than biforn;
For therbiforn he stal but curteisly,
But now he was a theef outrageously.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Oswold the Reeve gives an insight into really unscrupulous Symkyn the miller is when he reveals how he steals from the dying. A manciple lies ill in bed and is expected to die and Symkyn steals large amounts of meal and grain from him – a hundred times more than he stole from anyone before. From this point on the miller, who previously was cautious in his thieving, steals outrageously.

And hardily they dorste leye hir nekke
The millere sholde not stele hem half a pekke
Of corn by sleighte, ne by force hem reve.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. Alan and John believe that the miller won’t succeed in stealing half a peck of grain from them by trickery or by force. So confident are the young university students in their superior intelligence that they pledge their necks on it! This is desite the fact that Symkyn has already stolen from many older and and possibly wiser people than them.

This millere smyled of hir nycetee,
And thoghte, "Al this nys doon but for a wyle.
They wene that no man may hem bigyle,
But by my thrift, yet shal I blere hir ye,
For al the sleighte in hir philosophye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. John and Alan’s plan to stop the miller from stealing their flour doesn’t go unnoticed to the crafty Symkyn, who smiles at their foolishness. In spite of their scholarly learning, he fully believes that he will be able to fool them.

The wyf cam lepynge inward with a ren.
She seyde, "Allas! youre hors goth to the fen
With wilde mares, as faste as he may go.
Unthank come on his hand that boond hym so,
And he that bettre sholde han knyt the reyne!"

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. The miller’s wife shouts out to John and Alan that their horse has run off to the fen with some wild mares. She curses the hand of the person who tied the horse so carelessly – it was her husband who let the horse loose. The two gullible clerks take off towards the fen, allowing Symkyn to get on with the business of stealing their corn.
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