The latter part of the story, about Absolon and Nicholas, occurs (says Köhler) in an Italian novel, viz. in novel no. 49 in the collection by Massuccio di Salerno, who flourished about 1470; see chap. viii. of Dunlop's Hist. of Fiction. It is also found, as he further tells us, in a carnival-play by Hanz Folz (in Keller, i. 330).
Another German version similar to that in the Nachtbüchlein, is found in a modern collection entitled 'Sagen, Märchen, und Lieder der Herzogtümer Schleswig-Holstein und Lauenburg,' Kiel, 1845, p. 589 (Anglia, i. 186).
A third German version occurs in a book of the 17th century, entitled 'Lyrum Larum, seu Nugae Venales Ioco Seriae'; see Anglia, ii. 135.
Some have imagined a resemblance between this Tale and one in Boccaccio's Decamerone, Day 3, Nov. 4; but it is a very remote one, so that the reference is practically worthless.
Chaucer's story reappears in an English imitation of it, very briefly told in prose, in a book entitled 'The Life and Death of the merry Deuill of Edmonton, with the pleasaunt prancks of Smug the Smith, &c. By T[homas] B[rewer]. Printed by T. P. for F. Faulkner; 1631.' The chapter is headed: 'How Smug was reuenged upon a Barber (his riuall) that made him kisse his tayle.' The story is reprinted in full by L. Proescholdt, of Homburg, in Anglia, vii. 117.
Lounsbury, in his Studies of Chaucer, iii. 89, mentions a worthless book by Richard Braithwaite, dated 1665, called 'A Comment upon the Two Tales of our ancient, renowned, and ever-living poet, Sir Jeffray Chaucer, Knight.' The 'Two Tales' are those of the Miller and the Wife of Bath. From the same work (iii. 188) we learn that Samuel Cobb published a modernised version of the Tale in 1712, which adheres rather closely to the original, but is of no value.
§ 25. The Reeve's Prologue. Oswold, the Reeve, being by trade a carpenter, is somewhat offended by the Miller's discourse; and, after a little moral talk, which the Host speedily cuts short, undertakes to tell a similar Tale to the discredit of a miller; and certainly succeeds in requiting him in kind. Chaucer's former hint, to turn over the leaf (A 3183), may be applied to this Tale also. But no such hint is given.
§ 26. The Reves Tale. This story resembles one which occurs in Boccaccio's Decamerone, Day 9, Nov. 6; but this only proves that both are derived from a common source[[99]]. A closer resemblance to Chaucer's story, as pointed out by Mr. T. Wright, occurs in a French Fabliau found in MS. Berne, no. 354, fol. 164, back. It was first printed in Wright's Anecdota Litteraria, p. 15, and is reprinted in Originals and Analogues, p. 93 (Chaucer Society). We find in it very similar incidents. Two clerks take a sack of wheat to a mill to be ground. They throw down the sack on the mill-floor, and turn their mare loose in a meadow. One of them stays to watch the sack, whilst the other seeks the miller, who is in a neighbouring wood. The first clerk grows tired of waiting, and goes after the other. Meanwhile, the miller returns, and secretes the sack. The clerks, returning, can find neither sack nor mare. At last they ask the miller to take them in for the night. The story proceeds nearly as in Chaucer; and, in the sequel, the clerks regain both wheat and mare, and take the wheat to be ground elsewhere. Perhaps it is needless to add that Chaucer's Tale is none the less original. His mode of telling it is such as to render it wholly his own.
Another story, of a similar cast, occurs in another French Fabliau, by Jean de Boves, entitled De Gombert et des Deux Clers. It is printed in Méon's edition of Barbazan's Fabliaux et Contes, vol. iii. pp. 239-44, Paris, 1808; and is reprinted, from two MSS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris (nos. 837, 2168), in Originals and Analogues, p. 87 (Chaucer Society). This story is less complete, as it omits all the former part, about taking the wheat to be ground. Two clerks seek lodging with a vilain, named Gombert; one of them falls in love with Gombert's wife, and the other, with his daughter. The rest of the story is much the same as before.
A later version occurs in a black-letter quarto volume printed by Wynkyn de Worde, entitled 'A mery Iest of the Mylner of Abyngton[[100]] with his Wyfe and his Doughter, and the two poore scholers of Cambridge'; reprinted in Hazlitt's Early Popular Poetry, iii. 98. I do not agree with Hazlitt's opinion that this story has 'little or nothing in common' with the Reves Tale; on the contrary, I should say that the author took his story from Chaucer, as is tolerably obvious from the mention of Cambridge, but took some pains to disguise its origin. Although he alters Trumpington to Abington, many particulars are closely copied, as, e.g. the precise manner in which the two clerks watch the grinding of the wheat, one from above, and one from below. I equally dissent from Hazlitt's other opinion, that, 'in an artistic and constructive point of view, the "Mylner of Abyngton" is superior to its predecessor.' The decisions of some critics are simply inexplicable.